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Caramelized Onion and Portabella Mushroom Pizza

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Another pizza. This one isn’t my prettiest pizza ever, but it tasted good. I have picked up the habit of working to improve my dough again. I think I got it pretty perfect on this one. Of course, it may have more to do with the damp weather and humidity than it does with my efforts, but anyway, here’s the recipe:

For the crust:
1 cup sourdough starter (alternatively, use 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1/2 cup water)
1 1/2 cups water
3 cups all-purpose flour
Mix these ingredients together. If using starter, let this sponge rest for 2-4 hours in a warm place. If not using starter, proceed to next step.

1 cup King Arthur white wheat flour
1/2 cup Italian style 00 flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 package active dry yeast.

Blend all these ingredients together and, using a dough hook or your hands, knead for 5-7 minutes or more. The dough should be pretty wet–this is a good thing. Remove dough ball (it will barely be a ball) and place in an olive oil coated bowl. Let rise for 1 hour. Divide into three balls.

Preheat the oven to 475.

For the toppings:

1 large onion, sliced thin
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh herbs (I used oregano, thyme and parsley)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large portabella mushroom, sliced
5 ounces or so of a package of shredded Italian cheese blend (this would be better with freshly grated cheese, but hey, I made the dough–that’s enough work)
freshly ground pepper

Saute the onion and garlic in the butter and olive oil over low heat for about 30 minutes, until translucent and golden brown. Add the mushoom, herbs and freshly ground pepper. Saute for another 4 minutes or so on medium.

Stretch one of the dough balls out into the shape of a pizza (this dough was easy to shape, sometimes I need to use a rolling pin). Transfer to a preheated pizza stone and prebake crust for around 3-4 minutes. Remove and place on a pizza peel. Turn oven to 500 degrees.

Sprinkle about 1/3 of the cheese lightly over the crust, then top with onion/mushroom blend. Add remaining cheese and slide topped pizza into oven. Bake for 8 minutes or until toppings are golden.

A Tasty Fish Dinner

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Picked up some snapper at the fish market (Snapper Grabbers) in Vestavia yesterday afternoon. Dusted it with some Parmesan cheese and flour (along with a little seasoning) and cooked it in a little butter and olive oil. Served on top of angel hair pasta that had been tossed with a little olive oil, green onions, fresh tomato, capers and fresh English peas. Yum.

Another Sourdough Pizza

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Well, I’ve been making pizzas for about 5 years now, with a lot more pizzas made in the last two years. I’m still working on getting the dough and the toppings perfect (I’ve gotten the dough to a place where I feel pretty comfortable serving it to anyone, though). I’m always tinkering with the proportions of different types of flour, but have a pretty good handle on what needs to go in to make it good. Lately, I’ve been tinkering with the oven temperature and the time. I’m not completely set on either yet. Some suggest a really high oven temperature, and that seems to work better. Lower oven temps seem to make the dough a bit tender and fluffy.

As to toppings, those are up to your imagination. I’m convinced that fresh mozzarella is almost always better (unless you use the smoked mozzarella like I used in my Three Mushroom Pizza the other day. Red and yellow peppers (I’ve been getting mounds of these from Grow Alabama lately) add lots of color and flavor. This pizza had the fresh mozzarella, Parmesan, and feta along with red and yellow peppers, red onion, garlic and olive oil.

Not my best, but very tasty.

Shrimp and Pasta Dish

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I made a tasty shrimp and pasta dish tonight.It included the following:

3/4 lb fresh peeled and deveined shrimp
1 lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
large pinch Italian seasoning
red pepper flakes
freshly ground black pepper
salt
olive  oil

2 shallots
2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup sliced sundried tomatoes
splash white wine
olive oil
3/4 pound small asparagus

1/3 lb cooked small penne pasta

shrimp-2.jpgIn a bowl, combine juice and zest of one lemon, 1 tablespoon olive oil, Italian herbs, pepper flakes, minced garlic clove and salt and pepper to taste. Toss shrimp and let marinade for about 30 minutes.

