Thursday, August 24, 2006

Grill Thrill

Can you say Pizza Night? I've discovered one of my favorite things to cook on our new gas grill, purchased Memorial Day Weekend (thanks Dad!!), is PIZZA! Who would have thought that you can whip up a bit of dough, roll it nice and thin, stack up a bunch of little discs with lots of flour in between so they don't stick, and hit the grill. I make sure the grill is nice and clean , set on med-low, and lay them right on there....no oil, no nothing. Oh, those little babies puff up like pita bread in the making. Cook for a couple of minutes on one side until you get those nice toasty brown grill marks I love(see photo below), flip over, repeat. When the dough looks nice and dry bring them in and it's Make Your Own Pizza Night. I make sure there are lots of toppings on the table and we all load up our own pizzas. Then it's back out to the grill for what is essentially melting and heating. I don't put anything on these pizza that I want overly cooked, the cooking time just is not there or the crust will be compromised (read burned). They usually do get a bit dark on the bottom, not too bad if I can help it, but nice and crunchy. Ah.....Wonderful. Serve with a tossed salad and a nice Italian Red. Done!!

We made these the other night and Heather and Amalie joined us for an impromptu casual dinner....did the salad, did the pizza, did the wine....most definitely did the organic dark chocolate. Let's do it again!!

PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

1 TBSP yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP olive oil
2 1/2 cups of flour

Disolve the yeast in the warm water with a bit of sweet sugar to feed it. Wake up Yeast, lets eat sugar!! Let it get a bit bubbley, about 15 min if you like, or shorter if you're that sort of cook. Patience patience. Add remaining ingredients and stir it all up until soft and doughy. Knead it a bit if you like to incorporate the ingredients. Set it aside to rest for a while, depends on your timing. 10-15 at shortest, about an hour average. When you are ready, lay out some flour and knead dough for a bit, get it soft and flexible, no longer sticky. Add flour as necessary for doing this. I've divided this amount of dough into about 8-10 pizza flats, it's up to you, how big you like it, how many people you are feeding. So, divide dough with a sharp knife, then lay out more flour for rolling and roll the crusts with a rolling pin, flip and roll, until flat and circular. I lay them on a plate, dust with extra flour so they don't stick together, and stack em up! Hit the grill, watch em puff up, have fun, make pizza.

****Notes****
+I usually use unbleached white flour for this, or white spelt, or some other light flour. Use any combination of flours and play with it.
+This recipe is the framework, if you just "slap and dash" as I call it, and wing the salt, the oil, the flour, you can usually make it all work out....go with your gut and it's all good. Dough is fun!
+I never oil the crusts when I grill....you'll want to, but resist the urge, you can do it.

FAVORITE PIZZAS

Ok, my fav at the moment is the BBQ Chicken pizza and when I make grilled chicken I make sure I have a bit left over specifically for this pizza. Obsessed I know. Ok, it's crust layered with bbq sauce, a bit of marinara sauce, mozz cheese, red onion, and chicken.. YEAH!

Next up fav is the olive oil, garlic, basil and fresh tomatoes.

Then it's on to veggie....any and every.

No worries though, it's all good...so good!

No comments: