This Thursday turned out to be a quasi-girls night. Jennifer and Roger were out of town, and Jonah was at civil air patrol. Pam and Gracie and I were the chefs on staff for the night, and we had a great time doing it. Jeff was there, but he came later (just for the food portion), then holed himself up in front of the television.
Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza
Crust:
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
3¼ cup bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup olive oil
Salsa:
1 cup finely diced ripe mango
1 cup finely diced ripe pineapple
1/2 cup minced green onion (about 4 whole green onions)
2 tablespoons minced fresh red jalapeño
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
Jerk Paste:
2 ounces yellow onion
4 green onions (½ cup roughly chopped)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1-1/2 ounce minced jalapeño (I used green here)
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon roasted Saigan cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I used a mild habenero sauce)
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I used a mild habenero sauce)
The rest of the story:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
6 ounces of shredded mozzarella
6 ounces of shredded mozzarella
8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar
Make the crust: Combine the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes. Stir the flour and salt together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil 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.
Make the salsa: In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients, including salt to taste. Cover and chill for at least an hour, then drain well and return to room temperature before using.
Make the paste: Combine the jerk paste ingredients in the bowl of a blender or food processor. Process until smooth.
Assemble the pizza: Preheat the oven to 450º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. On a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board, roll and stretch the dough into a fifteen inch circle. Brush the dough all over with olive oil. Spread the jerk paste over the crust, leaving a small border around the edge. Top with the cheeses. Transfer to the preheated pizza stone, if using, or place on a pizza screen or ventilated pizza pan and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown. Remove the pizza from the oven and top with the tropical salsa before serving.
Make the salsa: In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients, including salt to taste. Cover and chill for at least an hour, then drain well and return to room temperature before using.
Make the paste: Combine the jerk paste ingredients in the bowl of a blender or food processor. Process until smooth.
Assemble the pizza: Preheat the oven to 450º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. On a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board, roll and stretch the dough into a fifteen inch circle. Brush the dough all over with olive oil. Spread the jerk paste over the crust, leaving a small border around the edge. Top with the cheeses. Transfer to the preheated pizza stone, if using, or place on a pizza screen or ventilated pizza pan and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown. Remove the pizza from the oven and top with the tropical salsa before serving.
Mangoes are one of those fruits that I am sort of ambivalent about. The texture bothers me. They either seem a bit slimy or a bit fibrous. I am not sure if that is because I am not sure how to find a ripe mango or a good mango, or if it is just the way that they are. I don't mind them in recipes, like salsa, chutney, smoothies, but I have given up on trying to eat them by themselves.
The salsa was fun to make. There were so many different colors in it that it was downright beautiful - reds, greens, oranges, and yellows. It was a work of art, really.
I had thrown together the paste while she was doing that. I actually used nutmeg. Nutmeg is another item I generally try to avoid. I never use the preground stuff any more. To me, it smells and to some degree tastes like Vick's vapo-rub. I think the preground stuff is over-used and mostly repulsive. A small grating of the actual nut itself can make a dish interesting and intriguing, but there is a fine line between interesting and bringing up horrible memories of stuffy noses and congested lungs.
Then, she put on the cheese and it was ready for the oven, and we were ready to work on the Mardi Gras Turnovers.
Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin
Makes 2 Large Calzones
Makes 2 Large Calzones
Filling:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon minced parsley
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 green onion, minced
2 ounces onion, minced
2½ ounces green pepper, diced
½ cup tomato sauce
2 ounces water
dash Tabasco
1 cup cooked white rice
6½ ounces peeled, deveined, and cooked shrimp
½ cup warm water
½ teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup bread flour
½ cup cornmeal
½ tablespoon olive oil
Wash:
½ teaspoon cornstarch
½ cup water
Wash:
½ teaspoon cornstarch
½ cup water
Make the filling: In a heavy saucepan over high heat, melt the butter. Add the parsley, garlic, green onions, onion, and bell pepper. Sautè for about three minutes. Add tomato sauce and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, stirring often, for ten minutes. Add Tabasco, rice, andouille, and shrimp. Mix well. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Make the crust: Combine the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes. Stir the flour, cornmeal, and ½ teaspoon salt together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and olive oil 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.
Assemble and cook: Preheat the oven to 425º F. Separate dough into 2 pieces. On a floured or cornmeal dusted pizza peal or board, roll or stretch each half of the dough to about 13 inches. Spread half of the shrimp mixture over half of each of the circles. Moisten the edges of each circle with a little bit of water. Fold each circle in half over the filling and pinch the edges together to seal. With a sharp knife, make two or three diagonal cuts across the tops of each calzone. Mix the cornstarch and ½ cup of water together in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave until the mixture appears glossy (about 30 seconds). Brush the tops of each calzone with mixture. Reserve any extra cornstarch wash in the refrigerator for another use (it will keep up to two weeks). Transfer calzones to a greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until crust turns a golden brown. All to stand for a few minutes before serving.
