Pizza, over easy, please!

May 21, 2011

Sometimes ya just need a good slice of pizza. For me, I prefer to make mine at home. Pizza dough can take a while to make, since you have to let it rise, beat it down, then let it rise again...but it is worth it!

If you do not have the time to make an awesome pizza crust, get some dough from the grocery store, or just order a pizza!

My favorite place to get a pizza in Beaufort is at Panini's Cafe. They have a great selection, and a true thin-crust flatbread-style pizza. The guy that throws their pies into the brick oven always wears a shirt that says: "Never trust a round pizza." My experiment this evening with pizza did end up with an oblong-ish shape...but more on that later.

They also put "non-traditional" toppings on their pizza like preserved lemon, chorizo, and mustard aioli. My favorite is the "Palermo," which has preserved lemon, roasted chicken, peppers, pesto, and mozzarella cheese.

This is my attempt at making this pizza at home, minus the chicken. I did not have any chicken on hand tonight, even in the freezer. The only chicken available is in a form that is unacceptable and harvesting said chicken is considered murderous cannibalism in these parts. So instead, I used eggs as a topping.

This is my "Pizza Palermo a la SBC."

Ingredients:

2-3 tablespoons of Pesto (make it from scratch or from out of a jar, Classico makes a decent one)

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Thin sliced sweet red pepper

1/4 of a preserved lemon, sliced into thin strips* I made my own, see note below

2 large eggs, organic or from your own stupid baby chickens is best

Pizza dough

fresh cracked black pepper

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 500 F

Put your baking stone into the oven while the oven pre-heats

When the oven comes to temperature, you must work fast, lest you end up with an ugly oblong-shaped pizza like mine.

If you are really good, and have a pizza peel or wooden cutting board "lubricated" with semolina or corn meal, you can build the pizza there, and then attempt to slide it into the oven, atop the stone. My attempt at this failed miserably tonight, hence the ugly pizza pictured below. It did not want to slide!

Roll out your pizza dough to desired thickness, take care that it doesn't stick to the board.

Get your ingredients chopped, grated, and ready to build the pizza.

When your stone is hot, remove it from the oven and place on the stove top.

Place your pizza dough on it, then the fun begins.

Quickly: smear your pesto onto the dough, then sprinkle the lemon, red pepper, Parmesan cheese, and then crack the two eggs onto the desired locations on the dough. Sprinkle a little cracked black pepper directly on top of the raw eggs.

* Some members of your family may be grossed out by this, so place the eggs where the pizza can be cut around them into single servings.*

Carefully put the stone + pizza back into the hot oven for 8-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of your crust.

Remove when the eggs are cooked (they will look like fried eggs sitting on top of the crust). Let the pizza cool slightly, cut and serve!

No preserved lemon on hand? You can find them at Whole Foods, international markets, and Indian/Middle Eastern grocery stores. You can also make them yourself! If you are a fan of this blog, you are aware that every winter my Aunt Susan gives me gorgeous Meyer lemons from her back yard. I make some of them into limoncello, some into lemonaid, some into Meyer lemon pies, and some into preserved lemons.

Here is an excellent recipe for making preserved lemons. It is really super easy, and takes about 1 month from lemon to preserve.

These really are a good way to put a salty-sweet note on the pizza. The "pickling" process takes away the sourness of the lemon and leaves a nice tang that works well with pesto.

Don't just think that making preserved lemons limits you to making pizza with them. Go online and look up some Moroccan recipes that call for preserved lemon. YUM!

I hear that the Russians really like eggs on their pizza. I wonder if this is also true in Poland? There is only one way to find out.......but in the meantime, we should ALL make eggs on pizza at home!

The courgettes are coming!

May 14, 2011

Summer is upon us here in Beaufort, South Carolina!

The roses are in

full bloom!

And....The courgettes are also in full swing, both with their blooms and delicious fruit!

Why am I calling regular old summer squash "courgettes"? Well, in Great Britain they call zucchini "courgettes"....and I was trying to trick my husband.

You see, Doug HATES squash. I mean, he HATES the stuff with a passion!

So, this is how bad he hates squash!

Anyways, I had watched an episode of "Jamie at Home" on the Cooking Channel, and he was doing recipes on summer squash. I decided that since my CSA box is bursting with all types of "courgettes".....pati-pans, crook-neck, cannon-ball and regular small zucchini...that I should try some new recipes!

