After searching the next few recipes in line, I found one for which I already had the ingredients: spinach chiffonade and bacon. What is chiffonade, you ask? I'm glad you did. It is a culinary term (originating in France, of course) for greens that are cut into strips by stacking them, rolling them, and slicing the roll. There is a good video on U-Tube, showing how to do just that.
Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner
1¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
¼ teaspoon sugar
½ cup warm water
1¼ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
3 slices thick cut bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 ounces grated mozzarella
2 cups shredded spinach leaves
Combine the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes. Stir the salt and flour together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook. Continue mixing a little longer until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Let rest for an hour in a greased bowl in a warm, dry place.
Preheat the oven to 500º F with pizza stone inside, if using. Roll or stretch out dough into a 15 inch circle on a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board. In a small skillet, cook bacon until just crisp and remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Brush the dough all over with olive oil. Distribute the cheese evenly over the dough. Sprinkle the spinach ribbons over the cheese. Top with the bacon crumbles. Bake for 5-10 minutes.
This pizza was incredibly easy to make. Just make the dough, put the cheese, spinach, and bacon on it, and it is oven-ready!
The other selection of the evening, however, was a bit more putzy. Make the dough, make the tomato sauce, make the horsey sauce, peel the shrimp, and then you are ready to start assembling.
for the tomato sauce:
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup prepared pasta sauce
2 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon basil
pinch red pepper
Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
for the dough:
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup prepared pasta sauce
2 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon basil
pinch red pepper
for the horsey sauce:
1 teaspoon butter
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons freshly grated horse radish
3 tablespoons heavy cream
3 tablespoons cream cheese
1 ounce Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
remaining ingredients:
3 ounces mozzarella cheese
3 ounces Monterey jack cheese
12 ounces medium-sized shrimp, cooked and peeled
1/4 cup minuted fresh oregano
Make the dough: Combine the yeast, half a cup of water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes. Stir the salt and flour together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook. Add the additional tablespoon of water if dough doesn't come together easily. Continue mixing a little longer until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Let rest for an hour in a greased bowl in a warm, dry place.
Make the tomato sauce: In a saucepan, combine olive oil and garlic. Cook over medium heat, stirring for a couple of minutes. Add the pasta sauce. Puree the tomatoes in a blender until smooth. Add to saucepan with the basil and red pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for twenty minutes. Set aside.
Make the horseradish sauce: In a clean saucepan, melt butter. Sauté garlic for a moment. Add the grated horseradish, the cream, cream cheese, and Parmesan cheese, whisking as you do so. Continue whisking until well-blended and the cheese has melted. Cook for a few minutes longer until it is thick. Salt and pepper to taste. Let cool slightly. Mix the tomato and horseradish sauces together.
Preheat the oven to 500º F with pizza stone inside, if using. Roll or stretch the dough into a fifteen inch circle on a flour or cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board. Spread the sauce over the dough circle. Combine the mozzarella and jack cheeses together and distribute over the sauce. Place the shrimp on top of the cheese in an even layer. Sprinkle the oregano over the shrimp. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
I started with the speed scratch sauce, cursing myself all the while, because I only made enough last week for last week's pizza, just so I could get the right amounts down for one pizza's worth. It would have been so easy to make double that and have enough for this week. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, they say. Although, I am glad that I was able to work the recipe into a one-pizza portion, so I guess there are trade-offs.
After the speed scratch was done, out of my pan, and cooling in another container, I started on the horseradish sauce. I still had some horseradish roots in my freezer (shocking, I know) from two summers ago, when we thought we had dug up our entire horseradish plant. We were wrong, and we grow more and more horseradish every year but never harvest it. I am wondering if one summer, we are going to look out our back door and see a sea of horseradish plants. They are very prolific, and I had been warned that if you do not remove the entire plant, it will eventually take over all vegetation in the area. We will see.
It is a very ugly thing, horseradish. At least the root part of it, which is what you need for horseradish sauce or anything like that. That is the part of the plant that is used when people simply refer to "horseradish". The leaves are edible, too, but they hardly ever are eaten (at least by me and my husband). I suspect you need to pull the leaves when they are really young to get them while they are tender and not quite as bitter. It is prepared somewhat like ginger. The bark-like exterior gets peeled off and the interior is grated. Before it is cut into, it doesn't have any smell, and I imagine that it doesn't have much of a taste. Grating it releases enzymes that break down organic compounds within it and produce an organosulfur compound. This is what gives horseradish its zing. If the grated root is left exposed for too long without being combined with vinegar, it will lose it's pungency and could become bitter.
