Pizza on the Big Green Egg

After our success last summer making homemade pizza for the first time, we thought it was time to throw another pie on The Big Green Egg. The Egg really acts like a wood burning oven and produces amazing pizza. We used our recipe from the A16 Food + Wine cookbook again. The result was a bubbly, crispy crust with a nice yeasty, almost sourdough taste. My husband isn't a big pizza or pasta fan, but he ate almost two pizzas! The dough freezes amazingly well, so all you have to do is thaw it in the fridge then let it rise for two hours under a moist towel on a lightly floured surface.

Here's the recipe from the cookbook:

1⁄2 packet active dry yeast
1 1⁄2 cups warm beer(105˚ to 110˚F) NOTE: I've tried replacing water with Belgian wheat beer as it really adds a nice touch to the dough and gets the yeast bubbles popping.
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder (I know this also isn't typical, but it really adds great flavor).
1 tsp sugar (we added this step as that's how our Italian gardener used to make it).
4 cups “00” flour or all-purpose flour (we use Caputo brand and the only place I found it in Austin is Central Market and Mandola's market)

Make The Dough:
1. To make the dough, in a small bowl or large mug, sprinkle the yeast over the warm beer and let proof for 10 minutes. If the yeast has not dissolved into a soft, frothy paste in that time, hunt down a fresher batch and repeat the process.

2. Stir in the olive oil and salt and sugar.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the flour and yeast mixture and mix together on low speed for about 2 minutes, or until the dough is shaggy and most of the beer has been absorbed. Knead on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes, or until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and looks smoother.

4. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes.

5. Knead on medium-low speed for an additional 10 minutes, or until the dough is very smooth, soft, and warm to the touch.

6. Lightly coat a large bowl with olive oil.

7. Transfer the dough to the bowl, turn the dough so that both sides are lightly coated in oil, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

8. The next day, punch down the dough with your fist, then fold over the sides and turn the dough over in the bowl. Re-cover and return to the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours (this makes it taste even better, promise!)

9. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a floured work surface. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. One at a time, cup the pieces in your hands and tuck under the sides until you have formed a smooth ball.

10. Place the balls on the floured work surface, providing plenty of room between the balls, and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Let the balls proof for 1 1⁄2 to 2 hours, or until doubled in volume. Keep a water-filled spray bottle handy, and if you see a skin forming on the surface of the dough, spray the surface to dissolve the skin.

Make Pizza:
1. To prepare in the Big Green Egg, place a pizza stone on top of an upside down aluminum pan placed over the grill plate, with legs facing down over the grill (typically 700˚F) for at least 30 minutes. Raising the pizza stone helps the top brown a bit better. We leave the top bonnet on with the wheel opened.

2. To shape a ball of dough into a pizza base, place it on a well-floured work surface. Using the tips of your fingers, pat down the ball, flattening it into a disk. Place the palm of one hand in the center of the dough and gently but firmly press down. At the same time, with the other hand, pull the dough outward while rotating it clockwise to form a flat circle with a slightly raised edge. If the dough feels resistant as you stretch it, set it aside, covered with a damp kitchen towel, while you work on a second ball of dough. This will give the gluten a chance to rest, making the dough more pliable once you return to it. The entire time you are working on the dough, maintain a thin layer of flour underneath it to prevent it from sticking. If you don’t feel confident handling pizza dough, try starting with a rolling pin to ensure you begin with an even circle, and then return to hand stretching. Continue to stretch the dough, allowing time for it to relax as needed, until it is 10 to 12 inches in diameter. place it on parchment paper dusted with corn meal and  transfer to a pizza peel.

Here we decided to add a local Vital Farms Egg in the center

3. Dress the dough with your selected toppings.
We used Fiorucci pepperoni, shredded asiago, fontina, parm and mozzarella picked up at our new Whole Foods. We topped with carmelized onions we'd cooked on low for 2 hours in a pan with butter, balsamic vinegar, salt and 1 tsp brown sugar until they were tender and sweet. I placed a few discs of buffalo mozzarella along the edges. Be sure never to use more than 3 oz of cheese or the pizza will turn soggy!