I sealed the first one while she was finishing filling the other two. I thought I did a decent job, but when Grace sealed up one of the remaining calzones, she did it with flourish. She somehow twisted the sealing edges together, giving the finished edge a bit of a ropey look to it. I told her she ought to redo mine, so they all matched, but she refused.
I grabbed a knife and slashed through the tops of the calzones. Grace exclaimed that I was killing them and the shrimp inside! She was kidding, but I explained to her that we needed to make slashes in the tops of the calzones in order to let the steam out. Otherwise, her beautiful edges would burst open from the pressure of the steam, and all of the ingredients would leaks out onto the cookie sheet. Unfortunately, this is something I have learned from experience.
If you have read some of my previous entries about calzones, you would know that I struggle with what the finished product looks like. If I don't put anything on the outside of the calzone (the exterior of the dough), it comes out cooked, but not very pretty. It is crispy-ish. but it doesn't brown, and it has sort of a dull, listless look about it. I have tried different "washes" to try to bring out the shine, make it a little glossy, but I haven't found the right formula yet. I have tried milk and egg white, milk and egg yolk, egg whites and water, egg whites and milk, olive oil, butter and egg products, etc. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and I am still not sure what the right answer is (you would think that I would keep better notes on the subject or at least know where to find them when I need them).
Pam, Jennifer, and I had attended a bread baking class through community education earlier this week. One of the things the instructor told us was that you can mix corn starch and water together, microwave it for a little bit, and brush it on your bread dough before baking. She said that gives the bread a shine. Any amount of the cornstarch mixture that you don't use can go in your refrigerator and it can keep for a couple of months. I thought I would try it here.
I wasn't completely impressed with the results. It definitely browned the dough nicely, but it still didn't have that glossy look I was going for. It was twice as appetizing as the wash-free calzones I have made in the past, so I am not totally ruling it out for future recipes.
With both recipes in the oven, it was time to relax a little and fix ourselves a cocktail. I had chosen a celery martini for this week's festivities. Not only was it the next drink in line that I had ingredients for, it also brought with it the distinction that it was definitely something I had never had before, and I was pretty sure Pam hadn't either. It's second appealing trait was that it just sounded so weird, I couldn't wait to try it.
1 measure freshly extracted celery juice
2 measures vodka
¼ measure honey
Place all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a celery stalk.
This was a first for me. I had never heard of celery juice. Nor did I know where you could buy it or how to make it. I improvised. I had a bunch of celery, so I had room for error. I threw a couple of stalks in the Vita Mix and cranked it up to high. Optimistically, I placed a strainer over a bowl and poured the contents of my blending bowl into it. About a third of an ounce ended up in the bowl. The strainer was full of fibrous pulp. I pressed on it, thinking I might get the remaining two-thirds of an ounce I needed for one little drink. A little more juice came out, but not much. Unable to think of any other options to "extract" juice from celery, I repeated the procedure with four celery stalks. After stalk #6, I decided I had enough celery juice for one drink for Pam and I to split. She was already turning her nose up at it, anyway.
It was an interesting color. Had I not known what was in the drink (and was vacated of my olfactory senses), I would have thought that it was some kind of melon drink. It was light green in color, but it had an overwhelming celery aroma.
I took a sip. I didn't immediately love it, and I could tell that Pam wasn't even the least bit fond of it. She winced as she sipped. I think she probably had her mind made up before she tried it, and I think she actually winced before she got any of it in her mouth. I found the drink intriguing. It reminded me of bloody marys. I thought it would go very nicely with the Mardi Gras Turnovers. Pam was determined to drink it, even though she found it unappealing. I offered her some olive juice, which she accepted, but still couldn't drink it without grimacing. I saved her the agony and dumped the drink for her and made her something else.
Meanwhile, our pizza and turnovers were ready to come out of the oven. The jerk pizza was gorgeous with bubbling brown cheese oozing everywhere.
It was almost a shame to cover it with the salsa, but the salsa was pretty good looking in its own right.
Both recipes were fantastic! The shrimp turnovers were spectacular. The shrimp was tender and juicy. The combination of the vegetables, sauce, and sausage was bold and juicy all at once. The shrimp cooled things down a little, and the rice melded all of those flavors together.
The jerk pizza had some really hot spots, spice-wise, but they were tempered by the massive amounts of cheese, and the cool fruit on top. That was a little deceiving, too, though, because there were little bits of hot pepper mixed into that refreshing topping. It was sweet and earthy and fiery all at once. This was absolutely a winner!
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