Baking Double Crust Stuffed Pizza Pie

Posted on 19 September 2013 by christao408

Between clients and visiting guests, these have been busy days. Still, I manage to find some time to get into the kitchen and cook. This evening it was an attempt at double-crust stuffed pizza pie.

Unlike “deep dish” pizzas, which are single-crust pizzas with a very thick layer of toppings, a double crust stuffed pizza has the first layer of crust topped with all the normal pizza toppings minus the sauce, wrapped with a second layer of crust. The sauce, a bit drier and chunkier than normal, is put over the top crust and then the pie is baked. I first tried this style of pizza in the San Francisco Bay Area at Zachary’s and Little Star.

In addition to making my own crust, using Tipo 00 flour from Italy and some rosemary from my garden, I made my own sauce, cooked some spinach, and cooked some mushrooms, draining them so there wouldn’t be too much extra liquid.

After placing the bottom layer of dough in a cake tin, I added alternating layers of the ingredients: cheese, spinach, mushrooms, and pepperoni.

This video shows me adding the second crust, tucking it in, and adding the sauce. The only part of the pizza that was a problem was too much crust along the sides. In the future, I think I would cut the top dough to fit and just pinch the seams closed instead of having an overlap and folding the pieces together.

The end result was beautiful. The crusts were crisp, the interior ingredients were a cheesy mass, and the slightly spicy sauce cut through the richness of the fillings.

Homemade Pizza and Pasta Party

Posted on 27 February 2013 by christao408

Last Friday we gathered at Chow’s place to cook dinner. The menu: homemade pizzas and pasta. The pizzas were a variety of gourmet types based on the menu of Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn, which Chow had tried on a recent visit. The pasta was a homemade chorizo and butternut squash ravioli. And to top it off, I made kaffir lime cheesecake.

Friends gather around the large island in the kitchen, helping to prepare ingredients and eat appetizers. The ravioli are already prepared and drying and we were waiting for the oven to preheat for the pizzas.

Every time I cook at a friend’s house, it is a bit of a logistics ordeal. In this case, I needed my KitchenAid mixer so I could roll out the pasta. I was also bringing a case of Oregon beer.

The beer in question is from Rogue, an independent brewer. The most interest beer of the evening: Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. Had a distinct smokiness with a subtle sweetness on the tail end of the flavor.

For the pasta, I made homemade fresh (not dried) chorizo. I bought pork belly and ground it, adding paprika, garlic, and chili powder.

Browned the sausage in a pan, drained it on paper towels to remove the considerable grease, and then blended it with a butternut squash puree made from locally produced organic squash.

Make the pasta from scratch using Thomas Keller’s “Seven Yolk Pasta” with semolina flour. This is the best way to mix pasta dough, using your hands.

Using a creative technique I picked up watching Season 10 of Top Chef, I layered sage leaves between two sheets of pasta dough and then pressed them several more times. Then flattens the leaves, making the pasta pretty and adding some sage flavor.

Completed ravioli. I cut them relatively small so they didn’t have a lot of filling. In hindsight, I would have added more butternut squash and less chorizo as the sausage overpowered the squash flavor. A few more sage leaves would have been nice, too.

After boiling the ravioli, we fried them in a pan with browned butter and sage leaves. Became a bit more crispy than intended but were tasty all the same.

While I made the pizza dough (with Type 00 flour, a finer texture than regular all-purpose flour), I let Chow coordinate the toppings for each pie.

Half mushroom and pepperoni and half Jerusalem artichoke and pesto.

Salame!

Sliced Brussels sprouts, Boursin cheese, and locally produced pastrami.

Tomato, fresh buffalo mozzarella, and rocket.

For dessert, I once again made the kaffir lime cheesecake that was such a hit on New Year’s Day. It begins by steeping the lime leaves in heavy cream.

The crust is made of graham crackers, toasted pecans, sugar, and butter.

The main ingredients are cream cheese, eggs, the infused cream, kaffir lime zest, and a little lime juice. The juice comes from a regular lime as the kaffir lime juice is much to acidic.

The ingredients are blended together until smooth and light. Truth be told, I add two or three drops of green food coloring just to augment the color. The leaves alone give it only the most pale of greens.

Tap several times to release air bubbles and then cook in a water bath for 40-45 minutes. The key to a cheesecake with a smooth top (no cracks) is to turn the oven off when the edges are set but the center is still very shaky. Then let it complete cooking in the closed (but turned off) oven for another hour. This lets it cool down gradually and prevents the cracks.