4. Transfer the pizza to the pizza stone.

5. Bake the pizza for 8-10 minutes, or until the dough is crisp and golden brown and the top is bubbling. We drizzled with a bit of Bella Luna truffle oil for an extra punch of flavor. WOW!!!!

I had to peek inside the top to see how things were going... bubbling goodness!!

Serve immediately! This is such a fabulous dough, and though it takes at least 48 hours to make, most of the work is happening in the fridge, so you can just forget about it until you are ready to bake it.

Egg Pizza on the Big Green Egg was eggscellent!!

For this pizza we fired up the Big Green Egg to 1,000 degrees F. We put the plate setter legs down, placed two bricks on top then the pizza stone and let it heat for about 40 minutes.

 Cooked it for 90 seconds and it made really nice blisters- by far the best one we've made yet! Pesto, meatballs, pepperoni, baby grape tomatoes, shaved onion and buffalo mozzarella.

 Perfection!!

Jerk Chicken Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce

 

It's no secret that I love pasta and I love Jerk Chicken, so I obviously love Jerk Chicken Pasta!! I had an old friend from high school come stay with us this weekend and so I decided to make some Jerk Chicken as he used to join my family with us on our summer trip to our place in Jamaica. We've both lost our parents since those happier times, so I thought it would be a nice tribute to fire up the Big Green Egg and make a traditional Jamaican dinner for him.

Tonight it's Monday and we still had a bunch of chicken left over, so I was craving my brother in law's famous roasted red bell pepper soup and thought it could make a nice base for a sauce. My brother in law is currently a fantastic chef for Eddie V's and I first tasted his bell pepper soup when he was a sous chef at the very early "foodie" restaurant The Green Room in Deep Ellum back in the mid 90's. Those were the days! Galavanting around from Club Clearview, to Trees to Video Bar for "Sadistic Sundays". I miss my youth. Sadly as those of us from Gen X grew up, the Deep Ellum of the 90's went into a demise and most of these great places were shuttered in 2006.  Anyway on a lighter note, my brother in law kindly shared the recipe with me for his soup and it's become a household staple as it freezes well and can be used to make a rich and satisfying sauce as well. I've tweaked it a bit, but it's pretty similar to his, just not as much heavy cream.

While roasting the peppers over the grill or in the oven until charred is the best way, my brother in law says using fire roasted jarred red bell peppers works nicely if you don't want to sepnd too much time on it. Just be sure to drain and rinse thoroughly several times.

INGREDIENTS:

4 12. oz jars of roasted red bell peppers (I like Mt. Olive or Mezzetta brands)

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 sweet onion, minced

1 tsp brown sugar

3 tbs butter plus 1 more reserved for later

1 tbs olive oil

1 cup sweet white wine such as Italian Sweet Bianco

3 cups low sodium or homemade chicken stock, plus 1 tsp of boullion

a few dashes paprika,  1 dash cayenne pepper

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream or half & half

In a Dutch oven or large pot set over medium low heat,  add butter and olive oil and melt, add onions and stir until they start to sweat- about 5 minutes. 

Add the garlic and sugar and stir 4 more minutes.

Add wine and turn the heat up a bit to simmer and burn off the alcohol.

Add peppers, stock and spices

Simmer covered about 45 minutes to one hour.

Get another large pot and set aside. Working in small batches, blend the soup till smooth. (Be sure not to fill the blender more than half way, cover the lid with a towel in case of hot liquid spills).

Now this is the key... you have to strain the soup through a fine mesh sieve (Chinoise) or cheese cloth in order for the soup to be silky smooth. Trust me, it makes it so creamy and velvety. Ladle the soup through the strainer in to the reserved pot until everything has been blended.

Return the new pot to the stove and gently reheat the soup after adding in the cream. This can be eaten right away and tastes great with grilled gruyere and fontina paninis with pesto. SO GOOD!!

However, tonight we made a pasta dish, so we ladled a few cups of the soup in a non stick pan with shredded jerk chicken (a rotisserie from the grocery store works well also). 

 Homemade pasta...yum!

