P is for Passion, and Pizza!

Friday night is Pizza Night. I've been making pizza for years, all the while perfecting my technique for stretching dough, topping dough, transferring said dough to a hot stone in the oven, and mastering the time and temperature needed for near perfect pizzas. Not every pizza I've made is a masterpiece and since I buy my dough from a store not every dough ball is the same out of the bag, but I'm getting ready for that day in the not too distant future when I build a wood fired pizza oven in my back yard. Until that time I'll continue to make the best pizzas I can taking inspiration from local pizzerias like Emma's Pizza and Za Restaurant as well as blogs like The Wednesday Chef and Slice.

I always try to use the best ingredients possible, almost always making my own sauce and buying fresh and sometimes organic toppings when possible and reasonable. I do still buy my dough from either Trader Joe's or Whole Foods even though I have a bag of Tipo 00 flour in my pantry. Tipo 00 flour is an Italian flour that is higher in gluten (protein) than all-purpose flour and is also milled more finely. These properties allow for easier dough stretching and help create a chewier, crispier crust than doughs made with all purpose flour. The doughs from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods also have very different properties. The Trader Joe's dough is more prone to tears while I'm stretching it but it is much easier to stretch into a really thin crust. I primarily use Trader Joe's dough and have gotten quite good at stretching it without tearing. The Whole Foods dough is much more elastic and much less likely to tear while stretching but it is also much more difficult to stretch it really thin, if you like doughy pizza, try the Whole Foods dough. The Whole Foods dough is also much more prone to bubbling while it bakes. I prefer the Trader Joe's dough, do you have a favorite? Do you make your own dough?

To cook my pizzas, I place a pizza stone in the bottom third of my oven and crank the heat up around 500 degrees. The stone I have now is from Williams-Sonoma and is my third; it's by far the best I've had, going on six years. It's very important to put the stone in a cold oven and allow it come up to temperature with the oven. Putting a cold stone in a hot oven will inevitably lead to it's demise, sometimes in spectacular fashion with it cracking into dozens of pieces. Experimenting with different locations has led me to believe that in my oven, the lower third produces the crispiest crusts, which is what I'm after. Placing the stone higher in the oven will cook the top faster leaving a chewier, sometimes limp dough depending on what's on top of it. Experiment for yourself to find the ideal location for your pizza stone. My pizzas almost always take between 8 and 10 minutes to cook, again, depending on what toppings are on the pizza. For transferring the dough to the oven, I dust a wooden pizza peel (paddle) with corn meal.

Maybe someday I'll open a pizza place of my own, one can dream, can't he? Until then, I'll make pizzas in my oven, and soon, I hope, in my very own backyard, wood-fired, pizza oven. To see my next pizza creation, follow me on Twitter but until then, enjoy some of the pizzas from my very own Pizza Hall of Fame.

Bacon, Yukon Gold, Manchego, Cilantro, Basic Tomato Sauce, Truffle Oil

Smoked mozzarella, Cured Black Olives, Rosemary Sauce
 

Applegate Farms Pepperoni, Provolone, Basic Tomato Sauce

Caramelized Onion, Sweet Potato, Baby Spinach, Buffalo Mozzarella, Crumbled Goat Cheese, Basic Tomato Sauce

Apple, Pear, Caramelized Onion, Honey, Goat Brie, Walnuts, Olive Oil

Shredded Buffalo Chicken, Red Onion, Scallion, Manchego, Basic Tomato Sauce

Shredded BBQ Rotisserie Chicken, Red Onion, Scallion, Manchego, Barbecue Sauce

Caramelized Onion, Arugula, Brown Turkey Figs, Crumbled Goat Cheese, Olive Oil, Aged Balsamic

Melted Leeks, Thyme Roasted Cremini, Buffalo Mozzarella, Pecorino, Rosemary Sauce

Goat Gouda, Crumbled Goat Cheese, Cracked Black Pepper, Rosemary Sauce

Lemon-Garlic Green Olives, Sheep Feta, Crumbled Goat Cheese, Cracked Black Pepper, Garlic Olive Oil

Truffled Shitake Mushroom, Buffalo Mozzarella, Fresh Sage, Olive Oil, Truffle Oil

Pepperoni, Manchego, Pecorino, Oregano, Basic Tomato Sauce

Do you have a favorite pizza? Please leave a comment a share your passion for pizza!

