July 2020 – Cooking the Books

July 31, 2020

Pizza bread!

OK, I think I’m officially on board with the bread-baking phenomenon. It just took me a little longer to get there than everyone else.

I’ve long liked the calming effects of kneading and the comforting aroma of bread rising, so I’m surprised I haven’t satisfied my soul sooner. Besides, as I have shown, I’ve long loved being a baker.

Even better, after making Serious Eats’ focaccia, I perused their other bread options and was delighted to find the double comfort of pizza and bread.

It sounded pretty easy, and because it called for a pound of pizza dough, and my measurements for my favorite dough don’t lead to exactly a pound, I just made a double batch and hoped there would be some leftover to have a homemade pizza later in the week. I was not disappointed.

With ingredients like garlic, dough, pepperoni, Parmesan, and red pepper flakes, it’s impossible for it to have turned out bad.

My only issue was pre-cooking the pepperoni with the garlic resulted in slightly crunchy pepperoni pieces in some cases after baking. It still didn’t taste bad, but I question if it’s totally necessary to pre-cook the meat, or maybe I’d just cook it for the barest minimum amount of time or on a lower setting to ensure the garlic gets cooked into the butter and crisps a little.

Still, we had no problem eating all 24 knots in just a few days.

Here’s what I did, mostly sticking to the recipe, only making my own dough:

Ingredients

2 T. butter
2 T. olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 oz. pepperoni, cut into ¼ in. squares
Red pepper flakes, to taste
6 cloves garlic, minced
¼ c. chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 T. chopped fresh chives
¾ c. Parmesan cheese, grated, divided
Flour, for dusting
1 lb. homemade or store-bought pizza dough (I used about ⅔ of a double recipe of my favorite dough recipe here and reserved the rest for a thin-crust homemade pizza)
Pizza/Pasta sauce, for serving

Directions

Heat butter and oil in a 9- to 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat until butter melts. Add pepperoni and cook until it starts to crisp, about 2 minutes (see note above about doing this for slightly less time). Add pepper flakes and garlic, and cook for about an additional 1 minute. Remove from heat and add the parsley and chives, and stir to combine. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in ½ c. of the Parmesan. Do not wipe out the skillet.

On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough in half. Take one piece and roll or stretch into a rectangle about 8 in. long by 4 in. wide. Use a bench scraper or sharp knife, and cut crosswise into 12 strips. Repeat with the other half, to yield 24 total strips.

Tie each strip into a knot and transfer to the bowl with the pepperoni, etc. mixture. Use your hands to toss and fold to coat the knots in the mixture. Place the knots in the skillet in a single layer, and drizzle with more olive oil.

Cover the skillet with plastic, and set aside until doubled, about 4 hours. Or, do as I did, and refrigerate for about 12 to 16 hours.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 425 degrees, and place oven rack in the center. Remove the plastic wrap. Sprinkle on the remaining ¼ c. cheese. Place skillet in the oven and bake until golden brown and crisp, about 25 to 30 minutes. Brush on additional olive oil and enjoy with pizza sauce!

July 24, 2020

No crust, no problem: Skillet pie lives up to its name

A few weeks ago, I rediscovered the joy of my vegetarian cookbooks, particularly one from Deborah Madison.

The first recipe I made of her vegetarian stuffed peppers fit a large casserole, so no blogging about it, but you can get the recipe here. However, it had an interesting way of incorporating onions that at first I scoffed at. As I looked closer, though, I didn’t see a way around doing it her way. I ended up very glad I actually followed the recipe. While the onions (first deglazed in wine) baked on the bottom of the casserole, since it was stuffed peppers, they ended up as a sweet and sour topping that complemented the rest of the ingredients incredibly well.

So, for my second recipe, I looked specifically for things that would work in my small skillet.

It didn’t take long to find the perfect meal. With the amount of cheese, it wasn’t light exactly but a simple eggy dish didn’t feel all that hefty in the summer heat.

Even better, it was incredibly easy. Mix up some ingredients in a large-ish bowl. Pour in a buttered small skillet. Bake, and voila, you’ve got dinner.

