Never Call Domino's Again

For a long time, I thought all pizza was supposed to taste like Domino's/Pizza Hut/etc. Oddly enough, I don't remember the first time I discovered differently. As best as I can figure, it was sometime before I lived in Charlotte, but likely after I left Cleveland; that would put my pizza discovery squarely in Washington, DC - but damned if I know when, where, or what kind of pizza was involved.

Suffice to say, I have no shortage of "real" pizza these days and I'm real glad for that. If I don't make it myself, it's just a short walk to one of two shops or a simple phone call to another shop a half mile away.
There's a lot of pizza 'round these parts.

I have two favorite styles of pizza - one of which isn't even technically pizza.
New York style is how I prefer my pies; I love the thin crust and the monstrous slice size. Oh sure, Chicago deep dish pizza is good, don't get me wrong here, but I like the balance between bread and toppings in NY pizza.
My toppings of choice? Pepperoni, onion & black olives.

Second to NY pizza is something I didn't discover until I moved to Philly, and it can barely even be called a pizza.
Tomato pie is a regional thing found almost exclusively in the Northeast United States, most commonly in cities with a large Italian-American population. It's kinda-sorta like a pizza in that it uses pizza dough and tomato sauce, but it looks nothing like a pizza, nor does it taste a lot like one. In fact, tomato pies taste different from town to town, and even from shop to shop - much like there are different ragù recipes from family to family, there are different tomato pie recipes.

I first had tomato pie at a local pizza shop. It's not on the menu but, being regulars, we could special order it sometimes. It ain't cheap though.
What else to do but work up my own recipe for it?

The first thing one might notice about tomato pie is that it's not round. It's square or rectangular. The next thing you'll see is that this pizza-esque dish isn't dripping with cheese; depending on the version, you'll see anything from no cheese at all to a bare sprinkle of grated parm to a very thin layer of provolone or mozzarella. This "pizza" is about the tomatoes, not about the cheese.


Chellie's Tomato Pie
makes 1 large rectangular pie
special equipment: 1 large cookie sheet or half sheet pan

*Dough:
2 cups warm water
1 T + 1 t active dry yeast
1 t sugar or honey
5-6 cups hi-gluten flour, bread flour, or AP flour
4 T olive oil
2 t salt

Combine the warm water, yeast and sugar in a mixing bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer. Let stand for 10 minutes, or until frothy.
Add the salt, olive oil, and 1 cup of flour. Mix until smooth.
Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough comes together in a smooth, slightly sticky ball.
Knead for 5-10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes by mixer, until the dough is soft, supple and very springy.
Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and let rise, covered, in a warm place until doubled - about 1 hour.
While the dough rises, make the sauce.

Sauce:
Over low heat, saute 1 T of crushed garlic in 1 T olive oil. When the garlic browns slightly, add 1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes, 1/2 cup water, and a healthy splash of balsamic vinegar.
Raise the heat to medium.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, oregano, and basil.
Let the sauce cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid has evaporated - about 30 minutes.
Let cool to warm room temperature.

Preheat oven to 425*.

When the dough has risen, punch it down, knead it a couple times, and let rest for 5 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangular shape. Transfer dough to a lightly greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet or half sheet pan and stretch the dough to fit the bottom of the pan and slightly up the sides.
Let rest for 5 minutes.
With your fingertips, press indentations halfway into the slightly risen dough on the bottom of the pan. You should have a relatively flat rectangle of dough surrounded by a slightly raised crust along the edges.

Top the dough with the tomato sauce in a thick layer.
Bake at 425* for 17-22 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and, if desired, top with a bit of shredded parmesan, provolone, or mozzarella cheese. Remember this pie is about the tomato sauce, so don't douse it in cheese.

Let the pie cool almost to room temperature.
Slice into squares and serve.

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*Note:

The dough recipe can be divided in half and used to make a standard 16" round pizza.

