Smoked Salmon on a Potato Pancake

Cooking with Cedar Kitchenette: Smoked Salmon on a Potato Pancake came about when a mutual friend introduced me to a fellow Philly blogger Laura of Cedar Kitchenette. She’s an accomplished baker and still in high school- so cool. We decided to meet up, make brunch and talk tricks of the trade. Laura let me pick the menu and I decided on this lovely brunch pizza of sorts based on a Martha Stewart recipe: Smoked Salmon on a Potato Pancake. We were both really happy with how it came out, and so were our guests. It’s always hard to take great pictures when you’re distracted and hosting guests, so of course I made it again the next day to get me perfect shots. It wasn’t exactly torture to eat it again the next day and I still had all of the ingredients around. This gave me the perfect opportunity to perfect my technique. Since I no longer had guests, I made a small 8-inch serving just for me and I have to admit the smaller size was much easier to maneuver if less impressive. You could easily make a few of the potato pancakes ahead of time and rewarm when guests … Continue reading

Let’s Fix it: Reheating Pizza

Here’s another quick and easy Let’s Fix it! tip for you: Let’s Fix it: Reheating Pizza. It’s taken me years to figure out the best way to reheat pizza. Maybe not all pizza, because some you eat cold for breakfast. But really good pizza… Homemade stuff; that fancy Brick oven pizza. Believe it or not you don’t even have to turn on your oven. The best way to reheat pizza is actually in a pan, on the stove, with a lid. The direct heat on the bottom of the pizza will toast the crust and make it crisp, the steaming that comes from covering the pan with a lid will reheat the toppings and the cheese. Genius, I tell you. Let’s Fix it: Reheating Pizza may become your favorite Let’s Fix it! tip yet. Yield: one – 2 pieces of pizza, depending on size of pan. Cook Time: 3-5 minutes total Prep Time: 1 minute (yeah leftovers!) Turn stove on medium low. Set a piece of pizza in the pan. Cover. Check on it after 3 minutes. It may take up to 5 minutes.   … Continue reading

Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza

Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza is my knockoff of the Uova Pizza da Barbuzzo Restaurant in Philadelphia. Barbuzzo is one of my favorite restaurants in Philly, and the Uova Pizza is one of my favorite pizzas. They don’t make it year ‘round though; come springtime, quite seasonably reasonably, Brussels leaves give way to shave asparagus, much to my consternation. If you aren’t lucky enough to live in Philly, where you can go out for this Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza, now you can make it at home so you’ll know what you’re missing, and why you need to come visit Philly ASAP. And you should absolutely let me know how close my Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza is to the original. Of course, I don’t have a wood fire pizza oven, (dreams, right?) but with a pizza stone and a very hot oven you can get kind of close. But the sauce, well, let’s just say I think I nailed it with my guancial béchamel sauce. Mostly, this Runny Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza is a really fun project that makes you appreciate all the work that went into the original and reinforces making a reservation at Barbuzzo. * One of my … Continue reading

Fig and Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula

There were figs in the market this week, and that’s all the reason I needed to make this Fig Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula. Whenever I find fresh figs, I can be relied upon to buy them up and dream of all the wonderful things to do with them, all the while eating them straight out of the grocery bag while walking home. I really like figs. I even found a really awesome strawberry fig tree in South Philly that’s abandoned. Don’t ask me where it is though, I won’t share this urban foraging secret. This week, since my figs actually made it home (they must have been at the bottom of the bag), this Fig and Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula was on the menu. As with all of my pizzas, I start with my standard pizza dough recipe and modify. In this instance, I make a wheat crust with rosemary, which adds to the sweet and savory theme of my Fig Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula. I also like adding some whole wheat flour to make the crust a little more substantial. A balance is key though, too much whole wheat flour and it can be a little tough. This Fig … Continue reading