Pulling back the curtain, I will admit I made the focaccia to go with this meal, and a bread is the perfect addition so you have a more filling meal. Alternatively, it’d make a good breakfast item.

Here’s what I did, sticking to the recipe, though I used my 9-inch skillet rather than the called-for 10-inch (and it just fit!):

Ingredients

¾ lb. feta cheese
1 lb. ricotta cheese
6 eggs
¼ c. flour
¾ c. milk
1 T. dill, preferably fresh and chopped (I used more)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Butter, for coating

Directions

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Mix ¾ of the feta with the ricotta in a medium bowl, without worrying about getting it perfectly smooth. Beat the eggs into the cheese. Then, add the flour and milk. Season with the dill and salt and pepper.

Butter a 9- to 10-inch cast iron skillet. Pour in the batter, and crumble the remaining feta cheese on top. Bake until golden, about 35 to 40 minutes.

Cut into wedges and serve with bread or another preferred side, and enjoy!

July 18, 2020

Fat, fluffy focaccia

Since the pandemic began, apparently people have been getting into bread baking. Not only are there the news stories but I have the anecdotal evidence that my sweetie had trouble finding active dry yeast during one of his recent weekly grocery trips.

However, for once, I was ahead of the curve. I have been making bread on the regular for years. And since my sweetie did go to a second store for the yeast, I am back in business now after nearly using up my stash when I made pizza a couple weeks ago.

I do get why it’s picked up in popularity, as it’s often cheaper especially than some fancier breads, and it’s a good distraction for a few hours. Those brave souls who nourish sourdough starters — which I did for a while during my bread year and beyond but didn’t survive the move to Ames — are even giving themselves ongoing time commitments.

What I’m saying is, like Oprah, I love bread.

Rosemary and olive focaccia bread ingredients.

One of my favorites is focaccia. What’s not to love about a lot of olive oil, and for me, the addition of olives and/or rosemary. While I’ve made this many times before, I couldn’t recall ever making it in a small skillet.

Thankfully, the wonderful Serious Eats had a no-knead (even better!) recipe that was designed for a 10-inch skillet. I figured my 9-inch Le Creuset would work after reading the directions. It did, but barely. I ended up with a much poofier loaf than anticipated; however, another thing I did wrong among expert breadmakers is I neglected the preferred weight measurements and instead went with the also provided cup measurements. In the end, I needed more water than the recipe called for, which likely means I used too much flour and ended up with a bigger loaf than I would have otherwise.

I could beat myself up about it … but in the end, there’s just more bread to love.

Though I’m sure weighted measurements are preferred (and given) for all but my additions, this still-somewhat-lazy baker would probably worry mostly about the flour and the water measurements in weights.

Here’s what I did, adding my own tweaks:

Ingredients

500 g. bread flour or all-purpose flour (~3 ¼ c.)
10 g. kosher salt (~2 ½ t.)
4 g. active dry yeast (~1 rounded t.)
400 g. room temperature water (1 ½ c. plus 3 T.)
68 g. olive oil (~5 T.), divided
~3 sprigs rosemary, divided
½ c. pitted kalamata olives, chopped
Coarse sea salt

Directions

Combine the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl and whisk to blend. Add the water and stir with a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains, about 2 minutes (if you measured by cups, you may need to add additional water to combine). Add about 1 ½ T. (20 g.) olive oil and stir to incorporate, using hands if necessary to work into the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

Remove plastic wrap (but keep!), and add about 2 sprigs worth of rosemary leaves, chopped if desired and all the olives. Then, use a lightly greased bowl scraper to fold the dough over itself by lifting and folding the edge of the dough toward the middle. Turn bowl and repeat the motion another 5 times (which should also help combine in the rosemary and olives). Re-cover with the plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes. Repeat the folding process one more time, and re-cover with the plastic wrap.

Then, refrigerate for at least 18 hours and up to 3 days.

To bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the top of the dough lightly with flour, and then transfer to a work surface, and shape holding it with well-floured hands, tucking the dough underneath itself and rotating until it forms a tight ball.

