What a Bread and Food Week That Was
Lucy was making up for lost time making two different breads. One a 10% whole 5 grain yeast Naan and the other a 10% whole Kamut pizza dough. The 5 grains for the Naan were red wheat, spelt, Kamut, rye and oat. Both were made with and 10% pre-fermented whole grain flour poolish at 100% hydration and both dough flours were LaFama AP. Overall hydration for both was 72%
Pizza Dough
Both had a short 30 minute autolyse with the salt sprinkled on top followed by 2 sets of 150 slap and folds each on 30 minute intervals. Both had 3 sets of 4 stretch and folds also on 30 minute intervals followed by a 30 minute rest before being shaped into a ball and placed in oiled SS bowl for a long cold retard – 24 hours for the Naan and 48 hours for the pizza dough.
Naan Dough
Now for some differences. The pizza dough had dried rosemary. Fresh garlic, chopped sun dried tomatoes and olive oil added in at the first set of stretch and folds and the Naan had 5% softened butter and fresh garlic added in during their first set.
Divided Pizza Dough
The Naan and pizza dough came out of the fridge 4 hours before baking, 24 hours apart. The Naan and divided into (6) 144 g pieces and the pizza dough was divided into (3) 244 g pieces. Both Naan and Pizza crusts were formed and shaped by hand the same way with the Naan more rustic. Both were baked on 550 F stones. The Naan was tossed on two different stones by hand one after the other and the pizzas were slid on the bottom stone with a peel.
White Smoked Pizza with Portuguese Linguisa
The Naan was baked for 90 seconds each side and removed to warm towels where butter infused with fresh garlic was brushed on both sides and the 3 pizzas were baked for 5 minutes and then spun with the peel and baked for 3 minutes more, removed to cutting board for slicing with a pizza wheel and then placed on wire racks suspended over 9x13 baking pans - so that the crust stays crisp as it was when it came out of the oven. We do not like inferior, thick, soft, floppy foldable NY style pizza.
Pepperoni Pizza
The 3 pizzas were a white pizza with smoked everything Portuguese Linguisa, smoked onion, smoked mushrooms and fresh mozzarella. It was out least favorite topping combination for all 3 of us but the crust was the best killer crisp. This is Chris Bianco’s most popular pie but he uses sweet Italian smoked sausage and smoked mozzarella and a different crust!
Sopresatta Pizza
We did put fresh grated, extra aged, Parmesan on each pie too. The girls though this pie would be better with Bianco’s fresh sauce as the base but I thought it might be better with a Parmesan béchamel or asiago alfredo base to keep it a white pie. Biaco’s is a killer pie and you should order it for sure but this one…. not so much.
The 2nd pie started as a basic Margarita using Biaco’s fresh sauce, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil with an added thin sliced smoked pepperoni and smoked onions. The crust was still plenty crisp and this was the girl’s favorite pizza.
My favorite was the last of the 3. It started out like the 2nd one above as a basic margarita but this one added a thicker sliced smoked Columbus sopresatta sausage, red onions, red peppers and smoked mushrooms. This was one fine pizza and my new favorite pie possibly of all time – at least for the moment.
Bianco’s fresh sauce is just a can of Marzano plum tomatoes, grown on the slopes of Mt Etna, crushed between the fingers with fresh basil until it is thick and smooth - no blending. My fresh sauce uses fire roasted tomatoes with Italian herbs, fresh minced garlic, fresh basil and red pepper flakes crushed between the fingers until smooth. The girls missed the smoky, garlicky, spicy sauce.
The Naan was perfect with the Indian Basmati rice and Chicken and Vegetable Tikka Masala my daughter loves so much. It was pretty yummy for sure. The hard part is what left overs to eat for diner tonight. Maybe I’ll put some Chicken Tikka Masala on that white pizza!
