Weekly Recipes on Geoff's Twitchen

Starting this week, I will be collaborating with Geoff over at Geoff's Twitchen to share with his many adoring readers some of the results of my homemade pizza experiments.  You can find the first entry here.  If you are one of the few HK food lovers who doesn't yet know about Geoff's Twitchen, head over right away!

Pizzazorama Part II

For this installment of my adventures in home pizza mediocrity, I took a mulligan on two recipes I've tried and liked before.  

For the first pizza, I went with Pizzazorama Part I - Tony G's New York style crust. I still really like this crust because it is delicious and easy to work with.  I used Hong Kong Flour Mills Golden Statue Bread Flour, which I like for a few reasons which I will not discuss here because it's boring.  But if you knew anything about me, you'd probably guess one of the reasons involves availability at Wellcome instead of at an expensive expat grocery store a mile away.

Look mom! A pizza that is actually shaped like a circle instead of an amorphous blob!

Not for long lil Duff, you have no clue how to properly use a pizza peel.  Sorry, try again.

The below uses what has become my favorite one-day crust (as in, does not require overnight cold fermentation) which you can find here under Candidate Number 2.   The edges still ended up a bit crispy but I will fix that next time with olive oil...which is what I also said last time but forgot.  Geeze I should totally like keep a record of what I do each time I make a pizza in the form of an internet journal complete with recipes, pictures and commentary or something so I don't forget these things.
Also, in case you haven't found out yet, Mexican pizza is delicious (Happy Cinco de Mayo Amigos!).  Using chorizo as done here (available at Wellcome, surprisingly) has the double benefit of being (1) delicious and (2) better for lazy people because it eliminates any work and/or forethought required in actually making taco meat.

I'm thinking I need to come up with a signature sign off a la Walter Cronkite or Ron Burgundy so I don't just end posts awkwardly with a picture of a misshapen pizza.  Thoughts?

Pizzazorama - Part 1

From the moment I laid my eyes on this pizza dough I knew it was going to be fantasmagorical.  Actually it was super sticky and I had no faith in it whatsoever.  But that just goes to show you – when you are very mediocre at  what you’re doing – you should never trust your instincts. 

The recipe I used is the New York pizza crust and New York pizza sauce from Tomy Gemignani’s  (world pizza tossing champion) cookbook, which was co-written by Diane Morgan. This brings me to an important and extremely relevant to this blog's purpose question:  Why do you need a co-writer for a cookbook?  

ANYWAY...

This crust turned out to be amazing for the following reasons:  it was crispy yet chewy (center was still a little soggy but I will work on that) and it had BUBBLES in it just like New York pizza which was the direct result of my magical pizza tossing (or stretching) skills.  This was also my first attempt to date with a dough hook which I think also allowed me to use less flour – props to the E Street Band for that one. Lastly, I think the bread flour really contributed to the overall texture, and I look forward to using it with some other recipes in the future.   For toppings – I went with the pizza equivalent of a mat shot, which I like to call “Random mixture of cheeses whose only connection to each other was that they happened to be in Duffy’s fridge at the same time.”  As that’s not a very catchy title, I will think of a new name soon.  I’m thinking something along the lines of: Duffy’s Booyalicious Pizza.  What do you think?

Pizzapalooza 2010 - Part 3 (Alternative Title: I just wanna know where the gold at)

Pizzapalooza 2010 - Part 2 was...somewhat underwhelming so I've moved on to Part 3 to spare you all the evidence of my mediocrity. Maybe once I finally discover the pizza dough equivalent of the holy grail I will post something about it so we can all look back at have a good laugh at ye olde days and think about how far I've come. It will be like thinking back to the days when Martha Stewart used to accidentally...oh I dunno kill yeast by making the water too hot or...commit massive securities fraud.

Any great chef will tell you that great pizza dough starts with putting the dough in too small of a bowl so that it rises all over your diet coke cans. I followed this rule meticulously in order to ensure amazing results (See Figure 1).

Figure 1

And now for the three candidates:

Best Pizza in Hong Kong Homemade Crust Candidate Number 3:  I used this dough recipe from the LA Times courtesy of my tried and true partner in transnational homemade pizza crimes Nic.  Obviously she is twice the woman I am because when I made this recipe it turned out to be totally dumps. Ok don't laugh (or scream)...here's what it looked like:

It's ghastly...I know.  The toppings were good though - olive oil, caramelized onions, mushrooms and cubed taleggio cheese. Had I not completely screwed up the dough this would have been a fab 'za.  Actually while we're on the topic...repeat after me...TALEGGIO...TALEGGIO...TALEGGIO.  It's really good. It smells like crap but trust me - put it on a pizza near you today.

