The Food Thread

[MJZiggy]

I thought hummus was mashed chickpeas with oil and garlic?

[Partial]

I cooked professionally in Galena while at Platteville. After Zaffiro's I stopped looking for good pizza in Milwaukee. If you want the BEST pizza in Milwaukee you'll have to come over. It'd be a hell of a write up but I may at one time post the full method by which I make pizza at home, from the sourdough starter down to the basil on top.

You gotta try Mama DeMarinis. It's a hole in the wall but it is fantastic! Oddly enough, there is another DeMarinis restaurant a block away that opened after a family squabble.

We'll have to do a pie exchange. I make a pretty tasty pizza too.

edit: Why is there a thumbs down in my post?

[Little Whiskey]

I thought hummus was mashed chickpeas with oil and garlic?

if only it were that easy.

[GrnBay007]

I had a friend who worked at pizzaria uno in platteville, I sent him an email for you. He sent me back the following recipe:

1 c Warm tap water (110−115 F)
1 t Active dry yeast
3 1/2 c Flour
1/2 c Coarse ground cornmeal
1 t Salt
1/4 c shortening

I assume that makes two pies.

When I see a pizza recipe the first thing I do is estimate how wet it is. That is the ratio of four (or in this case flour+cornmeal) to water (or in this case water+fat). This is about 100:54-57 flour:water or a baker's percentage of 54-57%. For reference the pizza dough I routinely make is 65%. This is a relatively dry dough but that is acceptable for a thicker crust. For a place like Uno's that employs mostly kids, its common to see fat of some kind in the dough whether veg, olive, or shortening. This idiot-proofs it somewhat as the dough will never be too sticky and even over kneaded dough spiked with shortening will come out tender. The cornmeal is to add some artificial crunch to the dough that could come off as doughy or heavy with that shortening in it.

You are best off forming this dough into a pizza-hut type crust rather than one that is really thin. This kind of crust is well suited for a home kitchen oven as it will turn out at lower temperatures in the 450F degree range.


The trick to making top sauce though is the tomatoes not surprisingly. For 10 months out of the year, canned > fresh. Really. Those canned tomatoes were lovingly picked at their peak, briefly steamed and peeled and packed away for you. Those fresh tomatoes that taste like nothing were picked green and colored with ethylene gas. Also the type of tomato matters. By far the most popular among top pizza chefs is the san marzano plum tomato. Its similar to a roma with a distinct pear shape and considered the best sauce tomato in the world. Find them canned. Once you have those your sauce is merely a puree of raw tomato flesh, evoo, salt, seasonings including oregano, and maybe some sweetener like honey or sugar. Why do you leave the tomatoes raw? Because its going to cook on the pie.

I want to eat pizza all the time so I need the process to be convenient. Unless I make a big batch of sauce a can it, I rarely make my own. I find most canned sauces acceptable. I personally deviate from the pizza purists in that I simply can't eat pizza anymore without siriacha. I add it right to the sauce. When you consider that its a chili garlic condiment, its not out of place here or in much Italian cuisine. Another thing I like to do is blend parmesan into my sauce. It turns it a beautiful orange, allows me to get cheese in every bite when using slices of fresh buffalo mozz. You can't just blend cheese into tomatoes or the cheese will form tiny rubbery balls from the tomatoes acid so the cheese must first be blended into cream. Do I do all of this? No I add a couple of spoonfuls of Alfredo sauce.

Wow, thanks for doing that!!

Ok, now I have a couple questions 1/4 c shortening. Is that a lot of fat for a pizza crust (or for 2 like you mentioned)? I've never made homemade pizza crust before. Would it be ok to substitute olive oil?

When you mentioned canned tomatoes. Are you talking about the store canned tomatoes or the REAL canned tomatoes? Dang I missed those real canned tomatoes my Mom always had year round. I canned them when I had a garden for the couple years I lived in the country. Now no garden, no canned tomatoes.

