Pizza Pizza

Pizza. It's my specialty, and today's class was just about that. We were also feeding parents, who were coming to school to fill in some sort of survey, so the production of enough food to feed about 50 mouths were also on the agenda.

Alas, this was the lesson for bread in general, so I began by speaking a little bit to yeast and gluten. Yeast are these neat little bacteria that can be stored stably at room temp, but when you give them a combination of water, warmth and food (the sugars in flour or, umm, sugar), and they eat and poop out CO2, the gas that makes things puff up when baked. That which is puffing is defined by the proteins in the flour called gluten -- the more gluten you have, the firmer, tougher hole structure the bread will have. Less gluten, you have more tender, looser hole structure like for cake or wonderbread.

The lesson was rather straight forward. Make the dough, let it rest and rise for an hour while prepping the toppings. Stretch dough, top, bake, serve. It was nice that there was a good variety of tasks to keep every one hopping, and cleaning. I brought in two pizza stones for the convection oven, but the pilot lights on the two conventional ovens were out so we had a bit of a pinch point in our production. We produced about 30 pies, some of surprisingly good quality, some of pretty laughable  looks. One student could not get the hang of stretching, and bungled 4 in a row and wanted to give up. I told her we made extra on purpose, and that she should just keep going. And she did, and the 5th was fine. I told her I wanted to smack her hard, in a good way. 

I went on a bit about how less is more, how a properly stretched pizza skin can not accept too many topping without it becoming a soupy mess when it hits the plate. I also stressed the importance of keeping the pizza peel dry, or the pizza would stick and create an ungodly mess. A few times they left the pizza on the board too long and I showed them how to lift up an edge and blow, unsticking the raw skin. Funnily enough, no one's pizza died except for the very last one, where the student built her pie on a damp peel.

Undecided what to cook next week. On the sign in sheet, got some nice feedback, tho: 

I wanna pizza all day, and pizza each and every night

I don't know if learning the ephemera and details of making proper pizza will help these kids figure out how to deal with the world at large, but it may help them appreciate good pizza just a little bit more.

I brought two pizza stones from home and immediately started preheating them in the convection oven full blast -- 550˚. Yeast, flour, honey,everything was laid out as orderly as possible to make dough by hand...

PIZZA DOUGH

Yield: 4 7-8 inch rounds

Warm water 2 ½ cup
Active dry yeast 2 1/2 tsp
Honey ½ tsp
Olive oil 1 ½ tbsp
AP flour 5 ½ to 6 cups
Kosher salt 2 tbsp

1. Make sure water is warm to the touch – not luke warm and not painful to the touch. Sprinkle yeast in water and let the yeast soften for a few minutes. Stir the yeast to dissolve it completely. Add the honey and the olive oil. Mix to combine.
2. Add flour one cup at a time to liquid and mix with spoon, fork or hand until a sticky mass. Add salt and knead to combine.
3. Turn out onto a dry, lightly floured surface and knead until you have a smooth, elastic ball that can be kneaded easily. Place in an oiled bowl, covered with a towel, and put in a warm place and rise until doubled.
4. Deflate dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut into 4 equal portions and roll each into a ball. Let rest covered with towel for 15 minutes.
5. Stretch into a round disc about 1/8” thick.

The kids complained about how hard it was to knead the dough, I didn't have the heart to tell them that no one does this by hand -- it's all done in a mixer, either at home in a small kitchen aide or in a Hobart floor-model in a restaurant. Still, it was good to work it to a smooth state.

The dough had to rise, so during that time we mised all the toppings -- sliced and grated cheeses, made some simple tomato sauce (sent canned whole tomatoes through a food mill, seasoned with salt, balsamic and sugar to taste), loosed up some raw sausage, cleaned some raw shrimp, sliced pepperoni, roasted green peppers on the stove top, slowly caramelized onions in chicken fat, and arranged a toppings area that included all that plus prosciutto, red pepper flakes, salt, olive oil and ground pepper.


