To kick off this celebration weekend we started with pizza and beer, Derek and Sarah style...
Blue Cheese, Shitake Mushroom and Pepper Pizza
It all starts with the dough... This can be done ahead of time. Please don't buy pizza dough, this is so easy. Buying dough is a giant waste of money.
The Dough
From My Bread by Jim Lahey
10 grams ( Active Dry Yeast
5 grams Table Salt
3 grams Sugar
500 grams Bread Flour
1 1/3 cup water (may need another tablespoon or so depending on the moisture content of dough)
1. Mix the dry ingredients (yeast, salt, sugar, and flour).
2. Heat the water in a microwave until it is warm to touch, but not hot (approximately 100 degrees).
3. Add water to dry ingredients and stir until all of the flour is incorporated into the dough (you may need more water at this point) using a spoon and your hands. The dough will be stiff and slightly sticky.
4. Cover and let sit in a warm place for about 2 hours, the dough should more than double in size.
5. On a clean, well floured surface turn out the dough and form it into a rough ball. Divide that ball in half using a knife or dough cutting thing. Gently form each half into a ball. Cover the balls of dough (spaced about 4 inches apart) with a non-linty towel and let them rest for 30 minutes.
6. At this point, you can either make pizza or store your dough. If you are storing the dough put a generous amount of olive oil (2-4 tablespoons) in a gallon size zip top bag and place the dough ball inside (1 ball per bag). Now it can be refrigerated for 1-2 days or frozen for a month. We usually use one dough ball and freeze the other for later. When you are ready to use the frozen or refrigerated dough allow it to come to room temperature before you make pizza.
The Pizza
1 pound Shitake Mushrooms (stems removed and sliced)
Sea Salt
1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup plus 2-4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (with more for oiling the pan)
10 cloves of Garlic (chopped)
2 jalapeño (thinly sliced, seeds removed if you are wus)
2 tablespoons Cream Sherry
1/2 pound Blue Cheese (crumbled)
1/2 pound Mozzarella (sliced)
1/2 Onion (thinly sliced)
1. Mix about 1/4 cup of olive oil with 5 cloves and sliced jalapeño. Add a heavy pinch of salt and allow it to marinate for about 30 minutes. Longer is better...
2. Heat a large saute pan at medium low heat with 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter. Add the sliced shitake mushrooms and another pinch of salt and saute until they are beginning to caramelize (5 to 10 minutes).
3. Add the cream sherry and cook off the liquid (5 minutes).
4. Sprinkle the half sheet pan with a generous drizzle of olive oil. Using your hands, spread the the room temperature dough out in the pan to evenly cover most of the pan.
5. Brush the infused oil on the stretched out dough make sure to spread out the garlic and peppers evenly. Spread the onion out evenly across the pizza.
6. Next, spread the cheese and the mushrooms across the dough.
7. Bake the pizza at 500 degrees for about 20 minutes, rotating the pizza half way through. Now slice and enjoy.
Then we feasted. We also made a tomato salad (remember all of those tomatoes?), poured a delicious Belgian farmhouse ale, and began feasting. Pizza with no tomatoes, and then we serve them on the side... strange people that we are...
This was pretty delicious. Yum, pizza and beer.
For some people it is tomato salad and pizza, for some cats it is kibble. Everyone is happy.
Happy anniversary!
ReplyDeleteI like your celebration style : )