Saute garlic and shallots until soft and golden (about 3 minutes). Add yellow bell pepper. Saute for 5 minutes. Add asparagus and cook for 1-2 minutes. Set aside.

Saute shrimp until done. (I used a cast iron skillet to really sear the shrimp a bit.) Add remaining marinade and let come to boil.

Toss vegetables and shrimp with pasta. Serve with fresh bread. Serves 2 to 3.

Three Mushroom Smoked Cheese Pizza

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Wow. I really hate to brag, but last night I made one of my finest pizzas ever. The dough was, as always, my sourdough mix with a bit of whole wheat and a little bit of Italian 00 flour tossed in. There is a recipe for it in a previous entry: www.joewatts.com/blog/2007/12/recipes.html.

But the best part of this pizza was what was on top:
French horn mushrooms (about 6) sliced
Golden oyster mushrooms (about 8) sliced
Portabella mushroom (about 1/4 of one) diced large
3 shallots, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
italian seasoning, salt and black pepper to taste

Saute the shallots and garlic in 1 tablespoon of butter and a little olive oil for 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms. Saute until golden and soft.

Brush crust with a little olive oil and prebake the crust for about 6 minutes at 425 degrees. Remove from oven. Turn oven to 475.

Sprinkle shredded Mozzarella cheese  to cover crust. Top with mushrooms evenly. Sprinkle with about 4 ounces of smoked mozzarella cheese and 2 ounces crumbled goat cheese.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes.

Recipes

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The other day I was thinking back on all the recipes that I created when I worked at Southern Progress for Weight Watchers Magazine. I hardly use any of the recipes I created and only a handful of those that I tasted. Not sure why, as there really were some pretty tasty ones. My all-time favorite and most used recipe from those days is the Shrimp Gumbo recipe posted a few days ago. The recipe that I use most often now is for homemade pizza. I start with a sourdough starter (purchased from King Arthur Flour after I killed the starter my sister Margaret gave me). Into that cup of starter goes the following:
1.5 cups of bottled water
3 cups all purpose unbleached flour

Mix well and let sit in a warm place for 2-4 hours, until it starts to bubble.
Add:
1 cup bread flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1-2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

I use my Kitchenaid mixer at this point to make the dough and to knead it, adding up to 1.5 cups more unbleached flour as I go until I get the consistency right (this is what has taken me a bit of time to understand just what the right consistency is). Usually, I mix it for 8-10 minutes, though. Turn this out into a bowl coated with olive oil. Let rise for 1 hour. I then separate the dough into 3 balls of more or less equal size. One goes into a bowl to rise a little longer. The other two go into ziploc bags for later and into the fridge.

At this point, turn the oven to 450 with a pizza stone in it. I’ve tried rolling the dough out and hand shaping it (hand shaping works okay and works even better if you use a cup of Italian 00 flour to soften the dough up instead of some of the bread and whole wheat flour). I like to roll it out though–easier and more even.

Once rolled, it should make about a 12 inch thin crust pizza dough. Now is a good time to get together your ingredients to top the pizza. I use mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses as I favorite cheeses, along with the occasional feta.  Fresh garlic is also great. Fresh tomatoes when in season along with some fresh herbs like basil and that’s about all you need. You can also add some good Italian meats, mushrooms, fresh spinach, whatever, but this isn’t a Pizza Hut pizza, so double the toppings aren’t good.

Brush dough with olive oil and slip onto the heated stone (I sprinkle the pizza stone with grits to keep it from sticking). Let bake for 4-5 minutes. Remove from oven to pizza peel. Increase oven temp to 525.

Top the pizza with a sprinkle of cheese, garlic and herbs, then the veggies and finally with the remaining cheese. Back into the oven for 5-8 minutes. Keep an eye on it–you want a little golden color on the top, but don’t burn. Remove and slice. Yum!