Lucy reminds us to never forget the salad with that Sopresatta Pie
Comments
it's not fair. I've always said that the best Indian curry should look a bit like pollution - ya know kinda like an oil slick - funny how a garnished oil slick looking mass of food just says dip naan and eat me now !
It is still my favorite bread because you can dip it in anything or make a great sausage cheese and egg breakfast sandwich too.
Glad you liked the post and Happy baking
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you've probably gone into detail on another thread I'm sure but just wondering especially since the timing (traditionally) is based off of when the naan peels away via gravity - ever tried making paratha ?
green onions and garam masala in them but the girls didn't like them at all. The whole wheat turned them off. They like Naan with green onion and Garam Masala though.
A very good Indian friend from Mauritius offered to get me a Tandoor oven and I told him no - stupid of me - No?
I learned to make Indian/ Pakisrtani food in Saudi Arabia. My right hand man was a Pakistani named Khan. He was great. I tried my best to get invited to his house for Saturday dinner as often as i could. I would get there early so I could go in the kitchen to cook with the all the wives. It was great fun for the wives and the husbands. The wives were so willing to tell me everything. The husbands would sit out in the living room and say Sheik Scott, let us know when the food is ready OK and Sheik Scott I need some more tea and out I would come with the teapot. When I poured the tea I would say, Hey I sure hope you guys still have a job tomorrow, I here your boss man is a real terror...... when he isn't cooking for you:-) it was so much fun in a pretty terrible place back then.
The first time I saw the ladies mixing all the spices and how much it ended up being for a huge pot of lamb curry, I was kind of shocked. I remember asking ' Are you putting all of that that in there?'
I had mixed all the herbs and spices for this Tikka Masala and was getting ready to add it to the browned onions to bloom, when my daughter said - are you putting all of that in there? I pointed at the back yard and said oh my goodness! When she looked away, I dumped the whole lot in saying - don't worry.... but I could tell she was. Exactly like the lady did in SA so long ago when she did exactly the same thing to me, adding don't worry..... but I did:-) My daughter, if anything, is a chip off the old block. She will soon be making Tikka Masala for her new hubby in Seattle I am sure. He has become quite the pit master too! Here is what the chicken should like going into the masala. Get a good char on it the best way you can
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As in from the cooks in home kitchens - you're so lucky to have that experience in Saudi Arabia ! In Los Angeles we have a lot of Persian food - our next door neighbors were Turkish / Persian amd taught us the ropes for Koobideh, Tadiq and personal fav Kashke Bademjan with fried mint - dang it, it midnight and now I'm craving - thanks again brownman !
for 2 years where all the MIddle Eastern food was so common plentiful and cheap was a blessing in more ways then money! persia, Moroccan, Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi you name it. Spending 3 years in the Far East was a blessing in Oriental food too Traveling around the world for work building buildings was the best thing ever for discovering food. Never had anyone teach me Persian food so my actual authentic hands on is limited but I do make them off the internet from people who sound Possibly Plenty Persian enough :-) I am amazed what people can do with plants and animals when it comes to food. There must be 100,000 cookbooks printed in the last 25 years alone.
Happy cooking
Everything looks great but if I have to pick a favorite it would be the pepperoni pizza. I've heard many good things about Chris Bianco's pizza in Arizona. Quite different than the wet Neapolitan pizza and the foldable NY pizza, its crispness it is its most outstanding attribute.
Love how you made your fresh sauce. Sounds absolutely divine! Thanks for the idea! Happy baking!
and the Tikka too. It was all delicious and no one went home hungry. Thin, crispy and no folding allowed when it comes to pizza around here! Bianco is my hero and I've spent a long time trying to get it just right. Another thing we like about his pizza place is the house wine is really good and reasonably priced. We love sitting outside on the patio at his 2nd place at the town and COuntry shopping center in spring and fall when it isn't a gazillion degrees. It is right next to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. We go to both after dinner and get the raspberry no flour chocolate cake at Whole Foods for desert.
