Archive for the ‘grilled pizza’ Category

That’s right folks- it’s tailgating season again. Time to get your portable grills ready for another season of beer consumption, mardi gras beads matching your favorite team and of course, lots of finger food. I made my infamous (at least to myself) chipotle sriracha wings with Scott’s blue cheese dip and mini caprese pizzas for ESPN/WPTV Channel 5’s Jason Pugh to discuss tailgating and getting women behind the grill this season.

If you have a favorite tailgating recipe on or off the grill, please share with me!

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Pizza is not just for ovens anymore. The grill is a great place to do pizza because you get nice grate marks on the dough that adds a nice touch as the grill actually cooks the pizza dough.

These mini pizzas are easier to do because it is easier to flip multiple pizza dough disks than it is to do one gigantic piece of dough and also allows you to avoid “hot spots” on the grill that might burn the dough.

This recipe is great tailgating as it requires minimal ingredients and everything can be prepped the night before.

Ingredients:

• One package refrigerated pizza dough (or you can make your own)
• 2 tomatoes, thinly sliced- drizzle slices generously with olive oil, salt and pepper
• Mozzarella cheese- cut into bite size pieces
• basil
• salt, pepper
• olive oil.

Directions:

Preheat grill to medium heat. Then, roll out the pizza dough on a flat surface. Using a small bowl or wide mouthed glass, cut the dough into small circles to make the mini pizzas. Roll leftover dough pieces together, flatten and repeat cutting into small circular cutouts.

Brush both sides of the dough with olive oil. Make sure your grill has been sprayed with non stick spray. Grill the dough until grate marks appear, about 5 minutes. Flip the dough, then, with recently grilled side up, add tomato slices, a piece of basil, and the mozzarella.

Grill for 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.

This recipe can easily be adapted for meatlovers with the addition of cappicola or pepperoni.

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As a Southern Girl, I have grown up eating Bar-B-Que. Until I moved out of the South, it never really occurred to me that this food was not something that everyone in the US ate on a regular basis. These days, BBQ has caught on all over the country and you can find decent BBQ joints in places like NYC! When I refer to BBQ, I am referring to the Pork kind, though Spare ribs and brisket fall into the BBQ category as well. Growing up, I was accustomed to “Lexington Style” NC BBQ sauce which is a Vinegar and tomato based tangy sauce. There is an invisible line drawn in the middle of the state that divides the sauces- Western NC and the Piedmont region do the Lexington Style sauce. Eastern style sauce is a purely vinegar based sauce with no tomatos included. This sauce usually consists of cider vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. It is pungent! Local South Floridian’s can find Eastern NC Style sauce at our own Dixie Pig. Go to SC and find a mustard based sauce. Texas does “Brisket”, which is in another category all to itself. Memphis style sauce is a sweet, tangy tomato based sauce. BBQ joints all over are usually a mixture of these type sauces though I believe most fall under the Memphis style category…

My father is an avid griller and BBQ-er and we are going to “Memphis in May” this year which hosts the truly infamous “World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest” on May 13th-15th. This is the END-ALL-BE-ALL of BBQ competitions. We plan to travel in an entourage of a few of his good ol’ boy friends who are “good eaters”.

The competition is divided into different pork categories: Whole hog, pork shoulder and ribs. There is no gas allowed- only wood and charcoal. For the newbies, there is the “Patio Porkers” category for those wanting to whet there Championship appetite. I see myself competing there in the future, just to get a feeling for the competition. I have not grown up in a BBQ team or with a PitMaster but that should not deter us from trying one day!

My father, also known as “Tropical Storm Eddie” for reasons I won’t disclose, have decided that we are going to go this year and see what we can learn. He is a wonderful griller and has his own green egg, the “Cadillac” of Grills/Smokers. He has been working on his own dry rub recipe and wants to get ideas. I believe he has aspirations of one day entering the “Ribs” category. We shall see! I’m coming prepared with my elastic waistband pants, plenty of beer and a good appetite. Looking forward to some good eating and learning some new coleslaw recipes!!

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This week is getting of to an interesting start. I have decided to do a “7 day rapid cleanse” and have vowed to stop drinking wine during the week, and I kicked it all off that night by finishing my taxes.

Monday we had flatbread pizza, a new favorite on my weekly “easy-backup” meal plan. “Flat Out” makes a flatbread (go figure) that is carb conscious, packed with good stuff like fiber and omegas, while also coming in cool flavors like spinach, italian, spelt… etc.

Ideas: this is not rocket science y’all! Or as we say here in South Florida- Vosotros!!

Any-hoo.

1. Set the oven for 400 degrees.
2. leftover spaghetti sauce, or pizza sauce or bruschetta topping. (I often make extra sauce and freeze it for easy dinners later).
3. Veggies
4. italian sausauge, meat, tofu, chicken or no meat at all!
5. Hard cheese

How I make this kinda healthy is that I pile on the veggies, garlic, etc… Then I shave a hard cheese like parmesan (the kind you buy in a block, not in a jar) or reggiano and put that on as an ample condiment, but not as the main show.
On top of this I throw on some baby arugula with an ample shot of ground pepper and sea salt. TASTY!!

Now, for Scott’s recipe version, my Gene-blessed skinny boyfriend (who is such a hottie):

• the base and sauce are the same
• sans the vegetables (unless they are green peppers or onions as one would get on a Domino’s)
• AMPLE cheese: mozz, provo, etc- the soft white cheese that are more fattening
• Pepperoni or italian sausage or bacon (a Guy’s gotta get his meat on).

I have never tried this with beef jerky but I bet Scott, and your guy, would be up for that as an addition.

Bake for 7-9 minutes at 400.

***Great for catching up on tivo-ed Survivor episodes

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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.

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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?”

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