House Pizza: Hawaiian

If I ask Marc what he wants for dinner, there are a couple of likely responses: 1. Spaghetti. 2. Shrimp Pineapple Curry. 3. Pizza. When Marc asks for pizza, I know he means our House Pizza: Hawaiian. You may have notice that two of the three involve pineapple. Pineapple is one of the few things on the planet that Marc is undisciplined towards; in fact, I’ve seen him eat a whole pineapple and then of course, feel terrible afterward. Hawaiian Pizza has been Marc’s favorite for as long as I can remember, most likely because of the pineapple? While I like a lot of variety when it comes to pizza toppings, it doesn’t make me sad that Marc always requests Hawaiian because it’s a favorite of mine as well. There’s something about the salty meat and the sweet pineapple that just works, particularly when paired with melted mozzarella; so leftover ham is always good news in our household. I do tend to change things up a bit from your standard Hawaiian pizza because I spice up my crust with chili flakes or jalapeño, but there’s not reason you need to if spicy isn’t your thing. Aside from being generally awesome … Continue reading

Pesto Pizza with Truffle Honey: AKA Marc’s nemesis pizza

This Pizza with Truffle Honey: AKA Marc’s nemesis pizza was NOT created with Marc in mind. If you want to see an endearing post about me cooking for Marc like Ina cooks for Jefferey, check out my post on Anniversary Carrot Cake. This is not that post. Marc hates artichokes. Hates them. And I love them. You might recall just how far I’ll go for artichokes if you read my post on artichoke soup. I’m a little crazy about them. I rarely cook with them, because of how much Marc hates them. Pizza is the perfect opportunity to enjoy them, since I can partition off my section if we’re dining alone, or just make him a different pizza if we’ve got a group. When making something Marc doesn’t like, I tend to pile on other ingredients he tolerates but doesn’t love, like mushrooms and truffle honey. This pizza started out as me enjoying a list of ingredients I usually hold back on for Marc. We both broke into a fit of laughter when we realized that the end result of my anti-Marc experiment created a superfood of evil we’ve now titled Marc’s nemesis pizza. For everyone else, it might just … Continue reading

Kale and Many Mushroom Pizza

It’s surprising to me that this is my first pizza post because I love brainstorming pizza combinations. I like to follow the seasons and what’s at the market in terms of toppings. This particular one is special for many reasons. The cheese (and if you can’t find it, sub a smoked cheese or a sheep’s milk cheese), the truffle salt, the roasted kale, using mustard instead of sauce. Pizza is one of my go to meals when I want to make something fancy in the kitchen that won’t scare off or intimidate guests. Everyone likes pizza and can pretend it wasn’t a lot of work if they want to and it doesn’t need to be a lot of work. But this one sort of is. 1 pound mixed mushrooms (shitake (stems removed), oyster and crimini) sliced 2 tablespoons butter ½ cup white wine 1 teaspoon salt (I used truffle for extra mushroom depth) 1 tablespoon oregano leaves (the smaller the better) 3-4 tablespoons whole grain mustard ½ pound idiazabel (very cool slightly smoked sheep’s milk cheese) ¼ pound mozzarella 2 cups kale, ribs removed and torn to bite size 1 tablespoon olive oil Homemade pizza dough (or store bought if … Continue reading

Pizza Dough

The pizza dough I make is really simple. And you can adjust the flour up or down to make it more or less dense and more or less elastic. With this consistency you can just knead it by hand briefly, but with a lot more flour, you may prefer to use a mixer and a dough hook. You can also play with the olive oil to make it more or less rich. 1 ½ cups flour (I use 1 cup bread flour and ½ cup whole wheat most often. I think it’s the best of both worlds and the dough remains tender but has more flavor). 2 ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast 1 teaspoon salt ¼ cup olive oil ½ cup warm water Whisk the flour and the salt in a large bowl. Make a well. Pour the yeast into the well. Add the oil and water. Let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is bubbly. Combine and knead into a ball. Cover the bowl in saran wrap or a damp towel and let it rise until it’s doubled in size (about 1 hour). The texture of the pizza improves if you roll the dough out with a rolling … Continue reading