The finished product has a mixture of sour cream, kaffir lime zest, and sugar poured over the top. I garnished with a chiffonade of kaffir lime leaves. This worked okay the first time but this time the leaves were a bit tough. I need to choose the smaller, more tender leaves and cut them more finely. The taste of the cake was good, though, and won rave reviews.

Most importantly, we had friends gathered together and shared good food, good wine, and good company. After all, that’s what makes the best meals, right? The company with which they are shared.

Maui Food Madness Part 3

Posted on 6 June 2012 by christao408

Our Maui dining adventures continues with some Japanese food, a touristy luau, and some organic pizza.

Ramen Ya

Monday evening we ate dinner at Ramen Ya, a Japanese restaurant located in a mall in Kahului. Right across the courtyard is Sugi’s aunt’s fabric store.

The newlyweds – still all smiles – decide what dinner to order.

The food is what I might call “rough and tumble” – huge portions of moderately satisfying Japanese favorites. Here we have a gargantuan portion of chicken katsu served over fried rice. It was tasty enough but the portion could have served three.

A bowl of ramen, part of a combo set that also included fried rice and gyoza. Nobody complained about the food but it didn’t inspire any positive raves, either.

Old Lahaina Luau

Andy Yang had arranged for all of us to make a trip to the Old Lahaina Luau, reportedly the best of the touristy package luau shows. Located right on the harbor, the grounds offered seating for more than 500 guests for their nightly show. The sun was a bit strong in the late afternoon but by the time it set, the location was beautiful and the weather pleasant.

Each table seats eight – here is Andy Yang, his brother-in-law Erich, Sugi, and Tawn. Every group of three or four tables had their own server, all of whom were shirtless men. This was Tim, who was really friendly and took good care of our group. Would you believe he is celebrating his twenty-ninth wedding anniversary this year? He looks younger than that.

Sunset over the harbor. This was a beautiful sunset, accentuated by the live Hawaiian music being performed by a quartet on the lawn.

Food was served buffet style, each table being released in order to avoid long queues. Food included Hawaiian specialties along with “Hawaiianized” chicken, steak, etc. On the left is lau lau pork – pork wrapped in ti leaves and steamed. Working clockwise is kalua pork (which they cook overnight in a pit), teriyaki beef, a creamed vegetable salad, lomi salmon (a salted salmon dish), a dish made with local greens, sweet-and-sour chicken, and mahi mahi. Overall, I give the luau high marks for food quality and variety. Especially when considering the setting, the meal was very satisfying.

The dessert tray: macadamia nut tarts, chocolate brownies, chocolate passion fruit pots-de-creme, and haupia – a coconut milk based pudding.

Two shots from the show, which came on after dinner. Photos by Andy Yang. The program traced the islands’ history and illustrated different types of dancing based on different cultural traditions that influenced modern Hawai’i.

At $100 per person plus gratuity, the Old Lahaina Luau is steep. (All inclusive, including alcoholic drinks) If it is your first time to the islands, though, it might be a fun way to set the mood. Service was very good.

Flatbread Company

A few days later we found ourselves back in Paia, where Sugi’s family lives. Andy and I tried sea kayaking (well, I tried, he photographed – more on that soon!) while Tawn did yoga. Afterwards, we stopped for some pizza at the renown Flatbread Company.

Here’s the storefront of the Flatbread Company, located in the hippie-ish town of Paia on the north shore of Maui. As the sign says, they serve wood fired love.

In addition to the dough being made from organic flour, lots of ingredients are locally sourced. A chalkboard in the dining room lists local suppliers.

The wood burning hearth is in the middle of the dining room. If you are feeling cold (not likely!) you can walk up to it and warm yourself.

Metaphoto. Everyone is taking pictures. Thankfully, our dining companions knew the cardinal rule of food blogger etiquette: nobody eats until the shooting’s complete.

Mopsy’s Kalua Pork – Kiawa smoked free range pork shoulder, homemade organic mango BBQ sauce, organic red onions, Maui pineapple, and a blend of Hawaiian goat cheeses and mozzarella, topped with local organic herbs.

The Coevolution – imported kalmatta olives, fresh organic Maui rosemary, red onions, and fire roasted sweet red peppers, and a blend of Hawaiian goat cheeses and mozzarella, topped with organic local herbs.