The most classic way I've seen squash cooked in the deep South is the Squash Casserole. It is a favorite at our Thanksgiving and Christmas tables. My Mother makes hers with Vidalia onion, yellow crook-neck squash, butter, salt, pepper and sharp cheddar cheese. She tops the casserole with crushed Ritz crackers.

I prefer to steam mine with Vidalia onion and a little salt and pepper. They cook quickly, and still retain some nutrients.

The recipe I tried tonight is a little different from how most Southerners cook their squash. It is a raw dish, and is delicious! It is an excellent side dish, and I think I'll take the leftovers and spoon it over grilled fish tomorrow night.

Raw Courgette Salad

Serves 2-4

3-6 small young zucchini and/or crook neck squash

1/2 of a sweet red pepper, chopped into slivers

Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons of fresh mint, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons of basil, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

pinch of sea salt

pinch of black pepper

pinch of cayenne or red pepper flake

Method:

Wash the squash and dry them. Using a mandolin or a veggie peeler, peel them into very thin strips, including the very outer skin. When you reach the seeds, stop and discard the seedy portion.

Toss the rest of the ingredients with the thinly sliced squash slices. Taste a bit of it and adjust the acid, salt and pepper. Serve as a side dish, or on top of chicken or fish.

I took a page from my Cousin Buddy's book tonight and garnished mine with basil flowers. They were delicious!

I urge you to take advantage of the squash-a-plenty in your summer garden. Get online and try some new recipes! Don't just feed it to your chickens (mine won't eat it anyways....they must take after their Father!)

Bavarian Invasion!

April 30, 2011

Wait.....those aren't Germans...scroll down!

What better way to spend the last day of my 30-day local eating challenge but with my friends Susanne and Klaus Kries of Gröbenzell, Bavaria! Gröbenzell is a charming little village near Munich. I have such fond memories of visiting there in 1998!

Susanne and Klaus are such vibrant, fun people!

They have been friends of my grandparents since the 1960s. They are visiting the South for two weeks, and they chose to come visit me in Beaufort! We went to the 2011 Beaufort Air Show, the beach on Hunting Island, ate incredible fresh seafood, and I got to make a 99% local breakfast for them on Sunday morning!

I have also made a great discovery this week about the history and peoples of South Carolina!

Did you know that there are actual monks in Monck's Corner, South Carolina? They are part of an order of Trappist monks, to be exact. This monastery was established in 1949 on the site of the Mepkin Plantation on the banks of the Cooper River, near Charleston.

You may ask yourself, what is a Trappist monk? As many of us in the South are Protestant, what do we know about monks? They make beer in Europe, they lead a life of prayer and celibacy, and they tend to be pretty cool cats.

Trappist monks are most well known because in Europe, they make incredible beer. These guys kept Europe alive for centuries when the water was so contaminated with coliforms that only the brewing process could make the water safe for drinking. Louis Pasteur would later discover that this was actually due to the boiling process that beer goes through, but, ethanol is also a mild antiseptic!

These Trappist monks at Mepkin Abbey do not brew beer (the Bavarians were disappointed), but they do farm, produce organic eggs and oyster mushrooms! I bought this "crate" of mushrooms at the Mount Pleasant Whole Foods.

Oyster mushrooms are delicious and can be used in any recipe that calls for mushrooms. Just be sure not to cook them into mush!

My breakfast for Klaus and Susanne on Sunday morning was to be "light," as Klaus requested. The menu:

Scrambled fresh SBC eggs with parsley and chives

with caramelized Mepkin Abbey Oyster Mushrooms

on fresh mixed salad greens from my garden

Sweetgrass Dairy Thomasville Tomme slices

Dempsey Farms fresh picked strawberries

South Georgia Pecan halves

Thompson Farms Hickory Smoked Bacon

Bush River Jerseys Skim milk

Charleston Tea Plantation Governor Gray

Bonnie's Garden Beaufort Honey

Many thanks to my Dad and to N5589R for making the Kries' trip possible. It was a very quick trip, but very enjoyable! I hope that I get to see all of them again very soon.

Doug is already planning a trip to Gröbenzell for Oktoberfest 2012!......after all.....we will be just across the border in Poland!