Pizza, Pizza!

There are few things in life better than great friends and fabulous food; in fact, as I try to come up with some, they all have to do with food. This past weekend the husband and I spent the night over on the other side of the Bay with our friends Scott and Elizabeth. The night began with debauchery, as all fabulous nights do, at the Redneck Riviera party in downtown Fairhope. There is a reason those photographs will not grace the pages of this blog: to protect the guilty in their redneck-iest getups. We drank beer and wine, and ate BBQ, in mullet wigs, cowboy boots, flannel shirts, and NASCAR t's.  It was a grand old time. After we determined the barbeque was just a snack, we ventured to an exquisite sushi restaurant, Master Joe's, and gorged on a variety of amazing rolls and gyoza. If I didn't love Fairhope before, I certainly did then.

After returning home to S&E's lovely house on the Bay, we continued our party on their pier while watching shooting stars and enjoying the cool fall weather. When we awoke the next morning, hazy from our fun the night before, nothing sounded better than grilling pizza.

There are a million reasons to make homemade pizza, including knowing it will be a thousand times better than anything you can carry out of a store. Grilling pizza is just turning it up a thousand more notches. True pizza, of the Napoli ilk, is thin and crisp, charred on the bottom and bubbled on top. It is covered in fresh, high quality ingredients like artichoke hearts, wild mushrooms, and folds of prosciutto, or mild italian sausage, pepperoni, roasted red peppers, and onions.

Pizza sauce

1 28-ounce can San Marzano whole tomatoes

16 leaves fresh basil
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste

Puree all ingredients in a food processor.

Pizza Dough

3/4 cup warm water
1 envelope active dry yeast
1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

Combine the water, sugar and yeast in a cup and let proof for 5 minutes. We used a KitchenAid mixer, so in the mixing bowl, combine the flour and the salt. Add the yeast mixture and, using dough hook, mix until a soft dough forms. Knead on speed 2 for 2 minutes, adding more flour if necessary to form a smooth dough. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour). Punch dough down. Divide in half and roll each half out with a rolling pin. Grill one side until the dough is bubbling and browned, then flip, top with sauce and desired goodies, and grill until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.

The Oinker

3/4 cup mini pepperoni

1 roasted* red pepper, chopped

2 mild sausage link, grilled and sliced

1/2 cup pineapple chunks, cut into small pieces

4 slices onion, roasted with peppers

4 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced

1/2 cup shredded fontina cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

salt

pepper

*We roasted the red pepper and onions on a baking sheet at 450 degrees until the pepper was charred. Then we placed it in a bag and steamed it until the skin fell off.

Adulterated Veggie

1 can artichoke hearts

1 roasted yellow pepper, chopped

2 slices proscuitto, sliced into thin strips

1 8-ounce package of assorted wild mushrooms, sauteed in olive oil

4 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced

1/2 cup shredded fontina

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

My Side of the Pulled Pork Controversy

Pulled pork in the South is more than a picnic staple; it is an institution. Southerners guard their barbeque recipes so close, you'd think they were printed on hundred dollar bills. I'm no different. It's a serious thing to bequeath a treasure to the world. My mother spent most of her youth in North Carolina and Virginia. I grew up eating only North Carolina style pulled pork; consequently, it's my BBQ of choice. I'm not here to bash the other types. They have their merit. Face it, they all taste good. You can't go wrong with slow cooked meat, sweet and spicy sauce, and soft bread, (bonus points if there's slaw on top). There are at least five different kinds of BBQ in the South: mustard, light tomato, vinegar, heavy tomato, and dry. For me, it's the tang of cider vinegar that really revs my BBQ engine. Let's make something clear right now. I don't have a smoker. I make do with the best I can, which is a roasting pan and an oven. I make my own sauce, rub my own butt, (how's that for a little BBQ humor) and it's good. I'm not saying I make the best pulled pork in the South, but it certainly makes a crowd happy.

