Quick Bites
I’ve been fighting a cold, and it’s gone straight to my head – feel like I’ve spent too much time in the pool or something. I did manage to get some cooking done today, so let me take a second to share a few points:
- I think I’ve gotten the hang of pizza dough. I’ve decided I prefer the recipe developed by America’s Test Kitchen more than Alton Brown’s. The major difference seems to be that Alton puts sugar in his dough, and when I made a pie with that recipe, I wound up with a blacker crust that wasn’t as crisp or as blistered as I get with the ATK recipe. (Although I should note that I tend to add a little extra flour to the 4.25 cups that ATK calls for – it’s too sticky otherwise.)
- A pizza stone and an oven cranked as high as possible is definitely a must.
- I also realized that the tomato sauce recipes I’ve been following have more olive oil than I prefer – I’ve started using just enough to toast about 3 cloves of minced garlic, and then adding a 28 oz. can of tomatoes, some oregano, salt and pepper, and I’ve good to go.
- Totally unrelated to pizza, but Rick Bayless‘s recipe for shredded pork tacos in his first cookbook, Authentic Mexican, is pretty darned good. Although I took out the cinnamon and cloves – I’m just not crazy about the way they interact with the peppers and other spices. Works pretty well with beef brisket, too.
OK, now it’s back to the medicine cabinet for me.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.
March 11, 2007 @ 7:23 pm