Grilled Pizza, Part 2- watch your inner dyslexia

As I mentioned in my last blog, people get very skeptical when you invite them over to grill out and when they ask you what is on the menu for the night you say "why, pizza, of course."

This is the second time I have endeavored to grill pizza. The first time (blog #1) was on our old grill. It was sort of a "passage rite," if you will, for that old grill. It needed one last "hoorah" before we put it into the back alley "bulk pick-up." (This bulk-pick up in the alley business is a nuance of Florida and I must chat about it sometime because it really does attract some weirdos, who probably own an ebay side biz solely off their bulk pick-up finds, anyway, I digress...)

So, this time, I really had full ownership of the grilled pizza process as we had our neighbor Chuck over and, unlike our last set of guest for the grilled pizza process, he wasn't into "backseat grilling" as I like to call people who feel the need to take over the kitchen/grill and offer their opinion on everything as they (said audience/invited guests) seem to be an expert on everything and want to correct or offer advice on how to do it better every step of the way.

Perphaps this might not have been a good thing as, when I went to grill, evidently I was not familiar with the low or high positions of the knobs. Now, I had only used medium the time before (we just got it a few weeks ago) and I guess I got confused. You see, when Scott came out to see if I needed help, I evidently was completely turned around about the knob configuration on the grill. On our last grill, you had to turn the knobs in the opposite direction for high heat, and on this one, well, it was different. So, I thought the little moons that were black all the way meant the grill was on low, but instead, they were on full blast.

Needless to say the pizza turned out a little chared. Or at the least the first one did because it took the duration of the first pizza to figure out that I was a complete idiot and got my knob configuration mis-configured. Hence, there came the blonde jokes.

But, to tell you the truth, even though the first pizza was a little cruchy, the second one turned out fabulously and I was still a hero at the end.

Here's the key to making pizza on the grill: fresh dough, fresh veggies, fresh cheese and beer!!! Pizza on the grill is great because people can personalize their own pizzas and even the most basic pizza is still really gourmet once you take it off the grill! Have people over and do this and they will think you are a rock-star!!

Below is the dough recipe I used and it made enough for two medium sized thin crust pizzas on the grill:

Pizza Dough Recipe: as seen in Southern Living (it is by Oprah's former personal chef)