Add about 2 T. (27 g.) olive oil into a 9- to 10-inch cast iron skillet and spread the oil over the entire inner surface using your hands. Transfer the dough to the pan, turn to coat it in the oil, and then position seam-side down. Spread gently with your hands to mostly fill the pan. Cover tightly and let rise at room temperature until dough is soft and puffy, about 1 ½ hours to 2 hours.

Heat oven to 500 degrees and position the rack in the lower third of the oven, when the dough is nearly ready.

Use your fingertips to gently press and stretch the dough to evenly fill all corners of the pan, lifting up the edges of the dough to let air bubbles underneath escape, and then create small dimples in the top of the dough. Drizzle the remaining 1 ½ T. (20 g.) olive oil over the top of the dough, and then sprinkle with coarse sea salt and the leaves from the remaining sprig of rosemary.

Transfer skillet to oven and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the skillet about halfway through the baking. (It seems hot, and I deviated from the directions here since I didn’t have a baking stone, but it works with some light charring on top but perfectly golden on the bottom; however, keep a closer eye on times given the high heat.) Remove from heat and let the focaccia cool in the skillet for 5 minutes, and then use a spatula to carefully remove the focaccia from the still-hot skillet and transfer the bread to a wire rack. Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving, and enjoy!

July 10, 2020

Two courses plus dip equals one skillet meal

This week’s recipe was something I was going to make as soon as I saw it in my most recent Food & Wine edition. It was just a bonus that it happened to be the perfect meal to get the most use out of my little Le Creuset.

The picture alone was enough to pique my interest in this summer heat: a simple grilled chicken breast atop a dip with a light salad. Then, I actually read the recipe and saw that the dip was not hummus as I presumed but a pepper feta dip. That sold it for me. I was all in.

I wrote down the recipe ingredients, and my sweetie masked up and did our weekly shopping.

Ingredients for grilled chicken with pepper feta dip and salad.

When it came time to make it, I looked closer at the directions and saw to my delight that every part that required cooking would work in my small skillet.

Like a lot of the recipes I’ve made this year — and I’ve learned since I started focusing on using a specific piece of kitchen equipment — there’s more than one way to make this dinner.

If you’re an outdoor griller, feel free to grill the chicken there (the recipe actually called for a grill pan, which is a lot like my small skillet but with ridges). If you would prefer to toast the pita in a toaster, fine. You could even broil the peppers to break them down instead of sauteing them in a small skillet, like the recipe called for.

However, for me, it was perfect to use just the one piece of cooking equipment. (Don’t get me wrong, this recipe dirties a fair number of dishes, just I only used the skillet for cooking.) I didn’t really even bother to do cleaning between uses.

Everything turned out perfectly, though my chicken needed to cook for longer as I admittedly used two chicken breasts instead of just the one the recipe called for since it was supposed to be a dinner for one. I likewise doubled up on everything else.

While I really enjoyed both courses and how they worked well together — the pepper dip complements the same raw peppers in the fattoush and the chicken is so simple to let the dip shine — the real standout was the three-ingredient dip.

If you’re feeling lazy, buy a salad, buy some rotisserie chicken, but place it upon this awesome dip. Or just make the dip. It’s amazing.

Here’s what I did, doubling the recipe (that still left leftover dip!):

Ingredients

6 T. olive oil, divided
4 medium banana peppers or other mild peppers (we used anaheim, which were a twitch spicier), seeded and sliced, divided
8 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
3 T. lemon juice, divided
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 pita
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
~12 grape tomatoes
1 small cucumber, halved and sliced
2 T. red onion, diced
~12 pitted kalamata olives, halved
Torn mint or parsley, to taste

Directions

Heat 2 T. oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add about half the sliced peppers and cook, stirring occasionally until softened and lightly browned. Transfer to a blender or a food processor and let cool completely.

Meanwhile, use another 2 T. to coat the chicken in oil and re-coat the small skillet. Season the chicken with salt and pepper to taste. Grill chicken breasts about 8 minutes per side until the thickest part reaches 155 degrees (it will continue to cook while it cools). Remove from heat and set aside to let rest for 10 minutes.

