What are You Cooking the Week of March 12, 2017

[BakerAunt]

I'll be traveling tomorrow, so I am starting the thread for all of you Sunday cooks.

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• This topic was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Joan Simpson]

I made lima bean soup out of left over lima beans with celery,carrot,and onion and added some left over rice,cooked the vegetables in chicken stock first then added one half can of tomatoes and used the rest of the chocolate cake cut up in small pieces layered up with cool whip and white chocolate pudding to make a trifle.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Last night I made pizza. In addition to my usual crust I tried a St. Louis crust too. The taste was a little flat. It probably needs a touch more salt and instead of using corn syrup next time I will use honey. And maybe add a couple of extra teaspoons of olive oil.

[Mike Nolan]

I made snapper last night, but I may need to find a better recipe, it was kind of bland and possibly overcooked. (I normally cook salmon for me and orange roughy for my wife, because she doesn't like salmon and I think orange roughy is boring.)

[Mike Nolan]

Joan, I was reading too fast, for a moment I thought you put the chocolate cake in your soup!

[Joan Simpson]

Lol Mike I can see the way I wrote that out can be confusing 🙂

[RiversideLen]

Aaron, I made a St Louis pizza crust last week. I used honey as I don't have corn syrup. Mine was bland too, but I didn't use any salt. But it was fast. I agree, a little more olive oil won't hurt.

[Italiancook]

Last night, I braised pork chops and made French fries as a side.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Len. My family noted the blandness too not that it slowed them down eating it. I will try again though. Butter might be even better than olive oil but the people I am most likely to make this for have serious dairy allergies (I've used non-dairy cheese for them) so I don't want to use it.

Also, my regular crust has no added fat - just flour, water, yeast, salt, and a little sugar to feed the yeast. And recently I've reduced the yeast too. So the slow rise really helps.

[Mike Nolan]

Many East coast pizza fanatics say it is 90% about the crust and 10% about the toppings. I tend to disagree, but I lived in Chicago for a number of years, and Chicago pizza is really about the toppings. (I think that's why Peter Reinhart didn't really understand the Chicago pizza scene when doing the research for his book American Pie.)

If there's enough olive oil in a crust to be able to taste it, IMHO that's way too much! But I seldom cook with olive oil, because a friend is allergic to it and we're not really all that fond of the flavor.

[RiversideLen]

If you don't care for olive oil a 50/50 blend of veg oil and butter works.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hmmm. The East Coast trend to think about crust is relatively new. People used to look at me like I was crazy for making a slow rise crust. The other thing about East Coast - whether it's New York, New Haven, or Boston (which tends to be Greek-style) is that not only do they put olive oil in the crust, they douse their pizzas with olive oil after it bakes. They are usually way too greasy. My town probably has one pizza place per person, especially if you count the grocery stores that make their own pizza on the premises. None of them are worth going to. The latest one in town sent their exec chef to San Antonio to learn to make pizza. They have fancy toppings. And a big bar.

I'll get around to trying it at some point.

I always thought Chicago was about the whole pizza and I like it because it has more diversity than any place else I've ever been.

[Mike Nolan]

Going to San Antonio to learn pizza is like going to Los Angeles to learn clam chowder!

I think NY Times food writer Jeffrey Steingarten is the one who popularized the myth that Eastern pizza is 90% about the crust and 10% about the toppings. (Peter Reinhart believes it, though.)

In Chicago a slice of pizza is a meal. In New York, it's street food.

Lincoln NE is the home of Valentino's Pizza, and unfortunately that has infected most of the pizza places. There was a place that did Chicago style pizza, it lasted about 3 years.

I think my favorite local pizza is from the guy who does them at the farmers markets in a portable Forno Bravo wood-fired oven. (Of course it helps that he's also about the only one in town who doesn't use garlic in his pizza sauce.)

Right around the time that I moved from Chicago to Lincoln, Chicago Magazine was working on a piece on the '5 styles of Chicago Pizza', I knew their business manager so I saw a draft of the article. (My complaint was that I think they skipped at least 2 styles.) So diverse it definitely is!

[RiversideLen]

Growing up in Chicago I have learned how fortunate I was as far as pizza was concerned. The further I would be from Chicagoland the worse the pizza got. Now I understand why mediocre franchised pizza can be so successful. The thing that amuses me is when you hear people talk about Chicago style pizza they automatically think about the deep dish pie. I believe most Chicagoans eat thin crust. Of course I do like a properly made deep dish pie too. My first experience with deep dish was My Pi on Sheridan Rd across the street from Loyola University.

5 styles of Chicago pizza? I can think of thin (varying degrees of thinness), stuffed and deep dish. There is thick crust sometimes called pan pizza, something I have never cared for, so that makes 4. What else am I missing?

To me the thing about pizza is, regardless of style, the crust, sauce and toppings all have to be good, if any one of those lets you down then the pizza is a failure. I strongly agree with the slow rise method for pizza dough. I have been using the America's Test Kitchen recommendation, which is to use very cold water, a bare minimum amount of yeast, ferment in the fridge and do it all at least 24 hours in advance.

[BakerAunt]

Our caravan of rental truck, long-bed pick-up truck, and Ford Explorer arrived in Indiana around 8:30 last night. When has there been snow on spring break? We did miss most of it, but the vehicle are covered with salt.

For a quick dinner, I brought with us the ingredients for tuna casserole made with evaporated milk, since we did not have time to stop at a store. I had to use canned rather than frozen peas, but I used spinach noodles and Gouda cheese. Our starving crew (my husband, younger stepson, and his friend) likely would have eaten anything, but they all praised it, and I have to admit, it is delicious. It's been a while since I've cooked for this many guys.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: added information

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