Czech in the Kitchen

Two Ingredient Pizza Dough

Posted by Pussycat in Main Dishes | 4 Comments

18July2015

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Tonight I have found my zen!

We love pizza. I could seriously eat it everyday but I only like super thin crusts and I like the crust to be crispy. Super thin and super crispy crusts are hard to find. Dominos does them but I have to say that they absolutely lack in flavour. Gondola does them but they’re so overpriced and so overly greasy that they’re only good every so often… like when you’re twenty years old and hung over 😉

There are a couple of places deep in the city that make them incredibly well but on a Saturday night after a long day of gardening … or rather… WEEDING… I’m hard pressed to make it all the way into the city for either of those places. One is an amazing food truck, The Red Ember, that is killer but only a few days a week downtown and a couple of days on the far side of the city at the farmer’s market and they shut down long before dinner time. The other is a bistro, Bonfire Bistro, that’s always packed full of folks and I’d actually have to get dressed in something other than my sweatshirt and shorts to go there.

I had heard whispers of a two ingredient pizza dough a while back, I think I saw it on Yahoo; at the time I didn’t pay much attention. Now after a long day outside and having eaten very little food ( a piece of cheese and an apple) I felt I needed something substantial, delicious, including some serious carbs… something I’m trying to stay away from generally.

Searching the internet I was able to find this AMAZING two ingredient pizza crust on Impatient Foodie who found it on The Slow Roasted Italian and now it was time to put it to the test.

It was seriously delicious! I made two of them simply because P and I don’t like the same toppings so I used one of the recipe and split the pizza crusts into two uneven portions and made a traditional one with pepperoni and bacon with pizza cheese and the other with pepperoni, mushrooms, green pepper and onions… and habanero cheese 🙂 Yes… I like my food spicy hot!

There are only two changes I would say about the original recipes. Brush the bottom and top of the dough with olive oil before putting it on the pan…. make sure it’s on the bottom rack of the oven to get a crispy done crust all the way in the middle AND… okay there’s three… I would add cornmeal to the bottom of the crust next time. Something I didn’t think of this day but would really take the crust to the next level.

From beginning to end the pizzas (baked one after the other) took me about 30 minutes… This my friends is faster than any take out could get it to our house and far better tasting.

Two Ingredient Pizza Dough

1 Cup self rising flour (if you don’t have use 1 cup regular flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder)
1 Cup greek yogurt

Mix the ingredients in a bowl to form a ball and then flour your working surface and knead for about 3-5 minutes. Divide the dough (if you wish) and roll it out nice and thin. I’m thinking that you could have a much thicker crust and it would make just one large pizza but because I rolled mine super thin we ended up with two.

Brush both sides of the dough with a little olive oil, place on baking stone or baking sheet and top with your favourite ingredients. Bake at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven then move it up and broil for a minute to get the top nicely browned.

Enjoy!

Berry Dirty Tart

Posted by Pussycat in Sweets | 4 Comments

12July2015

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We’re celebrating my baby’s birthday this wonderful and crazy hot Sunday evening and each birthday I try to make a requested dish. Often I’ll ask for requests and though I hate to make the same things twice this dish has been a hit since I made it for my other daughter a couple of years ago. I switched it up a little, adding fresh raspberries from my mom’s garden and blueberries to top it off. I also made a different crust that seemed easy enough until I dumped it while taking it out of the oven when the outer part of the tart pan slipped off and burned my arm. It was still easy… just double the work… if you don’t count the mess it made as all the rice also spilled into the oven and onto the floor. 🙁

Drizzling it with chocolate just seemed appropriate because chocolate just goes with everything….

This recipe comes from Ina Garten though I did change it up a bit… going with my gut… we like lemon curd to be nice and tart! First I added 6 packets of True Lemon to give it more tang and then the next morning (due to the incident I had some more time) I ended up reheating the curd and adding a package of unsweetened vanilla pudding because it wasn’t as thick as I had wanted (expected) it to be.

Tart Shell

12 Tablespoons or 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 Cup sugar
1 3/4 Cup flour
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
pinch of salt

Mix the butter and sugar in an electric mixer on low using your paddle attachment until well combined. Add the lemon extract and keep mixing then add it the flour and let it mix on low until it starts forming a ball. Place all the dough into a tart pan (10 inch round) and spread it evenly along the bottom and along the sides until you have it spread evenly throughout. Place into the fridge to chill and preheat your oven to 350 F.

Butter one side of aluminum foil generously and place it buttered side down into the chilled tart, filling the inside with beans or rice to weigh it down a bit. This keeps it from forming huge bubbles on the tart. Bake for 20 minutes. Take the foil and filling and throw away then prick the tart with a fork a few times and place back into the oven for another 20 – 25 minutes until lightly browned. Allow to cool.

Lemon Curd Filling

4 lemons at room temperature
1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/4 pound of 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
4 extra large eggs at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
Zest of 4 lemons
6 packets of True Lemon
1 package of unsweetened pudding (one that requires cooking) I used Dr. Oetker

Zest the lemons and squeeze the juice setting each aside separately. Mince the lemon zest with the sugar until finely minced. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar (with the minced zest). Add eggs one at a time and then add the lemon juice, salt, True Lemon powder and pudding. Mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan and cook over low heat stirring constantly. It will take about 10 – 15 minutes and remove from heat as soon as you notice a simmer. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes then pour into the tart shell. Allow to set at room temperature and then decorate with fruit or whipping cream … or eat it naked…. enjoy!