I let that heat gently over low while I threw some homemade pasta in heavily salted boiling water for about a minute (It should be salty like the sea). I then plucked the pasta from the water with tongs and added it to the sauce and chicken with a few tablespoons of the pasta water and 1 tbs of the butter and stirred it all together for a few minutes until the noodles absorbed the sauce, plated it and devoured. Now I need to jump on the elliptical for about 60 minutes.

Passport to France at Central Market

Mais oui!!! Of course I have to write something about Central Market's Passport to France! J'adore la cuisine francaise!! So imagine my excitement when I stopped in to buy things for dinner and saw my Central Market all decked out like France! I nearly wept with joy. I wish I had bypassed the $500 waste of money I spent on the failure that was the Austin Food & Wine Fest and saved the cash to splurge on all things French for sale at CM for the next two weeks. I'm still boiling about the complete disappointment that was the Austin Food & Wine Fest. What an expensive, dusty, disorganized waste of time and money that was. But I digress...

Here are a few picture I snapped with my little old iphone

Beautiful little radishes and beans (the photo is a little fuzzy, I was shaking with excitement here).

A cute little marche setup with Le Creuset wares for sale

I picked up an Herbes de Provence pork tenderloin and roasted it in my rotisserie with a nice little pan sauce and rosemary roasted potatoes. It was fabulous. I didn't take pictures sadly.

I may be partial, but I still think Lay's taste better.

Aside from ravioli, crepes may be my second favorite food. It was a tradition that on snow days my mother would make me fresh crepes with Nutella and bananas. This nice man made me a crepe with cream cheese, figs and candied ginger. It was terrific.

I'm so lucky to live in a city that has such fantastic grocery stores and I'm even more excited because Whole Foods is opening less than a mile from my house, so I can ride my bike with my cute little basket to pick up my groceries from now on. Very French, non?

Simple Fruit Compote with Cream Cheese

Now that the oppressive Texas summer heat has settled in and pulled up a chair for the next several warm and toasty months, I find myself craving fruits to make the months with my nemesis, the heat, more bearable.

Tonight I whipped up a fast and easy dessert that lends the satisfaction of a crumble or cobbler, minus the dough. It's just so easy and a truly satisfying. Simply keep about some organic, frozen fruit  such as mixed berries, peaches, mangoes, fresh banana and herbs such as mint, lavendar or even basil. A grate of fresh ginger really zings the whole thing right up.

A bottle of that tasty elderflower liqueur, "St. Germaine" gave me a gentle calling from the spirits cabinet and begged me to join the party.  As did the little tub of whipped cream cheese and honey pecan nuts from my ice box (Why am I using these antebellum terms??)

Anyway, here's how I whipped up the easiest and most sparkly dessert on the fly:

Heat a non stick pan over medium-high heat.

Place 1 tbs organic coconut oil over medium setting and 1 banana sliced in diagonal pieces. Sprinkle some good sea salt on the bananas. Let them brown about 3 minutes. Then throw in a handful of whatever frozen fruits you have from the icebox and turn up the heat till they sizzle a bit. About 30 seconds to a minute depending on the fieriness of your stove. Add a splash or two of St. Germain to kick it up. Simmer it down a few seconds, all the time spinning and flipping the fruits about in the tasty liquor. Add candied nuts, chopped herbs and swirl the pan a few times. Pour the contents into a small dish and serve with a dollop of cream cheese, or whipped cream or ice cream. I had cream cheese and it was divine. Enjoy!

Savory Cheddar Beer Biscuits

In my previous post on fried chicken I mentioned an easy Bisquick recipe, but frankly, these are almost just as easy to make, taste way better and only takes about 10 minutes more to prepare. I adapted a recipe I found on the epicurious site. But my recipe tweaks made them better IMHO.

Here's how it all went down...

INGREDIENTS

Pre heat oven to 450 degrees.

2 1/4 cup flour (use all purpose or a flour with low protien content such as a cake flour or White Lilly brand if you can find it- makes for a fluffier biscuit).

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

3/4 stick of butter cut into cubes and pop in the freezer for 10 minutes with 2 tbs shortening

1 1/2  cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 tbs garlic powder

pinch of cayenne pepper

(optional) 2 tbs chopped chives or scallions

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup beer such as a lager

In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients, add the chilled butter and shortening and mix between your fingers until it resembles course meal. There will be some visible chunks of butter and shortening. They key is to not soften the butter too much- so don't overwork it.

