tommy:eats

Fairway's steak: with tomatoes, Asparagus: with fried egg

A few weeks ago, I posted a throw-away Facebook post about some steaks at Fairway which, to my novice eye, looked pretty good at $18/lb. As often happens when I open my mouth, a long, convoluted debate emerged, primarily with my nemesis from the north, who I will call "Ant-nee." As if Ant-nee and his strong opinions weren't enough, the discussion took some additional turns with input from some other nice folks, visiting topics like editing Facebook posts, the source of Peter Luger's beef, and if these steaks were actually expensive. Adding to the mix was the recent Facebook change which causes comments to appear out of order for some reason.  Nobody knew what the hell anyone was saying.  Which was probably just as well.

Ant-nee, who no doubt has a lot of experience with eating and drinking and drinking and even husbandry, proclaimed that he would "pass" on these "ghetto ass steaks." There was only one thing to do, after arguing.  I mean two things to do:

1) not invite Ant-nee to dinner

2) cook these steaks to prove him wrong

Speck and peas: pizza

When I'm trying to come up with pizza ideas, I'll think "pasta." Conversely, when I'm pulling together a pasta dish, I'll think "this would work with pizza." It's obvious why. Pasta is made from flour and water (sometimes egg) and pizza dough is made from flour and water. When pizza is done well, you'll even have that layer of dough right under the toppings that has the consistency of a noodle. Pizza carbonara and pizza all'amatriciana? Of course.

Since the speck and peas and pasta with cream sauce experiment, the thought of applying the same approach to pizza had been rattling around in my head. I took a few minutes yesterday to poke around the internet before I jumped in, and found that Jim Lahey has a recipe for prosciutto and pea pizza in his book 'My Pizza.' I took his idea of using bechamel and off I went.

Speck and peas and pasta: cream sauce

iamnotafoodstylist

The fella from iamnotachef.com and I were emailing each other about food the other day, as we generally do, and the subject of speck came up. Speck is sort of like prosciutto, but it's smoked, which means it might even be better than prosciutto.  iamnoachef had just got done cooking a pizza with some speck, and my response was to tell him to put speck in his carbonara, since it's smoky, and since he thinks that bacon is an appropriate meat for carbonara. I do not, and this is a constant point of contention. 

He graciously ignored my ribbing, and then we moved on to the idea of pasta with speck (but not carbonara). My mind was now focused on speck/peas/pasta/cream. iamnotachef quickly suggested a bit of mint (inspired) and pecorino romano (which I always pair with pork/pork products).  Off to Fairway I went for the speck (and then to King's for the mint, since Fairway inexplicably didn't have any mint).

Burger Land: Travel Channel

A few months back, Travel Channel aired two episodes of Burger Land, a great show on hamburgers hosted by George Motz.  I figured that was it for the show, but they've restarted with some additional episodes.

George is an affable character with some admirable sideburns and a real passion for burgers.  He did, after all, write the book on the subject.  The show is shot and edited well, and is a real pleasure. Don't miss it.

After catching the third episode, "Hollywood Hamburgers," which featured a place called Pie 'n Burger, I knew what was happening for lunch. 

The Pie 'n Burger cheeseburger consists of two four ounce patties, smashed down with a can of tomato juice, cooked on a flat top, with pickles, cheese, and a Thousand Island style dressing.  It also has lettuce, which I generally skip when making burgers. This style of burger is right up my alley.

Here is what my version looked like.  For some reason four ounce patties on TV are much smaller than they are in my kitchen. I wouldn't recommend eating a burger this rich more than once a week.  Or, whenever you catch Burger Land on TV.

 

Pizza at home: Easter Eve

As usual the ovens were preheated for over an hour.  The stone was up to 650 by the time I slid the pizza in.

At 2.5 minutes in, I switched to the other oven, which had the broiler going, to finish the pie in about 3 minutes and 20. 

Live from Daryl's House: music and food

 

I've been obsessed with this show since I stumbled upon it a few years back was an internet-only deal.  Thankfully Palladia has picked it up on cable, bringing it to your HD TV with ease.

For you youngins, Daryl Hall is a singer-songwriter who has been around for quite some time, who was blessed with an enormous career in the 70s and early 80s.  Enormous hits.  By any measure, he's a fantastic songwriter and singer.  This series illustrates this theory.

Egg on this: Pizza

 

Yesterday was an excellent day. Not only was it National Margarita day (which means today is National the day after National Margarita Day), but I also disgusted a t:e reader by using store-bought eggs.  Presumably this individual pulls them out of his hens' claocas moments before cooking breakfast.  Those of us who do not live on or near a farm have to rely on places like Whole Foods for our eggs. I'm coming to terms with this. 

But I did go ahead and totally put that egg on that pizza.  Last night's selection of pizze (we speak Italian here at t:e) included a thyme/mushroom/taleggio/egg pie.

Pete & Gerry's eggs: are green

And there's some ham.

I'll be here all week.

Blizzard pizza: at home

Margherita

Clam and smoked pancetta

Soppressata and chile

Guanciale and egg.  Always a crowd pleaser.

Pizza: all'amatriciana

Pizza all'amatriciana

A recent trip to Tarry Market in Port Chester yielded a nice chunk of guanciale.  Normally I'd be making pizza carbonara, but I was looking for a tomato sauce-based pie.  The obvious direction was pizza all'amatriciana, based on the fabulous pasta dish.

For the sauce, I use Pomi brand strained tomatoes, right out of the box, just as I always do.  I'm not a fan of cooked sauces on pizza.  I'm looking for bright, fresh, clean flavors. The rest of the ingredients are simply placed on the pie as it's being built. 

Heat some chopped/diced guanciale in a pan, rendering some of the fat (which will be drizzled on the pizza), and giving a nice crunch/chew to the guanciale. 

The onions should have been on the sauce, but I just kinda forgot until the end

The dough (made from a sourdough starter, slow rise in the fridge for 3-4 days) gets some salt and pepper, and then goes the sauce.  Not too much.  Less is more.

Thinly sliced onions on the sauce.  They melt away when cooked on a pizza, lending a sweetness and subtle onion flavor. A bit of salt and pepper and red pepper flake as well.

Minced garlic is strewn about. 

Throw some fresh basil on there.  Why not.  I usually dip it in my bowl of Pomi so it doesn't burn in the oven.

A bit of low moisture mozzarella cheese. Again, not too much.

Grated Pecorino Romano, of course. 

That guanciale goes on along with a drizzle of the oil.

The pizza is cooked following the method I've been using for some time:  two ovens as, hot as they go, preheating for well over and hour, and opening the door to let the air cool down once the element cycles off.  This causes the element to go back on, adding more heat to the stone.  Both stones on the top(pish) racks, 2 inches from the element.  My stone is about 650 degrees when I put the pie in.  The pie cooks for just about 2.5 minutes, and then it's slid into the second oven, which has been set to broil at the time I put the pizza in the first oven.  This gives that second stone a blast of heat, ensures that the second stone is screaming hot as well, and gets the element screaming hot for the last 30 seconds of cooking.  I've tried many variations with the stone placement, and the results are never as good as what I get with this approach.  This is how I get 3 minute pizzas (sometimes quicker), from my regular ol' electric ovens.

I should have topped the finished pizza with parsley, but I completely forgot.  Next time.

This will be in the regular rotation.  Give it some consideration for your own experiments.

Tonight will be pasta all'amatriciana, based on Mario Batali's recipe, and I couldn't be happier.