Easy Pita Bread Recipe

I’ve loathed the act of baking for a long time. Perhaps what I’ve hated is the measuring, mixing, and kneading. I’ve dipped my toes in the water of pizza dough and no-knead bread, both with marginal success, and now that I have a big bag of instant yeast, I’ve decided to explore a little bit.

Pita bread is the first stop on the tour for me. I found a recipe that I like (Go to Google. Type in Easy _______ Recipe. The first or second results for any baking queries are usually the routes I will explore.) at the Smitten Kitchen blog.  This is a pretty popular blog all around from the sheer volume of comments, but it’s consistent in offering up easy to make recipes that I can feel confident in preparing. There’s also a great post from which I culled my quick standby for kale chips. Check it out.

I’m sitting around right now, waiting for the first rise to occur- about twenty minutes. Usually, when I make pizza dough, I don’t have the patience for kneading, but it doesn’t matter to me too much because there’s not as much involved in making the crust as there is in making the sauce, toppings, and everything else that makes pizza so delicious. I’ve decided that it is, however, an important part, and despite not owning a stand mixer, after I mixed up all the ingredients, I kneaded the dough diligently for the required 5 minutes, until it became somewhat smooth and a bit lighter. The gluten particles have begun to bond.

My hopes for this experiment are that it will yield a pocket. I do love the pocket bread. I would like to make stuffable sandwiches out of the breads, and use them for everything. We shall see if my wishes come true. Until then, I’ll be content to wrap my sandwiches and gyros in what I create and call it flatbread.

 

BOIL IT MORE, MA!

Today, I’m making a St. Patrick’s day feast.

We’ve got some cabbage that we’re going to add to potatoes and make a delicious colcannon. I bought a good loaf of rye from the store and two of three Irish cheddar cheeses from work, some brown mustard, and a good chunk of corned beef.

We’ve been brining corned beef at work for the last two weeks, so it’s good and ready to cook by now. We’ve had some people come by the store, looking for brisket to make their own, and until last week, I had to tell them that they were a little too late to start brining their own. Fortunately, we have it all taken care of at the store, with a ton, (yes, 2000 lbs.) of corned beef to go through within the next couple days. Will we make it? Only time will tell.

Anyway, here’s a good recipe for corned beef:

1 corned beef

Water

Simmer corned beef until tender.

Done.

Serve with mustard, a good brown one.

So, the beef, the bread, the colcannon, some cheese, some Guinness, and some carrots. Lots of that stuff.

If you have the time and the inclination, and at least four hours before you eat, go buy a corned beef and boil it.

 

Easiest Dessert Ever: Lemon Posset

Seriously. Lemon Posset.

Ready? Okay.

Put one cup cream and 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. When it comes to a boil and begins to foam, pull it off the heat if it bubbles too much. Boil for three minutes, and stir in the juice of one lemon.

Pour it into two ramekins and put it in the fridge for at least three hours. It will firm up to be a very light, pleasant custard for two.

Simplest dessert ever in under 100 words. You can make it in five minutes for a large gathering on a Thursday!

 

Biscuits!

I found a recipe that a friend of mine posted online. She has a hungry brood of kids, and this recipe for biscuits is a quick way to satisfy everyone’s appetites.

So far, I have mixed the dry ingredients, and in an hour or two, I’ll add the milk, roll out the dough, and pop these babies in the oven. Soon, we’ll have a bounty of fresh biscuits to enjoy.

***

From Crystal Bailly’s Biscuits Recipe:

I make my own self rising flour, it is super simple and makes really nice biscuits. 1 C of Flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix well.

