St. Patrick's Day Brunch Pizza with Cham #69

     It was a little early for St. Patrick's Day, but this was the next pizza in line, and if I moved it to March 14th, I would actually have to pick a new pizza for this week, and I didn't want to have to do that.  Besides, this recipe sounded quite delicious, and I was really excited about making it.  I had been worried about what my non-egg eating potential guests might think of it, but no guests were able to make it this week.
     I had sent Jeff to the grocery store this week to get my ingredients.  He was unable to find a chunk of pre-cooked corn beef for me to shred for this recipe, so he had the deli slice some deli corned beef really thin.  They had gotten it so thin that it was almost completely in bits.  It was very tasty all by itself, and I was glad that he had purchased more than what I needed for the pizza, because Jeff and I had some really tasty sandwiches earlier in the week.
     I started on Wednesday, cooking my potatoes.  The original recipe didn't say how the potatoes should be cooked, just that they should be.  I really like little cubes of roasted potatoes - I like the crunchiness of them, and I like the toasty taste of the brown edges.  I decided I was going to try that, even at the risk of losing the crunchiness in baking the pizza.
     I cubed the potatoes, tossed them with a bit of olive oil, and sprinkled them with Harley's seasoning salt.  I nuked them for about 6 minutes, to get most of the cooking out of the way before I put them in the oven.  If I were to just put them directly in the oven, it would take an hour or more to get the crunchiness I like.  After microwaving them until they were soft, I put them in the oven at 450º F for a few minutes just to crisp up the outside edges.  They smelled so wonderful when I took them out of the oven, that I couldn't help but try a couple of cubes.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY BRUNCH PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

Crust:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

3½ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup + 1½ teaspoons olive oil

Mustard Cream Sauce:

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons fresh tarragon

4 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1-1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

3-1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese

Potatoes:

1lb raw potatoes, cubed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoons seasoning salt

Pizza:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons corn meal

4 ounces chopped onions

7 ounces shredded corned beef

4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

2 ounces of shredded Parmesan cheese

8 poached eggs

Make the crust: Combine the yeast and water 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 ¼ cup of 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.  Brush the dough ball all over with the 1½ teaspoons of olive oil.  Let rest for an hour in a bowl in a warm, dry place.

Make the mustard cream sauce:  In a small sauce pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter.  Add the garlic and tarragon and cook for about a minute.  Slowly whisk in the mustard and cream until well blended.  Cook until steam starts rolling off of the cream, but before it boils.  Stir in the Parmesan a little at a time while continuously stirring.  Continue stirring until the cheese is blended in, and the sauce is smooth.  remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Make the potatoes:  Preheat the oven to 450º F.  Toss the potatoes in a microwave safe bowl with the olive oil and seasoning salt.  Microwave on high for about 6 minutes or until the potatoes are slightly soft.  Dump potatoes out onto a baking sheet in a single layer.  Roast in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Assemble the pizza:  Preheat the oven to 400º F.  Roll or stretch the dough out on a flour or cornmeal dusted board into a 10 x 15 inch rectangle.  Brush the two tablespoons of olive oil over the bottom and sides of a 10x15 bar pan.  Sprinkle the cornmeal over the olive oil and tilt the pan to get even coverage of the cornmeal.  Place the dough rectangle in the pan, stretching it a little to get a lip around the edges of the pan.  Spread the mustard cream sauce evenly over the dough.  Sprinkle the onions over the sauce and top the onions with the shreds of corned beef.  Cover the beef with the potatoes.  Top with the cheddar and mozzarella.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is brown and bubbly.  Remove from the oven and carefully arrange the poached eggs over the top of the pizza in two rows of four.  Sprinkle the eggs with the Parmesan cheese.

     I had made the mustard cream sauce Wednesday night, too, and put it in a container in the refrigerator.  On Thursday, I took the container back out of the fridge as soon as I had gotten home, but it was still really firm when I was ready to spread it over my dough.   I had to plop scoopsful of the sauce in various areas of the dough and smash them down with the back of my spoon - much like Gracie did last week with the jerk paste.

