This post is half a month late. I was so taken with the cocktail challenge that
I ignored my duty to write and went on pouring cilantro infused gin into
chilled martini glasses over the holiday week.
My love for artful cocktails has been reignited. Do expect a pre-dinner
cocktail next time you come over.
It is the middle of
summer and that means cooking outside beats heating up the kitchen. I searched all over my usual sites for a tutorial
on grilling pizza, and then I found the best collection of advice and recipes
on Smitten Kitchen. If you read through
the entire recipe for this grilled eggplant and olive pizza you will get to a link of
all of SK’s pizza recipes and ideas. It
might not surprise you to see two recipes from Jim Lahey on that list. We made his no knead bread in January. He has
companion cookbook worth checking out of the library- My Pizza: The Easy No-Knead Way to Make Spectacular Pizza at Home.
I had wanted to do a gelatin challenge at some point, so I
think I will just put this out there as a bonus. I saw a recipe for blackberry fluff in an email from
Food52 and I almost dismissed it.
I am not a jello for dessert kind of person and that is the the origin of this concoction. But then the photos of the berry juice were
almost as intoxicating as the martinis I made in June, so now I have to make
it. We have not had an official dessert
post yet so this might be a nice change (the cake is coming, Liz!). If you are in need of dessert in the next two
weeks, why not whip it up?
We tried to make the eggplant olive pizza last night and it was an epic fail.Wyatt and I had a tough time dealing the dough. The first two doughs burned and tore during the flip. The third was the best, but still ugly. When we tried to move the pizza with toppings back on to the grill it got jumbled. The end result was a very ugly pizza. I really enjoyed the flavors of the eggplant and the hot dough but the olives were very strange. I'm not sure I will make this combination again and I'm going to have to do some more research on grilling pizza and dough for the grill. I think it would have been easier to do this in the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteDeuce and I have now made grilled pizzas three times since this blog initially was published. We made them in California with Suzie, with our friends at their home, and most recently, at Deb's with her family. We can't get enough. One of the secrets, I think, is using the right dough recipe...whatever that is that works for you. We have been using the Joy of Cooking pizza dough recipe which I googled. We followed the Smitten Kitchen's directions but, for toppings were inspired by Saveurs most recent issue on pizza. Suzie got us hooked on the recipe when we were at the farm. Why mess with a good thing? We kept our toppings simple: mozz. Cheese and arrugula with a lemon vinaigrette and shaved parmasean cheese. The salad was added after the cheese had melted; sauted zucchini with pesto, mozz cheese and onions; and ground beef with onion red pepper flakes, red peppers, zucchini and some mozzarella cheese. We also made a traditional one for Katelyn and Brendan with cheese and spaghetti sauce.
ReplyDeleteAnother secret is the temperature of your grill. You have to really watch your dough as it is being grilled and check it right after just one minute. You can then adjust your time according to whether it's cooking too fast or too slow.
I am such a traditionalist with homemade pizza made in my oven with a pizza stone and I never thought I was going to like a grilled pizza. I am so glad we tried this and was especially glad that my kitchen oven wasn't on at the usual 500 degrees I generally use for pizza.
I will, at some point, be brave and try to use my usual whole wheat pizza dough recipe! I'll let you know how it works out.