Then, grill the pita, turning often, until crisp and lightly charred, 4 to 6 minutes. Let cool slightly while bringing the salad together.

Combine the remaining raw peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives, mint or parsley. Add the remaining 2 T. olive oil, 1 T. lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Tear up the pita into about 1 inch pieces, and stir into the salad.

Finally, with the sauteed peppers cooled, add the feta and the remaining 2 T. lemon juice. Process until thick and creamy, about 1 to 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.

To serve, place about ¼ c. of the dip on each of two plates; slice the chicken, and place atop the dip; and divide the salad on the plates (or in a separate bowl); and enjoy!

July 3, 2020

When the moon hits your eye …

No big pizza pie this week, but don’t worry, there’s still amore with these little pizza pies I made in my small skillet.

One of my favorite summer meals is homemade pizza. It doesn’t take a lot of prep or cooking time, so I neither spend a lot of time in front of a hot stove nor heat up the house baking for hours. Plus, who doesn’t love pizza anytime?

Homemade pizza also means I can put anything on it without having to pay specialty prices.

This last time I made my homemade crust adapted from Betty Crocker, I made an extra serving to see how well my homemade pizza would taste and work in a 9- to 10-inch skillet.

As I’d hoped and expected, about half of one crust flattens into a 9- to 10-inch skillet. Thus, as hoped and expected, you need about half your typical pizza topping ingredients for a smaller skillet.

Or, if you’re me, you use both your 9- and 10-inch skillets and have two options for toppings, and you and your sweetie have your Book-It-style personal pan pizzas. No reading required. (Though obviously recommended, as reading is fun!)

Like with most of my homemade pizzas, I don’t really keep track of the amounts of toppings so my guide below will be both based on a full-size pizza so halve accordingly and also will be estimates. However, feel free to use your own toppings to your desired levels, though I have loved my adapted Betty Crocker crust for years and highly recommend adopting it as your own go-to crust recipe.

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

For the crust:

*Will make 2 pizzas in 9- to 10-inch skillet

2 ¼ t. active dry yeast (1 package)
½ c. warm water
1 t. honey
¾ c. whole wheat flour
½ to ¾ c. all-purpose flour
1 T. olive oil
½ t. salt

For the toppings:

*Will make 2 of the same pizza, so halve or have a variety of toppings available

Oil or oil spray
¼ c. tomato paste or tomato sauce (I use either, depending on my mood)
3 c. mozzarella, shredded
½ small bell pepper, chopped
4 pepperoncinis, chopped
8 slices salami
1 t. basil
1 t. oregano
½ t. garlic powder

Directions

For the crust:

In a medium bowl, mix together the warm water and honey, and add the yeast. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes until the yeast has started to activate.

Add the oil and salt, and then the whole wheat flour. Use a large spatula or your hands to begin to mix together the dough, adding all-purpose flour as necessary until the dough comes together into an easy-to-handle mixture. Turn the dough out onto a (all-purpose) floured purpose, and begin to knead, adding more flour as necessary. Knead until the dough is smooth and springy.

Place into a clean, greased medium bowl, turning to coat all sides of the dough in grease. Cover and let rise about 20 minutes until roughly doubled in size.

Punch down, and divide. Place smaller dough balls into Ziploc bags or smaller covered bowls, preferably greased, and refrigerate at least 2 hours but no longer than 48 hours (I actually like it better if it is at least overnight but it works fine after 2 hours.)

For the pizza:

Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Lightly oil a 9- to 10- inch skillet, or if you have two, oil them both.

Take 1 dough ball, and slowly press into the skillet. It at first will not stretch well, but as you keep pressing and working to form a flat surface that covers the skillet, it will begin to give more. Once it covers the bottom, with a little lip around the edges, spread about half of the sauce. Top with ½ the peppers and ½ the salami. Cover the toppings with half the cheese. Add half the herbs and spices.

Bake for about 15 minutes until the crust and cheese are lightly browned. Remove from heat, and enjoy your personal pan pizza.

Repeat with the remaining ingredients after the skillet has cooled, or use a second similarly sized skillet, and enjoy a second personal pan pizza!