Stretching is not something that can be lectured about or written about, it must be shown, then repeated. There are many techniques, but there are certain commonalities. NO SLAPPING -- it knocks the CO2 right out of the dough and makes it more wafer like than pizza like. Spinning and throwing is fun and cool, but does not make for good pizza. Stretching, pushing, but not too much pulling, tearing is a no no.

I only distributed one recipe, and demoed it....

MARGARITA PIZZA

Yield: 1 8” pizza

Stretched dough disc 1 each
Tomato sauce to taste
Mozzarella cheese to taste
Parmesan, grated to taste
Oregano to taste
Olive Oil to taste
Salt to taste
Basil to taste

1. Place dough disc on peel. Pour sauce directly on the center of dough disc and spread evenly with back of spoon until there is more sauce towards the rim than the center.
2. Place cheeses on top of sauce, taking care to be light towards the center
3. Sprinkle with oregano.
4. Apply olive oil in a spiral, starting with a big loop by the cornicone and coming short of the center.
5. Sprinkle with salt.
6. Place pizza in a preheated 500˚ oven on a stone. Bake until crust is golden. Check bottom, as it may cook faster than the top. If the bottom gets dark golden first, it is done regardless of the top.
7. Apply basil, either whole, torn or chiffonade. Hit with more olive oil if it looks dry. Serve immediately.

With all the other toppings available, I let them go at it with just a few rules:

• Less is more.
• Heavy on the outside, light on the inside. Too much in the middle makes for a wet, uneatable pie
• Finish with olive oil and salt, unless you're using a fatty, salty topping like pepperoni
• It's easy to under cook a pie. It's hard to get it to the point where it looks a little burnt but not yet carbonized and bitter.

The school was hosting some representatives from some companies of some sort, so we provided several trays of miscellaneous pizza for the people, about 30 in all. The students did ok -- I had to correct a lot of stretching jobs -- mostly understretched. I let one go in and when it come out, it was a small, fat bready disc with toppings. A few undertopped their pies, leaving patches with nothing on it, not even oil or salt. But by the time each one of them got 7 or 8 under their belt, they seemed to get a feel for basic balance.

The next day, I met the kids and the counselor at the pizzeria I consult at for a tour and a snack. The kids were pretty into seeing a restaurant kitchen and talking to L, the chef/owner who is a bit of a character.

Next up, the final class of this group. I asked the kids to suggest what they want to cook, and we're gonna make a meal of it...

Pizza and Focaccia (-sigh-)

I've been looking forward to 'pizza day' at culinary school for a while, but in the end it wasn't nearly exciting as I thought it would be -- as with anything worthwhile, appreciation has to be acquired with experience. The 'sushi day' at school was ridiculous for the same reason: people have to study and train in the world of sushi for 10-20 years before becoming a full fledged sushi chef, and one day of "creatively" assembling fish on rice doesn't really do it justice. Likewise, one day of "creatively" assembling a line of standardized toppings on dough left me feeling somewhat bereft.

That's not to say I didn't learn anything -- Chef G is clearly not only a master baker, but passionate about pizza and knows more about it than any snooty blogger-culinary student. The dough we made yesterday sat in the refrigerator overnight. The dough was scaled out into 8 ounce balls. The dough had to be rounded by hand on the metal tables. I tried several times and the seams kept on popping up, while Chef G's came out in perfect orbs. She showed me the specific motions, and how important it was not to have the dough too dry -- it needs to catch on the surface a little to round it without kneading it. I never bothered rounding my dough too much at home because in the end, it's going to be shaped into a disk, but this is the professional, traditional way to do it, and is one of many small details that'll help deliver an even, uniform product.

At first, the dough was left to rise at room temperature on the speedracks. Chef G had instructed us to place all the dough into the proofing box, which has a slightly elevated temperature and higher moister. She could judge the speed and volume of the yeast's activity just by looking at the dough, and by placing it in the proofer made it speed up a little. Again, one only learns that kind of judgement from experience.