In a nutshell, I take a Boston butt, (the upper part of a pork shoulder, blade-in) and if it's the first football weekend, take a picture of it next to a bottle of bourbon for emphasis.

I rub it with dry spices, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Then I stick it in a relatively low oven for six or so hours. Then I make my sauce.

After the sauce is made, it simply waits for its outfit to be done.

This is the pork after 2 hours.

After 4 hours

After 6 hours

After it's falling apart, I shred it, toss it lightly with the cider vinegar sauce, pile it high on a bun, top it with slaw, and then smile because I'm a happy girl.

Oven Pulled Pork
Makes 12 sandwiches

For meat:
1 Boston butt pork roast, bone-in (6-8 pounds)
3 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons dry mustard
3 tablespoons sea salt
1 tablespoon cracked pepper
For sauce:
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1/2  cup yellow mustard
1/4 cup ketchup
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
3 dashes Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12 sesame seeded hamburger buns
Coleslaw

Mix the rub spices together in a small bowl. Massage the spice blend all over the pork, cover with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Put the pork in a roasting pan and bake for about 6 hours. Meat should register 170 degrees on a thermometer.
While pork is cooking, make the sauce. Combine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Simmer gently, stirring, for 10 minutes until the sugar dissolves. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
When pork is done, rest it on a cutting board for approximately 10 minutes. Then shred meat by taking two forks and pulling the meat apart. For the "brown", or the charred skin and fat, take a very sharp knife and chop the brown finely. Combine the brown with the shredded pork in a large container. Pour 1 cup of sauce over the meat and toss gently.  Serve on buns with slaw (on top!) and whatever other sides you desire.

Korean Tonight

I love visiting Mobile's international food markets. There's something to be said for being surrounded by hundreds of food items I have no idea how to prepare. I was faced with approximately eleven types of noodles; in characteristic style I chose the cheapest variety: $1.49 for 14.11 ounces of dried noodles. Upon closer inspection they were Korean sweet potato starch noodles, which I call glass noodles because of their sci-fi-like transparency. I also picked up a five pound bag of Jasmine rice, for $5. I can definitely jive with a dollar a pound. It reminds me of my monthly trips to the Garment District for smelly used clothing (also sold for a dollar a pound). It sounds gross but it was the 90's, so it was okay.

There was a recipe on the back of the bag of noodles. It was mostly not in English, but I could compile a list of ingredients that I would need to make jap chae, a Korean noodle specialty. It called for unspecified meat, mushrooms, spinach, onion, carrots, eggs, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, seasame seeds, and black pepper. I decided to add red bell pepper, because it is my favorite vegetable to stirfry. It gets sweet and tendercrisp all at the same time.

Jap Chae

Makes 6 main course servings, or dinner for 2 plus lots of spicy midnight leftovers

7 ounces dried Korean sweet potato noodles
2 boneless thin cut pork chops, sliced into strips
3 tablespoons sesame chile oil, divided
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3/4 cup thinly sliced onions
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 package fresh shitake mushrooms, caps sliced and stems discarded
1 package of fresh spinach
4 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Fill a large pot with water and boil. When water is boiling, add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes. Immediately drain and rinse with cold water. Drain again and toss with 1 tsp of the sesame oil. Use kitchen shears to cut noodles into shorter pieces, about 8 inches in length. Set aside.

In a separate pot heat water to a boil, add spinach. Boil spinach until cooked, about 2 minutes. Drain thoroughly. Add 2 tablespoons chile oil to spinach in a bowl and set aside.

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok. When the cooking oil is hot but not smoking, fry onions and carrots, until just softened, about 1 minute. Add the garlic. Add the pork and fry until pork is totally cooked through. Add the mushrooms, fry 30 seconds. Then add the spinach, soy sauce, sugar and the noodles. Fry 2-3 minutes until the noodles are reheated. Turn off heat, toss with the remaining sesame oil. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top of each serving.


Close-up of the noodles (sorry for the poor quality of the photo)