Then add the cheeses, seasonings and stir in the buttermilk and beer. Again, be sure to give it a light stir as to not overwork it or the biscuits will come out hard.

Using a tablespooon as a scoop, drop the dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet with each biscuit about two inches apart. They make about 16 biscuits, so I used two trays and placed in the upper 2/3 part of the oven. Check on them after 15 minutes. Mine are cooked in my oven in about 17 minutes. Enjoy!!

Chicken Meatballs with Truffled Fettucini

This simple, yet comforting dish is perfect because everything can be made ahead of time and all you need to do is reheat the meatballs and cook the pasta. We toss the cooked pasta in butter and this fabulous truffle oil from Bella Luna that we bought ourselves for Christmas. A little goes a long way. Sprinkle some freshly grated parmigiano and asiago cheese and there you have it.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound ground chicken breast

1 small yellow onion, minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley and oregano

2 tbs Cavendar's salt free Greek Seasoning

1 tsp sea salt

1 egg

1/2 cup grated parmigiano cheese

3 tbs bread crumbs

Mix all ingredients together and fry in small batches in a large pan half filled with grapeseed oil and heated to 330 degrees. Cook until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Either refrigerate for later or cover and place in the oven on warm as you prepare your pasta.  These are also fun to make into miniature meatballs and serve them on skewers with olive oil and garlic marinated grape tomatoes and fresh mozzarella bocconcini. Always goes fast at a party!

For the pasta I used the recipe from my Mozza cookbook. It is so eggy and has a nice chewy, silky texture. The recipe is as follows:

6 egg yolks

3 whole eggs

2 1/4 cup flour

In a bread mixer with dough hook, knead ingredients for 25 minutes, dust with flour, wrap in plastic wrap and refigerate 45 minutes to overnight. The colder the pasta the easier it is to work with. Then follow the directions for your pasta machine and make the pasta of your choice. This time we made fettucini. It was fabulous! The meatballs freeze really well as does the fresh pasta for up to four weeks.

Honey's Modern Buttermilk Fried Chicken

My grandmother whom we affectionately called "Honey Bun" made the world's best fried chicken. I decided to make some this week for the husband and served it with easy cheddar jalapeno beer biscuits and sauteed swiss chard with bacon and carmelized onions. And let me tell you... it was fabulous!! This time we only used breast meat, but the whole bird is always a crowd pleaser.
I've adapted the recipe a bit and make a tasty buttermilk brine. I cut the bone in chicken breast in half before submerging it in a bath of:

2 cups buttermilk

1 quart cold water

1/4 cup fine sea salt

4 bay leaves

1 garlic clove

1 stalk celery or 1tsp celery powder 

2 tbs sugar

1tbs onion powder

1 lemon, cut in half

1 orange cut in half

5 peppercorns.

Soak over night in the fridge.

Then it's time to fry.

INGREDIENTS FOR FLOUR DREDGE

4 cups of all purpose flouror Cup4Cup Gluten Free flour
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbs black pepper

4 tbs onion powder

4 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs brown sugar

1 tbs paprika

1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp celery salt

1 pinch dried sage

1 tsp dried thyme

  Meanwhile, I place a large, deep cast iron skillet on the stove and fill it with about 2 inches of peanut oil (no more than 1/3 full or your oil could boil over).  Heat the oil to 350 degrees.  Using a thermometer really helps!

While the oil is heating, set up your dredging station. Put half the flour mix in a bowl, then in a second bowl, mix 1 cup buttermilk with 2 beaten eggs, then place a third bowl with remaining flour mix (or you can use paper bags or ziplocs for easy cleanup).

 The Dredging Station

First Flour Dredge- shake off excess and then...

 Dunk in the buttermilk egg bath, shake off excess...

 Dredge in flour again- ziplocs or paper bags work great too!

Place on a cooling rack over cookie sheet and prepare to fry

I have a 13 inch cast iron skillet. If you don't have a huge pan, you could use two or just cook in batches and keep chicken warm in the oven while the second batch cooks.