For the biscuits, I tend to make large batches because I have a small army of kids, and who doesn’t like biscuits? So..Preheat oven to 425

5 cups of the self rising flour

1 stick COLD butter ( real butter) or about 1/2 Cup vegetable shortening

Mix these in large bowl by hand, I use my finger to just break up the shortening and butter. This was the first time I used butter, and I left the pieces of butter about pea sized. They melted and helped make the layers I think. You can use just shortening, I do that a lot too and it works just fine.  Just mix with your fingers, squeezing the pieces until mixed well. You won’t feel any huge chunks, and the butter pieces will be bigger. Now add the milk. I just used 1% since that is what I have in the fridge. You can use buttermilk just as well I am guessing. I didn’t measure this, sorry!  I use a large metal spoon and mix in enough milk so everything is moist but not soaking wet- Think wet playdough texture. Do not over mix! Now turn it out on to a floured countertop. It should still be wettish, and sticky.  I usually just fold it over on itself two or three times, maybe a few more. This folding in half helps with the layers too. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick and cut however you want. Don’t twist the cutter though! They won’t rise as well.  I use a biscuit cutter, but use anything! Cook in middle of the oven until just light brown, they don’t take long, under 12 minutes I think, you can always split one in half to check for doneness.

EAT!

***

Okay, so I followed this recipe, and it’s easy. It’s so easy, in fact, that between 2 of us, we polished off a 1/2 batch (2 cups flour) of these biscuits. I made them small, and we had about 20 of them.

Guys, biscuits are good, and super simple to make. I don’t bake. At all. It’s easy, if you’re not a baker but really like food, to make these. For added flavor, you can add some cheese, or some fresh herbs. Maybe next time, I’ll try it out, but for right now, I’m going to sleep this batch off.

Did I mention how easy this was?

t

The remaining biscuits. They rose!

 

LIVEBLOG! Dandelion Tortellini

Here I am on another day off from work, with nothing to do but cook. It’s feeling more autumnal here by the day, but I can’t really let go of the fresh flavors of summer. The other day, I wanted to make a quick salad to go along with dinner, but I had no greens. I asked my better half if she was going to stop by the market on the way home, and if she’d be bothered to get some salad makings. I didn’t hear back for a little while, and dinner was fast approaching. I’d made a bread pudding earlier in the day, and I used the rest of the bread to do mini raclette/baguette toasted cheese sandwiches under the broiler.

Still, that’s a lot of bread.

We’re in a new place, and I still haven’t figured out why, even with a smaller fridge, I’m not able to fill it with stuff that I can grab and use to make stuff on the fly. We’ve got a couple of stores close to us, including my home store, so it’s not really a big thing. Being impatient as I am, I hopped on my bike and rode down the street to pick up some arugula from the produce market. I haven’t had arugula in six weeks.

What’s arugula? It’s a veg-e-table.

I hadn’t been to this produce market yet, and when I got in, I was surprised by how much they had to offer. I scoured the greens. Turnip, collard, kale, escarole, bibb, romaine, but no arugula. It’s a sure sign of a first world problem when you get grumpy over the lack of spring mix and microgreens in your local grocer’s produce case. They did, however, have dandelion greens- a little bitter, but for the salad I was making, I thought it would be refreshing. I picked out a bunch, along with a lemon for a fresh dressing, and biked back home.

Dandelion Greens on a sunny afternoon

By the time I got home, I checked my phone, and the lady had said she picked up some herb salad mix, so the dandelions were relocated, temporarily, to the back of the fridge.

On my days off, I get bored. I’ll go exploring, but for the most part, I’ll stay indoors, watch the television, plop around on the internet. Now that it’s about 3 p.m., I’m getting antsy. This is how it usually goes. I think it’s time to make some food.

***

Dandelion Green Pasta Filling:

1 bunch Dandelion greens, triple washed, trimmed of stems

1/2 yellow onion, small dice

4 cloves garlic, sliced thin

1 T. salted butter

salt, pepper, oil

***

Pulled out the dandelion greens from the fridge and tasted them just now. They are unbelievably bitter. For the greens to lose their bitterness, I may have to cook them down considerably.

***

Pan on the stove. Low heat to sweat the onion and garlic. And… into the pan they go. Little salt, little pepper. So far so good. It smells pretty nice in here. After ten minutes they seem to have become tender and fragrant.