When the dough was properly risen, Chef G did a demo on how to roll and assemble the pizza. She used cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking to the table, something I'd avoided because I don't like the gritty feeling in my mouth. She said she doesn't like to use flour because it's too easy to use too much, and can potentially dry out the dough (which would alter the whole texture profile in the final product). She artfully spread the cornmeal to minimize its presence -- the exact opposite of, say, Two Boots style, a NYC pizzeria which uses a thick layer of cornmeal on the bottom of the crust as a calling-card (yuck!)...

After pushing the ball of dough down into a disk, she stretched the dough by hand, not bothering with a rolling pin at all. By holding the edge of the disk and gently tugging it while turning it in a circle, the familiar pie shape emerged. She laid the disc on a gently-corn-floured pizza peal (a large wooden paddle with a long handle) and pushed the dough out a bit further to give a slightly raised handle to the crust. The dough was put at the edge of the peel; in this way, when it came time to place it on a heated stone in the oven, it wouldn't have too far to go to be slid off.

Then she topped it. First thing she did was brush a layer of olive oil on the dough. She said this would create a hydrophobic barrier between the toppings and the dough -- any water released from the toppings would be prevented from soaking the dough, creating that most horrible of things, the flibbidy-flobbidy slice. It also encourages browning, which in our vastly inappropriate ovens, would not get anywhere near the 900+ degrees needed to make a properly blistered and charred pie.

She topped hers with some delicate combination of goat cheese and onion, and when it came out after a good 12 minutes, added prosciutto, arugula, and extra virgin olive oil. She said all toppings on a pie go on before baking, EXCEPT for greens (including basil) and delicate cured meats, all of which should be placed on a pie as soon as it comes out of the oven. Thus, the radiant heat of the pie will gently wilt these ingredients, while the full blast of a pizza oven will carbonize them.

Then everyone went and did their pies. I did three: a simple margherita (chopped whole canned San Marzano tomatoes, moz, and finished with torn basil, olive oil, and salt); mushroom (cooked sauce, moz, and sautéed mushrooms); and roasted pepper (cooked sauce with radially-laid out roasted peppers covered generously with parmesan, finished with arugula and oil). The flavor of the crust was pretty good, and indeed treating it with oil helped firm it. But the quality of the ingredients (particularly the flavorless, oily moz) plus the low temp of the ovens prevented any hope of pizza nirvana.

Dirty Kim did bust out a fabulous Mornay-sauced pie, and Natasha mistook some herbs with mint, creating a very odd flavor profile. Dora the Explorer clumsily threw her pie into the oven above mine, and a good portion of her toppings fell onto my margherita. Pizzacrime!

I also brought in my own dough. But, after sitting on the proofing rack for 3 hours, it become a loose, shapeless, liquidy mess. I look forward to experimenting with the ratios of the school dough and the double-0 flour crossed with the recipes I've been using.

Oh yeah, we did breadsticks and focaccia, too. Sicilian pizza is just focaccia treated like pizza, an American invention. Whatevah!

ADDENDA:
Went out to deep NJ to visit a friend and her kid. Unfortunately, there was some problems with the buses and had to wangle a train, putting me home close to midnight.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, god granola with good milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTINGS: 11-11:30am, various small tastes of pizzas, a bite of breadstick, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, 1 piece of school made focaccia, 1 breadstick, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:30pm, roast beef sandwich, Thai chocolate gelato, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:45pm, big spoonful of peanut butter, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Bread and Breadsticks (Makin' Pizza Dough)

Bread, staff of life, mortal enemy of carbophobes, kind of boring out of a bag but transcendental when hot out of an oven. Today we made two doughs that had to slow rise in the fridge overnight (bread stick dough and pizza dough) and two that required a rise a and a proof before hitting up the ovens by the end of class (semolina bread and soft rolls)

