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Pizza With The Girls

January 20, 2012 By 8 Comments

To have a successful girls night start with the four most fabulous women you know! Add a little wine.  Paint each other’s nails, gossip, and laugh until you cry!

Get in the kitchen and make something delicious together!  We made pizza.  Elyse has this wonderful pizza crust recipe so we made three varieties.  Margherita Pizza (mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil), Chicken Alfredo Pizza (alfredo sauce instead of red sauce, chicken, garlic, and crushed red pepper), and Roasted Vegetable Pizza (Roasted eggplant, squash and zucchini with pesto and goat cheese).  Oh man, I’m starting to crave them all again.  I may need to instate a weekly Pizza Night in my home.

Finally, have something sinfully rich, chocolatey, and amazing for dessert.  We had this chocolate cheesecake sandwiched between two layers of devil’s food cake and draped in chocolate glaze.

Make pizza tonight with the girls, or the boys, or your family.  It will be a fun way to get in the kitchen and create something together!

Perfect Pizza Crust
Makes One 12-inch pizza crust

1/2 Cup Warm Water
1 Teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
1/2 Tablespoon Honey
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

-Mix together water, yeast, and honey
-Let sit about ten minutes, or until the mixture is foamy
-Mix together the two flours
-Using a dough hook or your hands mix in the salt, olive oil, and half the flour mixture
-Mix in the remaining dough in batches until the dough reaches a tacky, but not sticky to the touch, consistency. You may or may not need all the remaining flour
-Knead the dough by hand or with the dough hook until it is smooth and elastic
-Lightly grease a bowl that is twice the size of the dough
-Place the dough in the greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a dry kitchen towel
-Leave out at room temperature for 2 hours
-The dough will about double in size
-Roll dough into a 12-inch circle and top with ingredients of your choice

If you have a pizza stone sprinkle it with semolina flour or cornmeal before putting rolled-out dough on it. You can also line a cookie sheet with parchment paper to bake your crust and avoid sticking.

-Bake at 500 Degrees for 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbling

Topping Ideas:
Pepperoni
Sausage
Black Olives
Mushrooms

Margherita Pizza
-Sprinkle dough with shredded mozzarella cheese
-Top with sliced tomatoes
-Bake at 500 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown
-Remove from oven and top with chiffonade of fresh basil

Chicken Alfredo Pizza
-Spread alfredo sauce on dough
-Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese
-Top with pre-cooked chicken, grated parmesan cheese, minced garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes
-Bake at 500 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown

Roasted Vegetable Pizza
-Spread pesto on dough
-Sprinkle with pre-roasted eggplant, squash, and zucchini
-Top with goat cheese
-Bake at 500 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown

Filed Under: Alcohol, Baking, Blog, Cakes, Cheese, Chocolate, Cooking, Dessert, Food Photography, Food Writing, Sauce, Tomatoes, vegetables, Wine

Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

January 6, 2012 By 2 Comments

I have been wanting to share this recipe with you since the weekend after Thanksgiving!  When I was working in the restaurant at school we had a flatbread appetizer that changed weekly.  One week it was flatbread with maple-roasted squash, goat cheese and micro basil.  It was so yummy!

When my uncle asked me to help him cook for a post-Thanksgiving dinner party I just knew I needed to serve this soup as one of the courses. (Also on the menu was roast leg of lamb with tarragon sauce, baby carrots, baby pattypan squash, black truffle risotto, and chocolate mousse.) It was a fun dish to create because it doesn’t have very many ingredients and my uncle and I spent about half an hour tasting the soup then adding a little more of this or that until it was perfect.  I encourage you to do the same at home. Taste the soup throughout cooking.  Add more maple syrup if it isn’t sweet enough, more heavy cream if it doesn’t feel smooth and creamy enough, more salt and pepper if it just sort of lacks flavor, or more lemon juice if you can’t quite put your finger on what it needs.

Butternut squash is on the sweeter side of the savory squash family.  The addition of maple syrup, heavy cream, and goat cheese make this a sweet, savory, tangy and satisfying soup for the last bits of wintertime.  (For those not in Southern California you still have plenty of wintertime to enjoy this warm meal.)

Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Yield: Serves Five

Ingredients

  • 1 Small Butternut Squash
  • 1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
  • 1/2 Tablespoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
  • 1/2 Cup Maple Syrup
  • 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
  • 1 Cup Chicken Stock
  • 1 Lemon
  • 5 Ounces Goat Cheese

Cooking Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 Degrees Fahrenheit
  2. Cut butternut squash in half lengthwise
  3. Place cut-side up on baking sheet
  4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
  5. Drizzle have the maple syrup all over the flesh of the squash
  6. Cover with foil
  7. Bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until fork-tender
  8. Remove skin and seeds using a metal spoon and discard
  9. Roughly chop remaining pulp and puree in a food processor or blender until smooth
  10. Pour pureed squash into a saucepan over medium heat
  11. Stir in remaining maple syrup, heavy cream, chicken stock and the juice from one lemon
  12. Cook until warmed through
  13. Serve hot with crumbled goat cheese on top

Filed Under: Blog, Cheese, Cooking, Fall, Food Photography, Food Writing, Holiday, Soup, Winter Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sourdough Waffles

November 30, 2011 By 4 Comments

Jenn, one of my best friends in the whole world, had a jonesing for sourdough waffles one day. She had gone to Las Vegas with her hubby and ate breakfast at a fancy little bistro where she dined on sourdough waffles served with vanilla bean butter and fresh strawberries.

She had been wanting to go back to Vegas just for the waffles. Her husband was not complying for some reason. I mean, who wouldn’t be willing to drive six hours to relive a dining experience that changed your life?!

Well, Jenn found out that a band she loves was going to be playing in Vegas. Her husband wasn’t interested in that, either, so Jenn and I got to talking one day and began to devise a plan to go to Vegas for a girls’ weekend.

Those of you that know me won’t be surprised to learn that this whole plan actually started with me giving Jonathan a hard time about not driving six hours with his wife to satisfy her waffle craving. After a little coaxing Jenn wore him down and he agreed to our girls’ weekend. It was all very sweet, actually. He wasn’t comfortable with two hot ladies roaming the streets of Vegas without male protection (that, and he thinks I’m a bad influence or something).

So off we went. For a Friday night the drive into Vegas wasn’t bad. I think we made it there in five hours with one stop for food. Jenn had booked the hotel room on one of those “you pick the price” websites, and we got there late at night on a busy weekend. Upon checking in to the hotel we were informed that there weren’t any more rooms available. We had a reservation confirmation which they had to honor so they put us up in the last room available. It was one floor down from the penthouse and was the largest suite they had!

It was fantastic. The bathroom had two flat-screen TVs, we had a sitting area, a dining room with a table set for eight, and our living room had a baby grand piano. Jenn and I spent a good hour exploring all the room had to offer, including the three floor-to-ceiling windows with a lovely view, and tweeting all our findings.

The next morning Jenn took me to breakfast to try these waffles. Wouldn’t ya know it? It was Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro! Being the good culinary student and major foodie that I am I have been professionally admiring Thomas Keller for some time and was so excited.

The waffles were all Jenn had portrayed them to be. Light, fluffy, airy, crunchy, beautifully golden brown, with the slightest hint of sourdough taste to add another level of flavor. Of course the fancy vanilla bean butter and fresh strawberries added to the playful seduction of these waffles on my tongue. I completely understand, and fully support, Jenn’s desire to travel to Vegas just for this experience.

When I learned of Doughvember and embarked on the journey with many other food bloggers these Bouchon Sourdough Waffles were the first thing I just knew I had to recreate. My version came out very tasty, but I’m going to have to visit Bouchon again to fully remind my tastebuds and make a fair comparison.

(The band we saw in Vegas put on a great show and we later made it home in only three hours! That hot-rod Jenn.)

Sourdough Waffles

1 3/4 Cups Unbleached, All-purpose Flour
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 Cups Buttermilk
6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Sourdough Starter

-Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl
-In a separate bowl, mix together buttermilk, melted (and cooled) butter, eggs, vanilla, and sourdough starter
-Fold flour mixture into liquid mixture in batches
-Batter should be fairly thick in consistency but still a little runny
-Pour 3/4 cup of batter onto hot waffle iron and cook according to waffle iron manufacturer’s directions until cooked through and deliciously golden brown

Filed Under: Blog, Cooking, Doughvember, Food Photogrphy, Food Writing, Sourdough, Waffles

Molecular Gastronomy

November 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Olive Oil Powder

Molecular gastronomy is a way of combining science and food to create new and interesting ways of cooking and consuming food.  It is a controversial subject in that there are those who believe it is bad because it is essentially introducing unneccesary chemicals to food and thus our bodies through consumption.  Then there are those who say all these “chemicals” are made from completely natural products and do not have a negetive affect on the human body.

I am not going to pretend I know enough about the subject to make a clear and convincing case for either side.  What I do know, however, is that playing with food is pretty awesome! 

For a few days in school we ran around our kitchen playing with food and thinking of new ways to cook and present red bell peppers, chicken, onions, steak, and all matter of things. 

It was fun discussing what affect Agar Agar might have on soy sauce and what the proper ratio of Maltodextrin to Olive Oil might be to get the perfect powder consistency.  What will happen if we caramelize onions, puree them and drop them by the spoonful into a solution of water and Calcium Gluconate? Will they become perfect little spheres?  (Those didn’t quite hold their shape like we’d hoped.)  Oh, but the apple juice dropped via syringe into the same solution formed perfect little “caviar”.

I had so much fun with our week of scientific experiments!  I have ordered a small kit to play with at home and will be posting my findings here.  In the meantime, enjoy these photos.

Soy Pudding.  Made by reducing soy sauce by half then whisking in some Agar Agar.  The soy sauce thickened immediately, but overnight it turned into a soy sauce “Jello Jiggler”!  After a quick whir in the blender it was a smooth consistency and a concentrated soy flavor that complimented the steak dish perfectly (See below).

Compressed honeydew melon.  Melon was cut into small rectangles, then sealed in a cryovac bag.  I wish I had held one up to photograph.  It looked like green stained glass; it was so pretty. 

Smoked salmon on a half-frozen disc of sour cream.  Topped with micro sorrel and pink peppercorns (so pretty!)  The sour cream was instantly frozen by dropping it onto an anti-griddle.  It looks like a griddle, but is frozen.  Neat.  This recipe is from Chef Grant Achatz of Alinea.

 Kuroge Wagyu.  Another dish from Chef Grant Achatz of Alinea.  Wagyu beef cap, prepared sous vide (vaccum sealed, then submerged in 138*F water for 30 minutes.  This came out perfectly medium-rare.)  It is on a bed of compressed honeydew melon (photo above), topped with cucumber, soy pudding, pink peppercorns, and lime sugar (a mixture of lime oil, sugar, salt, egg whites, and citric acid.  Dyhydrated overnight.  It was a flaky sweet/sour candy that could have been eaten alone.  Which we did eat quite a bit as candy).

Filed Under: Blog, Cooking, Culinary School, Food Photogrphy, Food Writing, Molecular Gastronomy

Roasted Cauliflower

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 
I’ve been sick for the last week and haven’t felt up to doing much of anything. Including cooking or cleaning. My kitchen is a pigsty and the rest of my apartment is about the same. I did a load of dishes the other day and was completely worn out by the time I finished. Everyone at school is sick, too, so I fear there is no hope of escaping any time soon. 

Although it isn’t one of those on the “sick foods” list, roasted cauliflower is delicious and comforting. The key term in that sentence being “comforting”. When I’m sick I want to be comforted and feel at home. Roasting cauliflower requires little active time and it fills the home with warmth, and yummy smells. 

I sat down at my kitchen table to clean and cut the cauliflower. I took way longer than I normally would, but I was in no hurry and sitting actually got me more engaged in the process, I think. I took my time looking at each floret as I pulled the cauliflower into pieces. It was therapeutic. But that’s the great thing about cooking; most kitchen activities are therapeutic. Then I cuddled up on the couch while I waited for it to roast. 

This is definitely not a quick snack, as it takes at least 20 minutes to roast, but it is well worth the wait. I’m not a big fan of raw cauliflower, like those sad pieces of a crudite platter that are always left to the end. So if that’s your impression of cauliflower throw it away! Roasting cauliflower helps to bring out it’s natural sugars. The olive oil gives a savory touch, and the salt balances the sweetness perfectly. 

Not feeling up to cooking much the entire head of cauliflower was my dinner, but this makes a wonderful side dish to any meat. 

Roasted Cauliflower
1 Head Cauliflower
3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 Tablespoons Kosher Salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit 

-Chop, or pull apart, cauliflower into bite-sized pieces 
-Drizzle with olive oil
-Sprinkle with salt
-Mix well 
-Roast 20 minutes, or until cauliflower is fork-tender and starting to turn golden brown
-Stir once 

Filed Under: Blog, Cooking, Fall, Food Photogrphy, Food Writing
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