1) cup warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 envelope dry active yeast (1/4 oz)
2 Tsp honey
~~~~~~~
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
Vegetable cooking spray.

Additional ingredients for the pizza
~Sauce (Scott's special sauce recipe will be available in my next blog)
~fresh ingredients- tomatoes, basil, and whatever else you might like
~Italian sausage
~Fresh, high moisture Mozzarella

Start on the dough:
Process the first 4 ingredients in a food processor if you have one. Then add flour and salt l pulse 6-8 times until the dough forms a ball and leaves the side of the bowl. You can add more water if necessary. * If you don't have a food processor, do this by hand, it will just take longer....

Place the dough in a large bowl coated with coking spray, cover and chill 2 hours..

Next steps:
Roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface. This recipe will make aprroxi 6 equal portions. I made 2 large pizzas for the grill but you can make smaller personal sizes.

Onto the grill:
Have the grill preheated onto medium. Before lighting the grill, spray with cooking spray so the dough is not inclined to stick.

~Grill the first side until you see grill marks and the dough appears to be done/browned. Then flip over until the next side is the same
~Turn the grill to low-medium low and add sauce, cheese and toppings. Grill with the cover closed until the cheese is melted and voila!!

Notes: Margherita Pizza


~Fresh mozzarella slice in big pieces from the grocery deli section makes a huge difference
~Other toppings such as fresh sliced tomato, basil and other herbs are a great addition (I used heirloom tomatoes and they are SO tasty)
~Cook italian Sausage on the grill while grilling the dough and then slice it and add to the pizza at the last minute.
~Pizzas are a great way to use up leftover produce such as squash and zuchini

** SCOTT'S SAUCE RECIPE**

I had to offer up my first born child to get this recipe but Scott finally said okay, you can have it. It's really not at all that difficult, it's not like the tomatoes were smuggled over from Italy or something. Anyway, this is a great basic marinara that goes well with Pasta, pizza or fried calamari alike. I like to make a lot of it at a time and freeze it so I always have sauce...

~ 1 can tomato paste (12 oz) + 1 can water
~1 can tomato SAUCE (15 1/2 oz) + 1 can water
~1 can porgresso Italian Style peeled tomatoes - grind in food processor or hand blender
~3 tbs minced parsley
~1 clove garlic ~ browned in EVO
~1 tbs black pepper
~1 tbs basil
~2 tbs EVO

*mix ingredients
*bring to a slow boil
*simmer on low for 30-45 minutes




Check out Mark Bittmen's blog, Bitten, for another take on grilled pizza.

About Ricky's

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I said that Ricky's Lounge and Restaurant was a former strip club. This is not technically true. We have never actually confirmed that it was, we only assumed (one of my former bosses used to say "never ASS-U-ME, it makes an ASS out of U and Me,") that is was a strip club in its previous life. This is because it has no windows, you must enter through a side door, the bar is very large, the type where someone could do a dance and possibly a split/cartwheel on it, and well, there is a large POLE, yes, POLE, attached to the end of it.

So, as to not commit libel, I have no idea if Ricky's lounge was ever previously a strip club or not. But, if it was, I would like it that much better because, well, Ricky's is the bomb and that would just make it even more likable and funny.

White on rice.

There is no point to this blog, if only to say how funny life is. As I write this, I share a dog bed with three dogs.

Anyway, my ethnic food experience has reached new heights since I moved to South Florida. I am the only non Hispanic, non Latin (not the same thing you know, as I just learned the difference about 3 weeks ago) person working in my office. This has opened my eyes to many new culinary adventures as we order in take out almost everyday (the office pays for it no less!) Our repertoire consists primarily of the Cuban restaurant down the street, the Argentenian place (meat, meat, meat), the Italian place that has great lunch specials on Wednesdays, and of course, IHOP. Don't ask me how this fits in.

As the sole gringa in the group, it makes smile to see me try these new things such as "fu-fu" (fou fou?) a Cuban Dish that is primarly unripe plantains mixed with pork fat. It's actually much yummier than it sounds. My privy information, unknown to the average "tourista" sheds light on this whole "Cuban Sandwich" novelty that everyone 'must try" when they come to Miami. The experience is lost on a "Cuban Sandwich" when what they should yearn for is the "Media Noche," which is very similar to a Cuban sammy, but on much softer, sweeter bread, which is almost similar to a challab break. Individuals truly blessed will know to follow this up with a pastelles de guyaba, or a guava pastry.

But, aside from the typical Miami Hispanic experience, my culinary adventures happen at every turn of the corner as South Florida exposes itself to me in its all its rich, diverse splendid ways.

