Potato Pizza

There has been rumor of unrest due to the recent political turmoil in Thailand. Among some of the many "advises" we heard was to stock up on foods. Regardless of the basis of the "advise" we did so to complete our kitchen needs anyway. I told Adrian he could pick anything he liked. I wasn't surprised when he put bitter gourd into the basket. For whatever reason I took okra - probably thinking of remaking the Ethiopian dish. Anyway as the demonstration and blood splash (literally) went on in Bangkok city, I didn't get to use this two ingredients that I rarely buy.

Until last Monday night. I boiled a large potato to make the aforementioned Ethiopian dish with okra for Adrian. Delicious aside, I was left with a big bowl of unused boiled cubed potatoes. Finally I thought I would use it tonight. After much contemplation, I decided to use it as pizza crust and combine it with this recipe so that I could use up the leftover roasted bell peppers, too.

It turned out to be a much welcome idea. Adrian thinks this would be really good for a warm hearty breakfast, topped with fried eggs. I thought so but given what I have planned for tomorrow breakfast, this dish would come too heavy, even for us breakfast people.

Ingredients
(makes one 9" pizza)

Potato crust:

• 1 large potato, cubed
• pinch of sea salt
• chillies flakes
• 1 tablespoon flour
• pure sesame oil
  

1. Boil potato cubes with a generous pinch of salt till tender. Remove from water and get rid of excess water.
2. Transfer potato cubes to a bowl. Mash them with salt, and chillies flakes. Stir in flour to blend.
3. Press mashed potatoes to the bottom of baking pan. Bake at 250C for 15 minutes.
4. Remove from oven, brush the top with pure sesame oil. Bake for another 10 minutes.
5. Bring the pan to top deck and broil for 3 - 4 minutes, until the crust is crisp.

Topping and assembly:

It's basically the same as this Roasted Garlic and Bell Pepper Pizza recipe. Instead of roasted tomatoes, I mashed the roasted garlic with sun-dried tomatoes. I also added chillies flakes (blended dried chillies) alongside parsley and basil.

Roasted Garlic and Bell Pepper Pizza

Before Adrian left home, I told him we were having pizza for dinner - it's my way of saying "have-anything-in-between-as-long-as-it's-not-the-same-as-dinner". He came home, told me he watched the guy tossed pizza at the Food Loft. He may have guessed I was trusting him with the crust rolling responsibility. Look what he did. Instead of the conventional circle, he made a country map. Australia?

Look aside, it's a good pizza. I prepared most of the ingredients a day ahead. It was all about putting things together come dinner time. You can use store bought sun-dried tomatoes instead of roasting your own. I just wanted to make sure those cherry tomatoes went for good use before they turned bad.

I loved the smell of the garlic as it was roasting. It kind of became obscure when mashed into paste with the roasted tomatoes. It was fun squeezing them out of the garlic cloves; they were so soft I didn't even have to use blender - just a few good mash. If I ever make this again, I'd be sure to use more onions: it didn't matter when I wasn't aware of it, but once I tasted how good it was, I wished there were more in every bite.

Ingredients:

• 1 pizza crust
  
• 1 head garlic, unpeeled, head sliced
  
• 1 yellow onion, sliced into rings
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup Oven-roasted herbed cherry tomatoes
• 1 roasted red bell pepper, cut into strips
  
• 6 ounces Mozzarella, grated
• 2 1/2 ounce Feta, crumbled
  
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
• 4 tablespoons basil, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Place garlic onto a baking dish and drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil. Place onion rings to a separate baking dish and coat with one tablespoon of olive oil. Bake in the oven until garlic is brown and soft; onions are tender - about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
2. Set oven to 250C. Using fingers, squeeze out roasted garlic cloves into a bowl; add tomatoes and mash into paste. Set aside.
3. Roll out pizza crust. Spread garlic paste evenly over crust. Layer with onions, bell pepper, Mozzarella and feta. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoons parsley and 2 tablespoons basil. Bake for 10 minutes; until cheeses turn golden brown and bubbly.
   
4. Remove from oven, top with the remaining parsley and basil.
   

Spinach and Goat Cheese Pizza with Garlic Oil

When I was in Chiang Mai, Adrian sent me a SMS from London that says "just had the BEST pizza! "Padana Pizza": spinach, goat cheese, red onion, caramelized onion and garlic oil!" It was from Pizza Express. I managed to find a few online pizza recipes that use spinach and goat cheese as ingredients. I then googled for homemade garlic oil and Voila!

You may want to start from here for your own homemade dough. I was short of all-purpose flour and hence substituted half the flour with organic rye flour.

I started with making caramelized onions, using the recipe from a previous post. The onions reduce in size considerably when cooked. Adjust amount needed to approximately one onion per person. Use white or yellow onions instead of red. I substituted lemon juice with apple cider vinegar; it worked fine. I was skeptical of it at first thinking it looked too dark and soft, but Adrian said it taste just like the restaurant's. :)

As the onions were being cooked, I set out to making garlic oil. I took one head of peeled garlic and 1/2 cup of olive oil to simmer over medium low heat. The garlic turned brown as it cooked in the hot oil. This took about 15 - 20 minutes.

Now here's to assemble the pizza:

• Spinach leaves, tossed and coated with olive oil
• 4 ounces goat cheese, grated
  
• 1 red onion, sliced
• Caramelized onion
• Garlic oil
  

1. Preheat oven to 250C.
   
2. Go here for pizza crust.
3. Brush the base with enough olive oil and sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan cheese. Bake the crust for 10 - 15 minutes.
4. Remove baked crust and turn the oven down to 180C. Layer the crust with olive oil-coated spinach leaves, follow with goat cheese and red onions. Drizzle with garlic oil. Let bake until cheese melt.
5. Drizzle with more garlic oil and serve with more fried garlic.
   

