When we set out to explore pizza, it never occurred to us that we would consider making pizza’s that competed in the World Rome Pizza competition. We also never considered that we would consider making the winning pizza in the “Specialty Pizza” category, but this pizza was ranked as the “Best in Show” in the 2019 competition. It’s a technical pizza to make, including things that we have never considered. For example, in order to make this pizza, you need to make a “balsamic cream”, which is really a balsamic reduction, and of course, the way the pie is baked, the time, and the method is technical, and then you use uncooked cured salmon. It’s a great pizza, quite unexpected, and filled with umami.

You start off with a light layer of crushed tomato and fresh mozzarella, which is baked and then broiled till the crust is toasted. Then you add the salmon to the hot pizza, add the olive oil dressed arugula, halved cherry tomatoes and lime zest, then you drizzle the balsamic reduction in a particular way, over the pizza and finish with a drizzle of fresh lemon juice.

Is this a peperoni and pineapple pizza, or is it an Erie Ave pizza with pineapple? Well, sort of neither and both. I started out with Toum (Lebanese garlic paste), then added tomato sauce that was enhanced with Tapatio for spice. Shredded mozzarella, pepperoni next, then pineapple followed along with chopped pickled jalapeno, hot honey, and finally finished with ricotta cheese. We both enjoyed it so much!

There used to be an Italian restaurant near my old place over 30 years ago that served a Fettuccine ai Tre Colori that I always enjoyed. So,, I thought I’d try it. Pesto, alfredo and marinara sauce like tys Italian Flag! The truth is that because I don’t have a six burner stove, making this dish correctly was harder than it looked. So, I made it “Olive Garden” like. The pasta is amazing and I finished it in a little butter and pasta water before heating the sauces up one at a time before dousing the pasta in accordance with the flag, Green, white, red. We shaved paramagnon to finish. The pesto sauce had some pistachio notes and the red sauce was a spicy marinara.

There is a local shawarma place in our neighborhood called Garlic Crush that makes this dish which I just love. Their version of this meal inspired me to try my own version. There are 4 parts to this dish. The chicken, the humus, the garlic paste (toum) and a fresh salad with an oil and vinegar dressing. The restaurant is owned by an Egyptian fellow, but puts themselves forward as Lebanese. In South Africa, back in the late 70’s a shawarma was my favorite take out meal. In my years here in the States, there have been only a few Lebanese places that have risen to the flavor profile I was expecting. Garlic Crush gets there, and this meal is my favorite version of their fare.

The chicken is marinated in a bath of lemon juice and olive oil and several spices, esp cinnamon, cardamom and cumin as well as garlic and hot pepper flakes (of course, I added peri peri). It marinates overnight.

The humus I make is so smooth and so good, that its almost pornographic. This time, I made it with a roasted shallot flavor and naturally, it was also heated up with peri peri.

The toum is a great emulsified garlic paste made slowly with olive oil and lemon juice. It’s also made a day ahead.

The salad I chose for this meal is a Greek tomato and cucumber salad with feta cheese, red onion and kalamata olives and a pile of chopped basil. It is a fantastic meal served over rice with a little warmed pita bread.

I have not watched Football for a very long time, but, with the Seahawks in the Superbowl, we made the choice to watch the game, along with the Winter Olympics, on Sunday. When you have a day of sports on the telly, you need snacks. Heather and I thought, we need an excuse to make wings. She had purchased some buttermilk for her pancake quest, so we soaked the wings in buttermilk for the morning, then coated them in a South African base that is peri peri based. Then I made a Korean seasoning that included soy sauce, gochujang, toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, hot honey fresh garlic fresh ginger, and chili flakes. They were delicious.

I have always wondered how to make super tasty carnitas. My first effort was a recipe from Modernest Cuisine at Home, which uses a pressure cooker to shorten the process. While those carnitas are brilliant, that is not how Mexican families make carnitas, so, I wanted to try that. Having done so, now I know why it’s best to rely on our local authentic Mexican restaurant for carnitas in a pinch. I found an authentic recipe to try. It’s a slow cooked porkbutt recipe that can only be described as confit porkbutt. The biggest surprise was that you literally confit the pork in lard. In addition, you use an orange, an onion, garlic, Me4xican oregano, evaporated milk and a Mexican coca cola. Once it has cooked for hours, you let it cool and then tear it apart with your hands. We made tacos with radishes, chaoite cheese, green onion and jalapeno, and cilantro. They were spectacular.

