By sheer coincidence, both of my recipes for this week were cheese-less. I got some gasps from my guests and people I had spoken to about the menu before the event. I was a little worried that we would miss it, too, but we are adults, and not every meal need contain cheese. Right? Right?
On Wednesday, I started in on the doughs for the pizzas. They were similar in that they both started with a basic white dough recipe, but the dough for the stir-fry pizza called for kneading in toasted sesame seeds after the dough had been formed. I thought I had some regular old sesame seeds, but a search of my cupboards only turned up black sesame seeds. I looked them over and decided that these would probably be even better than regular seeds. I thought they might be more visually appealing. I threw them in a pan over medium heat, stirring them occasionally until I could smell the rich toastiness of them. I quickly poured them out of the pan and into a bowl to keep them from burning. I have a habit of putting nuts, seeds, or spices in a pan to toast them and forgetting about them until its too late and they have burned.
My dough had come together beautifully, and I was wondering if the seeds would keep the dough from staying together. I kept a couple of tablespoons of water nearby, in case it was necessary to re-bind the dough. However, a couple of minutes in my Kitchen Aide just swept the seeds into the dough and smashed them in beautifully. No additional water was needed.
Next, I worked on the ingredients for the pepper pizza. I julienned my peppers and onions and set them in a pan for their 30 minute sauté. The recipe had warned me not to brown the peppers and onions, to just merely cook them very slowly until softened. They were beautiful vegetables, even though they were missing a color.
The Stir-Fry pizza wasn't very specific about what vegetables were to be used, so I just picked what was in my refrigerator. Unfortunately, that meant that some of the vegetables were very similar to the vegetables on the pepper pizza. I had peppers, onions, broccoli, and mushrooms (of course I had onions and mushrooms, since I had forgotten to put them on the pizza last week). I cut all of those up.
I heated up the oil and dropped in my garlic and ginger. The moisture from these two ingredients immediately splattered all over the stove and my hands. Apparently, I had heated the oil a little too much and quickly turned it down. The warm and spicy aromas of the garlic and ginger quickly filled my house. I added the vegetables. Once I added the soy sauce mixture, it was really starting to smell like an Asian restaurant. It thickened almost instantly, and I was ready to take it off the heat. According to the recipe, I was supposed to drain any liquid off of the vegetables at this point, but I feared that the tangy, gooey, saltiness of the sauces would be lost, making my vegetables suffer - especially since I was going to put this mixture in the refrigerator overnight and not actually cook it again until Thursday night. I left the vegetables undrained and packed them up that way once they cooled. It smelled so good, it was all I could do not to dip a spoon in and sample it.
I was really glad I had most of the work done Wednesday night, because it snowed again Thursday (really?? Isn't it MAY??) and it took me a while to get home from work. However, I had both pizzas assembled in no time. Jennifer had arrived and was assigned drink duty while I finished assembling.
2 measures bourbon whiskey
1 measure Southern Comfort
½ measure sweet vermouth
3 dashes bitters
lemon twist for garnish
Combine all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
I really liked this. It had the bracing start of the whiskey, but the sweet Southern Comfort and the vermouth smoothed it out and mellowed it out. It was a little heavy, but perfect for a wintry evening (albeit a wintry evening in MAY).
It was a little difficult to judge when the pizzas were truly done, because there was no bubbling, browning cheese for me to gauge it by. The smells were fantastic, and the crusts were starting to turn a golden color, so I called it good and took them out of the oven.
I usually start with what I deem is probably the least flavorful pizza, because I feel like whichever one you eat first has the advantage of a hungry palate. In this case, I had figured it to be the pepper pizza. After all, it was just peppers and onions sautéed with garlic, put on white crust, and daubed with kalamata olives. However, the stir fry pizza was already on my plate when I walked into the dining room.
Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza
1 cup warm water
1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
3¼ cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup toasted black sesame seeds
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons Mirin (sweet sake)
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
3½ ounces white onion
4 ounces sliced mushrooms
4 ounces broccoli, broken into florets
3½ ounces julienned red pepper
2 teaspoons chili oil
½ cup ketchup
2 teaspoons hoisin sauce
Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside for at least 5 minutes. Combine the bread flour and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and stir to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure that all ingredients get incorporated. Continue to stir on a low speed until the dough comes together. Add the toasted sesame seeds and continue mixing until the dough clings to the dough hook and becomes smooth and elastic. Place dough ball in a greased bowl. Cover with a damp towel or loosely drape with a piece of plastic wrap and place in a warm, dry spot for at least an hour.
Whisk together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, Mirin and corn starch in a small bowl. Set aside. Heat the canola oil in a large frying pan. Add the garlic and ginger and cook (while stirring) for about 30 seconds. Add the vegetables and cook until barely tender. Add the chili oil. Add the soy sauce mixture and cook until the sauce thickens and becomes a little sticky.
Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. On a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board, roll or stretch the dough out to a fifteen inch circle. Combine the ketchup and hoisin together in a bowl and mix well. Spread this mixture over the crust. Distribute the vegetables over the ketchup mixture. Slide pizza onto the preheated pizza stone or transfer the pizza to a greased pizza pan and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crust is starting to brown. Remove from oven and allow it to cool for a few minutes before slicing.
It was fabulous. The ketchup-hoisin sauce was like an Asian barbecue sauce. The vegetables were still a little al dente, and my teeth sank into each one with a little bit of a snap. The sweet peppers and earthy mushrooms balanced out the peppers and broccoli. The soy sauce-oyster sauce mixture added a salty gooey texture to the slice. The heat of the oven had caramelized the sauce a little and added another dimension of intrigue to the back end of the bite. The toasted sesame seeds added a nice toasty flavor to the crust. It was delicious.
Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner
3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1-3/4 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 ounces sweet red pepper, julienned
5 ounces sweet yellow pepper, julienned
3 tablespoons minced garlic
6 ounces white onion, cut in half and sliced to form long pieces similar in size to the peppers
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of pitted kalamata olives (whole)
Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside for at least five minutes. Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and stir until well-combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are incorporated. Continue to stir on a low speed until dough comes completely together, clings to the dough hook, and appears smooth and elastic. Place dough ball in a greased bowl and cover with a damp towel or draped loosely with a piece of plastic wrap. Set it in a warm, dry place for at least an hour.
Heat the olive oil in a medium sized skillet over medium-low heat. Add the peppers, onions, and garlic and cook over low heat for twenty to thirty minutes or until they become soft. Do not brown. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using. On a cornmeal or flour dusted board, roll or stretch the dough out to a 15 inch circle. Distribute the sautéed vegetables over the crust. Sprinkle the vegetables with the pepper and salt. Dot the vegetables with the kalamata olives. Slide pizza onto the preheated pizza stone, if using, or slide the pizza onto a greased pizza pan and put in the preheated oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crust starts to brown.
The pepper pizza was good. It needed the kalamatas to bring it to the next level. Roger said it needed cheese. Jeff started with this piece and declared it delicious, but then agreed with Roger when he brought up the cheese (or lack thereof). It was a little bit sweet, a little bit salty, and the onions and garlic gave it a nice pow to bring it up a notch. I really think if I had had this one first it would have been elevated to a higher status in my mind, but it was good, nonetheless. It probably would have been better if it had one more color of pepper on it.
Return to the Sautéed Pepper Pizza recipe.
Return to the Stir-Fry Pizza recipe.
Return to the Devil's Manhatten recipe.
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