Pizza ...on the barbeque

Being lazy, I make pizza dough in the food processor. But this always turns out a very thick dough which twists and squirms and generally resists being rolled out. So I used my other favourite Helper Monkey (the stand mixer) and adapted a recipe from infamous pizza master Chris Bianco.

VICTORY. The dough rolled out beautifully, and when I flung it on the screaming hot grill it sort of stuck to itself for a moment but I was able to adjust it with tongs.


The bbq pizza method is simple but requires some balls. You fling the dough onto the grill and blast one side of it over very high heat, then flip it off the grill and onto a baking sheet (cooked side up).


Top with very little, just raw onions, sliced cheese and tomatoes for example, return to the grill (now the uncooked side is facing the fire), turn the heat down to nearly nothing, close the lid and let cook til the cheese melts. Upon removal, you can add a bunch more toppings, like prosciutto and rocket tossed with lemon and oil. Mmm mm mmm.

Tossing the raw dough directly onto the grill is one of those acts you have to convince yourself is going to work. It does -- beautifully -- but like bungee jumping, it's hard to believe before you just do it.

NYC must-eats

New York City is my idol. Before visiting, I spend weeks poring over New York magazine, the NYT, Serious Eats NY, all in search of the latest and greatest in food. But no matter what, I need to have these 4 things:

1. quiche at Bouchon Bakery
As a friend once memorably put it, "if I could be reincarnated as a chicken so I could lay an egg that would be a part of this quiche, I'd be happy." The texture of the custard is indescribably wonderful, closer to gently jellied heavy cream than to an eggy quiche mixture. You take a bite and it seems to both melt into your tongue and evaporate off of it. Amazing.

2. pizza
People criss-cross Manhattan and beyond seeking out The One, but my tastes here are more simple. Any NY pizza. This trip it was from nondescript "Ben's Pizza" next to the hotel and it cost $3.65 which seemed plenty to pay for an ordinary-sized slice. But it's so so so good. Crust neither thick nor thin, sauce in moderation (and it has a gentle sweetness to it, and not much herb or garlic taste) and tons of grated mozzarella -- the stretchy, tangy, salty kind.

3. something ridiculous
Last trip it was a $900 meal at Le Bernardin (totally worth it). This trip it was 2 suppers in one night. First at Buddakan, second at Momofuku. Both, curiously, involved pork belly steamed buns.

4. Fage yogurt, full fat
What is it, like 12% fat? Mmm.

Hot Buns

Before anyone accuses anyone else of "going too far" being too "foodie elitist" or having "too much time on her hands" let me just say that these homemade burger buns KNOCKED MY LITTLE COTTON SOCKS OFF.

The relatively lazy effort of making them is so so very worth it. I thought I loved burgers before; now, well, this has changed the water on the beans.

But enough talk. This recipe makes exceptional, perfect hamburger buns.

A few notes: the dough is very very sticky, and (luckily) advice from smitten kitchen forced me not to add extra flour. If you're up for the task -- and I couldn't recommend this recipe more highly -- use the stand mixer. Oh, and Canadian flour has a similar protein level as American "bread" flour, so no probs using all a-p flour here.


!!!!!

Out of respect for the buns, we had minced steak burgers (start with a sirloin and mince it) and excellent condiments. The combination was out of this world.




** by the way, the bbq is back in business thanks to a new set of knobs courtesy of the excellent lifetime warranty on my broilmate q.

Fool Pie

I was hit by the unstoppable desire to bake something, and after reading raves and raves about a certain raspberry brown butter tart on the interweb, I gave it a go. Only to discover that it is not really a great recipe. The crust is amazing but the filling is only just so-so. Ok, kinda gooey, but overall barely worth the calories. But the crust! Crispy and buttery and --best of all-- so so so easy to make. You melt some butter, add some flour and sugar and press into a tart pan.

So I made the crust again on Saturday, baked it through (empty) and filled it with rhubarb fool. It's pretty well curtains on the rhubarb season, and this seemed a fitting finale. Three of us killed the whole pie in one sitting.

The Epic Breakfast

All the stars were aligned. We had British-style bacon from the Mennonites, black pudding from the British shop, leftover roast potatoes, eggs, toast.

The Brit's plate:

And mine:

Do not be fooled by my "restrained" plate. That is not just toast, it is in fact one hell of a fried egg sandwich. The Signature Classic, with mayo and thinly sliced kosher full sours. (For my mother's nerves: yes, we went for a run beforehand at the very least).

This was just about the best breakfast I've ever eaten.

Pasta is back

Where did it go you ask? Not sure. Time was, pasta and I were in a very serious relationship, the kind where a day doesn't go by without a nice intimate rendezvous. But over the past many months, there just hasn't been a heck of a lot of pasta in my life.

So when I was stumped for dinner by a national stat holiday this week (no grocery stores open, nothing at the corner store, nothing much in the pantry) I fell back on my old friend, Basic Tomato Sauce. The devil is (as always) in the details, but if you SLOWLY cook LOTS of SLICED garlic over LOW heat then add one tin of good Italian chopped tomatoes and cook it out for a while, then drizzle in a bit of cream and finish with a TON of Parmesan, well then Bob is your uncle.

Back in the groove, last night I was still without groceries, but there was a head of kale leftover from a photo shoot. Survey says? Fusilli with garlicky kale. Again, slowly cook LOTS of SLICED garlic in PLENTY of olive oil over LOW heat, add a spoonful of magic Oggi brand spicy anchovy-caper melange, cooked chopped kale, a GENEROUS SPOONFUL of salt, and finish with LOTS of Parmesan, and you'll just never go hungry again.