The dough recipe can also be used in the same proportions or halved to make focaccia - after the dough has risen once and been punched down, shape as desired. Let rise a second time, covered, for 30 minutes.
When the dough has risen a 2nd time, again use your fingertips to press indentations all over the surface of the dough. Drizzle liberally with olive oil and season with salt and the herbs of your choice. Bake at 425* for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp on the outside.

Technorati: bread : comfort food : entree : The Bizarre Kitchen Incident

Valentine's Day: Main Course

Ahhhh dinner!!! It was even better than I expected!

After being restricted to the bedroom while everything cooked, seared, and simmered
(save for the 2 times I snuck into the hallway and hollered for some more gougéres)
I was called to dinner to find:







Coconut seared scallops with chocolate sauce
NY Strip steak with a roasted red pepper beurre blanc
Wilted spinach with garlic
Potato gratin
And a couple extra gougéres on the side

*falls over dead from the sheer bliss of things*

There's no way I can choose a favorite item here, because it was all so good. The scallops were cooked just perfectly; their chocolate sauce, while unconventional, was spot on for the coconut crust and for the whole Valentine's Day thing; the steak was seasoned simply so the strong flavor of the beurre blanc came through; the gratin was the perfect mild complement to the flavors of everything else. Pure heaven.

We're going to have the dessert I made soon now and I'm not feeling very confident that it'll stand up to dinner... ;)

Technorati: beef : entree : potatoes : The Bizarre Kitchen Incident

Food and W(h)ine Tries Damage Control; Plus: Leftovers

So.
After the kerfluffle yesterday over the Top Chef spoilers, Food & Wine today tried to do some damage control.

Yesterday, an intrepid reality tv fan found a Top Chef story on Food & Wine's server. Food & Wine prepared profiles of both Top Chef finalists in advance of the last episode so that we had a story on the winner ready to publish immediately after the season finale.
Food & Wine online

And with that, they linked the original article on (the apparent winner) as well as a questionable article on (the finalist who didn't have an article anywhere on F&W yesterday).
I won't comment on the questionable article save to say that a twelve year old could have come up with something more convincing for a creative writing class.

I will say that the the telling point here is the original URL of yesterdays "oops" article;
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/bravos-new-top-chef-tells-all

Not bravos-new-top-chef-tells-all1 or bravos-new-top-chef-tells-all-(finalistname).
Just plain ol' bravos-new-top-chef-tells-all.
If F&W had prepared two stories ahead of time, the leaked one yesterday would have been named in such a way to differentiate between the two supposed stories.

Poor form, Food & Wine. Poor form. You should have just ignored the whole thing.

I guess we'll see what happens on Wednesday, but it isn't looking so good for one of the two youngsters.

(By this point, I'm sure everyone's already heard the news cuz this thing is everywhere now. Still, I omitted names in case anyone is actively trying to avoid any potential spoilers.)

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In other news,
with all the tasty ricotta cheese leftover from the weekend, I wanted to be sure to use it up before it went off. Considering the lack of preservatives and all, I wasn't sure how long it would last. And I didn't want to futz around too much in the kitchen, seeing as I was in the middle of cleaning it around dinnertime yesterday.

While I washed dishes, I put a stockpot on to boil and threw together a quick sauce of crushed tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, garlic, basil, oregano, a pinch of nutmeg, a bit of sugar, and some salt & pepper.
Then I mixed the remaining ricotta with a small handful of shredded parmesan, some basil and black pepper, and an egg.
When the water hit a boil, I tossed in a pack of manicotti tubes and let them go for 7-ish minutes. A quick bath in cold water stopped the cooking so I didn't get gummy pasta.

After that, it was just a matter of putting some of the sauce in the bottom of my baking dish, filling the manicotti with the cheese mixture, plopping them in the dish, topping with sauce and cheese, and baking them for about half an hour.