[MJZiggy]

Wow, thanks for doing that!!

Ok, now I have a couple questions 1/4 c shortening. Is that a lot of fat for a pizza crust (or for 2 like you mentioned)? I've never made homemade pizza crust before. Would it be ok to substitute olive oil?

When you mentioned canned tomatoes. Are you talking about the store canned tomatoes or the REAL canned tomatoes? Dang I missed those real canned tomatoes my Mom always had year round. I canned them when I had a garden for the couple years I lived in the country. Now no garden, no canned tomatoes.

If you lived closer... I have a ton of grape, cherry, roma and beefsteak tomatoes that I can't get rid of.

[GrnBay007]

I cooked professionally in Galena while at Platteville.

Where did you cook in Galena? Several good restaurants there. I hadn't been to Galena in quite awhile but this past spring my daughter took some golf lessons from a pro at the territory. We stopped at a place popular for their pizza....grrrr can't remember the name but it started with a C. lol

[3irty1]

Wow, thanks for doing that!!

Ok, now I have a couple questions 1/4 c shortening. Is that a lot of fat for a pizza crust (or for 2 like you mentioned)? I've never made homemade pizza crust before. Would it be ok to substitute olive oil?

When you mentioned canned tomatoes. Are you talking about the store canned tomatoes or the REAL canned tomatoes? Dang I missed those real canned tomatoes my Mom always had year round. I canned them when I had a garden for the couple years I lived in the country. Now no garden, no canned tomatoes.

Yeah I'd say that's a lot of fat considering my crust only has trace amounts. Olive oil is a fine substitute but it causes a new problem for you to worry about. Olive oil has a pretty low smoke point in comparison to other oils and thus will start to burn! In a commercial pizza oven which can be 900 degress, you're olive oil would turn into something that you don't want to eat, you may or may not get away with it at home. Its just something to think about. Clarified butter, soybean oil, are two alternatives.

And yes I'm just talking about canned store tomatoes, they are plenty real for our purposes. If you go to Glorioso's on Brady St. You'll find a wide variety of canned San Marzano tomatoes.

[3irty1]

If you lived closer... I have a ton of grape, cherry, roma and beefsteak tomatoes that I can't get rid of.

I'd travel pretty far for the beefsteaks. Every grow any heirlooms?

[3irty1]

Where did you cook in Galena? Several good restaurants there. I hadn't been to Galena in quite awhile but this past spring my daughter took some golf lessons from a pro at the territory. We stopped at a place popular for their pizza....grrrr can't remember the name but it started with a C. lol

Cannova's

I didn't actually work at a pizza place. I worked at Eagle Ridge where I headed up Banquets and worked in the fine dining restaurant. Its the type of place where the menu changes biweekly and one of our chefs was a pioneer in "modernist cuisine."

[3irty1]

Used to be right in my neighborhood too. Anytime anyone visited, we always went to Mimmas. Now if you have a recipe for THAT....

I emailed them for you.

I'll post back about the pho as well.

[3irty1]

when i think of chicago style pizza i think more of a pie style crust where the sauce is on the top not the bottom.

That's a deep dish.

got a hummus recipe?

I don't have one but I'll bet Simply Recipes does. Simply Recipes is the personal blog and recipe website of Elise Bauer. Unlike most popular recipe websites she's only got a few hundred recpies and every one of them is tested by her and her family. You know how when you try a Juilia Child recipe everything just works out? Her's are the same. They are the only recipes on the web that I'll trust without ever having tried them personally. Here's her recipe for hummus:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/hummus/

[3irty1]

Ok, but if you guys keep this up, you're going to have to make me a pie with an impossibly thin crust...and mushrooms.

by the way, what are those really, really thin oriental noodles? The ones that look like angel hair pasta? I need to learn how to cook them and how to make that awesome brown sauce the old Chinese dude makes at my favorite hole in the wall. I also need to know how to make pho broth correctly. I know it has ginger and star of anise, but don't know the quantities, etc. And pho must be made with round steak. None of this chicken shit either.

