Homemade pizza for your next pizza party!

I can't believe that it's already December! I was so determined to catch up with my posts earlier in November, but I guess it's just like another overly ambitious New Year's resolution that didn't last long. My overall yield of blog post in November is 1. According to Wikipedia, "A 2007 study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions fail, despite the fact that 52% of the study's participants were confident of success at the beginning." Okay, enough excuse searching, my goal for December is to pump out a few more party-friendly recipes before the hectic holiday season starts! 

I have tried to make pizza at home before with different recipes. So far, this is the best pizza dough recipe that I found and it works really well to give you the nice, slightly crunchy pizzas.  

Ingredients
500 g of all purpose flour
300-350 ml of warm water
25 g fresh yeast or 8 g of instant dry yeast (the weight of fresh yeast is 3 times of the dried ones)
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (you could add more oil to get a crispier dough)
1 tsp salt

Methods
1. Get a large bowl, add yeast and sugar to the warm water, let it stand for 10 min (to re-hydrate and recover)
2. Add olive oil to the liquid
3. Add salt to the flour, slowly add the flour mix to the liquid, mix well. 
4. Move the dough to a floured surface. Knead the dough for about 5-10min until it's no longer sticky and if you poke the dough, it would bounce back. 
5. Put dough in a big bowl, cover up the bowl with saran wrap, and let it rise until it doubles its size. Usually it takes about an hour or so, depending on the temperature in your kitchen
6. Beat the dough down, and roll it to the shape of a pizza. 
7. And then the fun part starts!  You can put whatever toppings you desire,just let your creativity take over! 
8. Leave the pizza sitting on your counter for another 30-40min until the dough doubles its size again. This is the second rising step which is quite important. If you skip this step, the pizza will taste very dense. 

I prepared a traditional Margherita pizza with fresh basil leaves (put the leaves only AFTER the pizza is baked, or the herbs will turn black), and a second pizza with pesto sauce and thin-sliced potatoes. 

It's been a slice,
PP

Sunday brunch - Baked avocado egg!

I have been craving for home-cooking for a week now as I spent a few days in San Diego at a conference. As today is the first Sunday that I got since my return, I decided to have a lazy morning with some home-made brunch. I found this recipe online a while back, and finally, I got a chance to try it. Usually I am quite skeptical about online recipes, but this turns out to be really nice!

Ingredients

1 large avocado, halved and cored

2 eggs

Parmesan cheese

salt/pepper to taste

Methods

1. choose a large avocado, ripe but still firm. Cut the avocado into halves, remove the core, and  use a spoon to take out more flesh so that the hole is big enough to hold 1 egg each

2. season the avocado with salt and pepper

3. put one egg into each avocado half

4. grate some cheese on the avocado

5. bake at 400F for 15-20 min, depending on how hard you want the egg to be

               

* the baked avocado egg was served with Ciabatta bread. Once baked, the avocado becomes softer. You can almost spread the avocado on the bread like a pâté! 

Northern Italian-Week 3: Polenta con Gorgonzola, salsa funghi

Polenta at Osteria Giulietta e Romeo

Also in Week 2's class, we learned how to make polenta with gorgonzola cheese and mushroom sauce as a side dish for the breaded lamb rack.  I find that this polenta loaded with cheese is too heavy to company the lamb, so that I made it separately and served it like a main course. The first time that I tried an authentic polenta dish was in Verona, last summer when I visited my two dear Italian friends. They took me to Osteria Giulietta e Romeo for lunch. If you ever find your way to Verona, I highly recommend this awesome restaurant where you can get a nice tasting menu of Northern Italian food. Being lactose-intolerant and having grown up with Chinese food, I have only been  learning in recent years to appreciate the beauty of cheese in small quantities. The Gorgonzola is definitely one of the stronger tasting cheeses that I still need to get used to. But for the sake of this traditional Italian dish, I kept this cheese in the recipe regardless. 

Ingredients

Polenta flour, 250 g

1 L water to get firm polenta, or 1.2 L water to get softer polenta

gorgonzola cheese, 400 g

4 portobello mushrooms

1/2 onion

beef stock, 1.5 cups

1 garlic clove

salt/pepper, olive oil

Methods

To make the mushroom sauce:

1. add oil in a pan, sweat the onion and garlic

2. add mushrooms, and a pinch of salt to further sweat the mushrooms

3. deglaze the pan with the beef stock

4. simmer the stock and reduce the volume until it thickens up

To cook the polenta:

1. in a pot, boil the water, season it with salt generously

2. pour in polenta while stirring fast

3. when polenta starts to thicken, change to low heat

4. keep stirring for another 1 min 

5. take a tray, splash the surface with some cold water,  spread a layer of polenta, then add a layer of cheese chunks, then a layer of mushroom sauce, repeat the layers for one more time 

6. garnish with parmesan cheese and parsley

French-Week 7: Crêpes, très Française!

This week in class we practised making crêpes! To me, crêpe is probably one of the most stereotypical French food. When I think about the Eiffel Tower, I also picture the baguette, foie gras, escargot, crème brûlée, and crêpes. We made savoury crêpes that were stuffed with wild mushroom sauce, a.k.a., Crêpes Farci aux Champignons Sauvages. 

Ingredients
Crêpes batter:
3 large eggs
120 g of flour
240 ml of homo milk (just a bit less than 1 cup)
a pinch of nutmeg
oil, salt/pepper to taste

Mushroom stuffing:
mixed button, Shiitake and oyster mushrooms, cut
(Shiitake's stems have to be removed because of their high fibre content)
half onion, chopped

a shot of Brandy
30 mL of 35% cream
50 mL of demi glace
oil, salt/pepper to taste

 Method
1. mix everything for the crêpes batter first, and let it sit aside while you are preparing the mushroom stuffing
2. take a pan, add some oil and sweat the onion
3. add Brandy, evaporate off most of its liquid
4. add mushrooms to the pan to sweat
5. add in the cream and demi glace, bring to a simmer
6. adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper

When you make the crêpes, make sure that you are using a seasoned pan. Dip some paper towel in the oil and lightly brush the pan with it. Make sure the pan is not too hot when you put in the batter, otherwise it will burn it quickly. The amount of batter prepared made 8 6-inch crêpes. 

* I served the mushroom-stuffed crêpes as a side to some pan seared salmon coated with Hoisin sauce.