Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Sigh and sigh and sigh. How does this one sound though:

Cornmeal Pizza Dough
h/t Bob's Red Mill Baking Book by John Ettinger and Bob's Red Mill Family,

SERVINGS
Makes one 16-inch, two 12-inch, four 8-inch or eight 4-inch pizzas

INGREDIENTS
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (105 degrees F. to 115 degrees F.)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste, optional
3 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

PREPARATION
1. In a small bowl, add the sugar to the water and sprinkle the yeast on top. Stir to dissolve and let stand for 5 minutes until foamy.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine well 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of the unbleached white flour with the wheat flour, cornmeal, salt, and red pepper flakes. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in the yeast mixture and the oil, and using a wooden spoon, vigorously stir the flour into the well. Begin at the center and work slowly outward, until the flour mixture is incorporated and the dough just begins to come together.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Dust your hands with flour and knead the dough gently, pressing down with the heels of your hands and pushing the dough away from you before partially folding it back over itself. Use a dough scraper to pry up bits of dough that stick to the work surface. Shift the dough a quarter turn and repeat. As you knead, gradually add just enough of the remaining flour until the dough is no longer sticky; you may not need all of it. Continue to knead until the dough is smooth and shiny, with good elasticity, about 10 to 15 minutes more. The dough should feel springy and be slightly moist. Too much kneading may result in a tough crust.

4. Oil a large bowl, shape the dough into a smooth ball, and place the ball in the bowl. Turn to coat the dough with the oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise until it doubles in size, about 90 minutes.

5. Punch the dough down and use within 2 hours. (If you are not going to use the dough within 2 hours, turn it into an oiled bowl to coat again, tightly cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. When the dough has doubled again, in about 5 to 8 hours, punch it down, re-cover it, and leave it in the refrigerator. You can punch it down a total of 4 times, but after that, it gets tough. Use the dough within 32 hours or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 4 months.)

6. Break the dough into equal pieces for smaller pizzas or keep whole for a large pizza.

7. Use your hands or a rolling pin to shape the ball of dough on a lightly floured surface. Press and stretch it gently to the desired shape and thickness. The thinner the crust, the crispier it will be.

8. Leave the dough to rest, about 15 minutes, or place in the refrigerator for thinner crust (because the dough doesn't rise as much in the refrigerator), until you're ready to prepare. A 400 degree oven usually works well.

Prebake on preheated pizza stone for 5 minutes, then carefully remove, place toppings on and bake another 10-20 minutes (watch carefully, ovens vary) until crust is golden around the edges and the cheese is bubbly.

Mary,

Pretty close, actually.

This cornmeal crust has a larger proportion of cornmeal though, and as a result gets cooked by pressing it into a cast-iron pan, like Chicago pizza crust. It doesn't have enough structure to roll out. I'm pretty sure it has some butter in it as well.

I found two other recipes, but neither of them seem right:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/85365/cornm ... a-duo.html

http://cookwork.com/recipes/4146-Vicolo-Pizza-Dough

I'm thinking the recipe is more like a Pizza Rustica, which has a pastry dough (this is the ancestor of Chicago Pizza). Or you could try a Chicago pizza dough recipe, swapping half the flour for corn flour.

Still working my way into Truly Mexican. These are Adobo DF Cheese Enchiladas, with Rancho Gordo Pinto Beans and Mexican Red Rice. The Adobo was great, with toasted chiles and chocolate it was like a "weeknight dark mole". Rancho Gordo beans are terrific, of course, but the Red Rice didn't turn out right somehow, it seemed undercooked. I'm sure I followed the recipe fairly faithfully.

Last night, something different. After reading this blog post, I had wandered over to the Amazon page at which point my wife was looking over my shoulder and was suspicious of what I was going to buy next. She figured cookware. I took her to the website (not a great website, but not awful) and she all but begged for some hot pot. We've had it Chinese style, and I've had Japanese style in Honolulu a few times, so thought I would give it a swing with lots of substitutions as needed when making something like this last minute. We made a variation of the salmon hot pot, as presented on Serious Eats. A lot of variation . And served in a 12" saute pan. It was delicious. In her words, we can have hot pot any time I want.

So, a recipe from cookbook Spice:

Deboned trout stuffed with spanakopita filling, then broiled.

It's quite delicious. And can appease your low-carb friends.

Paul, I will have to try that Salmon Hot Pot. Not quite sure what to substitute for the chrysanthimum, though. Not only would I have to go to Japantown to get it, I doubt my sweetie would like it (too bitter). Napa cabbage, maybe.

A strange collection of foods, as I have had another head cold, making tasting difficult:
Some tom kha soup, much spicier than usual;
A big bowl of steamed broccoli with a bit of butter;
A modest amount of hanger steak;
Some creme caramel made to use up extra egg yolks
Eaten in fits and starts as they cooked, or as I felt hungry.

In celebration of the very very early summer weather, we rode our bikes to the grocery store and came back and BBQ'd up some chicken Fajita's on the charcoal grill with some music and a little beer. I love the changing of the seasons.

I couldn't resist the warmth and grilled some chicken too! I injected it with a chipotle butter sause I got on sale (free injector included) but it didn't seem to add much flavor. It sat for about two hours post injection, but I suspect I didn't inject properly.
And I tried the hard boiled eggs with baking soda trick-it works! Nice clean eggs just thuupped out of their shells! Going to show this to some young friends as a science experiment tomorrow

We, the centre of WINTER, are also in the midst of SPRING! I have never seen it like this; I mowed the front lawn at 3PM!!!!! So, I had marinated a pork tenderloin last night and ended up using the Weber Smoky Mountain smoker...WOW!

We also had record breaking temps...warmer here in T-dot then where my husband is in Virginia. We are contemplating openning the pool this weekend.
In celebration I grilled some hamburgers (the last of the ones I made last summer that were in the freezer) and bought takeout fries and onion rings from our local diner.