Cast Iron Pizza

Jo saw somewhere that somebody cooked a pizza in a cast-iron skillet. She thought we should try making a deep-dish pizza that way, so I accepted the challenge. 

I've had a great Chicago deep-dish pizza recipe that I've been making for about 30 years, but I've always made it in a deep pizza pan. And I haven't made it for about 20 years. I also wanted to try to make the crust more buttery & flaky. Can't wait to try a few modifications and make a pizza that's the perfect size for the 2 of us. 

I start with the dry ingredients:

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 TBSP sugar

Dissolve 2 1/4 tsp yeast in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let it sit for 5 minutes. 

Melt 1/2 stick of butter and let it cool down a little. 

Use the dough hook on the Kitchen Aid for easy mixing and kneading. 

Add the yeasty water and the melted butter to the dry ingredients and start that dough hook mixing. 

Mix until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl and forms a ball. 

Oil a large bowl with olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl, then flip it over to coat with the olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until it doubles in size (about 1-2 hours). 

Press the dough out on a floured surface. 

Roll into a large rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. 

Spread 1/2 stick of softened butter over the dough. Yes, REAL butter. No fake stuff in my house!

Now roll it up like you're making cinnamon rolls. 

My guesstimate is that there is enough dough for 3 deep-dish skillet pizzas. So I cut the log of dough into 3 equal pieces. 

Shape them so they're close to round and put back in the bowl to rise, covered, for another hour in the fridge. 

Here's the 11-inch cast iron skillet I'll be using. It's been in the family for decades and is well-seasoned. 

I sprayed the skillet with some butter-flavored non-stick spray. 

Drop in 1 of the dough balls. 

Flatten out the dough evenly in the skillet. 

Just enough dough to pinch some up the sides for a high edge to hold in all those toppings. Looks like my guesstimate was spot-on...it's just the right amount of dough. 

Chicago-style deep dish pizza is built a little different. First, a good amount of mozzarella cheese goes right on the crust. 

Oops...almost forgot to dice up the garlic cloves!

A nice layer of cooked Graziano's sausage goes on the cheese. 

We prefer fresh mushrooms, but nobody had them on sale this week. So I just used canned mushrooms. 

Now, cover with pepperoni. 

Then cover with a 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes. I like to use the Italian style, which includes some Italian spices. 

Add the chopped garlic. 

And top with some Parmesan cheese. Might want to sprinkle a little salt on those tomatoes, too. 

Bake at 425-degrees until the crust is golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. 

That looks good enough to eat!

Good stuff! And we have leftovers!

And now we have 2 future deep-dish doughs in the freezer. I'll just thaw them out, let them rise for a couple hours, and make them into pizza. 

Eating Out -Fong's Pizza

For years we've heard about Fong's Pizza. But being downtown Des Moines, with its parking challenges, we've never been. 

Yesterday we went to Altoona for the Camel, Zebra and Ostrich races. 

They were fun, but crazy. People who never go to the track are there en mass. 

After the craziness getting out of the parking lot, we were ready for dinner.  They opened a new Fong's in Ankeny so we decided to give it a try. 

It's in a new development that our gps didn't recognize. John looked at the map on my phone and got us there easily. 

It has a "Chinese restaurant in a movie" vibe. The waiter kind of ambled up and took our drink order. I got water and John ordered a cherry coke. 

Waiter: Do you want it the way I make it?

John: However it's done. 

Waiter: I make it with real cherry syrup!

Then he was gone. 

We ordered the infamous crab rangoon pizza. The choice was a ten inch or a sixteen inch. I was surprised there wasn't an in between choice. We got the smaller one. 

 

It came out fast and hot. The crust was cracker crisp. It was a little sweet for my taste. It was good, but I don't think I'll be running back for it anytime soon.

I liked it better than Jo did, but I would agree that I wouldn't rank it up there as one of my favorites. I like my pizza meaty, cheesy, and saucy. But I'm glad we finally tried it. And it was a very good thin crust.  

We got our fortunes. I guess they didn't know I just had a vacation. And John's in my world quite a bit, so I don't know what to do with that. 

Also another odd waiter moment. He brought the check and we put money in it. He walked by and said "Have a good night!"

He didn't pick it up or ask if we needed change. 

To quote John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. "I don't think Buddy Holly is a very good waiter."

Restaurant Redo - Country Style Steak and Collard Greens

While on our road trip through the south a few weeks ago, we enjoyed our lunch at Aunt Bea's restaurant in Mt. Airy, North Carolina. Country style steak with gravy, collard greens, mac & cheese, and hush puppies. 

Much to our surprise, Jo and I both loved the collard greens, which we'd never tried before. That was a challenge to me to re-create them! I'll grab a round steak out of the freezer and try re-creating the steak & gravy, too. 

I rinsed the greens and took the big stems out. Then I rolled them up and cut them. 

I found some recipes online and based mine on those, with no real specific measurements. I'd picked up a couple small smoked ham hocks when I got the greens. Those add lots of flavor to the cooking broth, which was about a quart and a half of water. I added some chicken base (to make it a chicken broth). I simmered the ham hocks for about 30 minutes, then added the cut up greens. 

I added about a TBSP each of sugar & salt, some black pepper, about 15 garlic cloves, half a sliced Vidalia onion, a little cayenne pepper, and about a TBSP of Family Dollar soul food seasoning. Also, about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. Covered and cooked for about 2 hours. 

For the gravy, I diced up some onion and portobello mushrooms. 

A little olive oil in the pan, along with a hunk of fat I cut off the round steak (I don't want to eat it, but it's great flavor for the gravy!). 

Seasoned the tenderized round steak with seasoned salt & black pepper, then into the pan to brown. 

After browning on both sides, it's out of the pan and into the 350-degree oven to finish cooking. 

Now, let's make some gravy! A couple TBSP butter into the pan. 

Add the diced onions & mushrooms. Season with salt & pepper. 

Stir and cook until soft, about 7-8 minutes. This is already good enough to eat!

Add a couple TBSP flour and mix. 

 Cook for a couple minutes. 

Then add a couple cups of water and a little beef base or beef bouillon. Stir until thickened. 

Collard greens are done!

Plated up country style steak with mushroom onion gravy and collard greens. 

Once again, Aunt Bea's...

And mine...

I think it was a little better than the original at Aunt Bea's. I will say I nailed the collard greens on the first try. They were fantastic! How'd I do, compared to the original meal, Jo?

It was very good. There was no mac and cheese, but I had plenty to eat. (And I already know his mac and cheese rocks!)