Once the chicken has been dredged (be sure to shake off any excess flour mix- tongs work better than hands for dredging BTW), slowly lower the pieces in a pan being sure not to crowd it. Turn chicken frequently to ensure even browning, about every minute. It should take about 12-15 minutes to cook through until the chicken is 165 degrees.

14 minutes in and ready to come out of the bath.

 Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before serving. I fry up some thyme and rosemary branches for a few seconds as a garnish.

I made some super easy biscuits too using Bisquick brand cheddar biscuits (sometimes I'm just not in the mood to make from scratch!) and used beer instead of water, added 2 tbs organic shortening and chopped jalapeno. They were a huge hit!

CoCoNut Porter Pulled Pork Sliders

On a recent trip to Maui we discovered the insanely delicious CoCoNut porter at the Maui Brewing Company. It is rich, chocolatey, coconutty, toasty and makes a fabulous marinade and baste for pulled pork.

INGREDIENTS

1 Bone in Boston Butt

1 can Maui Brewing Company CoCoNut Porter

2 bottles Mexican Coke

3 cloves of peeled garlic, lightly crushed

3 tbs hoisin sauce

1 whole clove

2 whole allspice

1/2 tsp grated giner

salt to taste

Place all ingredients in a 2 gallon Ziploc Bag and marinade overnight.

We fired up the Big Green Egg to 200 degrees, placed the marinade and pork in a foil pan, covered with foil and let it cook of 8 hours, flipping the pork every hour, and basting it.

Once it was falling off the bone tender, we shredded it to make sliders with finely diced onions, shredded cheddar and our Bourbon-Hoisin Catsup.

To make the catsup, reduce 1/4 cup bourbon with 1 tsp brown sugar until thickened and syrupy. Add 4 tbs organic tomato catsup, 2 tbs hoisin and a pinch of garlic powder. Stir until thickened and warm and drizzle over sliders.

Mahalo!

Spring time in Austin means more Jerk Chicken!!!

I wasn't lying when I said I love Jamaica and Jamaican Jerk Chicken. Our friends the Huffs are also the proud owners of a Big Green Egg and are responsible for making us decide to get one. We kicked off the spring with a Jerk Chicken fest at their house down the road and decided it was too pretty and tasty to not post!!

For the recipe go back to my post from October 2011.

 It was a beautiful day when we sparked up the BGE

 Fun times on the patio waiting for dinner...

 Gorgeous Austin Sunset!

 Another stunning sunset shot. Our house is located where you see the lights to the left on the hill.

 Sparks were literally flying of this burning hot chook!

 This is the money shot.

And it's time to eat!!!

Post dinner cocktails :-)

Creamy Asparagus Soup

Nothing sings of spring like fresh asparagus, spring onions and herbs. I spotted some gorgeous fresh asparagus at Whole Foods and decided to make a little soup as it was uncharacteristically cold and rainy this weekend. The recipe is simple and satisfying and so easy to make. 

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch of asparagus spears, tough stems removed, reserve a few for garnish.

2 spring onion bulbs, white part only
1 small shallot

2 chopped cloves of garlic

4 cups low sodium chicken broth or homemade broth (I like Whole Foods 360 or Central Market Organics in the carton).

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp Better than Bullion chicken stock for seasoning

dash of white wine (optional)

1 tbs olive oil

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1  bay leaf

In a pot, add olive oil, shallots, onions and garlic and turn heat to medium low. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add a dash of white wine if you prefer to add some depth. Turn up the heat and add stock, bullion, thyme and bay leaf. Cook on med-high about 15 minutes. Add the asparagus and cook until they are softened, about 10 more minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf.

Then in small batches, puree the soup in a blender. I really like a silky soup, so I then strained it through a Chinois strainer into a clean pot. Add a touch of cream or a little more stock if you'd like and re-warm. Garnish with asparagus spears, creme fraiche, herbs such as thyme or tarragon, or croutons and a drizzle of olive oil. This goes great with slices of french bread, smeared with goat cheese and browned under the broiler for about 3 minutes. 

Soup lasts two days in the refrigerator. Happy Spring!!