Grilled Garlic Tomato Toast and Chipotle Blueberry Date Pizza

  It's time to start grilling again, but I'm easing into it.  Last week, we grilled grapes (OK, Roger grilled the grapes), this week it was bread (yes, Roger did that, too).  I'm not sure if grilling it as opposed to broiling or toasting makes much of a difference in flavor or texture.  This was not the recipe to determine that, however, because the tomatoes sogged up the bread once they were applied.  Might have to rethink how this one was constructed.  It was simple, but oh-so-delicious.  The bread was grilled, as I mentioned, and then we rubbed cut fresh garlic cloves over the bread on both sides.  Then, halved tomatoes were rubbed over the bread as well - which is where the sogginess came in.  Then, we sprinkled one side of the bread with black sea salt flakes.  It was zingy - almost hot - from the fresh garlic.  The tomatoes mellowed it out a little bit, and the salt just brought it all back again.
     The pizza that I chose for this week sounded so strange, I just had to try it.  But, alas!  It contained figs, and figs were no where to be found, even in the dried version.  Apparently, figs are in season from June to September, and I probably should have postponed this pizza until then, but I was afraid I would forget to go back to it.  I started at Costco.  There were no fresh figs (obviously), but I thought they would certainly  have them in their dried fruit aisle.  They did not.  I went to Cub, because I have purchased them there before and have seen them on numerous occasions.  In the produce department, they had a large sign indicating that there should be dried figs in that section, and it even listed a price, but there was only celery there.  I asked the boy stocking the peppers.  He looked at me like I was from Mars.  I explained that there was a sign over the shelf to the left that had a price on it for figs, but there was only celery there.  He said, "we probably don't have them then." and went back to stocking.  I asked another guy that was stocking onions.  He went right to the organic section and picked up a package of dates, examined them, then came back and told me they didn't have any figs.
     He got me thinking, though.  Figs are sweet.  Dried figs are even sweeter.  The dried versions are soft and sugary, much like a date, and I had a freezer full of dates from my parents' trip to Palm Springs last year.   It was decided, then.  This would be a date pizza, and I would get "freezer points" from Jeff for using something we already had.  And, it would be double points, because I already had chipotles in adobo in my freezer from the last recipe I made with them that only called for 1 teaspoon of the sauce, and I had a six ounce can of them.
     Wednesday, I started with the sauce.  The ingredient list simply said "3 oz canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce".  It didn't say whether I was just supposed to use the sauce or just the peppers or a little bit of both.  I decided that since the berries and the peppers were going to be the sauce, that there probably should be some of the adobo sauce in there, and I didn't want to miss out on the peppers themselves, so I used both.
     Once I learned that I was cooking the berries down with the peppers, I wondered why it called for fresh blueberries specifically.  I think that frozen blueberries would work equally as well, and they may even be less expensive.  However, Jeff loves blueberries, so I guess fresh was just fine for us.

BLUEBERRY CHIPOTLE DATE PIZZA

Adapted from Revolutionary Pizza by Dimitri Syrkjin-Nikolau

Dough:

1c + 1 tablespoon cold water

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

3½ cups bread flour

Sauce:

1 cup fresh (or frozen) blueberries

3 ounces chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (use both sauce and peppers)

The rest of the story:

4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

½ cup barbecue sauce

1 cup dates, chopped and pits removed

6 ounces raw bacon

4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Make the dough:  In the bowl of a large stand mixer, whisk together the water, salt, sugar, and oil.  Add the yeast and whisk again.  Attach the dough hook to the mixer.  Add the flour and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together and clings to the hook.  Remove the dough and knead by hand for about three minutes or until the dough becomes smooth.  Place the dough in a bowl and cover with a damp, lint-free towel.  Let rest in a warm place for two hours.  Divide the dough in half.  At this point, place one half in a zip lock bag and freeze for another use.  Shape the remaining half into a ball and place on a baking sheet.  Wrap the baking sheet and dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate.  Remove the dough 1 hour before you are going to use it, if possible.

Make the sauce:  Combine the peppers, adobo sauce, and blueberries in a small sauce pan.  Cook together over medium heat for about twenty minutes, stirring often.  Remove from heat and allow it to cool.  Place mixture in a blender and puree until smooth.

The rest of the story:  Chop the bacon into small pieces and fry over medium high heat until it just starts to brown and crisp.  Remove bacon from the pan, and put it on a paper towel lined plate to drain.  It will continue to crisp as you remove it and as it cools.  Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough out to a 15 inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  Sprinkle the mozzarella over the prepared dough.  Drizzle the barbecue sauce over the cheese.  Arrange the dates over the barbecue sauce and cheese.  Sprinkle the bacon over everything.  Cover the pizza with the cheddar cheese.  Transfer pizza to the preheated stone or place on a greased pizza pan and put in the oven.  Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and starts to brown.  Drizzle (or dollop) the blueberry chipolte mixture over the pizza, spreading any thick dollops around to prevent any one particular spot from getting too spicy.