***

Spin the greens to get rid of the moisture. I thought of maybe soaking them in milk? Nah. I don’t think that’d be the most productive use of milk.

***

Okay. In the pan with the greens, all chopped up like they are. Let em cook. They’re looking vibrant.

***

Ten more minutes in, and they’ve lost some of that green, but the cooking has taken a lot of bitterness out of them as well. I don’t have any cheese, but I don’t want to mask the comfortable level of bitterness that I still have going for the green mix. If I were to choose a cheese to go inside, it’d be a pecorino. The nutty sheep’s milk and texture would go along nicely. I think I’ll get a small wedge of it tomorrow, and serve it up on top, maybe in curls.

***

Okay. I’m going to need some pasta dough here. Trusty Mario Batali Pasta Recipe, take me away.

***

I have a new cutting board. It’s all wood, of heavy stock, and it sits atop my prep rack, good for cutting stuff and kneading things. I know it’s anti-utilitarian of me, but I don’t really want to get it too dirty just yet. I fabricated the pasta dough using the well method (only way to go) inside a mixing bowl, and then turned out the sloppy mess onto the board for kneading. After about five minutes, I covered it in plastic wrap and now I’m letting it sit for another 30 minutes before taking it for a ride on the pasta bike.

Two eggs and some flour

(For more information about how to make your own fresh pasta, consult this blog entry.)

***

Okay. Pasta dough has rested, now on to the bike!

***

Just got done cranking the pasta dough and filling them up. Filled pasta is a lot of work if you don’t have practice. Out of a half batch of dough, I had enough filling for 22 tortellini, approximately 4 servings by Euro Standards, maybe 2 by American standards. Perhaps tomorrow night, I’ll make them for diner, with a light butter sauce with basil and crushed pecans.

A bunch of tortellini

***

A final thought: An afternoon project is something very fulfilling, especially if it’s something that I can eat and share later on. I’m glad I had the opportunity to share the process with…the…internet. I’m even happier that I get to share something that I’ve made with my lady for dinner.

 

Copper River Salmon Pt. 2

Yesterday was the second 12 hour opening of the Copper River Season, from 7 AM to 7 PM up in Alaska. We’re fortunate in Seattle to get the direct flights loaded up with the finest fish, and this morning’s batch was spectacular.

The second opening gave us a fair amount of fish, and the sockeyes look awesome. You’re not going to get a fresher fish anywhere in the country unless you go catch it yourself.  Moreover, the Alaskan Salmon Fishing Industry has been evaluated and certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, an independent Third Party who monitors catch limits, methods of fishing, and environmental concerns surrounding commercial operations. Read more about it on their website, with a link at the end of this post.

With that being said, the price is already starting to drop. Where it started off at a price of $29.99/lb for pretty much everyone in the market here, the price for the second opening has already seen a drop of Five dollars per pound. Start getting your grills ready, because it’s going to come in quick, and it’s going to be great.

Soy-Miso Marinated Salmon with Green Bean Salad

2 lbs. Copper River Sockeye Salmon Fillet

2 TBSP White Miso Paste

2 TBSP Soy Sauce

2 TBSP Rice Vinegar

1 TBSP Brown Sugar

1/4 c. Canola Oil

2 tsp. Sesame Seeds

1 Squirt Wasabi paste

Green Bean Salad

1 Handful green beans, trimmed.

1 box cherry tomatoes, halved

1 TBSP White Miso

1 TBSP Mayonnaise

Splash of soy sauce

Splash of rice vinegar

1 finger fresh grated ginger

2 cloves minced garlic

sesame seeds

1 green onion, sliced diagonally, thin

For the Salmon: Take all the ingredients for the marinade, aside from the sesame seeds, and whisk together. Put your salmon fillet, either whole or cut into four pieces, in the marinade, and let it sit for at least a half an hour. Before you put it in the oven, it should have a dark, caramel color on the surface, and the marinade should just be penetrating towards the center of the fish. As a note, pat the surface relatively dry before you put it in the oven, as excess marinade will burn.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

For the green beans, get a pot of salted water to a boil, and throw the beans in until they get nice and green, about two minutes. They should still be a little crunchy, but after you pull them out, run them under cool water until they stop steaming.