I paid close attention while Chef G reviewed the recipes, particularly the pizza dough. The book called for bread flour, but Chef called up for Italian 00 flour, the most authentic and high quality flour to make pizza with. Unfortunately, despite listening, I misheard 3 lbs of flour to 3lbs plus 4 to 8 ounces as 3lbs to 4lbs and 8oz. In the dough recipe I use, after you got the yeast, water, oil, salt mixed and adding the flour, you get it so the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. As I'm adding my flour, Chef stops me and says it's too dry and not tacky enough, even though it's wetter than how I get it at home. She says it should be ok, I'll have a little bit more dough than the others. She measured what flour I had left, and I went over by about 6 oz. Into a greased bag and into the fridge for tomorrow.

I also made the semolina dough, which again is not hell of a lot different, just a different set of ratios, mixing AP flour with semolina. Into a greased bowl, into the proofing box, which is heated to the 80s with steam heat.

When taken out of the proofing box, it's rolled into a few strands, breaded, then put into the box to proof a final time. Dirty Kim and Long Island Lolita made a couple of batches of 'soft roll' dough, basically a mild white bread. Most of it is rolled into small balls, some brushed with poppy or sesame, some of it is rolled out and cut into squares and folded around sauteed onions.

Out of the oven, everything tasted pretty good, though the white bread stuff was kinda dull. Tomorrow, pizza and focaccia. Today I took home a quart of 00 flour for some home work, and tomorrow, I'll be bringing in some of my own dough and sauce from the freezer to cook up for Chef, to get her professional opinion. I hope she's brutal!

ADDENDA:
Scale told me 225 this morning. I told it to shut uuuuup.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
So fresh n' delicious.

AM TASTINGS: 10-11am, french bread with a little chocolate, couple of onion pockets,couple of small rolls, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 1: 12:15am, pasta with pistachio/lemon cream sauce, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not tempted to eat the bread at the restaurant at all.

LUNCH 2: 4pm, seitan, hijiki, quinoa, tahini dressing, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Post yoga snicklesnack.

PM SNACK: 6:45pm, watermelon, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pre-swim snacklesnick.

DINNER: 8pm, large green salad with Italian dressing, 3 sausage brioche roll thingies, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 3 chocolate croissants, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 Still hungry after dinner. Just too healthy all day!!

Asian Soups and Bread (Explorations in Dough)

Today started with kitchen work, as some doughs had to be set up to rise. There were a lot of interesting but simple recipes today, of which I got wrapped up in two....and naan. Naan is a flat bread similar to pizza, but after making the dough twice and baking it a handful of times, learned to appreciate how it's not pizza.

First the dough: like pizza, yeast, water, flour and salt. Unlike pizza, ghee, yogurt and black onion seeds. The dough is mixed, kneaded to smooth, and coated in ghee and left covered to rise. The recipe we were using was annoyingly imprecise -- "2 cups" of flour is a volume measure, and could be packed light or tight. 2 cups is also 16 ounces, which is weight and is the same every time regardless of volume. My first dough was dry, tough and slightly lumpy after kneeding, so I did a second one, which was looser and pliable.

I prepped and cooked a mango chutney. Cumin and mustard seeds sauteed in some ghee until they make popping noises, thrown in diced onion, green chile and ginger till soft. Then jaggery (an unrefined sugar-cane substance), salt, ground cardamom, diced mango and lime juice are thrown in wit a little water and cooked till thick.

Moved on to miso soup. First, you make dashi, basic Japanese stock. Put kombu (sea weed) in cold water, bring to simmer and remove kombu. Bring to boil, add bonito flakes (dried makerel) and remove from heat, sit 5 minutes, strain. For the miso soup, simply add some miso paste and whisk. Garnish with sliced scallion and cubed tofu. My soup actually tasted a lot less salty then many restaurant soups I've had.