Whole Grain Oatmeal Pancakes

These are the best pancakes I can remember having in years, and I made them from scratch! These are the kind of pancakes that you could eat every weekend. J and I used to make pancakes using the whole grain mixes from Arrowhead Mills but after making these pancakes from scratch, we'll never go back to mix. It's almost as easy to mix up this pancake batter from scratch than it is to go to the pantry and measure out some pre-made mix. The little extra work pays dividends in delicious pancakes that you can tell your family or friends you made completely from scratch!

One of the key ingredients in making these pancakes so great is the ground nutmeg.

One note about these pancakes, I used hemp milk instead regular milk, and you must absolutely make sure the dry ingredients are fresh. Old baking powder won't activate and you'll be left with lifeless, fluff-less pancakes. It's important that the nutmeg is fresh too, if you have a grinder for whole nutmeg that's even better, you'll get the best flavor from freshly ground nutmeg.

Whole Grain Oatmeal Pancakes
Ingredients

• 1 Cup Quaker Old Fashioned Oats
• 1 Cup All Purpose flour
• 1 Cup Whole-wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. Baking powder
• 1/2 Tsp. Nutmeg
• 1/2 Tsp. Salt
• 1 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1/4 Cup Vegetable oil
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tsp. Vanilla
• Tbsp. Honey

Directions

1. Preheat a large skillet over medium to heat.
2. Whisk together the oats, flours, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.
3. Using the same whisk in a second bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, eggs, vanilla and honey.
4. Pour the wet into the dry mixture and stir until just combined.
5. Pour batter into skillet using about 1/3 cup of batter per pancake
   
6. Once bubbles form on the outside of the pancake and do not fill in again - it is time to flip them over.
7. Flip just once - plate them up.
8. Enjoy!

Life after a long day - A 2008 retrospective

As 2008 comes to a close it's time to do some reflecting. After a year of eating out, taking out, and cooking in, J and I have finally reached our take-out limit. We are tired take out and have been cooking easy, simply meals at home this week.

Saturday night we made what our friends call Hippie Chicken. It's roasted, bone-in chicken breast dressed up with herbs and spices like rosemary and thyme, salt, pepper, hot paprika, and cayenne. The chicken is served with lots of roasted root vegetables including carrots, parsnips, golden beets, and fingerling potatoes. Sunday night was a homemade raw kale salad and a tuna melt for J, a Dr. Praeger's veggie burger for me. On Monday we had a simple bowl of spaghetti tossed with olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper and oregano with some Swedish meatballs from Ikea's freezer case. And last night we made a shepard's pie with ground turkey instead of beef, it was pretty good, and best of all, homemade!

So with 12 hours left in 2008, let's recap the last 364 and 1/2 days.

In January, I made frittatas with arugula and goat cheese and with asparagus, red pepper, fresh herbs and manchego.

In February I went to Scotland, and ate French and haggis, two separate meals. Looking back, February was a really busy month! I also wrote about my favorite mussels recipe, had a burger at brgr, and began Friday night pizza night at home.

I was so busy in March that I didn't post a single entry, and in April, all I posted were pictures from my trip to Scotland in February, and an entry on the great pasty I ate at the Edinburgh Airport.

May was another busy month, my two posts were a meme and an entry on the great Indian food I had aboard British Airways on my way to India.

In June I created the almost perfect pizza and wrote about my favorite Indian snack, pani puri.

I spent most of July on my bike and only wrote to ask for help with my fundraising for The Dana Farber Cancer Institute. I'll be looking for some help again in 2009 as I will be riding in my third Pan-Mass Challenge.

I kicked off August by riding my bike across the state of Massachusetts in the PMC, and then I ate a lot! I wrote about tandoori chicken and Thai food I ate in India back in March. I also made a French toast souffle and some amazing turkey burgers. I wrote about the home-cooked meal I enjoyed at Jason's in Luzern and the Ostrich steak I ate at Helvetia. Finally I shared my favorite lobster roll with you, ate hot dogs on Block Island, and smoked some chickens on my new Weber. Phew! What a month. Okay, so I was in Switzerland in May but didn't get to writing about it until this month.

September was another busy month for One Food Guy, 15 posts! I wrote about the great lobster salad at The Aegean, I ate some recession busting hot dogs at Gray's Papaya in NYC, I went crazy for Crazy Burger, I cooked ham and eggs on my grill before Tropical Storm Hannah soaked the Northeast, I drank mudslides and ate fish and chips, I ate a LOT of sushi and some river crabs, I made fish tacos - you know how I love fish tacos, and I resurrected Tuesday's Tastings!

In October, Taco Bell gave away free tacos, again, and I ate more fish tacos. I discovered some pretty good English muffins too.

November came and went in a flash! Thanksgiving was a hit but I still haven't posted anything about my meal. I did share my brine recipe with you and discovered a bloody mary in a bag!