Both pizzas were excellence. The kalua pork was mutually agreed to be our favorite. What made these pizzas excellent were the crusts, that found the perfect balance between crispiness and chewiness. The secret – Giusto’s Organic Ultimate Performer Unbleached Flour from South San Francisco, which has high protein and high gluten.

Vacation in a Beach House

Posted on 22 June 2011 by christao408

For our vacation with my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces, we opted to rent a three-bedroom house in Hermosa Beach, just two blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Not only did this work out quite reasonably financially – roughly $400 a night – but it gave us a lot more room than a hotel would have, plus the ability to easily cook our own food and do our own laundry.

Tawn leads a junior yoga class, which was surprisingly effective at helping the girls calm down, focus, and not get into squabbles with each other. Maybe we should sign them up for daily classes?

Actually, we didn’t rent one house, but two. The initial house was booked for our final three nights but the property manager had another similar house just three blocks away, so we moved into that one. I have to really credit this lady, she was super friendly and very helpful. If you are ever looking to rent a vacation home in Los Angeles, I’d be happy to recommend either of her two properties. (This is the first house, a 3br/3 ba and this is the second house, a 3 br/1ba.)

We did a little less cooking at home than I had anticipated, but we did eat at least breakfast at home each day, allowing for some cost savings. As soon as we moved in I made a big (2 pound) batch of pizza dough and kept it in the refrigerator for use in a couple of meals. Who doesn’t like pizza? Here’s the girls shape their own pizzas.

And there’s the finished but not-yet-cooked product, ready to go into the oven. Their dough ended up kind of triangle shaped, huh?

And of course there was room for everybody to pitch in with cleaning up and loading the dishwasher.

Once you do that, we can bundle up (it was chilly by the beach in the evenings) and head to Pinkberry for some dessert.

The second house we were in had TVs in each room, something I wouldn’t approve of at home but certainly fine for a vacation home. That provided everyone with the opportunity to lounge in bed in the morning and watch cartoons. As you can tell from this picture, we had already gone to Disneyland and everybody (including Tawn) had their stuffed animal.

A view of Tawn walking along the Strand, the 22-mile class 1 paved pedestrian/skater/bicycle path that stretches along pretty much all of Los Angeles County’s western coast from Pacific Palisades to Torrance. This grey overcast was a fixture of our vacation, at least when we were near the beach.

Top Secret Assignment – Final Day

Posted on 21 June 2010 by christao408

Agents E and C concluded their four days of top secret assignments on Father’s Day. We went out to a nice brunch at another hotel to celebrate and while waiting for Uncle Tawn to show up from yoga class, they completed their last assignment, a “final report” to headquarters.

To verify their identity, though, they had to complete the following puzzle to prove that they are the actual secret agents to complete the mission. After all, there were a lot of double agents out there and more than enough subterfuge to fill a bathtub.

The only hint you should need is that they stayed at the Windsor Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. The rest you might be able to figure out on your own. I’ll print the answers tomorrow.

After brunch I drove to the secret agents and their father back to our condo where they started running some loads of laundry in preparation for their trip to China the next day. Meanwhile there was time for a few hours of playing around in the pool. I’ve concluded that young people will pretty much enjoy any vacation so long as there is a pool to play in. Which begs the question, why bother to travel halfway around the world?

While the agents were showering and changing into fresh clothes after their swim, I baked a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. Thankfully, there were a few people willing to taste test them. Meanwhile, Tawn took Donna to the Jim Thompson outlet for some silk souvenir shopping.

As the afternoon progressed, we broke out a deck of Uno, playing with modified rules that made the game much more competitive. Whenever someone plays a “zero” card, for example, all players pass their hand in the direction of play. So you end up having to change your strategy again and again while playing.

As dinnertime approached, Agents E and C were pulled into service, helping prepare salad and grate cheese for pizzas.

Then they learned how to press out their own pizza dough from a batch of dough that I started the day before. Each of them created their favorite type of pizza – ham and pineapple for Agent E and olive and pineapple for Agent C.

It turns out that the top secret agents also have some cooking skills. Agent C, left, had tried to arrange her toppings in the shape of a cat’s face, although I think it is hard to tell the eyes and the whiskers apart.

We enjoyed a nice home-cooked dinner to conclude their visit, complete with some more oatmeal cookies and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

The next morning, bright and early, I picked the Clevelands up from their hotel and drove them out to the airport. After checking them in we snapped this final picture. As we were checking in, Donna told me that Agents E and C didn’t want to leave Thailand. But I’m sure they will have a great time with their schoolmates on a three-week excursion in China.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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