For the dressing, just whisk all the ingredients together. It’s simple, fast, and delicious. (It’s also very healthy, shhhhhh!)

Add the tomatoes. Toss it with the dressing. Instant Salad.

For the salmon, place it Skin side UP in a baking dish, and put it in your preheated oven for about six to eight minutes. The skin should be nice and crispy, and as a chef’s hint, if you take the back of a knife and wick away any excess moisture, that’ll help it along. For added technique and a nice presentation, make some light diagonal slashes in the skin with a knife, as if you were making slashes in a loaf of french bread before baking.

Here’s the big secret to finding out if your fish is done: Take a fork, stick the tines in the fish, and wiggle it around. If it flakes, it’s done. On the sides, you should see the fat starting to sweat out the sides. That means it’s perfect. The marinade will keep it moist, and you’ll end up with a great dinner.  Slice a little bit of green onion and garnish over top for a fresh finish.

Serve it with some steamed jasmine rice, or get a quick box of couscous at the store, and you have a healthy, well rounded meal that is excellent, filling, and a taste of where we call home.

Marine Stewardship Council: http://www.msc.org/track-a-fishery/certified/pacific/alaska-salmon/alaska-salmon-1

 

 

 

Copper River Salmon Pt. 1

Today, we’ve got our first fresh Copper River Salmon of the season! It started out on Thursday with a 12 hour opening, and we’re going to have another one tomorrow for another run of gorgeous fish.

The Copper River, one of the steepest rivers in the world, dropping 3600 feet in vertical elevation over the course of 300 miles. It is located just three hours away from Anchorage, spilling into the ocean at Cordova. It is the first fresh Alaskan run of the year, and these exclusive opportunities mixed with the phenomenal physical stamina of the fish and the rich mineral deposits along the banks provide us every May with the most superior salmon in the world.

With that information at hand, what will you do with your new favorite fish? Here’s an easy and quick recipe to get your tastebuds all riled up:

Maple Grilled Copper River Sockeye with Stone Ground Mustard Glaze and Grilled Peaches

2 lbs. Copper River Sockeye Fillet, skin on

1/4 cup oil

3 TBSP Maple Syrup

1 TBSP Brown Mustard (dijon is fine, German mustard is better, but the best is the one with mustard seeds)

Salt/Pepper

Other ingredients for sides:

2 Peaches, sliced, skin on

Fresh Asparagus

1 Lemon

Mix oil, syrup, mustard, salt and pepper together.  Take your salmon fillets and coat them with the mixture, letting them rest for about 30 minutes or more. This recipe is one that you can use confidently, knowing that ingredients such as maple syrup go well with salmon because they’re both from the same place- among the trees in the frozen tundra.

Coat asparagus and peaches in oil, salt and pepper. Let them sit.

With your grill on medium high, brush the grate liberally with oil. Don’t use the nonstick cooking spray unless you use it away from a direct flame. Pat the excess salmon marinade off of the fish, and oil the skin.

Skin side down, put the fish on the grill. Put the peach slices and asparagus on the grill. After about three to four minutes, flip all of them. The asparagus should be charred and deep green, and the peaches can have grill marks on them. (Note: If your grill isn’t that clean, after you flip the peaches and asparagus, put the lid on and let the fish go without flipping. It might fall apart.)

Three more minutes, and your dish is ready to serve. Take the asparagus off, put the fish on top, and garnish the fish with peach slices. Let it rest for a couple minutes, and enjoy!

