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Pizza Heaven

pizza
November 16, 2010 By In eat me, three points kitchen

The apple, as they say, falls in proximity to the tree, so it probably comes as little shock that my dad is also at home running experiments in the kitchen. Here he offers his advice on how those of us living far from the Windy City can enjoy deep-dish pizza straight out of our home ovens.–MS

If you are going to be in Chicago soon, then stop in to Giordano’s on Rush St. for authentic deep-dish pizza. If you cannot make the trip, then try this. You need approximately $15.00 and about 3 hours. This puts the “pie” in pizza pie. You have to sit down to eat this 2 1/2″ tall crust with layers of cheese, pepperoni and sausage, tomatoes, more cheese, and more everything.

You can make a spectacular 14″ or two 9″. I prefer the two 9″. You can make one pepperoni and the other sausage.

The crust is unique. It is made with three different fats–olive oil, melted butter, vegetable oil–and also contains cornmeal for a subtle crunch.

The filling is Mozzarella and Provolone cheese, sweet Italian sausage, pepperoni, (you can sub sautéed vegetables, but make sure they are very dry), canned diced tomatoes, garlic, sugar, pizza seasoning, and grated Romano.

Do it right and you are in pizza heaven.

–Tom Sheridan

Kale Soup for the Sick (with a Side of Mostly Whole Wheat Bread)

soup
November 12, 2010 By In eat me, three points kitchen

I’m the kind of person who likes to crawl into their man-cave when sick. The down side of this is that when the fridge is empty, the only path to sustenance is to drag one’s self from said cave to either the kitchen or the grocery store. I decided that combing my hair would be more work than chopping veggies, so I opted for culinary duty. Plus, all those market veggies had come to the party last Saturday and had yet to get a worthy invitation for a good dance dish.

Now, I’m not normally a broth-based soup person. I like it blended or stewed, but not with bits of things floating in admittedly tasty almost-water. However, two weeks into a hacking cough, hot water with honey was getting pretty boring (even if the menthol cough drops had deadened most of my taste buds) and I wanted something with enough liquid that I could dip in for a ladle or two of hot liquid in between meals. As I had fresh navy beans, kale, and even a parmesan cheese rind on hand (I really think that part is essential to a broth worth sipping–do not skip!), I made a small vat of this soup, making it a vegetarian version by skipping the sausage and substituting vegetable stock for all liquid (though at less volume than indicated in the recipe–probably about 7 cups total). It was super tasty and perhaps the most effective medicine I’ve tried so far. Plus, half went into the freezer and I’m now prepared for the next time I am either too sick or, more likely, just too tired to cook.

I was also out of bread, so this morning I fired up Sir Mix-a-Lot again. B has asked me to work on a 100% whole wheat loaf for him, and since my parents had brought me a bag of whole wheat flour from a local Ohio source, I decided to give this King Arthur version a try. As this flour was a pretty course grind, I erred on the side of caution and did half-and-half with some white unbleached bread flour, and kicked in some vital wheat gluten for good measure. Since I wanted this to be the simplest (read: neatest) making of bread ever, I vowed to only do a mixer knead–not a pinch of flour on the counter. In the end, the dough was beautiful and the rise amazing. I think this household is primed to go 100% on the next venture!

Keep safe and stay healthy out there, everyone! I’m sure trying to leverage a holiday bird one-handed is no fun at all and you certainly don’t want to get caught by family members coughing on the turkey.