Aloha Deep - Hawaiian Style Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

We are a pizza-obsessed household. Not terribly unusual for most Americans, but since I keep a traditional Italian Neapolitan sourdough starter on hand at all times, we make every excuse to put it on our regular dinner rotation.

It’s such a thing, Tsu has planned on building the mother of all pizza and bread ovens in our new outdoor kitchen. Knowing his talents, this will be a Guy Fierri-style behemoth and a beauty, I’m sure. I am excited beyond words as I can think of nothing more fantastic or over the top yum than cooking these pizzas in a real pizza oven!

Recently, we’ve experimented with deep-dish and have made our rounds through the various options, including Sicilian, Detroit-style, etc. This one was more of a Chi-town try. Let’s get at it. I’ve blogged my pizza dough recipe before and will link it for you below.

My recipe for Italian pizza dough, aged at least 36 hours. Trust mama. With or without a heritage pizza starter, flavors need time to develop. That’s what “proofing” in bread baking is all about. This is a recipe for those that don’t have access to an Italian starter. I’ll post a recipe for my real-deal version soon.

I oiled my perforated deep dish pizza pan and sat it on top of the other perforated pizza pan covered with tin foil as I was worried about it bubbling over but it didn't. It’s always when I don’t take precautions that it gets wild, so just do it in case.

**If your dough has been refrigerated, it must come to room temperature before you try to stretch it out to fit your pan. If you are patient, this will allow your dough time to become relaxed and it makes stretching almost too easy.. I stretch, as opposed to roll, just easier. Flatten it out and gently stretch it from the center out, turning the pan and working Your way around the pan, until your edges are at the top of your pan. If you get tears, it’s likely not ready for this part so give it a few more minutes.

Let the dough rise in the pan, poking holes in the crust with a fork or dibbler so it rises evenly.

Now, the next steps of adding your toppings, as outlined below, is the key. The use of sliced provolone, as opposed to shredded mozzarella, as you will see, is the real secret behind cheesey perfection. I do not do it differently now and picante or sharp provolone is our new pizza-go-to cheese of choice. 

1. 1st layer is cheese, slices of provolone
2. 2nd layer is meat/toppings of choice
3. 3rd layer is sauce
4. 4th is a dusting of grated parmesan, shredded mozzarella if you must (traditionally, sauce is on top)

This pizza crust was freaking amazing. It was cooked perfectly.

Toppings:

I did half sausage, onion and black olive.

The other half we did Costco ham diced, fresh pineapple, onion.

Both were spectacular but the sausage we used we cooked first and it was the Italian breakfast links with fennel, also from Costco. It is a perfect sausage for pizza and we also use it in our Southern Biscuits and Gravy, a post for next time. ;)

Next time, I think we can just add it to the pizza raw instead; just one big flat layer of sausage so the whole pizza is covered. That's what we did with the cooked sausage and it was awesome to have sausage in every bite. Since it cooks so long in the oven we don't need to worry about cooking it ahead of time. Save the time and mess. I’ve seen it done at Chicago pizzerias and will do it this way from now on, especially on a deep dish.

Bake:

I preheated my oven to 400, put it in and then raised the temp to 450. I cooked it for 35 minutes then another 10 and it was divine. Tsu said it was the best he'd ever eaten. We both ate a quarter of the pizza and were stuffed but ate every last crumb. Finished the rest the next day.

The dough was crispy, had a great texture on the outside and it made eating the crust the best part! I also layered the cheese, which was pretty important, on the bottom first and in slices instead of using shredded or hand grated cheese. Also a timesaver. Next time I will do two layers of cheese though. one on the bottom and one in between the meat and sauce so it has extra cheesy goodness.

This was a heavy gigantic pizza but we were both so blown away.

Makin' Bacon, Again...

Today I vacuum packed about 6 1/2 lbs of homemade bacon. Well actually, we started the process last week and as I labored through the process late last Saturday night, I had a few curious cats swarming the kitchen for late night snacks, checking out what I was doing.  

They had never seen anyone "make" bacon before... so I explained the process to my teenage skeptics who chuckled as they headed back upstairs with their popcorn and gummy worms, kinda used to the fact that I'm always doing something...

Last weekend we bought a 13 lb pork belly from Western Beef and cut it into quarters, skin on. 