Four-Cheeses Pizza withTwo Toppings

Here's to put the pizza dough to test. I must say I am very pleased and proud of my first pizza, the crust to be more specific. The biggest compliment came when Adrian said his mother used to make pizza but she could never get the crust right. Call it rivalry if you may. His mother, however, is my source of inspiration (or challenge?). Adrian has this childhood memory of wholesome home cooked foods by his Swiss mother: tart, pie, jam, French toast etc. I guess I'm just helping my husband to relive the good old time.

Four-Cheeses Pizza with Homemade Tomato Salsa

Ingredients:

• 1 6 oz pizza dough
• Homemade Tomato Salsa
• 1 oz Fontina, grated
• 1 oz Mozzarella, grated
• 1 oz Goat cheese, grated
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced
• 1 Tablespoon Parmesan, grated

1. Preheat oven to 250C. Lightly flour the back of baking tray.
   
2. Dip pizza dough in a bowl of flour. Shake off the excess. Using a rolling pin, roll the pizza dough into a 8" round, with the edges slightly thicker than the inner circle.
   
3. Brush the inner circle with tomato salsa and top with Fontina, Mozzarella and Goat cheeses. Sprinkle with thyme leaves and oregano. Top with Parmesan.
4. Place it on the back of floured baking tray. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until it turns brown.

Four-Cheeses Pizza with Homemade Pesto and Oven-Dried Tomatoes

I got Adrian to contribute to this pizza: flipping and tossing. Peter Reinhart would have approved.

Unlike the on that I made with rolling pin - thin throughout -, this pizza crust is somehow puffy like Indian puri, and crispy like biscuit. Must be the skilled pizza dough tossing.

Ingredients:

(makes for one 8" pizza)

• Pesto
• Oven-dried tomatoes
• 1 oz Fontina Cheese, grated
  
• 1 oz Mozzarella, grated
  
• 4 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 oz Goat cheese, grated
  
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
• 1teaspoon fresh oregano, minced
• 1 Tablespoon Parmesan, grated
  

Basil and Pecan Pesto
Go here for the pesto recipe.


Oven Dried Tomatoes:

(makes for one 8" pizza)

This recipe is not unlike the Herbed Oven Dried Tomatoes except it uses fresh thyme instead of basil and marjoram. I bake it for a mere 60 minutes instead of the full-on 6-12 hours needed for a "real" oven dried tomatoes. I used cherry tomatoes simply because that's what I got. Any tomato varieties would work.

• 6 cherry tomatoes
  
• extra-virgin olive oil
  
• fresh thyme leaves, minced
  
• 1 garlic cloves, crushed
• sea salt
• ground black pepper
• sugar
  

1. Preheat the over to 150C. In a pot of boiling water, blanch tomatoes. Drain and refresh in ice water. Drain. Peel, core, cut into halves, and remove seeds.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together olive oil, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. Taste and season as needed. Toss and coat tomatoes with the oil mixture.
   
3. Arrange tomatoes, cut side down, in a baking pan. Drizzle with the excess oil mixture. Sprinkle sugar evenly over tomatoes.
4. Bake until the tomatoes begin to shrivel, about 1 hour. When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, transfer to a container. Pour olive oil over and cover the container. Refrigerate and use as needed.

Dress the pizza as above except substitute Homemade Tomato Salsa with Pesto; add Oven-Dried Tomatoes around the inner circle after pesto; arrange fresh tomatoes before goat cheese; and top with fresh basil leaves after baking.

Homemade Pizza Dough

We have a part time maid that comes to the house once a week. We totally love her. Once she saw my pathetic attempt of growing extra store bought green onions in glasses of water, the next week not only did she brought me the proper onions but also planted them in two pots! She is also responsible for keeping the 12 pots of mother-in-law tongues in our bedroom nourished.

She's the epitome of pro-maid. One of her "bosses" (as she refers us whom she works for) in the building was leaving to France for good. Among the many things he gave her was a bag of farina flour. She knew I cook and so she gave it to me. Took me sometime to figure out what to do with them. I got confused by the different definition of farina flour on internet. Is it sooji? Semolina? Type 00 or 0? Anyway among all the Italian words on the package is the picture of pizza and croissant. That must be what it's for?

So that's how I came to use farina flour in this pizza dough recipe. I was going to use Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice but it's too intimidating for a beginner pizza dough maker. Not to mention I am always hesitant when it comes to making dough. Hence I resorted to something much less complicated from the net. I did steal some techniques Mr Reinhart offers in the book such as kneading with hand.

Ingredients:
(makes 4 (8") pizza)

• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 cup warm water
  
• 3 cups farina flour
  
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
  
• 1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  

1. In a small bowl, dissolve honey in warm water.
2. In a large bowl combine flour and salt. Add oil, yeast and honey water. Use one hand to mix the dough, and the other to turn the bowl, (turn in both direction) until the dough forms ball shape.
3. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and knead by hand for 2 or 3 minutes longer. The dough should be smooth and firm. Cover the dough with a clean, damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot for about 30 minutes. When ready, the dough will stretch as it is lightly pulled.
4. Divide the dough into 4 balls. Work each ball by pulling down the sides and tucking under the bottom of the ball. Repeat 4 or 5 times. Then on a smooth, unfloured surface, roll the ball under the palm of your hand until the top of the dough is smooth and firm, about 1 minute. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let rest 15 to 20 minutes.
   
5. Wrap the balls in plastic and refrigerate for overnight or up to 2 days.