     The next instruction in the recipe was to mix the corned beef, onions, and potatoes together in a bowl and then top the sauce with them.  I didn't want to do that, for fear my potatoes would loose their crispiness.  I did mix the corned beef and the onions together, but I don't really see any advantage in this.  It seems to me that all it did was mess up another bowl.  I think sprinkling them one ingredient at a time would work just fine.

     When I had started working on the potatoes, I was thinking I had entirely too many for a pizza.  However, when I put them on over the beef, it didn't look like very many.  Now, it was true that I did sample a good number of them before adding them to the pizza, but I don't think it was a significant amount.  Maybe it was, who knows?

     The next step was to add the cheese.  The original recipe had called for two cups of cheddar cheese.  On Thursday, I found myself with only one cup of cheddar.  I improvised and added the same amount of mozzarella.  I know that isn't the same flavor profile, but my cheddar was extra sharp, and it packs a really strong flavor, so I knew it could withstand the test of a low-profile mozzarella in its midst.

     My dilemma here was when to poach the eggs.  I have watched a cooking show with Julia Childs, where she poached the eggs in advance and heated them up just before serving, but I couldn't remember the specifics of how she did it, and I was a little scared to try.  Since it was just the two of us, I decided to cook two eggs after I pulled the pizza out of the oven.
    So, while I was waiting, I had time to make my drink of the week.

CHAM 69

2 measures vodka

3/4 measure raspberry di amore

3/4 shot amaretto

juice of 1/4 lime

Fresca

Shake the first four ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Strain into a tall glass half filled with ice.  Top with Fresca.  Garnish with blackberries.

    This was a wonderful little cocktail.  It had a wonderful fruitiness and a lovely sparkle.  It tickled my tongue with the bubbles and zinged it with fruit, but it wasn't the overly sticky sweet I imagined it was going to be.  The amaretto gave it a nutty, earthy undertone, and the Fresca lightened up the heavy raspberry liqueur.  It was delicious and refreshing.  I would definitely make this again.
    I filled a 3½ quart sauce pan half-way full with water and added two tablespoons of plain, white vinegar.  The addition of vinegar to the boiling water, increases the acidity of the water, which lowers the temperature at which eggs will set.  If the eggs set quickly, they have less time to "feather out" or lose some of their whites to the water gods.  Swirling the water, making a whirlpool in the center of your pan by circling the spatula through the water while pouring the egg into the center of the whirlpool is supposed to help "wrap-up" the whites around the yolk.  I haven't found that to be the case yet, but I am a novice when it comes to poaching eggs.  I find it hard to swirl the water while pouring the egg at the same time.  It is a little like patting your belly and rubbing your head at the same time.

      The pizza came out of the oven a gorgeous, bubbly brown, cheesy thing of beauty.

   I had my vinegary egg water already heating before I removed the pizza from the oven, and my two little eggs were ready in moments following that.  Instead of putting them directly on the pizza, I cut each of us a slice, put the slices in bowls, and gently placed an egg on top of each one.  I have to admit, they were pretty good-looking.

   The yolks were just the right consistency, slightly thick, but still a bit runny, and when we cut into the egg, it made a nice sauce over all of the brown cheese. It made everything moist and rich and luscious. Once we cut into the pizza itself, the yolk co-mingled with the sauce, creating a sort of dreamy rich, cheesy, blanket over everything. I could taste the woodsy flavor of the tarragon underneath it all, punctuated by the sweet and zingy pow of garlic. The beef and the onions kept everything lively, and the potatoes even kept a little of their crispness. It was rich and filling and quite yummy.  I would definitely make this again.  This make a wonderful part of any brunch!  Adding a fruity little cocktail enhanced the breakfast experience.  All it needed was a side of bacon.

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