I was feeling a bit creative and lately, I've been on a charcuterie kick, a bit fascinated by fermented meats. Most people don't realize that this is exactly what salami, salumi or prosciutto really is: lacto fermented meat. An age old practice of preserving meat that precedes refrigeration. 

I personally love charcuterie of all kinds and that is one of the many gifts my ex husband gave me... a love of what is mostly a European staple that is slowly making its way to the U.S. I see more and more farm to table chefs embracing this age old and timeless tradition, developing a deep appreciation for this art and introducing a new foodie meat culture into our American palette. 

One of the easiest ways to introduce yourself to an easy lesson in charcuterie is of course, bacon. The belly of the pork, which I find to be one of the many jewels of this creature.  I've made bacon before, which really opened my eyes and from there, I explored making fresh chorizo, which was truly fabulous. Longing for some of this culinary goodness, I decided to go a bit deeper. I am curing a lonzino, currently and intend to do a Spanish chorizo as well as a Brasseola as well, maybe a Cappocola since I love these cured meats. If you are going to try your hand, why not try your hand at something you love to eat?

This time I decided to do bacon 4 different ways. Here were my holiday flavor inspirations:

• Black peppercorn, Fennel and Cumin
• Espresso and brown sugar
• Sweet Mesquite from Costco
• Plain

First I cured it using this curing method, about 1/4 cup basic dry cure per piece of pork belly, which was freaking perfect:

Basic Dry Cure:

1 lb kosher salt

8 oz sugar

2 oz pink curing salt

Yields about 3 1/2 c of cure.  I weigh it all out using a kitchen scale, which I recommend. Pink curing salt is just that, it is a special nitrite salt that should not be mistaken for table salt. Its purpose is to consume the sugars in the meat, creating natural nitrates that preserve the meat, hence the actual fermentation process. It is NOT pink himalayan sea salt. Do your homework and research as it is a natural curing process and I won't cure anything again without it, now that I am enlightened. If it bugs you, research it and figure something else out if it still bugs you. For me, it works like a charm and I will always use it. A little goes far so it is affordable and easy to store when you need it.

Curing:

After applying the dry cure, you could see it start to weep immediately. I prepped all the other flavorings and did them one at a time, vacuum sealing each piece. I put the vacuum sealed packages in the fridge for a week, or 9 days actually. We took out the pieces, washed off the seasonings and then placed them on grated baking sheets to air dry before we smoked them.

Smoking:

Now, I should have checked my own freaking blog for the timing, but of course I didn’t and sometimes, what seems like a mistake turns out to be a masterpiece after all is said and done. I mistakenly took someone else’s blogging advice and we smoked it at 200 degrees on the egg for 3 hours 15 minutes. The erroneous blog said 4 hours which to his credit, my partner in kitchen crime balked about several times. This prompted me to finally check the temperature during the football game commercial period. 

Turns out he was right, of course, and so was I… on my own blog lol! In my first bacon post, I mentioned that we smoked our bacon for about an hour, which was probably right on the mark, without knowing what temperature we were at during the smoking phase. The charcuterie book I have also said check the internal temp after 1 1/2 hours,  at 200 degrees, which I should have done. Internal temp should be about 150 degrees. But having said that, the happy culinary "accident" that ensued was phenomenal. When we opened the egg, the site of the pork bellies was gorgeous and we both just knew... it was probably cooked. But we couldn't have cared less... the sight of them, the smell... We couldn't get it in the house fast enough.

Don't fall in love with me pulled pork, eat your heart out!! lol! If we EVER want to do a pulled pork again that is upscale and restaurant worthy, it will indeed be done with a pork belly, no lie.

When we took it off the grill, oh boy, it looked and smelled amazing. And it also looked… Cooked.   No worries. It was so freaking delicious we really didn’t care because it meant we could taste it without having to first cook it!  Remember, that even though bacon is technically "cured", it is one of those meats that must be cooked first before you eat it. However, our lucky little mishap was the exception...

Only problem was it was so freaking delicious, we practically devoured half of the plain piece (which happened to be the smallest quarter) in a matter of minutes. We had just eaten, but it was so dang good, we both kept wandering into the kitchen picking at the bark, pulling at bits and pieces...

