Pizza Update

So you may have glanced at the cast iron skillet pizza and thought "I am never going to make that."  Well jerk, you're missing out.  And if you've made it, BRAVO! Was it tasty?  What did you put on it?  Wasn't it simple and now you're a master?  I knew you could do it.  For the skeptics I'm including favorite toppings as encouragement and a reward to those who ventured to make their own pizza.

When I am making a pizza with meat I don't use more than a 1/3 Cup to 1/2 Cup ground meat.  This way a pound of meat will go very far in feeding the family.  1 pound can make several pizzas and multiple meals. Neither of the recipes below have meat nor depend on meat for flavor, and yet they remain favored by the man of the house as well.

For sauce I have done loads of variations.  I have stewed fresh tomatoes, home canned tomatoes, brand canned tomatoes and have found no matter the masterpiece, the sauce gets lost in the toppings. So in the end I've concluded that the best red sauce is straight tomato puree (not paste, as it's boiled down and becomes more saturated in excitotoxins).  I know, right?  Any ingredients (herbs, garlic, etc.) can be added directly to the pizza before the toppings stage for the same tasty effect.   Had I known this before, I could have saved myself probably a thousand hours spent perfecting sauces that would have fared better over fresh pasta than to be baked under veg and cheese.

My favorite thing is to clean out the fridge into pizza toppings.  It sounds worse than it is.  I don't use moldy potato salads... I just go through the crisper drawer and use whatever may have lost its crispness.

I do a sauce layer, a green layer, and a veggie layer, fruit layer and top with onions (I do the onions last so they cook nicely, they have a way of remaining somewhat raw when hidden in layers).

Don't be afraid to experiment and use your imagination on the sauce.   It can be honey and olive oil with curry powder, or tomato puree, roasted garlic spread, a jerk sauce, blended vegetables or just a red pepper and wine sauce.  Every kind gives you the option to showcase a masterpiece of toppings.

I usually prefer making both a very spicy pizza and a very savory pizza. When I use pear I like Goat cheese, when I use Jalapeno I like apple pieces.  These are all things you'll discover through your adventure trials.  The following are some favorites.

The order of things: crust -> sauce layer -> veggie layer -> fruit layer-> (optional cheese) -> onion and garnish on the top

Cherry bomb vegan:

• just enough tomato to cover the crust  I used a small gravy ladle to scoup 2-4 scoops of sauce on, too thick and the crust will be soggy towards the upper layer.(sauce layer)
• a handful of diced kale, or cilantro (greens/herbs layer)
• 1-2 cherry bomb peppers diced including the seeds
• 1 pinch dried peppers (jalapeno, morita, serrano, banana, ancho, pasilla, poblano, cayenne any of these) and their seeds.
• 1/2 small yam or sweet potato sliced thinly and diced again {or pulse in processor} (veggie layer)
• 1/2 -1 whole apple peeled, cored and diced (fruit layer)
• some ground pepper
• pinch of salt
• slices of onions scattered on top with some parsley sprinkled about.

If your pizza has reached a critical level of heat on the spicy index of hot then you can tame it back with some extra apple, some honey, agave or cheese.  Sweet and dairy help lower spicy heat.

Savory Pear and goat cheese:

• just enough tomato to cover the crust  I used a small gravy ladle to scoop 2-4 scoops of sauce on, too thick and the crust will be soggy towards the upper layer.(sauce layer)
• a handful of diced fresh parsley with or without a handful of fresh basil (herbs/greens layer)
• some ground pepper
• pinch of salt
• slices of red, orange or yellow peppers (these are sweeter than green - veggie layer)
• 1/2-1 whole pear, peeled, cored and sliced (fruit layer)
• 1-2 heaping TBSP goat cheese crumbled on top (cheese layer)
• slices of onions scattered on top with whatever garnish you'd like like fresh thyme, sage or oregano

There aren't strict rules to pizza.  You can do it without a sauce.  I would lower the cooking time and adjust accordingly.  You can roast a pile of root vegetables with maple syrup at the end and toss and cover the crust in that.  It is open season on creating your signature pie!

Onion tart

My, my, my, onions.  They make me cry twice, once while cutting and again while eating them.  This is one that is easier with a couple trials.  Don't worry too much, as failure in this case still yields very tasty food.  I have faith in you all.