Scott and I are painting the kitchen a sea-mist blue-gray and therefor takeout was on the menu for the night. So, only in Hollywood, Florida, would you find bunch of New Yorkers-turned Native Floridians working and hanging out at the local take out, hole-in the wall Chinese restaurant. The lady who owns and runs the place is actually Chinese, in that seasoned Floridian, lived through-plenty-of-Hurricanes type of way. One of their local customers/impromptu PR person, touts in a Brooklyn accent that "the Curry Chicken is the only way to go," and he would know, he's been eatin' here for ten years..." Just next door is the Jamaican grocery store, Bravo, and next to that is Daddy-O's, our favorite liquor store, run by a group of guys from the Middle East somewhere.

So I digress, but I feel so spoiled and lucky to be exposed to the diversity in food choices and people we have here in South Florida. In thinking what we wanted for dinner tonight, our top choices consisted of "Falafel Fusion, (3 Guys from NYC, Jersey and Greece), Ricky's Wings (former strip club; Ricky himself won the donkey kong championship of the world and they made a documentary about it), Chinese, Thai, or I guess we could order Indian for delivery.

So, for a bunch of Waspy Kids from Jersey and Atlanta by way of North Carolina, we made out okay. Need I mention that our Friday night consisted of Taverna Opa, where guest are encourage to dance on the tables to Greek disco-esque music, drinks at the Latin Bar where girls dance salsa on the bar, and then on the reggae bar, where, well, we danced to Reggae of course.

The point to all of this is, that, well, there may not actually be a point. I just love life down here and am so glad I have the opportunity to make Banana pudding (it's a Southern Thing Yall!) out of the bananas growing in my back yard. Now, I have not yet begun making coconut preserve out of the coconuts in the backyard, but, well, don't give me any ideas. :)

So, for my bloggly-metaphor for the night - let's just say that South Florida is the gravy to my white rice. Now, has anyone seen my hotsauce?

Fun with Grilling

As an introduction to my first blog, let me just say that this is by no means only about food and cooking, but about the interconnectedness of food and life and the situations around them. Almost everything in life revolves around food. On a basic level, all organisms need it to live. Period. But, on a societal and economic level, it is OH SO MUCH more. I don't need to digress on this subject itself anymore other than to say that life is food. Meeting with friends= food. Christmas, Hannukah, 4th of July= food. Valentines Day=chocolate. Easter=chocolate bunnies. After dinner treat on a fun night out on the town= gelato!!

So, I just gave my boyfriend a new grill for his birthday. Rather, I really gave "us" a new grill for his birthday as I have used it just as often.

Before we got the new grill, the old grill posed its many challenges. In an attempt to try something new, I invoted friends over to hang out and throw something on the grill. Little did they know what we were getting ourselves into. The night's specialty "grilled pizza!". I saw an article about Mario Batali's latest cookbook where he does Italian-style grilling. The moral of this story is that cooking over a grill that is conducive to losing your eyebrows when lighting it (the ignitor no longer worked!) is risky at best, without adding 4-5 cocktails prior to said grilling experience. Long story short, the pizza came out great, in fact, Bert said it resembled the state of Alabama, and the only casualty to the grill was lower Alabama. Probably much similar to how SEaster Alabama looks after a major hurricane. Hurricane Robyn on the grill.

Post new grill, the Weber EP Genesis 310 in forest green, proves to make grilling much more of an art than neanderthal, poking-fire with-stick process. We seamlessly made steaks, chicken and even (yes, it can be done) grilled endive with no problems, in fact, everything turned out so well with so little effort that we gave ourselves a congratulatory pat on the back and said to ourselves "damn, I always knew we had it in us!"

Next endeavor: brunch. To cater to South Florida's summertime rainy season, I decided to have people over closer to lunch so we could hang out outside and maybe get some poolside drinks in before it started to rain this past weekend. Key menu item: french toast. Grand Marnier marinated toast on the grill.

Everyone was skeptical. The jokes about my past of drinking and grilling and screwing up dinner were made. And then everyone tried it. 15 minutes of silence as everyone stuffed themselves silly and then we made a second round of bloody marys and digested poolside.
The key is to buy a loaf of bread and slice it youself, in very thick pieces. Then, make a batter of eggs, milk, (sugar, cinnamon, vanilla-duh) and then add some grand marnier (rich man's triple sec- and if they're not exactly the same thing then use the triple sec- that's what I used and it turned out great!) I sandwiched the slices with a strawberry (plus sugar) mixture and it resembled breakfast time strawberry shortcake.

The skeptics apologized for their skepticism and said, "damn, that was awesome- how did you pull that off and can I have the recipe?? I was like Rocky Balboa in Rocky 1,2,3,4 and possibly 5. Everyone is skeptical at first and then after you pull it off everyone is your new BFF.

So, the recipe is as follows:

Step one: "where's the vodka?"
step two: "light the grill", or is it, light the grill and then look for the vodka? Light the grill with Vodka? Hell, somebody make me another bloody mary. What the hell, this french toast resembles lower alabama. Have I had too much to drink? Or not enough?"