I needed time to write a proper response to this.

Ok the noodles: Thin noodles in a chinese place can be a variety of things. Rice noodles are often very thin but I'll assume that's not what we're talking about as you'd probably recognize them as rice noodles. They are white and not very chewy and not a great choice to put sauce on as they aren't too starchy and don't pick up much sauce. Thin noodles are really common in cantonese places and are made with alkaline water. This is pretty strictly a Chinese method, the addition of a base "relaxes" the gluten of the wheat noodles and creates a VERY chewy noodle with that distinctive alkaline taste... like the outside of a soft pretzel (which is covered in lye and yolk). You could also be talking about plain old lo mein that nearly every Chinese place has, I think angel hair is a little bit thinner than this though.

There is a chance that you are talking about La Mian which IMO is the holy grail of Chinese noodles. These are rare in the states and I don't know a single place in WI that serves it. These noodles are hand pulled. Making the dough for them is tough, making the dough into noodles is even tougher. I started learning how to make them this past winter and it took me a couple months of practice to be able to make something usable. Here's a video so you can see what all the fuss is about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LWBlHmJmjg

Now Pho. I don't know much about Vietnamese cuisine but I do have a good Pho recipe.

This came from a restaurant called "Pho King." No Pho King joke.

Ingredients:
2 medium yellow onions, cut in half, paper removed
1 large ginger finger, or 2 medium.
5-6 pounds beef soup bones -- shin, leg, and knuckle bones, preferably with marrow -- not neck or tail bones. Cut into pieces about 3" - 4" long.
4 - 6 star anise (to your taste)
4 - 6 whole cloves
3" piece of Asian cinnamon stick (or 4" Mexican, in extremis)
1 pound beef stewing meat cut into 2" x 2" pieces.
1-1/2 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 1-inch chunk yellow rock sugar, or (not nearly as good) 2 tbs granulated white sugar

Technique:
Broil the onion and ginger until softened. Skin does not need to be blackened, but it may be. Set aside to cool.

Parboil the bones as follows: Place the bones in a stock pot, cover with water -- about 7 - 8 quarts. Bring to the boil and boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Turn on the hot water sink tap. Empty the bones and water into the sink. Allow water to go into the drain. Thorougly rinse the bones to get rid of any impurities that may have stuck to them. Set aside when clean. Thoroughly rinse the pot to get of any impurities that may have stuck to it. Return the bones to the pot, and cover with fresh, cool water.

Bring to the boil over high heat, reduce to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes and skim the scum.

Peel the ginger, getting rid of all skin -- and any blackened bits. After the first skim, add the onions, ginger, and the other remaining ingredients to the stock. Check for scum at ten minute intervals, three times. Skim any scum that appears.

Beginning at the 1 hour mark, check the meat to see if it is tender (but not stringy). Check every 15 minutes thereafter. When the meat is cooked (usually about 90 minutes), remove it. Drain and immediately wrap (still hot) in cling wrap. Reserve in the fridge, and use later as one of the pho meats.

Continue simmering stock. If water evaporates so bones become exposed, add more water as necessary. Stock should be finished at around 3 - 3-1/2 hours total simmer time (not counting the par-boil). Strain through a fine sieve. Check bones for any tendon which may have clung to them. If there is tendon, reserve in the same way as the cooked beef. Defat the stock if you like, but not too aggressively. Stock should be rich but not greasy.

Yield, about 5 quarts.

[Freak Out]

Fuck you people and your fresh tomatoes.

Did you come up and fish this summer?

[3irty1]

Fuck you people and your fresh tomatoes.

Did you come up and fish this summer?

Nope, first summer in the real world. Sounds like it was a mistake though. From what I hear they are raking.

[Freak Out]

Cook Inlet has been hot...Bristol Bay was down though. I was hoping to get the chance to buy you a beer when you passed through....next time.