Happy Birthday little one! 😉

Homemade Chewy Candy

Posted by Pussycat in Sweets | Leave a comment

6July2015

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Admittedly I haven’t been cooking anything photo worthy lately since I’ve been busy in the flower beds fighting off little beetles and weeds and planting perennials in an overwhelmingly large space that has been overgrowing for many years before we bought the house. This is my year to get it under control and it’s been a task… one that is far from completion. Yes… I know … for many of you gardeners out there, the job is never actually done — it’s more of a process. And though I don’t have an issue maintaining the space the burst of time and energy to get it to a point where it feels like maintenance feels pretty monumental at times. This is how I’ve been spending all my free time. It has been somewhat rewarding and I have recently fallen in love with the Peony.

Sometimes it just feels like I’m getting a huge workout, squatting, lunging, digging and sweating like crazy. I feel like I should reward myself by eating a whole load of candy .. 😉

The days that it rains I’m am grateful for a reprieve. Yesterday was one of those days and as I was catching up on my Facebook reading I came upon a video that sparked an urge. It was one of making jelly candies. If you’re interested in the original video that moved me to action you can find it here. I would add a couple of pieces of advice that weren’t included in the video and you can find them in the instructions below.

Making these was relatively simple though a little time consuming since I wanted to make a variety of these and each colour is made seperatly… they were fun… simple … and now I am reaping the rewards….

Gummy Candy

(Adapted from Grant Thompson aka ‘The King of Random’ @ THEKINGOFRANDOM.COM)

1/2 cup cold water
1/4 cup clear corn starch
1 package of instant Jello
2 packages of unflavoured gelatine
4 – 6 packets of True Lemon (optional if you want the candy to have more tang)

Mix all ingredients cold in a small sauce pan. Make sure that all the powder is dissolved and not in clumps. Turn the heat onto med low and stir often bringing to a slow simmer. As soon as you see that the mixture had a clear appearance then set aside for a few minutes to cool down. Pour the mixture into a squirt bottle for easy pouring into moulds. If you try to pour the hot mixture fresh from the pot it will squirt with far less control and you’ll have a little trouble holding the bottle.

Before you pour the liquid into moulds make sure you spray them with a bit of vegetable oil. This makes them MUCH easier to get out later. Let them sit on the counter for about a half to an hour, making sure they are fairly solid before popping them out of the moulds. Pull them out and store in a plastic container in the fridge (also easier if you spray them again with a little oil…this keeps them from sticking to everything, your hands as well as each other). Apparently they will stay for about a month but I’m not sure mine will last until the end of the week.

Enjoy!

Deep Fried Duck Tongues

Posted by Pussycat in Sides | 1 Comment

16June2015

I’d like to say that I’m not exactly sure what makes people a little squeamish when it comes to various foods… but even I was a little squeamish here… Though I seem to get over it quickly. I think actually that I’ve been brainwashed very well by society’s endeavour to commodity food and distance it from the actual animal. I will admit that. I also think that growing up with parents who would eat just about anything and a mother whose motto is – anything can be eaten if it’s cooked properly – also certainly has had an impact on me. This is probably also why I’m so willing, often eager to try new things and unusual foods don’t phase me… except to make me very curious to try them. That being said it’s certainly not lost on me that some folks aren’t quite as willing to try different things… take for instance duck tongues.

Living in the Canadian Prairies my food landscape can often feel a little limiting. Though because I’m a food blogger I follow various other food blogs and seek out new things, most of which I can often times find in my speciality store wanderings regardless of the most obvious of foods. I first found duck tongues on Jules‘ blog. Needless to say I was intrigued. So when I came upon them at a little Asian store behind my office I just couldn’t resist. The description was interesting, crispy, buttery and not really fatty and not really meaty, certainly not gamey. They didn’t seem to be a challenge to cook so why not give them a whirl?

I have to say that they were interesting. I can definitely see how they could become addictive on a hot summer day, with a nice cold beer — as a snack. Because I like my food spicy whenever there’s an opportunity when I marinated them I added some hot pepper flakes and also added them to the cornstarch batter though admittedly that didn’t actually make them spicy at all so I was a little disappointed. I think I’d make these again though I would change up the recipe. I’ll give you the directions to the ones pictured and eaten because it’s been a bit of an experiment that I think anyone with an adventurous soul should try but I’ll also suggest that maybe just breaded simply with flour, egg and fine breadcrumbs they might actually be much better. I found that the batter didn’t stick very well and they looked a little dark due to the marinating which I’m not sure was necessary.

Still they were good… they were addictive and they were interesting…. if you’re up for it… try them this way or you can bread them the way I breaded pickerel cheeks a few posts ago… I’m going to try them that way next time… maybe with some cajun seasoning sprinkled on them after frying? Some of my cooking can be a work in progress… But these were worth sharing just the same.

I knew going in, from various internet searches that they have a little bone in them. Some people say you can eat it but I was not so inclined. They are easy enough to eat, hold the blunt end, put in your mouth and bite down scraping all the silky goodness into your mouth as you pull out the bone with your fingers. Simple. I was a little concerned that they might be like pig tails in their fattiness, which admittedly I’m not so fond of but they really weren’t. They were a little fatty in texture but really more buttery, so if you dislike fatty parts of meat don’t scratch these little babies off your list of things to try. They are a flavour and texture all unto themselves.

Marinate

1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/8 cup Sake
1/2 raw onion cut in quarter
1/2 inch chopped fresh ginger
2 (or more) sliced fresh garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

Marinate the duck tongues for 1 – 2 hours in the refrigerator and then take out and blot them dry.

Batter

2 egg whites
1/4 cup Cornstarch (enough to make a paste that is a thick porridge consistency so that it will stick to the tongues)
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

Once the tongues have marinated blot them dry and coat them with the batter, throw into a deep fryer or a pan with oil and fry until the batter is golden brown. Put them in a bowl lined with paper towels and enjoy… you may want to salt and pepper or season as soon as they come out of the fryer… they need a little extra love. Enjoy!