Serves 4-6

Side note: If you’re worried about the cleanliness of your grill, don’t fret. Take a cedar plank and soak it in water for about an hour before you grill. Then, put it on the grill and lightly char it, and let the smoke infuse your salmon. It’s excellent, simple, and it acts as a serving plate. Nothing says the Northwest like a Planked Salmon.

 

 

Halibut Pot Roast

So if you’re like all of us here at City Fish, you work hard all day, and come home to a house where you just don’t want to have to deal with much of a meal. It’s a known fact that the majority of the meals that we prepare are one pot meals that typically take less than a half hour to prepare. You grab food where you can, and eat it when you have time available. With all the times people ask us for recipes, we tell them one of two things- something easy, or something that we eat.

The weekend was a great success. It was busy and beautiful down here with the addition of our Cruise ship crowds and Cheesefesters. At the end of the weekend, we were all beat.

Around lunch time today, we all looked in each other’s lunch pails. A sandwich in one, leftover chicken in the other, and something that looked awesome in the boss’s hands.

Vegetables, succulent chunks of halibut. It looked so filling and good.

“What’s that?”

“Halibut Pot Roast.”

Sounds simple enough. Fresh vegetables, sauteed, potatoes, little bit of vegetable broth, and some sauteed halibut cheeks. Little salt, little pepper, and some capers sprinkled on top, and we’ve got ourselves a meal.

Halibut is a deepwater fish most commonly found in Southeast Alaska. Fished from Ketchikan up past the Arctic Circle, these monsters can get up to over 500 pounds. As the fish gets heavier, it turns from a fish that swims upright to a fish that scuttles along the depths of the ocean floor. As a result, one eye moves from the bottom to the top side of the fish, making it an ugly, but deceptively delicious fish.

The texture is white and flaky, and has a reputation around the world for being one of the most delicious, prized fish from the icy cold waters of Alaska. It’s caught mostly by longline, a string of hooks individually baited and left along the ocean floor, enticing the fish with herring, pulled up 6 to 10 hours after the lines are set between two buoys that bob along the surface. According to former Halibut captain Joe Daniels, the brother of our owner Jon Daniels, the commercial lines are anchored 50 to 100 fathoms  (about 300-600 feet) deep. Due to recent quotas incurred by the Alaskan industry, it is no longer a free for all. We’re very lucky to have a large quota of halibut that captains can spread out over the course of an eight month stretch from March to November, ensuring top quality product for the better part of the year, and no break in the fresh supply. It’s one of our most consistent catches, and it works out great every time we cook it. It works in any manner of ways, and works well with almost any flavor combination.

Here’s something we tell people at the market that holds true in most every case: The weirder a fish looks, the better it tastes. Monkfish, halibut, their cousins the flounder and sole, sturgeon and skate wing are all prehistoric fish, but they’re some of the best tasting fish you can have. Looks like a circus act, but tastes like a dream.

Halibut is the most versatile fish in the case. I’ve prepared it every way, but I’ve never thought to do it Pot Roast style. That is, I never thought to do it until I saw what the boss was having for lunch. Without further ado, here is Jon’s lunch.

Halibut Pot Roast

2 lbs. Halibut Fillet

1 lb. baby red potatoes

1 yellow onion, thin sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

thyme

tarragon

bottle of Riesling, Chardonnay, or White Table Wine. (Is it good enough to drink?)

3 TBSP Butter

Olive Oil

Preparation:

Boil your baby reds until firm, not quiter tender. Drain them and reserve for later.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Swirl olive oil in an Ovenproof Saute Pan, and sweat your onion for 3 to 4 minutes over medium heat until it starts to brown or caramelize. Add the garlic and tomato, saute for two minutes.

Put your halibut on your bed of vegetables, and put your parboiled potatoes, fresh herbs, and add a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper in the pan. Cover it with about a half cup of white wine, and pour yourself a glass to sip and enjoy while the fish is baking.

Bake, covered, for 22 to 25 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily. When it does, take it out of the oven, butter up the top of the halibut, and cover it to let the butter melt.

After five minutes, open it up, smell it, enjoy and revel in the smell, and then eat it.