     I washed the berries and noticed that some of them still had a little stem on them.  I suppose it would have been fine to leave those on, since it was going to be cooked down and blended up, but I went through the effort of picking them all off anyway.

     It didn't take long for the combination to "sauce" up, and their twenty minute stint on the burner thickened it up quite nicely.  A quick zap in the VitaMix, and it was smooth and luscious.

     Next preparatory task was to fry up the bacon.  I had weighed the bacon before I started, and it was six ounces and looked like a very large amount for one pizza.  I chopped it up and threw it in a cast iron skillet on high.  I pulled the pan off of the burner just before they got crisp.  In the time it took me to remove the pieces and put them on a paper-towel-lined plate, they reached the crisp point.  I weighed it again, just for curiosity sake, and it was only 1.9 ounces after it was cooked.  1.7 ounces after I sampled it to make sure it was worthy of the pizza.

     On Thursday, while Roger was grilling the bread, and Jennifer was halving the garlic and tomatoes, I rolled out the dough and started removing the pits from my figs (er, I mean, dates).  

     I sprinkled the mozzarella over the dough I had rolled out before the Liggetts arrived, and swirled barbecue sauce over the cheese.  I used the same bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's that I had used for the pork pizza two weeks ago ("fridge points!"), and then I scattered my chopped dates over the swirls of sauce.  They weren't chopped so much as mushed apart.  They were very soft and very sticky.  

     Next went the bacon (or what was left of it).  The original recipe had instructed to bake the pizza at this point and toss the cheddar on after it came out of the oven.  I didn't like that idea.  I wanted to make sure that my cheddar was melted and maybe even a little brown.
     Meanwhile, Jennifer had finished up the garlic tomato toast, and cut it up for us to snack on while the pizza was baking.  I have to say they weren't very attractive, but they were delicious!

GRILLED BREAD WITH FRESH TOMATO AND GARLIC

Adapted from Patio Pizzeria by Karen Adler & Judith Fertig

4 large slices of sourdough bread or 8 small ones

4 fresh garlic cloves, peeled and halved

4 ripe tomatoes, halved

2 teaspoons (4 pinches) black sea salt flakes

1 tablespoon good-quality extra virgin olive oil 

Preheat a gas or charcoal grill to medium-high.  Place the slices of bread on the grill and toast for a few minutes on each side or until grill marks appear on the bread.  Remove the bread from the grill.  Rub the garlic over both sides of the bread.  Then, rub each side of the bread with tomato, squeezing as much pulp as you can onto the bread.  Sprinkle with the sea salt and drizzle with oil.

     I took the pizza out of the oven when the edges had browned, and the cheese had melted.  With all of the brown ingredients on the pizza, I couldn't really tell if the cheese was browning a little or if the bacon or dates or barbecue sauce was just poking through.  Either way, it looked good.

     When I took the blueberry chipolte sauce out of the refrigerator, I took one look at it and knew it was not going to drizzle very well.  I put the bowl of it in the microwave for a few seconds, hoping to loosen it up a bit, but it was still pretty thick.  I ended up spooning it on in dollops and trying to spread the dollops out to make it look like it was drizzled.  I don't think I was very successful at achieving this effect.

     I had warned Jennifer that this week's pizza was a little in left field, and asked her to bring something that picky people would eat.  She brought the five-meat pizza from Costco.  It's always a good choice, and it never hurts to have a backup plan in case the new pizza recipe doesn't work out.

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Shrimp, Braised Leek, and Garlic Pizza; Pizza Colada; Pineapple Martinis

 I love shrimp.  If they're done right - not cooked to a rubbery shrivel - but just barely pink all the way through and seasoned properly, they are a fantastic little food.  For a while, many people avoided shrimp because of their high cholesterol level, but more recently, it has been discovered that because of the low amount of saturated fat in them, they actually improve the ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol (which is a good thing), and lowers triglycerides.  High levels of triglycerides have been linked to heart disease and stroke.  Some studies have shown that garlic and leeks also reduce cholesterol, so this pizza is more of a health food, really (and it cancels out the cream cheese in the dessert, right?).

SHRIMP, BRAISED LEEK, AND GARLIC PIZZA

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

Dough:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

3¼ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

Toppings;

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 or 2 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped (about 2 cups)

12 large garlic cloves, peeled and left whole

12 ounces medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cooked until just barely pink

4 ounces seeded and diced ripe tomato

½ teaspoon dried basil

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

Make the dough:  In a small bowl, combine the water, yeast, and sugar.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the flour and salt.  Add the yeast mixture and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together and clings to the dough hook.  Remove the dough and form it into a ball.  Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a damp, lint-free towel.  Set in a warm place for about an hour or until dough doubles in size.  Cut dough in half, reshape each half into a ball.  Reserve one half for another use (at this point, I place it in a freezer bag, label it, and put it in the freezer for a later date).