When we began our Pizza Quest, one of the founding ideas was to see if we could identify brilliant pizza pies that we had never tried, and add them to our repertoire of great pizzas. Think of it like this, imagine we are menu testing for our personal pizza restaurant, and we only want pies that we truly love. None of the “usual” pies, just really brilliant, tasty, and moreish pizza pies. Stop the presses! The Mortadella & Pistachio pizza is the reason we went on this quest. First of all, it has just a few ingredients. Second, if you have never had pistachio pesto, you haven’t lived. Third, when you discover how the acidity of pickled shallots and a squeeze of lemon juice creates pizza umami, then you will understand. For our pizza, we substituted Genoa Salami for Mortadella which was not available, made fresh pistachio pesto which is absolutely delicious, and made a pile of pickled shallots (red wine vinegar, sugar, & peppercorns). The cheeses are shredded mozzarella and fresh mozzarella. This is a 5-star pizza

When we enjoy a steak, I often make this incredible “green sauce” which is a form of a refined sauce made from a chimichurri. I start with whatever green vegetables are fresh. I add garlic, ginger and shallots, and I blend them all in a blender with some chicken bone stock. Then I further smooth it out by running the whole blended mix through the cuisinart and finally through a chinois. After that, I reduce it, adding fish sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, red wine vinegar, hot hoeny, sugar and maple syrup and in the end, finish it with butter before serving it as a side to the steak and baked potato. Its a smooth, hot spicy absolutely layered and delicious sauce that amplifies the steak. When there is leftover sauce, you cannot throw it out. It has to be used. What better base for a pizza? Then, we had left over Korean spicy sausage, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, calamita olives, and fresh tomatoes. It seems like a good blend.

Ingredients:

• Magic Green sauce
• Fontina
• Spicy Korean sausage
• Fresh mots
• Goat cheese
• Kalamata olives
• Fresh tomato
• Red pepper flakes
• Sourdough crust

This is the magic green sauce

Indonesian fried chicken is one of the most flavorful version of fried chicken on earth. You start out with an amazing marinade that includes toasted coriander, fennel and cumin seeds, then after grinding them up, you add them along with garlic, shallots, glangang, lemon grass, curry powder, chili powder, peri peri powder, turmeric, sugar and coconut water. You allow the marinade to soak into the chicken for up to two days. There are a couple of ways to proceed at this point. One is to fry the chicken as it is, the other is to cook the chicken in a pot to thicken and cook the chicken through before frying it. Either way, before you fry it, you dust it with corn starch. Then you bake it careful not to overbake it letting the oil drip off in a warm oven. We chose to cook the chicken through before frying it. I like the idea of the paste being cooked through. So, that was a lot of work to get to the frying part. Even so, I am not sure we nailed the experience. It tasted pretty good.I think I would approach this differently in future. For example, cooking down the marinade before finally coating the chicken. I would also bake the chicken in the oven to get it mostly cooked rather than simmer it in the sauce which would make give it a better texture. Anyway, pretty delicious all told. I served it with a coconut rice, green onions and Kafir Lime Leaves.

Here is the sequence:

First, you marinate the chicken for up to 48 hours

Next you simmer the chicken in the marinade:

Finally, you cook down the marinade before coating the chicken in it, and then frying it.

Singapore chicken is an easy dish to make and its super yummy. You start off by making a dark “Kepop Manis” sauce with dark soy sauce, molasses and brown sugar. It’s so quick and easy and delicious. Begin by heating oil in a wok until hot. Add a sliced onion until they are slightly browned. Add chicken and chili and stir-fry further until the chicken starts to brown.

Add sugar then add the kecap manis sauce and water and continue to cook until chicken is cooked and the sauce starts to thicken.

Stir in the lemon juice and mint.

Serve with steamed coconut rice and a steamed snow peas.