Once the horseradish sauce was done and cooled a little, I combined it with the tomato sauce, making a pretty salmon colored sauce to serve as a base for the shrimp pizza.
Allegra really enjoyed playing with Pele's mice while we mixed cocktails and put pizzas in the oven. The Dahlens had brought a "cowboy" pizza from Papa Murphy's: mushroom, olive, sausage, and pepperoni.
The cowboy pizza was great, too. It was hearty and meaty with the nice tang of olives shining through.
After the speed scratch was done, out of my pan, and cooling in another container, I started on the horseradish sauce. I still had some horseradish roots in my freezer (shocking, I know) from two summers ago, when we thought we had dug up our entire horseradish plant. We were wrong, and we grow more and more horseradish every year but never harvest it. I am wondering if one summer, we are going to look out our back door and see a sea of horseradish plants. They are very prolific, and I had been warned that if you do not remove the entire plant, it will eventually take over all vegetation in the area. We will see.
It is a very ugly thing, horseradish. At least the root part of it, which is what you need for horseradish sauce or anything like that. That is the part of the plant that is used when people simply refer to "horseradish". The leaves are edible, too, but they hardly ever are eaten (at least by me and my husband). I suspect you need to pull the leaves when they are really young to get them while they are tender and not quite as bitter. It is prepared somewhat like ginger. The bark-like exterior gets peeled off and the interior is grated. Before it is cut into, it doesn't have any smell, and I imagine that it doesn't have much of a taste. Grating it releases enzymes that break down organic compounds within it and produce an organosulfur compound. This is what gives horseradish its zing. If the grated root is left exposed for too long without being combined with vinegar, it will lose it's pungency and could become bitter.Once the horseradish sauce was done and cooled a little, I combined it with the tomato sauce, making a pretty salmon colored sauce to serve as a base for the shrimp pizza.
I covered this with the cheeses and topped it with the shrimp. I was a little worried about the shrimp. What I had in the freezer was precooked shrimp. I usually like to buy uncooked shrimp and barely cook them before putting them on a pizza, so when the pizza goes in the oven, the shrimp don't overcook and become rubbery. However, I had used this brand (Cub's generic, believe it or not) before with good success, so I thought I would give it a try and not spend the extra money for a new bag of shrimp.
The original recipe called for 18 "large" shrimp. Mine were what I would call medium. There were 36 in my 12 ounce bag, and I was going to use the whole thing. I couldn't see refreezing the extra shrimp, and I didn't want them sitting around my refrigerator either. So I piled them on. OK, maybe "piled" is the wrong word. I was very careful not to overlap any of them. I squeezed them into any open space on the top of the pizza.
The Dahlens, the Liggetts, and Pam arrived. Jeff came shortly thereafter, and the house was full. We all oohed and aahed over the latest antics of the two little Dahlen girls.
2 measures light rum
1 measure butterscotch schnapps
½ measure freshly squeezed lime juice
Pour all ingredients into an ice-filled shaker. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Drink.
The daiquiri was incredible. For me, the butterscotch was the perfect winter addition to the original daiquiri recipe. It added an underlying richness and warmth to the flavor. It mellowed out the lime, turning it from a fruity party drink to an elegant sipper. There was a little extra sweetness from the butterscotch, but it was almost neutralized by the lime zing. They played off each other wonderfully.
The pizzas came out beautifully. The fluff of the spinach (I had actually doubled the amount of spinach the original recipe had required) had cooked down somewhat. The leaves were a little al dente, so there was a nice toothsomeness to it and none of the slickness that sometimes comes with (over)cooked spinach. The bacon had a nice crunch to it, and the sparseness of it drew my attention to it and almost intensified its flavor.
The shrimp did not get overcooked. They were tender and moist with just the slightest bit of firmness to the bite. The horseradish was a little more subtle than I had hoped (maybe I was too slow getting it into the sauce?), but it was creamy and rich and delicious. The hint of tomato cut through some of the richness and added just a little sweet to the brininess of the shrimp.
As we ate, Allegra entertained us with songs. She knew all of the words, sang them all on key, and projected well. She stood on a chair and delighted us all with her cute little voice.
Our friend, Michelle showed up after the show and joined us for another daiquiri. It was a great evening with great company, and there were no leftovers of anything!
Return to the top of the page.
Return to the Spinach Chiffonade and Bacon Pizza recipe.
Return to the Hot Shrimp Cocktail Pizza recipe.
Return to the Butterscotch Daiquiri recipe.
No comments:
Post a Comment