I felt the dish came out perfectly, to be honest. It was what it was - a simple, quick meal that required little effort but delivered lots of taste. The pasta was firm enough to hold its shape, just barely on the soft side of al dente. Kevin said he would have preferred the pasta boiled a minute longer, but I think he's crazy; I personally wouldn't have boiled it a second longer than I did.
Maybe I'll do an extra 30 seconds next time as a sort of compromise.

Still. He did lick his plate clean, which I took as a good sign.

Technorati: top chef : pasta : entree : The Bizarre Kitchen Incident

Pumpkin Threeway

What's better than pumpkin when the weather cools?
Pumpkin and its squash cousins just taste like fall and winter. There's no rhyme or reason to it; when most of us think pumpkin, we think crisp nights and the smell of snow in the air.

Unfortunately when most people think pumpkin, they also think pumpkin pie. Don't get me wrong; I love me some pumpkin pie, but it seems only a small minority of the population realize that pumpkin is so much more than pie.

Three versatile recipes follow, from breakfast to dinner, from entree to dessert.

The most telling example I have of "Ew, pumpkin what??" is my favorite non-pie pumpkin application.
A couple Thanksgivings ago, my mom made a pumpkin roll to serve with dessert. The recipe called for around a cup of pumpkin, and she had purchased one of those big 30-some oz cans of the stuff. There was a LOT of leftover pumpkin that she didn't want to see wasted...so I said I'd come up with something.
I was already working on a couple other dishes and we had a full menu planned, so I wanted simple and somewhat unassuming. What to do, what to do? Why, we had no soup on our menu! I remembered seeing recipes for pumpkin soup somewhere along the line, but I couldn't remember any of the important details - including what goes in pumpkin soup other than pumpkin.
Not one to let something so trivial stop me, I threw together what I thought would be tasty. Come time for dinner, I ladled that soup out and proudly served it to my perplexed and mildly horrified family. They all stared at their bowls with more than a little trepidation, and as spoons slowly went from bowl to mouth I could tell they were only trying it to be polite and fully expected to discreetly move on to the "normal" food after one bite.
Since I don't serve food that I haven't tasted, I already knew it was good. In fact, I was halfway through my bowl before anyone else had worked up the nerve to try the stuff. From the corner of my eye, I saw the surprise register on everyone's faces as they tasted, and before long the soup was gone.
My recipe has evolved since that first foray, but it remains simple and fuss-free.

Pumpkin Soup

Makes 6-8 appetizer or side dish sized servings

24oz pumpkin, pureed (roasted and pureed raw pumpkin, or canned pure pumpkin)
36oz chicken or vegetable stock
1 medium white onion, small dice
1/2 green apple, grated
1 T brown sugar
Heavy cream
Dry mustard, nutmeg, curry powder, salt & pepper
Green onions to garnish

In a stockpot, saute the onion in a bit of butter or oil over medium heat until translucent.
Add the stock and the pumpkin and allow to come up to temperature, whisking well to combine.
Add the grated apple and mix well.
Add 1 teaspoon curry powder, 2 teaspoons dry mustard, brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. Whisk well and then let it simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Season to taste with salt & pepper.
Slowwwwwllly add heavy cream, whisking the entire time, until you achieve your desired consistency and creaminess.
Taste and adjust for seasoning again.

To serve:
Ladle into ramekins or small soup bowls. Top with a sprinkle of nutmeg and some sliced green onion.

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Pumpkin Muffins from Cooking Debauchery

Next in line of my favorite pumpkin recipes is a recent discovery from the ever-incredible Kitarra over at Cooking Debauchery.
Oh holy hell, these muffiny-cupcakey things are amazing.

I made a few adjustments to her recipe based on, of course, personal taste and what I had on hand; the most drastic change was omitting the fruit.
I went with:

Muffins:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 t salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 t baking soda
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup skim milk
1/2 t ground ginger
1 t cinnamon (maybe more...we like cinnamon)
1 T vanilla

Filling:
1 8oz brick of cream cheese
1 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla
3 T brown sugar

I prepared it as directed in the original recipe. As mentioned there, overmixing the batter will give you rubbery, dense muffins. Use a gentle hand and mix only until the dry ingredients are moistened.