The easiest tart to make uses a large tart pan with a removable bottom, and by large I mean it's diameter, not it's height - anything around or over 9 inches.  This makes a thinner to cut and easier to wield tart with plenty of canvas for spreading out foods (the deeper the tart the most wild the interior gets when removing it from the pan or slicing it).  I don't recommend cutting IN or ON your tart pan.  Move your tart to a cutting surface. 

Onion tarts are very versatile in how savory or sweet you wish to make them. For mine I opt for a middle of the road which is a win for me.  You can be onion exclusive using just vidalias or you can create a blend.  I'm cheap and impatient so I use whatever is readily available. You can easily make this tart into a quiche with a bunch of eggs or a pepper-laden tart with any mix or blend of peppers you choose.  You are only limited by your imagination and of course if you choose the worst ingredients ever like everlasting gobstoppers with a bubblegum sauce. Then, that is just nasty.

Base Ingredients: (most tart recipes are approximately the same if you do as I and avoid laboratory made binding agents - shortening and margarine) For a sweeter recipe you can use a sugar instead of a salted crust.

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, and a little for dusting your work surface
• Salt
• 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-1/4 inch dice ( you want the butter cold as possible while working with it you'll warm it up so you wont want to hand hold it while cutting )
• 1/4 cup cold water (you may need a few drops more)
• 2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2-4 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 pounds, this will change by size of tart pan, and whether or not you've chosen to add other things to your tart)

For the tart so many instructions recommend you refrigerate overnight or for 4 hours beforehand .  I haven't the patience for all that noise so I make it before cutting my onions.   The following have two ways of working a pastry dough (don't kid yourself tarts are pastry - anything with a stick of butter may even fall under the definition). So read through and pick the one for you.

1. For a food processor -pulse the flour with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add the diced butter and pulse until it’s the size of small peas, you want these little butter lumps - they make a flaky crust. Sprinkle in the cold water and pulse again until the tart dough begins to come together. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap (I use a baggie) and gently pat into a circle/disk/discus/round doorstop. Wrap the dough and refrigerate until it is firm, at least 1 hour.  While chopping onions, you'll want to preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Or do like me-
2. Old school - and cut the pieces of butter in with a pastry cutter, use swift hands or rubber spatula to blend in salt and cold water to make a ball put it into a plastic freezer bag and then once covered in plastic swiftly push ball into a disk (you can use plastic wrap - I repeated use a dedicated freezer bag for all sorts of dough things when it needs resting periods or chilling) and without sealing just tuck the zipper side under the dough and put into the freezer while cutting onions up. Once the onions have started and are in the pan then that will be your cue to work on rolling out your tart. It should be a little firm, the firmer the better. Which is why the hour in the previous set. It wont have to be that long, I promise!  While chopping onions, you'll want to preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

The tart will need 20-23ish minutes by itself in the oven to bake its shell through.

First get this step going, then work on tart (following step)
Put chopped onions in a small amount of olive oil for 25 minutes on a medium heat stirring enough that it doesn't stick or blacken if you see signs of this you'll need to turn down your pan and or cover with a lid.  You want to do this part slowly so the onions become loose and translucent.  Some folks will add salt or sugars at this stage.  I add nothing.  Just stir and as they become fragrantly sweet and soft turn the burner down all the way and give it not much more than another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile - On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a 12-inch round er your size of pan. Wrap the dough around the rolling pin and transfer it to a 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough into the pan.  If parts stick out you can trim and use scraps to patch any cracks that occur. Prick holes all over the bottom of the crust with a fork. Bake until the crust is lightly browned, about 20 minutes. I use a liner of foil and put pie weights into the shell.  You don't have to have them but it seems no matter what magic tricks I've tried otherwise the shell will puff.  Some folks use dry beans as pie weights.  Never did it.  I received pie weights as a gift, and so I use them.

Once the shell comes out, fill with your selected goodness/onions and toss into oven to warm everything just for about 5 minutes on 400.

What I chose was :
2 med-large onions plus onion scraps
1/2 Cup cooked ground turkey
1 TBSP heaping goat cheese
drizzle of maple syrup
salt and cracked black peppercorns

Served with Arugula salad and Anjou pears with sea salt.

Lovely.  This is "What about Bob?" good.