Then back to the bread, both which rose nicely. The recipe called to make 6 breads out of each recipe, but really only made 2 restaurant-sized naans. Punch down, divide, roll into a teardrop shape, sprinkle with onion seeds and brush with ghee. As the school does not have a tandoori oven, pizza stones were placed in ovens going full blast. I treated the dough like pizza, and made them as thin as possible with a light coating -- it just wasn't very good. By my 4th and final naan, I allowed the dough to be thick, particularly around the edges and drenched it in ghee. When it came out, it just looked right, and tasted it too.

ADDENDA:
Spent the afternoon prepping mise for a pizza dinner for 5 of B's friends and relatives. Was a lot of fun, did a few pizzas I haven't done before. Rather than words, here's the pics!:
Salad pizza: romaine, shredded carrots, cuce, scallion and red onion dressed simply in balsamic and olive oil over a garlic and oil crust. Vegan!


Bufalla moz and raw tomato sauce with basil. The first two pies I undercooked a little.


Fresh school-made moz with spinach, onion and mushroom. Gave it an extra minute, wonderfully crisp but chewy.


Thin sliced wild caught scallops over a garlicy wine sauce, came out surprisingly good for a first try, though could of used a little less garlic and a squirt of lemon.


Tarte Flambe. Screwed this one up but saved it from disaster by spreading the over-salted, over-mixed cheese sauce (cottage cheese and creme fraiche) VERY thin. Bacon and onoiin on top, could of carmelized the onion more to make them sweeter.

Roasted pear and and honeyed mascapone, really good and not overly sweet.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic chex with good milk

AM TASTINGS: 10-11am, 1 naan, lentil daal, miso soup, paratha, poori, chapati, scallion pancake, tomato chutney, mango chutney, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, almond ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Straight out of the machine.

PM SNACK: 6pm, peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hungry while prepping dinner.

DINNER: 7:30pm, 6 different kinds of pizza, ice cream, 1 glass wine, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

Italian Regional Cuisine: South (Cheese Please)

Today we focused on the south of Italy, and within Chef K's lecture, she mentioned that the south is the home of pizza, but didn't go into any detail about the history of method of my favorite food -- only that we would be making it next mod, not today. She had a short list of famous NYC pizzerias, but excluded the really good ones -- Una Pizzeria Neapolitana, Isabella's Oven, and some famous but not top-rate ones, like Lombardi's. She made the bold assertion that good pizza can't really be found in Manhattan anymore, that you have to go to Brooklyn to a place like DiFaras. She has a point, but she was overgeneralizing.

The menu today was making fresh mozzarella, Mozzarella in Carrozza (fried cheese sammiches), Pasta con Cavolfiore (rigatoni with cauliflower), Miccheroni con Salsa de Pomodoro e Ricotta (buccatini noodles in a spicey red sauce with ricotta), Pesce all'Acqua Pazza (bass in 'crazy water'), Agnello Cacio e Uova (braised lamb in eggy sauce), and Gattó di Patate (cheesy potato bomb).

First up, everyone made cheese. This was of particular interest to me, because to be able to make my own cheese could only mean the opportunity to kick my own home pizzas up a notch. First, you start with cheese curd, which we received in a big block. According to Chef K, you can buy it by the pound at better Italian appetizing stores -- and it ain't cheap, usually just as expensive as premade mozz. We cut it into even-sized cubes. (I wonder if this is the same fabled cheese curd that is needed for poutine?)

Then you get on some hand protection, in this case three pairs of rubber gloves. On the fire you need a large pot of boiling water, extra-salt. The water needs to be much saltier than pasta water, almost like sea water. You cover the curd with the boiling water and immediately the water becomes milky. You need the super-heated curd with your hands into a ball, while keeping it in the water. Once it comes together, it should start to look a bit shiny and be able to be stretched. Don't want to overwork it, it will become tough. Roll it into a ball (or whatever fancy shape, wrap it in plastic and hold it in the white water in the fridge). The water will keep in fresh, but the plastic will help prevent too much salt from being absorbed.

