Watts Consulting

More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts

food

Sourdough Pizza…again

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Another pizza. I’ve decided that cooking mushrooms first (as I did here) really adds another layer of flavor to the pizza. Although wild mushrooms would have made this even better, plain button mushrooms did the trick here. Cooked with garlic and red bell peppers in a little olive oil and finished with a splash of white wine and chopped fresh thyme, parsley and oregano, these added a nice texture to the pizza that also had fresh mozzarella, feta and, on Ann’s half, pine nuts. The dough is basically the same as my traditional recipe. I’ve been tinkering with it a little–adding several tablespoons of cornmeal, adding a splash of olive oil and changing the ratio of types of flour, but overall, I think the original recipe is still the best. The wetter the dough, the better it seems to rise and create the kind of crust I want, but the harder it is to work with (particularly getting it from the pizza peel to the pizza stone for the initial baking).

Sunday Night Dinner at the Watts House

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We also had fried okra. The pork chop was excellent. The corn cakes (corn meal and buttermilk) were tasty as was the chow chow purchased at Pepper Place Farmers Market here in Birmingham. The lima beans were cooked with okra. The turnip greens were a little bitter for my taste, though I enjoyed them. Not sure what went wrong. They photographed nicely, though.

Fried Green Tomato Salad

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Fried Green Tomato Salad: If there’s one thing better than a beautiful and ripe Alabama tomato, it has to be a tart, green Alabama tomato fried up crisp and delicious.

Pretty simple dish, really. I soaked the green tomato slices in fat-free buttermilk (They’ll be fried later so they’ll get plenty of fat that way!). After a little soak, the go into a mixture of bread crumbs, flour, cornmeal and a little cornstarch for good measure. Be sure to season the breading with salt and pepper. I use cayenne and garlic salt.
After a good coating, I let them rest and add panko breadcrumbs (big, flaky breadcrumbs) and canned Parmesan cheese to the remaining breading. Back in the buttermilk go the tomatoes–but only to coat and then into the breading again for another light coating. Fry in plenty of oil until golden.

For the salad I used mache, but arugula would also be great in this. Only a handful is needed for each plate. I dressed the greens with a little olive oil, sherry vinegar, dry mustard and a hint of Alabama honey. On top of the greens go the still very hot green tomatoes. Surrounded by some sliced cherry red tomatoes, they made a nice presentation. The topping is a combination of mayonnaise, malt vinegar, olive oil, a pinch of sugar and cayenne pepper and fresh Alabama goat cheese with some fresh chives from the garden. Oh, and that fried thing on the very top: a jalapeno stuffed green olive fried with the tomatoes. (This seemed like a better idea than it turned out to be. The olive was good, but would have been just as good without frying.)

It made a very tasty salad or, in smaller portion size, an even better first course.

A Simple Summer Sandwich

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Alabama Tomato/Goat Cheese Sandwich

Sorry, no photo–lazy, I guess. For lunch today, we had a simple and delicious tomato sandwich. Fresh, local ingredients are the key:

1 to 2 ounces local goat cheese (Belle Chevre from near Huntsville, AL was my choice)
2 teaspoons good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
freshly ground pepper and garlic salt
4 slices Big Sky Honey Whole Wheat bread (a local bakery in Birmingham) or other artisan-style bread
Fresh sliced Alabama tomatoes
arugula or mache greens

Mix first 5 ingredients together to form a smooth spread. Spread on sandwich bread. Top with tomatoes and greens. Yum!

Grilled Mahi-Mahi & Creamed Corn

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Last night’s dinner. Not really worthy of an actual recipe due to simplicity. Simple grilled mahi-mahi sprinkled with fresh chives and a pat off butter (well, I made some garlic-chive butter, actually) served over creamed corn. The creamed corn was basically a traditional recipe (I looked it up in Frank Stitt’s cookbook) with a couple of variations. I added chives and garlic to the butter and cut corn along with a splash of olive oil. Toward the end (about 20 minutes in) I needed to add a splash of water. And, in the background, fried okra. Simple meal but very tasty.