Finally, December, the year is almost over. I made some chili and nearly chopped my thumb off in the process, and I ate my way through southern California and Brooklyn. I have so much more to share with you from these two trips; I ate scorpions and crickets in California and learned what calallo is at Sugarcane in New York - I liked everything by the way. I also spent a weekend in the snowy Catskill Mountains in New York, camping, and ate some pretty good freeze dried camp meals. I'll tell you all about that too.

In 2009 I will not stop eating, but I do hope to catch you up on all the great eating I've done in the last month. One of my goals for One Food Guy in 2009 is to write more frequently and never stop exploring menus.

My food philosophy is: If it's on the menu then someone thinks it's good, try it! Be adventurous and be rewarded!

Happy New Year everyone!! Eat well and eat often, everything in moderation.

A One Food Guy Favorite - Fish Tacos!

I think I've made it pretty clear that I love sushi, but I also love Mexican food, specifically tacos! I could tell you about the time J and I were in Mexico and had the most amazing tacos al pastor at this little place in Playa del Carmen called "Tacos" or I could tell you about this small restaurant in Waltham, MA called Taqueria Mexico that serves really great tacos. I could tell you about this place in Framingham, MA called Acapulcos that has outstanding tacos al pastor and even better fish tacos or I could tell you about The Paramount in Boston and The Cottage in Wellesley, both serving great fish tacos. But I'm not going to tell you about any of them; I'm going to tell you about the fish tacos that I made.

My fish tacos consisted of a nice fresh cod fillet sliced up into one inch strips, seasoned with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, cooked on a cast iron grill pan and served in fresh corn tortillas that I warmed in the oven. I made some pico de gallo with diced tomato, jalapeno, red onion, lime juice, salt, and pepper and some aji verde to serve on top of the fish with some shredded cabbage and cilantro. The aji verde was super hot but extremely fresh tasting and perfect with the fish.

I plated the tacos with yellow rice and chipotle black beans. To make the beans I sauteed some red onion and garlic in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then added in a can of black beans with four chipotle peppers from a can with the adobo sauce. I cooked the mixture over medium low heat for about five minutes and added in some chopped cilantro at the end.

These were great tacos; J said she thought they were even better than the ones we get at Acapulcos! This was about as spicy a meal as any that has come out of my kitchen. The pico was spicy, the aji verde very spicy, and the black beans, spicy. So to that I say, if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen!

Pizza Night!

Pizza. It's a food of love as one of the Food Network celebrity chefs would say. Good old fashioned comfort food. And tonight, it's home made! I got the idea from my friend Mike who said he was making pizza with his wife, so thanks Mike.

I stopped in to Trader Joe's on my way home from work to pick up all the fixin's. I bought a bag of ready made pizza dough ($.99) from the refrigerated case, a block of Manchego cheese ($5.19), a package of pepperoni ($2.69), a package of grilled chicken strips ($5.69), and a jar of Trader Giotti's Pizza Sauce ($1.89). I already had Pecorino Romano cheese at home as well as dried oregano and crushed red pepper. This was going to be some good pizza and all for $16.45, about the priced you'd pay for one pizza at a fancy pizza place.

One package of dough is enough for two good sized thin crust pizzas. I removed the dough from the bag - make sure you flour your hands or the dough will stick to them - and placed it on my floured Boos board. Using my pastry scraper I divided the dough in half and began to work each half into a flat shape for the pizza. If the dough is cold, as mine was, it will need to rest and warm up before you'll be able to really stretch the dough. When cold, the dough will be very elastic and won't retain it's stretched shape very well.

Once the dough has rested for about ten minutes, I stretched it out using my knuckles underneath the dough. If you use your finger tips, you're likely to tear the dough or poke a finger through. So I stretched out my dough and placed it on our pizza peel that I dusted with cornmeal; the cornmeal will help the pizza slide off the peel and onto the pizza stone in the oven. I then spread a good coating of Trader Giotti's Pizza Sauce on the dough. J wanted to help make the pizza so she spread about a cup of shredded Manchego cheese, half a cup of grated Pecorino Romano, a healthy dose of dried oregano, crushed red pepper and freshly ground black pepper. Doesn't this pizza look great already?!

Next, J added some sliced pepperoni and pieces of grilled chicken,

and into a 450 degree oven for twelve minutes. Wow this pizza looks great!

While pizza number one (above) was in the oven, I worked on pizza number two. I used the same cheese and spice blend, but made this pizza half pepperoni and half grilled chicken, just to mix things up.

Yummy pizza on a cold Friday night. It doesn't get much better than this!