We divvied up the recipes and I worked on the Gattó. I don't know what the official English translation is, but Potato Cheese Bomb would be appropriate. Basically you boil and rice a few pounds of potatoes, mix in a lot of whole butter, a lot of Parmesan cheese, chopped up salty soppressata, egg, half and half, marscapone, and smoked mozzarella. In a buttered and bread-crumb-laden cup, layer the mixture with a layer of fresh mozzarella in the middle, then bake that bad boy till it's hot all the way through and golden brown on the outside. It tasted....like a cheese n' potato bomb went off in my mouth, with little sopressata citizens screaming bloody murder as I chewed them right up. I could see this being sold on a stick at the state fair in Minnesota (sorry, E!).

We all took a crack at frying mozz sammiches. Take squares of crustless white bread, slap some freshly-made mozz, a little fresh tomato and basil, dredge in flower, then dip in some eggwash pan-fry. I would of had some pictures of these pretty tasty squares, but my phone died for a while after being handled too close to a bowl of hot mozz water.

I was done by 10 with my stuff, and was inspired by Dirty Kim -- she too had finished her stuff, and was going over with Chef K a recipe for bread pudding to use up the tons of crusts we generated for the sandwiches. So I told Chef K I wanted to make some fresh pasta ravioli, using ingredients laying around. I made a stuffing of smoked mozz, ricotta, egg, Parmesan, basil, parsley and salt, which tasted ok. However, I decided to experiment with the pasta. I purposefully under-kneaded the dough, let sit for only 30 minutes, then ran it through the machine quickly. The dough was tough, crumbly from the get-go and never quite got the right pasta feel. I made ravioli by hand to practice, but by the time I was done there was no time to cook them. Still, it was the kind of exercise I would have never done at home....

Tommorow, off to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

ADDENDA
Cousin J had a going-away get together this evening so I whipped out the bundt pan and made a pound cake:

Lots of eggs, heavy cream, sugar, nothing good for ya. Used better eggs and a better quality flour, and baked it a bit shorter this time, came out a lot less dense and moister than last time. To balance its natural density, I whipped cream cheese with sugar and whipped cream:People seemed to like it, about 2/3 of it was gone when I left. I also brought fresh mozz I made today in class and got some organic heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market, some organic basil and dressed in with olive oil and basil:
That was gone by the time I left!

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 10:30am, several eggy fried mozz sandwiches, a few bites of potatoey cheesy stuff,taste of pasta and red sauce, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Didn't eat too many, but there were so dense just filled me up.

PM TASTINGS: 3pm, lemon pound cake in various states of cooking, bits of whipped cream/cream cheese frosting, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Making an over-the-top pound cake for cousin J's going away thing, gonna make a great tomato and mozz plate too when I'm there.

DINNER: 6pm, several pieces of fresh moz with basil and yummy heirloom tomatoes dressed in olive oil and salt, couple of tears of bread, a small piece of frosted pound cake, a small piece of vegan chocolate cake, 1 glass wine, 1/2 beet, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 10pm, quart of water.

Regional Cuisine: Provence (Nite of 1,000 Pizzas)

Today's mood was the lowest yet, again with a different third of the class absent. After a short lecture about the region we were cooking from (dry facts about the locally grown ingredients), we reviewed the menu: Bourride (fish stew), Filet de Sardines en Escaneche (marinaded & grilled sardines), Tourte de Blettes a la Niccoise (Swiss chard tart) and Petits Farcis a la Facon du Vieux Nice (Stuffed Provencale vegetables.) Dirty Dave took the tart, Chef Jr took on the four different vegetables, Dora went her own way with the sardines, and Speed and I took a crack at the fish stew.

First step was making Fish Fumet -- basic stock. White mirepoix (onion, white leek) was sweated in butter, then all sorts of fleshy fishbones were hacked down to size an put in with white wine and covered to steam for 5 minutes. A load more of wine, dry vermouth and water were added to cover the bones, along with some herbs. Simmered for about an hour, then strained.