Best Pizza in Hong Kong Homemade Crust Candidate Number 4:  I've stashed the recipe for this pizza dough, which I also, SHOCKER, received from Nic after the jump because firstly, its long and secondly, I just learned how to make a jump.  A few notes:  1.  It makes three pizzas, not two, unless you like a thick crust. 2.  If you try and slide a pizza onto a pizza stone while the stone is already in the oven without a pizza peel, you're probably really stupid and your pizza will take the shape of an amoeba (See Figure 2).  3.  Italian sausage (even from Wellcome) is really delicious. 4.  I still think the pizza sauce I describe here is the best - peeled canned tomatoes with a dash of sauteed garlic and onions (again - more evidence that I owe NW my life).  This dough was by far the easiest to work with - it was a beautiful elasticy ball of pizzaliciousness that I never imagined possible.  You could even toss it if you wanted/knew how...I'll leave it up to your imagination as to whether I just don't want or don't know how to toss pizza dough.

Figure 2

 

The pizza above was made with one half of the recipe and the two pizzas below (taco and taster's choice) were made with 1/4 each.  Both were fine but I think a 1/3 for each pizza would have been the way to go.

Taco pizza was the hit of the night (See Figure 3).  For ingredients, use normal tomato/pizza sauce (like the whole peeled tomatoes I've been using), taco-seasoned meat/meat substitute, green pepper, tomato, some sort of taco appropriate cheese mixed with mozzarella such as cheddar or monterey jack and salsa. Wait until the pizza is either out of or just about to come out of the oven to add the lettuce, crushed up tortilla chips and sour cream.  I guarantee this is better than any taco you'll get in Hong Kong.  The reason for this is easily explained by my NAFTA hypothesis...which is that any Mexican food outside of the NAFTA free trade zone is a joke.  Actually I should change this to the NAFTA rule because it is 100% without question correct.  Talk to me if you have any questions on that.  Also talk to me if you'd like to be an investor in the taco stand I plan to start in Lan Kwai Fong.

Figure 3

The pizza below was of the taster's choice/crap what the eff are we going to do with all these leftover toppings variety...obviously the left (caramelized onions, goat cheese and rocket) was the best.  That opinion has nothing to do with the identity of the individual who picked toppings for that side, I can assure you.

Best Pizza in Hong Kong Homemade Crust Candidate #5:

You can find the recipe here.  It was a bit dry/not chewy enough for my taste but I think this is [finally] one dough that turned out actually as the recipe intended. Throughout the day we referred to this crust as the "microwave crust" because of Kimbo Slice's magical microwave dough rising method (no, not THAT Kimbo Slice), which basically involves putting the dough in the microwave with a plastic bag on top and microwaving for 40 seconds at 30% power, then letting it sit for 10 minutes (repeat if necessary).  I've mentioned before that you can't be a pizza idiot if your name is Slice and although I was a doubter for the first two minutes of the experiment it actually turned out great! Just don't accidentally start cooking the dough...which we didn't.  ***SPECIAL GUEST SENTENCE FROM SLICE HERSELF: Being Slice, which I am - this method is fantastic if you work 'normal' HK hours.***

Ok back to me.  This was one of my first carb on carb pizza experiences (I'm usually kind of a traditionalist...actually I just really love Domino's plain cheese, ok shoot me) but it was actually really good. Just brush the crust with olive oil, add 3 or 4 sprigs worth of finely chopped rosemary, TALEGGIO cheese and approximately three thinly sliced new potatoes and you're...dare I say...golden?

In summary, although I don't yet believe I've reached the proverbial pot o' gold at the end of the pizza dough rainbow, *at least there is this hilarious leprechaun video to keep me happy until then.

Gratuitous pizza toppings shot:

Gratuitous pizza action shot:

To be continued...

Pizzapalooza 2010 - Part 1

I've been really thinking about the pizza situation in Hong Kong lately so I decided to try out the pizza at Tycoon Court (aka in my kitchen).  My friend Nicole Walsh insprired me because she (a) is generally awesome, (b) is from Nebraska...which is probably about as random as you can get other than No Dak where I'm from, (c) reads my pizza blog even though she doesn't live in Hong Kong and responded to my request for sauce recipes, (d) probably loves pizza as much as I do and (e) is awesome. 

I was looking up some new recipes today for dough (because I'm still not 100% on any of the ones I've used) when I came upon the following statement:  "Go buy a pizza stone immediately if you are serious about making great pizza at home."  WOAH! The last thing I want to be is not serious about pizza. So, I immediately went to City Super and bought one.  But then I had a major dillema about the crust.  So since flour and yeast are cheap and time is....moderately priced especially when you are trying to avoid working at your real job...I decided to make 3 dough recipes.  Actually, I made 4 dough recipes, but one of them was crap.  Here are the results of my efforts.