My favorite part of these muffins is how easily they transition to a simple dessert. They're awesome with your morning tea/coffee, but they're also just sweet enough to cap off a hearty dinner.
Let's not mention that picky children will happily eat some pumpkin if they think it's a cupcake, too. There's enough wiggle room in this recipe that you can easily make them low fat (sub out some of the oil with applesauce...yum!), and between the vitamin A and fiber pumpkin carries, your kids won't know they're eating something healthy.

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Next up is another mishmash recipe that I cobbled together from various other recipes and ideas.

Pumpkin....and pasta. Together. In the same dish.

Pasta with Sausage and Pumpkin Alfredo Cream

Makes: 4 entree servings

1lb pasta, cooked and drained
1lb sweet or hot Italian sausage (bulk, or casings removed)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock, plus more as needed
1 cup white wine
2 T butter
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup heavy cream
Small handful of sage leaves, chiffonade
Half a handful of basil leaves, chiffonade
Nutmeg, salt & pepper

Brown the sausage and drain well. Remove to a bowl.
Deglaze the skillet with wine, then whisk in pumpkin, stock, butter, and a pinch of salt over medium heat. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Whisk in the heavy cream and bring up to heat. Add the Parmesan and whisk gently until combined. Simmer for 5 minutes, until thickened. If sauce is too thick for your liking, add a bit of stock until it reaches the consistency you like.
Add sausage and simmer for 5 more minutes.
Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add 2 pinches of ground nutmeg.
Just before serving, add sage and basil and mix well. Add salt or pepper as needed.

Serve over pasta.

Technorati: breakfast : dessert : entree : pumpkin : sides : soup : starters : The Bizarre Kitchen Incident

Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double beatloaf. I hate meatloaf.

Oh, how I've hated meatloaf. It induces a reaction very much like Randy's in A Christmas Story. I don't recall a time that I ever actually liked the stuff. Dry, bland, and invariably soaked in a river of ketchup in a vain attempt to give it some sort of "oomph" is generally not my idea of palatable food.

To my chagrin, Kevin loves meatloaf. If he can't decide on something from the menu, I tell him to get the meatloaf and he does, and he's happy.

Then I found recipes for...Crockpot meatloaf. It piqued my interest, and I set out to make a surprise treat for my dear meatloaf-loving better half.

My first problem with meatloaf was always how dry it usually is. But if I were to cook it carefully in a Crockpot, I could probably retain a good amount of moisture. There may not be any need for gravy or ketchup!
As to the second problem - the bland flavor - it could also be easily remedied with judicious use of cooking liquid and some creative spice usage.

Hot damn, I may be on to something here!

Having never made meatloaf before (seriously.), I recalled a Good Eats episode where my venerated Alton Brown addressed just this issue, and I hastened to dig up his recipe. I now had a handful of existing recipes and a different cooking method to work with.

I picked bits and pieces from the different recipes and adjusted for what I had on hand. Then, since this was meant to be a special treat for Kevin, I included some of his favorite flavors (namely, the mustard). When all was said and done, I came up with....

Not Your Mama's Meatloaf

Makes 1 large meatloaf
Special equipment: a 5qt or larger Crockpot, Vegeta seasoning mix, heavy-duty aluminum foil
Note: plan ahead for a cooking time of 12 or more hours!

2.5lbs ground chuck
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 medium onion, minced or shredded
Store-bought Ceasar seasoned croutons, pulverized
3 beef bullion cubes dissolved in 1 cup of hot water
2 cloves garlic, crushed (or more to taste)
Yellow mustard
A-1 sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Vegeta seasoning mix, dry mustard, thyme, kosher salt, pepper
Red wine vinegar

Prepare the Crockpot:
Take a length of foil and crumple it loosely. Place it in the bottom of the Crockpot. This will keep the meatloaf from sitting in the cooking liquid and cooked-out fat and getting soggy.
Take another length of foil, about 30" long. Fold it in half lengthwise and tuck it in the Crockpot so the two ends stick out and form the "handles" you'll later use to move the meatloaf around.

