To reinforce
@bodia ’s recommendation, tonight’s cook is pizza! Like he said, it takes your pizza to another level!
if you can source quality ingredients, and get the technique down, just like with ribs, you can make a pizza that many restaurants can’t match. I prefer to get pre-made dough when possible, it makes things much easier. Trader Joe’s sells a pretty good one. Good sauce, quality cheese, meat, and fresh veggies will also improve the end result. I like Rao’s brand sauce, and I always get cheese from the swanky cheese counter at the grocery, not just the shredded, bagged stuff, it makes a big difference! Fresh mozzarella is great, just try to get one that’s bagged and vacuum sealed without much water in it, if it’s too wet the extra water will cook out and make a nice puddle on your pizza. Lay out a big piece of parchment paper and spread a small handful of semolina flour on it, and lay the dough down on that to spread it out - makes working much easier and it’s also what gives that nice grainy, crunchy crust on the bottom when cooked. Then apply toppings and trim the parchment right at the edge of the dough.
The cook is part 2 of important things. I always, always use a pizza stone, and shoot for a temp of about 450F. If you’re using a smoker or grill of some kind, the trick is actually to minimize the amount of smoke being generated. The dough and cheese will suck smoke up like a sponge if allowed to, and the pizza will taste like a half smoked pack of cigarettes! With my Green Egg, I usually get a lot of smoke at the start coming up to temp, and for a few minutes after, so patience is key, wait for the smoke to stop billowing heavily. You also want your pizza stone to be in for 8-10 minutes and heat up, but preferably with indirect heat, meaning your heat source isn’t radiating directly up to the bottom of your stone. The Egg and other ceramic grills have a great insert for that, not sure how to make that work on others. If you can get the right temperature to the stone, the dough will bake and rise all the way through from the heat of the stone just as the top is done from ambient heat. Not like many pizza places where the dough is undercooked or even raw in the middle. Use a pizza paddle to pickup up your pie (with the parchment paper still under it) and transfer to the stone, 15-20 minutes and you’ve got amazing pizza!
This was tonight, with the quarantine going on we grabbed a take home kit from a local pizza place. Their ingredients weren’t the quality we normally get, but it was nice to support a local business.
This is one of our favorites (different night), BBQ chicken pizza. BBQ sauce, smoked gouda, chicken breast, red onion, bell peppers, and Granny Smith apple slices.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I’m bored, and figure a few extra recipes might help y’all pass the time if you’re quarantined! Plus, I’ve been told the food isn’t terrible