 

 

A Sexy Dinner with Sexy Black Cod

 

Just got some beautiful black cod in the door.  Filleted one up and put it in the case. It looks stunning. Creamy White, firm and moist, if nobody takes this fish home for dinner, I’m pretty sure we’re going to split it up between all of our mongers down here.

Black Cod is one of the favorites here at City Fish. Over the last few years, it has come into fashion, appearing most notably on the menus of New York’s Nobu. Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s signature Black Cod dish is marinated in Sake and Miso, for sometimes as much as three days, and then served after searing. With a high oil content and solid foundation, black cod is an easy and sustainable choice for the home cook who wants to try their hand at a fancy recipe. Since we did a recipe the other day with soy and miso, I’m going to adapt it a little bit from the home recipe that I use, to give it a little extra kick.

In addition, if you’re down in the market, this gives you the opportunity to take advantage of things that you might not normally use. I’ve done this with a quick, fresh salad of pickled daikon, just shredded fine. Add a little cucumber, and it’s the most refreshing accompaniment that you can have to this delicious dish of fish.

Black Cod is a fish that is caught on the longlines of Halibut Fisherman. Long considered bycatch, someone had the bright idea to market it as a sustainable alternative to Chilean Sea Bass when that fish was going through tough times. It is known for being caught in an ethically and ecologically responsible manner, with stocks in Alaska being certified as such. Its high oil content makes it ideal for everything but poaching, and for the novice cook, there’s no way that you can overcook it. Trust me, I’ve tried. It’s exceedingly healthy, and it is full of Omega 3 fatty acids. Healthy, sustainable, delicious. What more could you want?

Ponzu-Chili Marinated Black Cod with Daikon and Cucumber Salad

1 side of Fresh Black Cod Fillet, Skin On, Scaled (We’ll do it for you if you ask. Don’t Miss Out), about 2 lbs.

1/4 Cup Ponzu (citrus soy sauce)

1 Blood Orange, zested and juiced (Frank’s Produce)

1/4 cup Rice Wine Vinegar

two dried chiles, crushed (During the summer season, Alvarez Farms down at the market has excellent ristras and strings of chiles, and I’ve been using the dried string all winter long for flavoring everything I can think of)

Chopped Ginger

3 Cloves Garlic, rough chopped

1 TBSP light mustard

All the liquid ingredients are like a salad dressing. Blend them up. Pour them over the cod, and seal it up in a bag, put it in your fridge, and forget about it for a day or two. By the time you’re ready to use it, it will be so succulent that everyone will be asking you, “Hey, how’d you become such a good cook?” Shhhhhhhh. It’ll be our secret. Nobody has to know.

For the salad:

1 Daikon Radish

1 Cucumber

Rice Vinegar- 1/4 cup or so. Just enough to dress the salad.

Sesame Seeds- a little bit

Wasabi- a little goes a long way

Shiso powder, or Shiso Furikake (Available at your local Asian Market)

Peel the Daikon, the large white Radish, and slice thin or use a mandoline to cut it into thin strings. Do the same with the cucumber. Put them in your salad bowl, and toss with the other ingredients, whisked into a dressing.

Let it sit for an hour or so, and serve sprinkled with some of that orange zest.

For the Black Cod:

Preheat your oven to 400. As for the fillet, remember that? From yesterday? Take it out of the fridge and pat all of the marinade off of the fillet. In an ovenproof skillet on medium high with a little oil in the bottom, sear it first on the skin side for two minutes, then flip it over, and throw the whole thing in the oven for ten minutes.

Pull it out, serve alongside or on top of the daikon salad, topping with a little tobikko caviar and orange zest. You’ll be glad you did.