All mixing is done with your hands. Don't squeeze or handle the mixture roughly. Be gentle!
Place beef in a very large bowl and add the eggs and onion. Mix well with your hands, using a light touch. Add the pulverized croutons a bit at a time until the mixture easily comes together in a ball.
Add a healthy squirt of yellow mustard, probably about 3 tablespoons' worth. Add a shot of A-1 sauce. Add the garlic. Mix well.
Add 1 tablespoon of Vegeta, 1 teaspoon of thyme, 1 teaspoon of dry mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
Now is the time to make your final adjustments for consistency. If the mixture is very wet and loose, add more pulverized croutons. If it's dry and crumbly, add some of the beef bullion water.

Remove your foil "sling" from the Crockpot.
Divide the mixture in half. On the piece of foil, form the first half into a flat round or oval shape that will fit your Crockpot.
Place 1 cup of shredded cheddar on the mixture, staying within 1/2" from the edges. Don't be afraid to mound it up tall!
Carefully shape the rest of the mixture over top of the cheese, being sure to seal the seam.

Use the foil "sling" to place the meatloaf in your Crockpot, placing it directly on top of the crumpled foil you put in the bottom earlier.
Pour a shot of red wine vinegar on the meatloaf, then carefully add the remaining beef bullion water to the bottom of the Crockpot. Fold the foil "handles" down over the top and pop the lid on.
Cook on low heat for 12-14 hours, or until a meat thermometer reads 165*.

Yes, I know it's an awkward cooking time. You could let it go overnight, which is what I did, then stick it in the fridge and reheat in the oven before dinner.


And thus has ended my 30 year hatred of meatloaf.
As we ate, I asked Kevin what he thought of it, and he glowered at me. "I can't talk now, can't you see I'm stuffing my face??"

Technorati: beef : entree : The Bizarre Kitchen Incident

Roasted chicken with mango salsa

Okay, I admit...this is a summer meal. It turned out so well that I'm perfectly willing to dig up the photos months later.

Don't let the winter months stop you, though. If you can find tasty mangoes, go for it! The flavors may just find you thinking of warm summer evenings even as snow falls outside.







Roasted chicken

1 whole chicken
1 fennel
3-4 lemons, quartered and zested
1 onion
Fresh Italian parsley
Butter, salt & pepper

Start the evening off by preheating the oven to 475*.
Take the chicken and stuff it with some quarted lemons and half the bulb of the fennel, quartered.
Next, use your fingers to loosen the skin over the breast of the bird. Take some of the fennel fronds, some of the parsley, and a bit of lemon zest and stuff it under the skin.
Put it all in a baking dish and pour melted butter over Mr. Chicken.
Add a healthy few sprinkles of kosher salt and some fresh cracked pepper.
Add some more quartered lemons, the green stalks of the fennel, and a rough chopped onion to the dish.

Bake at 475* for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is nicely browned.
Lower the temperature to 350* and cook until a meat thermometer reads 165* at the thigh.







Mango Salsa


2-3 ripe mangoes, diced
1/2 small red onion, diced
Fresh cilantro, chiffonade
Olive oil
Cumin
Salt and pepper

Mix the mangoes, onion, and cilantro together. Drizzle with olive oil until moistened.
Season to taste with cumin, salt & pepper.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or overnight) to mingle the flavors



Serve the chicken either halved or quartered, depending on your appetite.
We like chicken, so I serve it halved.

Accompany this with fresh seasonal vegetables of your choice. I used some amazingly sweet corn on the cob, and included a generous dallop of my infamous 'mashed taters' on the side.

Technorati: chicken : entree : mango : sides : The Bizarre Kitchen Incident