Happy baking Job!
and one of them happens to be Indian curry with naan for me. My stomach is groaning at the moment and it's almost 12 at night here...
You can never go wrong with pepperoni pizza. Pepperoni is the only pizza topping that can stand alone in my opinion (cheese doesn't count because pizza must be cheesy to me!). I've never had a white pizza before but it won't be long before that occurs:)
Kaju (cashew) butter masala is my favourite indian curry. I have an Indian-inspired formula created. The dough is now retarding... Might go well with your curry!
Indian is my favorite food followed by Thai, Mexican, and the rest of them. There is no food I do not like and will pretty much eat anything but, spice and heat and food, noodles and breads just go together better in my food world!
Happy baling Elsie
I shouldn't be looking at this on my intermittent fast day! Such gorgeous pizzas and naan!
Having been a teen in New York, though, there will always be a warm place in my heart for those 25-cent foldable plain slices we ate standing at the counter <running fast... > Of course I now appreciate a properly crisp crust. My son is the pizza specialist in this household, however. I'd better not try to take that over from him -- I do love it that he does much of the cooking!
Fr some it is bagels, lox and cream cheese, others it is Wonder bread and bologna or bacon, lettuce and tomato. Thin and crisp beats thich and sloppy soft but I grew up on Pizza Hut and that is like NY style and I loved it too ....once upon a time. I still think pizza should have tomato sauce but at Biaco's the smoked veggie and sausage Wise Guy white pizza is the best seller by far. I had the leftover white pizza last night for dinner and it was terrific as good as right out of the oven originally. I kept wondering if it really would be better with sauce or not! I defrosted it in the MW and then toasted it for 5 minute in the toaster oven - came out thin crisp and great! Still wondering but next time we will see or not:_)
I say folks should make and eat the kind of food they like the best ,not the kind I like! My wife enjoys that I do all the cooking, possible for good reason from my point of view! But my daughter is learning how to cook and she will one day make me look like a camp cook! Her husband is also a foodie. They are both so young and have experienced so many different kinds of great food already it would be hard for them not to really be great cooks.
Happy NY style pizza made by your son.
I especially like the look of the pizza. Lucy caught up really well.
Happy baking
Ru
this week for Nelson Mandela's 100th birthday celebration. Did you get to see him? Had to be a really big deal from the size of the crowds . Anyway, I still like Shiraz and red blend SA wines. Glad you liked the post and the food was all tasty enough to eat. The pizza is a wise choice
Happy baking RU
A feast for the eyes and stomache! Love that sauce and will have to try it. I usually do a more simple fresh sauce but I like the fire roasted idea. I've yet to make Naan but it's on my to bake list.
Max and Lexi are jealous Lucy gets to try all these exiting flatbreads with amazing toppings ??.
Happy Baking!
made both on the grill for sure! I still want some fresh garlic and hot pepper flakes in the fresh fire roasted tomato and basil sauce. I like the kick f both. I eat so much Naan with Indian food it really isn't good for me but man is it good - my favorite bread possibly because Indian is my favorite food.
Lucy sends her overheated her best fo the lucky black ones. She said they would be in serious heat stroke in 1o minutes in this sun! 118 F for Tuesday is predicted. The last time I remember 118 F predicted it hit 122 F- Yikes!
Happy baking ian
They would burst into flames in that heat! It's been very humid here, which is almost as bad, but at least you can walk on the sidewalk without getting third degree burns!
Stay Cool!
Ian
is hotter and maybe another record! If your weber grill is a black one, you can sit it out in the sun and put some wood chips in the bottom, with no coals, smoke your ribs at a perfect 225 F for 5 hours.
we used to do lake mead every summer on the Arizona side at temple bar and it always seemed to exceed 120 on at least one day - brutal - how do you stay sane ?!?
yu go from your air conditioned house to your air conditioned car to your air conditioned job and then back again plus that is the reason God made beer wine and bourbon! When you wake up it is all over so no worries:-)