 

 

Looks and Tastes like New Jersey

Remember Iain? Of course you do. Well, this week, I made a pizza for his blog project. I know Wisconsin would be the easiest pie for me to tackle, but according to those who live up there, stuff just isn’t ready. I still have to wait a little bit for ramps, asparagus, berries of all kinds. It’s okay. I just didn’t want to make a turnip pizza.

anyway, I thought about what pizza I’d really like to make. With Iain’s completion of Pennsylvania, I decided to do a little companion puzzle piece. A little bit of Googling pointed me to New Jersey’s favorite foods.

Maybe I’m one of the only people to realize this, or maybe I just remembered because Zach Braff wouldn’t shut up about New Jersey for a few years and probably mentioned it, but New Jersey is the nation’s leading supplier of eggplant. Also known as the Garden State, New Jersey is the birthplace of the Tomato Pie, with Trenton staking the earliest claim to the recipe.

Tomato pie is a pizza with the toppings in reverse. Crust-Cheese-Topping-Sauce. It ends up looking like a stuffed pizza. The tricky part for this pizza is that the Trenton style of tomato pie is thin crust. There’s no place to hide the sauce. Just goes right on top with no retaining wall on the sides.

***

I needed things. I knew I had, in the fridge, my basil pesto from last week. That was going to be the base. Brushed on as a thin layer directly between the crust and cheese layer, it was my way of saying to New Jersey that even though people may only remember them for being dirty and giving the world the idea that only greasy, fried Italian things come from the shore, that underneath it all, there’s a tiny patch of green that I know is there, and it makes everything alright.

I picked up the following- Provolone (mozzarella uses the same curd as what becomes provolone. Plus, sliced thin, it’s easy enough to place in an even layer on the pizza), tomatoes for sauce, onions, garlic, and baby eggplant. I thought about getting a large one, but these were about the size of a juice glass, and we only had to have enough for one pizza. Also, parmesan cheese for sprinkling.

Conspicuously cut to not show a label, but I really made the Pesto. Really.

So, I came home to my standby pizza dough rising in the oven. I sliced the eggplant into 1/2″ thick rounds, breaded them in parmesan breadcrumbs and egg, and fried them. Setting them aside, I made the sauce. Onion and garlic, sweat in olive oil for five minutes. I added some leftover capers from a few nights before, and a can of seasoned tomatoes, just because it doesn’t have to be great. Just sauce.

Sauce cooked down, reduced until it was pretty chunky with little excess liquid. That’s when I hit it with the immersion blender. After blending, it thickened and reduced pretty quickly. Instead of a runny sauce, I had one that I could dollop onto a pizza. The consistency was great, and the sauce was not going to run anywhere.

I rolled the crust out, and pinched my way to a vaguely jellybean-shaped crust. I took all the pesto and spread it across the crust, layered the provolone, and put the eggplant parm on top. Two small eggplant yielded about 16 small slices, which fit the pie perfectly all the way down from Hackensack to Cape May.

Adding the sauce, I used the eggplant as a natural barrier for spills, and it seemed to work out fine. By the time it was sauced, the makeshift marinara had thickened up to a paste.  It worked so well. With a flourish of grated cheese, it went in the oven for 25 minutes at 425.

It turned out perfectly. As it was in the oven, I got a call from my lady friend, who said that she was bringing guests over, and she hoped that there was enough food. I looked at the pizza, which while filling seemed deceptively small in surface area, and immediately grabbed the other dough ball in the fridge. The oven was still on, so I didn’t have to worry about anything but making enough food to feed everyone.

Pizza number two, the other one, was what I had in the fridge. Orange peppers, capers, kalamata olives, a little sauce, feta, more provolone, roasted garlic. Into the oven it went, and I was happy when it came out and everyone was able to enjoy more than a couple slices of pizza.

I enjoyed both pizzas, but the Jersey Pizza held a special place in my heart. I did it to help out a friend, to feed my household, and to utilize the fresh bounty of a state not normally associated with freshness. Here’s my pizza. I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed making and eating it.

New Jersey-Now available in Pizza!

Don’t forget to check out the 50 State Pizza Project at: http://www.the-muffin-man.com

You’ll be very happy you did.