Pizza Action

Tonight I made homemade pizza and calzones from scratch-made dough. I baked taco, buffalo chicken, bbq chicken and Margarita pizzas. We also made two mozzarella, basil and pepperoni calzones. Great success! Pictures show the bbq chicken pizza, calzone and buffalo chicken pizzas.

Crust: (6 small, thin crust pizzas)

3c. Flour

1 packet rapid rise yeast

1.5 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar or honey

1 tbsp olive oil

1.5c. Warm (120F) water

Cornmeal

Combine dry ingredients and mix. Add in warm water and stir until a nice dough ball forms. Turn onto floured surface and knead until elastic and smooth. It'll be about 8-10 minutes. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover. Let sit for 40 minutes. After dough has doubled in size, punch back down and place on very lightly floured surface. Divide into 6 equal parts. Roll into balls and place on a cutting board. Cover with damp towel for 20 minutes to rest. Take each dough ball one at a time and roll out thin into oval like shape, about 12 inches long and 10 wide. Place dough on a cutting board that's surface is well covered in cornmeal.

I made several pizzas, but the Buffalo chicken was:

1/2 lb boneless chicken

1/4c Franks redhot sauce

Few sprigs of cilantro

Mozzarella

Fontina

Cheddar

Ranch dressing

Preheat oven to 475F with a pizza stone inside.

Cut chicken into small pieces and marinate in half the hot sauce for 30 min. Quickly saute the chicken in a hot pan to basically cook the outside. About 2-3 minutes. Paint the prepared pizza crust with the rest of the hot sauce, place chicken on crust evenly. Top with cheeses and chopped cilantro. Sprinkle more hot sauce and ranch dressing if you want. Slide pizza off the cutting board into the oven with a rapid movement. Bake in 475F oven on a pizza stone for 10 minutes. Crust should be crispy and cheese browned. Refer to picture.

Beef tips with egg noodles.

Tonight my girlfriend did the cooking and tried out a new recipe for beef tips. It was great! Here is the recipe!

Enjoy!

Just a typical sandwich.

Here's a turkey sandwich I made for lunch yesterday. I've worked at three different sandwich shops for a total of about 8 years of experience. I still like to eat them though!

I love sandwiches because they're really easy to make. I loaded this one up with deli sliced turkey, fresh romaine lettuce, tomato, baby-swiss cheese, dijon mustard, Duke's mayonnaise and salt, pepper and oregano on ciabatta. Always a perfect lunch.

Center cut pork loins.

Tonight I'm making one of my favorite items, center cut pork loin chops. Pork chops are really easy to make and taste great. I like to think it's a very simple protein that is easy to really bring out a lot of flavor.

I like to buy them about 1.5 to 2 inches thick, and always with the bone in. It's also important they have a good marbling, similar to steak, to get a rich buttery flavor.

This time I'm going for my standard preparation and have seasoned them with olive oil, fresh cracked pepper, sea salt and fresh homegrown rosemary sprigs. I like to season and let the chops sit covered in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours before cooking. This allows the meat's natural juices to absorb the salt and other seasonings, and redistribute them deeper into the cut. Very important!

Seasoned and ready to sit in the fridge. Rosemary is great on pork.

About twenty minutes before you're ready to start the chops, remove them from the fridge and uncover them. Let them warm up a little on the counter so you can get a better sear in the pan. Cold meat can cool the cooking oil down quite a bit.

Preheat your oven to 375F. Heat a large skillet and add about 1 tbsp of canola oil to the pan. I pretty much always use cast iron, it rocks.  You want to get the pan hot. I usually wait until the oil just starts to smoke. At this point, add your chops to the pan, crank the heat up and let the meat sear. After 2-4 minutes, check for a golden brown color. If the sear looks good, flip the chop. Let sit another 2-4 minutes.

Add chops to the pan as soon as the oil begins to smoke.

It's important to get a good sear. It locks in all the juices.

After you've seared the pork, put the whole skillet in the oven to finish (make sure your skillet is oven safe). I find this usually takes 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your cut. You want to temp the pork loin at 145F. This means you should take the pork chops out of the oven at around 135F because the meat continues to cook as it rests. You can adjust the temperatures to your own needs. Just be careful not to dry it up! Enjoy!

Finish in the oven at 375F.

Enjoy your perfect chops!