The soup base was more mirepoix and fennel sweated, then tomato concasse, potatoes and orange & lemon rinds thrown in in a sachet. Covered with fish stock, simmered for a while to tenderize the tatos, seasoned with salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne.

clams. Mussels first, all were dumped in to simmer for 10 minutes. During prep time, I made While that was happening, the seafood was cleaned and portioned: squid, shrimp, red snapper, mussels and little neckaoili (garlic mayonnaise) which now was tempered into the soup (tempering: to prevent the eggs in the mayo from curdling, a bit of the soup is mixed into the mayo and stirred, a little by little to raise the temp slowly, then the mess is added to the big soup bowl.) Parsley and scallion is tossed in for some green, and Chef Jr's croutes are floated on top with pinkish smear of rouille, a puree of red peppers, chilies, garlic, basic and olive oil.

The class rolled to an end, with yesterday's cassoulet (which required holding overnight to get a good 3 hour cookign in) tasting better than just about everything today. Monday, our last day in France, Burgundy.

ADDENDA:
This evening was what I'd call a Night of 1000 (or so) Pizzas. Dirty Dave, Dirty Kim, and Stalker Kowalski came over with toppings and wine (and beer) pairings and we went crazy on the dough I set up to rise in the fridge on Wednesday. Long Island Lolita was supposed to come, but she got sidetracked by some last minute Billy Joel tickets -- Billy Joel to Long Islanders is like crack to a crackhead!

Rather than go on at length about how yummy it all was, check out the pictures:

The dough, right after making it on Wednesday.

The dough, after rising 48 hours in the fridge.

Wonderfully elastic, got to some nice thinness. Can't see it in this pic, but the light was shining through the raw stretched dough admirably.

Under the skirt shot, à la Sliceny.com . I had three air conditioner s in the house running, so I could heat my 2 pizza stones at maximum heat for about 5 hours. The above browning was achieved in 2 minutes. On the bottom stone, 4 minutes slightly burned the crust!

The first pizza: simply caesar-dressing on romaine, cold, on top of a garlic & extra virgin olive oil-baked crust, hit with sea-salt. Made the dressing, too.

Bufala mozz, parm-reg, and homemade tomato sauce, a raw sauce made with market tomatoes. I wanted to use up the whole ball of mozz, and ended up overcheesing, unfortunately. A few glasses of wine down, forgot the basil chiffonade.

Dirty Kim's : goat cheese, sautéed multicolor peppers and clams on top of a layer of mornay sauce (bechamel and gruyère) -- slightly spicy and totally delicious.

Dirty Dave's: duck confit and cherry tomatoes over fontina and ricotta. The saltiness of the duck was a heavenly match with the sweetness of the cheeses.

SK's first dessert pie: roasted pears over honeyed marscapone. Never made a sweet pie on my dough, but it totally totally worked. B's favorite.


SK's second pie: white and dark chocolate over a bed of raspberry sauce. I actually made the crust a little too thin to hold the topping (I guess sweet pies can go a bit thicker than a cheese pie, to balance the sweetness), but it was still amazingly good. I kind of detest white chocolate, but in this case, I thought it really enhanced the raspberry flavor instead of competing with it like the dark.

And, of course, the menu:

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Woke up hungry, first time in quite a while, nice motivation to make a smoothie. Good yogurt and milk, freshly ground flax, banana, grapes, cherries, blueberries, ice, kick ass.

AM TASTINGS: 10:30-11am, tarte tatin & vanilla icecream, a stuffed mushroom, a few spoonfuls of fish soup, a small plate of yesterday's long cooking cassoulet (white bean stew with pork), assortment of amazing desserts sent up from the pastry class, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Today's food didn't appeal, unfornately a lot of sweets materialized.

LUNCH: 4:15pm, school-made mushroom risotto, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, small amount of homemade chocolate gelato, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, slices of various homemade pizzas, including 2 dessert pizzas, about 3 units of alcohol, including 3 beers and 4 wines, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5