"Nobody seems more obsessed by diet than our anti-materialistic, otherworldly, New Age spiritual types. But if the material world is merely illusion, an honest guru should be as content with Budweiser and bratwurst as with raw carrot juice, tofu and seaweed slime."
Tiffany and I used to order pizza just about every Friday night. (I'll bet the rest of San Francisco does too, 'cause it takes at least 45 minutes to get one delivered.) A medium pepperoni, garlic, mushroom, and olive with a large caesar salad and a jug o' Carlo from Red Sea was what was for dinner. (I may not love a jug o' the Carlo as much as, say, E-40, but I'm at that stage in my life.) All in all, the bill runs to about $25 or $30, with tip, (though sometimes we get a little mango cheescake or garlic bread for free), but I haven't ordered a pizza for a couple of months. I decided to make my own pizza. How hard could it be?
After researching many recipes I weighed my stance on the various feuds that shape the pizza world. Neapolitan or deep dish (or even calzone)? White crust or wheat? Classic regional Italian or anything-goes California style? I'll go deeper into all this later, but for now I want to get to a recipe. Eventually I settled on Alice Water's recipe from her 1980-something book on pasta and pizza. Recipe follows...
Pizza Dough:
Make a sponge of 1/4 cup lukewarm water, 1/4 cup of rye flour and 2 teaspoons yeast*. The rye flour isn't necessary here, but it adds a pleasant texture. I've used whole wheat flour, rye, even buckwheat, but you can also just use white flour.
Let bubble 20-30 minutes.
Add additional 1/2 cups lukewarm water, 1 tablespoon milk, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour. Mix and knead 10-15 minutes. I like to listen to music while I knead, and for pizza that means reggae or first- and second-wave ska. (Try this list. Assemble your ingredients during "Message to You Rudy" and knead through "The Bagel Song".
Wash out then oil the mixing bowl, and let your dough rise for at least an hour. For a really crisp crust, slide a pizza stone or some clay tiles into the oven at this point and crank the oven to 500. My small apartment quickly turns into a garlic-scented sauna when I make pizza, but turning the oven on early allows the whole of it to come to temperature, and that makes a better crust. Take the longish rising time to ready your toppings and sauce. When the dough is ready, punch it down, turn it out onto a floured surface and quickly pat/roll it out into a crust as thin as you like. I try for a about a 1/4 inch thick. It's important to prod the dough as little as possible or the gluten will activate and seize up tigher than a mormon chaperone.
Give the dough another twenty minutes or so to puff up, then spread a light layer of sauce and your chosen toppings, brush the "handles" of the pizza with olive oil and salt, and slide the whole thing into the oven for 8 to ten minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure nothing goes up in smoke. When you pull it out, lift the pizza up by one side. If it bends in the middle, turn the heat off and slide the whole thing back onto the stone and leave for five minutes with the oven door open. This should cook the crust up without singing any of the toppings.
Let rest and enjoy!
*"Make a sponge" just means mix it all together and let it sit.
Week of August 25th
*** DISCLAIMER****
Another summer week passing us all by, sniff! But at least the sun managed to come out a bit, warming everything up and making the day feel longer.
We've got great links for everyone this week, so without any further ado, your writings from the wall:
Great moments in Grilling: Mexican Roadside Chicken
Delicious, rich and vibrant grilled chicken...quickly and cheaply prepared! Come on, does it get more guerrilla than that?
Back-to-School Basics
From Pre-school to college, Epicurious.com has got all the tips and tricks you'll need to keep it tasty this semester. And don't worry, there's no test at the end of this class!
"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is,
than a stalled ox and hatred therewith."
This week we'll be trying them sautéed, deep-fried and grilled. We'll let you know the recipes, what we've figured out and hopefully convince you that okra is worth trying. In other news from the kitchen, we've also started a batch of hard apple cider, so look forward to seeing more about that in the coming weeks.
The picture for this week's post is from last week, the unquestioned winner of Best of Menu, Beef Empanadas with Spanish style rice and sautéed zucchini. The empanadas Schaefer made were rich and tasty, easy to prepare and stretched a bit over a pound of ground beef through three, happy filling, meals. Plus, the empanadas freeze easily before baking and make for a simple, last-minute, quick meal!
It's amazing how quickly the weather changes in San Francisco. Last week, we were socked in and didn't think we'd ever see the sun again, Schaefer had pretty much given up on his tomatoes and I was terrified that my plums would never ripen. But, It wasn't so! This week the sun came out for quite a bit on a number of days, yielding fresh plums, sweet apples and a sneaky cucumber that we almost missed seeing. All and all, it looks like we, and the garden are going to survive this foggy, cold San Francisco summer!
The picture on this week's post comes from the Ethicurian. It was spotted over in Oaktown this week and has got us wondering...what in fact is up with the Edible Root Crew? If you know, let us know, because we also rock it hella underground. Well, without further ado, I happily share this week's Writings on the Wall...
Tofu stuffed with Preserved Lemons and Green Olives, Couscous, Broiled Zucchini with Balsamic Vinegar
My favorite vegan based blog throws down with one of the tastiest uses for preserved lemons that I've ever heard of. Schaefer made a batch up last year, but we had no clue what to do with them. When our tree blooms this winter, it is so on!
Julia Childs and 24,000 others confirmed as US Spies
Able to manhandle steaming chicken and bake a perfect loaf of French Bread, but yet, she still found time to covertly serve her country. I always thought Julia Childs couldn't possibly get any cooler but, it was just announced today that she was employed as a spy working for the OSS, a pre-CIA spy outfit. While it may not be a state secret, and she was open about her overseas work, this is just another reason why Julia rocks.
The connection between cooking and cognition, a smashing BBQ Calzone recipe and an amazing kitchen gadget, all after the jump...