Best Pizza in Hong Kong Homemade Crust Candidate Number One:

I used this recipe.  I didn't really get it because it was pretty much a liquid when I made it.  I probably had to add about a cup or more of flour in order to even make it pretend to be something that could become a pizza. So I probably effed the recipe entirely but as I don't like liquid pizza I didn't feel that I had many other options. 

After making the dough, I took a can of whole unpeeled tomatoes, mushed it through a strainer, and added it to the crust in addition to some dried oregano, salt and pepper. It was good because it had great tomato flavor but did not make the crust soggy (Thanks, Nic!). It was a bit bland though in this case (maybe I was too shy with the seasonings), so I added some more seasoning later. I used a combination of fresh and standard issue mozzarella, cooked at 450F/225C for about 23 minutes on a PIZZA STONE (because I'm serious) that I had dusted with corn meal.  At the mid-point of baking I added some fresh basil and covered the pizza loosely with foil because the cheese was burning.

I should also point out that if you do not put cornmeal under your pizza before you cook it you are a fool because that makes it extra delicious. 

The pizza was pretty bomb. Here is how it came out:

The crust was crispy and held its ground when it came to the toppings, however the edge crust was too crispy and dry. This is probably due to my modifications to the recipe while it was in liquid form. Overall I give this crust a 7 or so but since I went off recipe I'm not even sure what recipe this is so...

Best Pizza in Hong Kong Homemade Crust Candidate Number 2:

For this crust, I used the recipe from the pizza stone box.  Here it is:

1 pkg active dry yeast

1 C lukewarm water (non-yeast killing temperature)

1 tsp salt

3.5-4 C flour

2 tsp sugar

2T olive oil

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Dissolve yeast in warm water and let proof.  Add to flour mixture. Stir until dough becomes to form a ball. [Note: although the recipe lists 2T olive oil as an ingredient...it never calls for it. So I added about 1T at this stage and never used the rest]. Place dough on lightly floured pastry cloth and knead for 8 to 10 minutes.  Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Punch down and knead again, allow to rise for an additional 20 minutes.  Voila! 

Roll out dough and form a circle slightly larger than the pizza stone.  For this sauce, we did the following:

Smash one can of whole peeled tomatoes thorough a strainer.  Separately, saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste and add to tomato mixture. Same cooking as before but add sausage and make it that much more sausagealicious.

If this doesn't look like a totally amazing excellent pizza, I don't know what does. 

I give it a 9 all round.

BOOYAH.

Moral of the story:  buy a pizza stone, follow this recipe, and be happy for the rest of your life.  Best Pizza in Hong Kong Homemade Crust Candidate #3 to come tomorrow.  It is so fancy you have to let it sit over night. 

Gratuitous dining companions shot:

PIllsbury Pizza Dough

Do you have five minutes? Ok great then you have time to make a delicious pizza. 

I'm not sure if you all have noticed, but there is no good frozen pizza in Hong Kong.  And the delivery situation is suboptimal (if you want your pizza to be hot, or fresh, or not having a cockroach in it (no seriously, that really happened to me once)).

In an effort to remedy this PISSPOOR situation I made this delicious concotion of Pillsbury dough, Contadina squeeze pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and green and red peppers aka capsicum. All of these ingredients are available at your local Oliver's (in the case of the pizza dough - sometimes available, sometimes not), City Super (in the case of the pizza sauce) and Wellcome (in the case of the mozzarella and green peppers).  While I obviously prefer / highly recommend that you make your own pizza crust (recipe to come) and sauce (anyone have a good one?), this is a good, quick option when you're in a pinch.

Crust:  OK - this doesn't taste exactly like pizza crust, it tastes more like a Pillsbury croissant. But those are delicious. I know you can't argue with me.  7

Sauce:  OK - I admit this comes in a squeeze bottle - but its pretty good!  Give it a try. Or make your own if you are Italian or otherwise just that cool.  7

Toppings:  10.  But maybe I'm biased.

Ambiance:  10. But maybe I'm biased.  It is my apartment afterall.

VFM: 7.  Oliver's can be expensive, but can you really put a price on creating your own pizza in a land devoid of frozen/delivery options? 

Overall: 8.  Given the HK pizza sitch, this is a pretty good way to go - especially if you don't like thousandisland-abalone-fettucine-primavera-prawn-fest pizza or if you are not the homemade type.  And if you like a good hot, fresh, cockroach free pie in the comfort of your own home ...  Highly recommended.  Isn't this beautiful?