Refrigerating and Slicing:

We left it to cool (and yes, it was hard to step away from the bacon) and then placed wax paper on the bottom of the refrigerator meat drawer to refrigerate over night. As you might have experienced, cold bacon is much easier to slice and cut and homemade bacon is no different. The colder the better and freezing for an hour or two is even better.  

Today, we took them out of the refrigerator, wrapped in wax paper and popped them into the freezer for about an hour just before we put them through the meat slicer. My cohort sliced it perfectly and layered the pieces in wax paper while I vacuum sealed it all and labeled it. We ate the plain one the first night, leaving about a half pound of it. lol! It was that good but the bits left over, we diced and put in a ziplock bag in the freezer for later this week. 

We took the skin off for cracklings before slicing it though, which I highly recommend. I refuse to even consider how bad this might be for you, but being that I grew up on pork rinds and cracklings, I just rationalize it by saying I'm preserving my heritage. lol! Turned out beautifully and really, the bacon looks perfect. We both decided that while we cooked the bacon accidentally, it will still make beautiful bacon, it just won’t take that long to cook. And the real discovery is that smoked and grilled pork belly is a true delicacy to die for, a worthy meal in and of itself.

Now that’s looking at the silver lining... any way you slice it.

Mmmmmmascarpone!

Mascarpone Basic Recipe:

- 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
- 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. In a heavy bottom saucepan or double boiler, bring heavy cream to 190 degrees F. I use a candy thermometer but if you dont have one just keep an eye on it. It will take about 15-20 minutes with gentle heating. The cream will start to form tiny bubbles on the surface just threatening to simmer. We dont want a boil. The first sign of bubbles means you are ready for the next step.

2. Add the lemon juice to the heated cream, while continuing to heat. Stir gently for about ten more minutes and you should start to see the cream thicken like a pancake batter. The cream will curdle slightly and it may be so slight you wont notice, so use the thickening as a sign that the cooking process is complete. Remember, do not boil, so turn down the burner slightly if you start to see more than a gentle simmer. 200 degrees is too high, as a gage. The cream should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. It continues to thicken as it cools so dont fret if you are unsure, just proceed, fearless.

3. Let cool thoroughly. After the mixture has cooled, it is time to strain. Strain what you ask? Well, we have just made "curds and whey", Little Miss Muffet.  And our "curds" are just the tiny sort whereas the curds in cottage cheese are much larger. I use a very cool yogurt strainer which I use for ricotta and now for mascarpone. Well worth the investment, but you can use triple layers of cheesecloth lining a bowl. You line the bowl with cheesecloth or even a sprout bag, pour the cream in, gather up the ends gently and secure shut with a rubber band or ponytail holder. You then rig the mixture up over a pot or bowl using a chopstick that is threaded into the banded end, so it kinda looks like a hobo stick. Balance the chopstick over the edges of a suitable pot or bowl so the bag hangs inside the bowl or pot, even over the sink if you dont want the whey. The idea is to strain the mixture so do whatever you have to do to accomplish this, so that the liquid drains out and the cream stays in the "bag".

This was not hard. Didnt even take terribly long. I made it while watching Masterpiece Theatre last night. I was not sure I was doing it right. What else is new, right? That is the fun of it for me. If you are trying something for the first time, your only goal should be to observe and enjoy the process of learning something new. It looked too runny to become what it was supposed to be, but left overnight in the fridge, magic happened.

This morning, I had enough strained mascarpone to fill the two jars you see in the picture.  I had the larger Weck jar and the smaller completely filled. In the bottom of my strainer, the first runny bit had also thickened significantly so I was able to restrain that batch and I bet I get a second large Weck jar full.  For my batch, I made used 5 cups of cream from a half gallon carton of heavy cream.  The rest of it, I made Creme Fraiche or what to me is the ultimate sour cream, but that... is another post. (1/2 c. Yogurt + heavy cream, left on the counter overnight to set. Ok, too easy to actually post...)

Cream and lemon juice? Are you kidding? This stuff costs a fortune, for no darn good reason! But we have lost touch with our food... Where it comes from, how it is made, what it takes to provide nutrition our bodies can process and utilize efficiently. Any time you can ask yourself, "hm, wonder how I can make this or grow this at home?" then you are heading back home... Heading back to the garden, back to the kitchen and back to the very basics we have nearly forgotten.

If you miss out on something so pure, so good, so easy, you can't say I didn't beg you to try it just once.