The Perfect Pizza

I can't remember the last time we ordered pizza for delivery, because we have finally figured out how to make the perfect pizza at home. We used to think that homemade pizza could never come close to pizza made in a restaurant / for delivery, but much like hamburgers (that's another post!) we have finally figured out a few key techniques and secrets to making The Perfect Pizza.

Tonight's menu: Mango Habenaro Sausage, Tomato, Basil, White Pizza

A while back we came across a recipe for pizza dough that looked easy and tasty, with the key being to use a food processor to bring the dough together. With some modifications, this has now become our standard pizza dough, and the recipe makes enough to divide in two and freeze half for another occasion (see recipe below). Given the amount of moisture in the air tonight, the dough came together with less than a cup of water (normally, thanks to the extremely low relative humidity in CO, it takes more than the called for cup of water). We let the dough rise twice while we did some much-needed yard work after the past weekend of rain. Normally we either have some tomato sauce frozen or whip some up quickly during the last dough rise, but this time we thought a white sauce sounded interesting. Ryan melted 2 Tbsp of butter in a small sauce pan with two crushed cloves of garlic for a few minutes over low heat. He added 2 Tbsp of flour with cayenne, salt and pepper, and then added a cup of milk. As with a standard bechamel sauce, he cooked it until it thickened to our desired consistency for pizza sauce, and towards the end we grated in some parmesan cheese.

Meanwhile, I dealt with the toppings. Over the course of our trial and error with pizza making, I've come across two secrets:

1) Spin-dry fresh tomatoes in a salad spinner (or otherwise drain/press out some of the water). I normally dice up a fresh tomato, and we noticed that it leads to really wet toppings which almost always results in a bad case of Topping Slide.

2) Good cheese makes all the difference. Being pretty lazy, we always used to buy the bags of shredded mozzarella. One night we invited my sister and nephew up for pizza, but asked them to bring some cheese after realizing we didn't have any. She brought a package of unshredded mozzarrela, and we immediately tasted the difference. One thing to note is that it's hard to shred such soft cheese with a grater (or in the food processor); I have started just tearing it into little hunks, and this works really well on a pizza because it fills in the topping gaps as it melts.

I then sliced up some pre-cooked mango habenaro sausage and we were ready to roll.

Here is the pizza pre-cooking:

In our oven, we have found that 450º on convection bake for 12 minutes give the perfect amount of browning and doneness on the underside of the pizza (I have heard this referred to as the "skirt"). If you don't have a convection oven, I'd probably raise the oven temp by 25º and keep an eye on it.

Here is the pizza cooking (I can hardly wait for it to be done!):

And here is the final product:

This pizza was so good we nearly ate the whole thing (but resisted so I can have some in my lunch tomorrow!) We even froze the other half of the pizza sauce and the other half of the dough, so the next pizza will be already nearly made!

Pizza Dough:

Recipe from Mark Bittman, adapted for high altitude by R. Cabell, adapted for flavor by B. Cabell

Yield: dough for one very large or two medium-to-large pies, depending on crust thickness preference
Time: 45 min to overnight, depending on your patience

2.5 tsps active dry yeast*
3 cups flour, any mix you like**
1.5 tsp kosher salt (adjust +/- 0.5 tsp to taste)***
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil****
1/3 cup very warm water (110F)
1+ cup room temp water
Flavoring extras: crushed red pepper, basil, italian seasoning, garlic powder

1) Bloom yeast with tiny pinch of sugar in 1/3 cup very warm water, wait 5 minutes to ensure viability
2) Process flour and salt in food processor (metal or dough blade, doesn't matter) for 10 seconds to combine
3) Pour yeast+water and oil over top of flour, sprinkle in spices (a good pinch of each or any combination will do), and process for 10 seconds to integrate
4) Slowly add 1 cup of water until dough forms one large ball (a few extra crumbs and bits doesn't matter as long as most of the dough is in one mass). This may take a little more to a little less than a cup of water depending on the dew point, temperature, location, moon phase, flour composition, etc.
5) Continue to process for another 10 seconds or so.
6) Turn out dough onto floured board, knead 10 times or so, form into tight ball
7) Place dough in oiled bowl, cover, and let rise to roughly double its volume (30-45 minutes depending on environmental conditions)
8) Use immediately -or- fold dough to deflate ("punch down") and repeat up to three more times -or- place in fridge for 8-10 hours -or- fold to deflate and freeze

Notes:
-We have done a refrigerator rise with success
-We often make the whole batch, divide after the 1st rise and freeze 1/2 (letting the other half rise once more). One note with freezing is it seems to develop a "crust" when rising after defrosting, but it still tastes good

*For those in Colorado and high places: Instant yeast doesn't work very well at high altitudes unless you're doing a very slow cold-rise. If using instant, reduce to 2 tsp
** We use half-and-half All purpose flour and bread flour. The bread flour really helps to make an elastic product, but you could use all AP if you only have that. Using whole-wheat may increase water needed.
***Kosher salt is really recommended, but reduce amount slightly if you are using table salt. DO NOT leave out the salt all together, though!
****You will be rewarded for using a flavorful, good quality extra virgin olive oil at this step!

Copper River Salmon

The other day, we were shopping for interesting seafood to serve at a party for some friends. Usually King Soopers has a pretty lackluster seafood case, and we often end up just getting prepackaged salmon filets from Costco. However, last Sunday they had beautiful looking sides of Copper River Salmon; enough for me, a mere seafood liker (not lover), to order up one of them without looking at the price. $43.28 later we had almost a 2 pound slab of gorgeous deep orange fish, and I had a little buyers remorse.

The most recent America's Test Kitchen episode we had seen was about grilling salmon, and they emphasized that grilling salmon tends to almost always result in leaving a good amount of fish on the grill. Their solution was 10 coats of vegetable oil applied to the hot grates, and we fully intended to do that until we found a cedar plank in the kitchen and figured it would not only taste good, but ensure that all of our pricey deliciousness made it to the plate instead of getting left behind on the grill.

We fired up only one side of the grill, leaving a "cool" side on which to cook the salmon so the plank wouldn't catch fire and the salmon would have a nice, even, gentle heat. I patted the salmon dry with some paper towels, sprinkled on a little kosher salt and some lemon garlic powder, and headed out to the grill.

I can't really say how long it took (maybe 15 minutes?), but we pulled it when our Thermapen registered 125º.

It was, hands down, the best fish we have ever cooked at home. So buttery and moist, just a light garlic/lemon crust, perfectly done with a touch of smokiness from the cedar plank; not the least bit fishy. It disappeared so fast I didn't have time to get a picture (well that and I was too busy eating it myself!) We had actually cut off a piece to enjoy ourselves later in the week, so we cooked it up in the same fashion tonight and it was just as delicious, two days later. I might become a seafood lover after all!

It was 100% worth the cost, and I think we will be going back and getting more while it's around (I think the season is May/Juneish)!