Prepare the toppings and assemble the pizza:  Preheat the oven to 450º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough out to a fifteen inch circle on a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel or board.  Brush the edges of the dough with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.  Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the leeks and whole garlic and reduce the heat to low.  Cook for about twenty minutes or until the garlic is soft, but not brown.  Distribute the leeks and garlic evenly over the prepared dough.  Arrange the shrimp and tomatoes over the leek mixture.  Sprinkle with basil, salt, and pepper.  Slide pizza onto the preheated stone, if using, or onto a greased pizza pan and into the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is golden.  Remove the pizza and sprinkle with the Parmesan.

     When I was chopping up the leeks, I thought that two cups was quite a bit, but after they were cooked for a while with the garlic, they shrunk down a little, and then I wondered if there were enough.  Even though I doubled the garlic from the original recipe, it didn't seem like enough either, and there could hardly be even distribution with just twelve cloves, so I broke some of the larger ones in half.  I wanted to make sure that each piece had a little bit of garlic in it.
     It may seem weird to put whole cloves of garlic on a pizza, but when it has been cooked for a long time, it becomes soft, the flavor is a milder, and there is a creamy nuttiness to it.  In fact, I think that roasted or simmered cloves have quite a different flavor than straight up garlic added to a sauce or a dish.

     I used precooked shrimp that we had gotten on sale at Cub (shocking, I know).  I usually don't buy precooked shrimp, because it is frequently overcooked, and I feel like you miss an opportunity to ramp up the flavors by cooking it with your own seasonings.  However, the raw, peeled, deveined shrimp is rarely on sale, and I do not enjoy the deveining process, so sometimes we end up with pre-cooked shrimp.  We have been pretty lucky lately with the ones we have gotten.  They have been just the regular generic at Cub, and they were cooked perfectly.  I was a little worried about cooking them again on the pizza, but given the fact that they were barely thawed when I put them on there, and their stint in the oven was only a few minutes, it turned out just fine.

     The shrimp were fabulous!  They weren't the slightest bit chewy - they were soft and tender and salty.  The leeks added a slight tang of oniony flavor, and when you bit into a piece with a chunk of garlic on it, the flavor just burst into your mouth - nutty, warm, and slightly zingy.  The tomatoes brightened up all of the flavors and added a little moistness to the slice.

     

     Jeff had brought home a new Ciroc flavor - pineapple!  How appropriate, since we were going to have pineapple pizza for dessert.  I like it when a theme emerges.

                        PINEAPPLE MARTINI

1½ ounces pineapple Ciroc (or other pineapple flavored vodka)
1½ ounces regular vodka 
Juice from ¼ of a medium lime (about 1 tablespoon of juice)  


Combine ingredients in an ice-filled shaker.  Shake and pour into a chilled cocktail glass.  Sip slowly.

I do not enjoy an extremely sweet drink (or even an ordinary sweet drink), and the Ciroc was sweet on its own.  I added equal parts of regular vodka, so we could still taste the pineapple flavor, but weren't overwhelmed by sweetness.

PIZZA COLADA

Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

Dough:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

¼ cup granulated sugar

3¼ cups bread flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

Toppings:

1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup sweetened dried coconut shreds

2 teaspoons rum extract

4 tablespoons melted butter, divided

8 canned pineapple rings, very well drained

Make the dough:  Combine the water and yeast in a small bowl and set aside for a few minutes.  In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the sugar, flour, and salt.  Add the yeast mixture and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together and starts to cling to the hook.  Remove the dough and shape into a ball.  Place the ball in a greased bowl, cover with a damp, lint-free towel, and set aside in a warm place for an hour or until dough has almost doubled in size.  Cut the dough in half and reshape each half into a ball.  Reserve one ball for another use.

Assemble the pizza:  Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough to a fifteen inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  In a food processor or blender, combine the cream cheese, coconut, and rum extract and puree until smooth.   Prick the dough all over with a fork.  Brush the dough with 2 tablespoons of melted butter.  Slide the dough onto the preheated stone or place on a greased pizza pan and put into the preheated oven.  Bake until the crust starts to brown- about 5-7 minutes.  Remove from oven with a pizza peel or transfer the pizza pan onto a hot pad.  Spread the cream cheese mixture over the baked crust.  Arrange the pineapple rings over the cream cheese.  Brush the pineapple with the remaining butter.  Transfer back to the oven and bake about four five more minutes.  Serve immediately.

     The dessert pizza was delicious!  The creamy, coconutty cheese underneath the sweet, tangy pineapple was really like a hot pina colada that had chew.  The crust was soft and slightly sweet, while the pineapple cut through the richness with its hot juicy goodness.  I only wished that there were more pineapple.  I think I would give up the presentation to add more pineapple in the spaces the rings didn't cover.  Or, it could be made into 8 individual pieces and maybe then there would be more coverage.  Or, maybe if I could have found the edible flours and put those in the holes and spaces in-between, it maybe have looked better - but I think more pineapple would have been better.

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