Cooking and Cognition: How Humans got so Smart
Livescience.com details the semi-controversial theory regarding the connection between cooking, carnivorous diets and higher reason. What's your opinion? Do you think about what you eat or does eating make you think?
BBQ Chicken Calzone
A yummy recipe from Apples and Butter, for a clever and unique calzone with a distinct summer flavor.
A New Spin on Cooking
Tired of unevenly cooked roasted chicken? Craving a thin-crust crisp of a pizza? These folk over at CNet.com have got the answer to your prayers...
When I moved from small town (Las Cruces for life, yo!) New Mexico to the Bay Area, I had to admit how incredibly minimal my previous exposure to the Asian culture was. Potentially, the worst was that I had zero understanding of what real Asian food was or how it was prepared. It took me more than a few Grant Avenue visits to acclimatize to this whole new world of cooking. I cannot truly explain how confused I was to discover that Chinese people don't eat Ramen noodles and egg rolls at every meal. Restaurants like Panda Express had certainly tried to convince me that the Chinese ate as innocuously as my own family did. Unsurprisingly, they lied. In actuality, the Chinese eat nothing like Europeans, or Americans. Among other things, they eat fermented sweet beans, eat the same squash that we turn into loofah sponges and are completely comfortable with nose-to-tail eating. Plus, they do things completely differently! I will never forget the first time I was served Drunken Chicken, I literally could not bring myself to bite into the seemingly raw flesh. It was after I had my first bites that it was explained that the chicken looked raw because it was carefully poached in Sake. The taste was rich, salty and unique. It was completely and certainly unlike any other chicken I had ever tasted...
Despite all of these differences, I have come to truly enjoy the various types of Asian foods and beyond merely that enjoyment, I have come to relish the moment of trying something so completely new and unknown. I cannot imagine missing out on the great foods and meals I have had the opportunity to taste and delight in. When I first found out that China would be hosting the 2008 Olympics, I was excited to have the opportunity to learn a bit more about the culture. However, I've been grossly disappointed in the food coverage being done by NBC. Unlike the precedent set by many respectful and interesting world travelers, these correspondents seem to be out merely to shock or puzzle Americans regarding Chinese cuisine. NBC's correspondents lack sophistication and polish, coming off as merely hickish and petty, refusing to try dishes but daring passersby to try something or Mary Carillo singing “I'm a little teapot...” while being formally served tea during a tea ceremony. While they are simultaneously attending an event which seeks to promote cultural sharing and acceptance they cannot seem to avoid passing Euro-American comparisons and judgments. I have to admit, I'm ashamed. Not only because while at the Olympics in China these people somehow represent me, as an American, but also because I can imagine myself as potentially ignorant and behaving shamefully similar.
In order to avoid the continuance of such types of ignorance, we want to suggest a new facet of the Guerrilla Gourmet – Artful Eating. The concept behind Artful Eating is to explore new techniques, ingredients and dishes with an open mind. To taste and sample before judging any dish or recipe and to always, always remember to be respectful to the chef and culture. Occasionally we'll be discussing the act of Artful Eating and hope to share with you fabulous stories about our own culinary adventures and mishaps. So comrades, are you ready to grab your utensil of choice and plunge into Artful Eating? If so, we'd love to hear how you eat artfully and invite you to comment and share any of your stories about strange, different types of food that you've tried!
- Tiffany Recuerde, para el hombre no hay mal pan..
I'll bet that most cooks, if they're anything like me, go through phases and fads. Recently, I've gone through an offal stage, a gardening phase, and gotten all down with the deep fryer (posts to come). Something about the simple abundance of the farmer's markets in late summer, the blood-red tomatoes, softball-sized beets, okra, zucchini, and stone fruit of every variety practically spilling off of some vendors' tables, has infected me with a pickling bug. Commercially canned food has been around for a long time (I think it was one of the great advances of the First World War) and the idea of mason jars is just so Betty Crocker, but seeing all of that raw produce piled up and running for as little as 25 cents a pound puts me in the mood to squirrel away some of it for the winter. It's a good instinct, I think, even if it's not strictly necessary.
The cucumbers at the Heart of the City market were particularly plentiful, so I decided to make classic kosher pickles. (I can't think of anything that makes pickled cucumbers particularly Jewish. Mus t be a New York thing.) I cruised the internet a while, and settled on this recipe from Arthur Schwartz via David Lebovitz.
Details after the jump:
What's Guerrilla: Buying vegetables when they're plentiful and cheap and preserving them later is old, old school.
What's Gourmet: Making your own pickles gives you the freedom to to experiment with bolder flavors than you usually find outside of the five boroughs.
I was looking to make two pint mason jars of pickles to start, so I got:
Four or five cucumbers, scrubbed. (Pick dark green, firm specimens. And see if you can taste one to make sure they aren't too bitter.)
Four cloves of garlic, skin on but lightly crushed.
Several sprigs of cilantro and parsley, gone to seed. (I don't have any dill in the yard, but my bed of cilantro and parsley has gone thoroughly to seed and I don't know what else to do with it.)
Picking spices: I decided to use a couple of bay leaves, a healthy pinch of green coriander seeds and black peppercorns, and a little dry chile for each jar.
A quarter cup of salt dissolved into a quart of water. (I had a lot of brine left over.)
First thing, I washed the jars with soap then filled them with boiling water and let sit for ten minutes. Then I rinsed the cucumbers thoroughly, quartered them length wise, packed them as tightly as possible in the jars, jammed the seasonings in there too, and covered it all with brine. Over the next few days the cucumbers should start fermenting and giving off their own acids. Three days makes for "half sour" and six days should be "full sour". Check back this weekend for more...
"Gentles do not reprehend
The Guerrilla Gourmet by The Guerrilla Gourmet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.