PERFECT PIZZA DOUGH and PIZZA METHOD

 It took me many years to come up with PERFECT PIZZA, but Pizza is one of my favourite foods so I was determined to succeed.  

The right dough, the right pan, and the right temperature – these are the keys to pizza making.

PIZZA DOUGH 

1 tsp sugar

1 ¼ cups lukewarm water

1 envelope (2 ½ teaspoons) yeast

Flour:  2 3/4 cups and just enough more from 1/4 cup to make a non-sticky dough 

1.       Stir to dissolve sugar in lukewarm water.

2.       Sprinkle the yeast onto the swirling water.  Do not stir.  Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until foamy.

3.       Put 2 cups of flour into a large mixing bowl.

4.       Measure another half cup of flour and set it to the side.

5.       Stir the yeast and water into the mixing bowl.

6.       Sprinkle some of the extra flour onto a working surface.

7.       Drop another ¼ cup flour onto the dough in the bowl.  Now turn the contents of the mixing bowl out onto the working surface and start kneading.

8.       Sprinkle additional flour from the half- cup onto the dough as needed to make a smooth, non-sticky, but still tender dough.

9.       Sprinkle more flour onto the working surface.  Set the dough on this and cover with the mixing bowl.  Leave to rise for at least 10 minutes while you prepare the pan and the toppings.

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Brush the pan with 1 tsp of vegetable oil

This was Mom’s pan – she loved pizza as much as I do and was always interested in trying out new things.  It works great.   

(I have tried a pizza stone, but didn’t like it.)

Place oven rack at lowest level.  Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Prepare the toppings.

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When you lift the bowl, you will find the dough will be in a soft, round shape.  With floured hands, gently lift it and place in centre of oiled pan.  Press and push the dough to fill the pan.     

Bake dough without any toppings for 7 minutes.  Remove from oven.  

Reduce oven temperature to 450.

Cover with toppings. (You can leave the pizza at this point until your guests arrive.  Then pop it into the oven and serve a cocktail while it's baking!)

Return to oven and bake the pizza for 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and just starting to brown.

 

Simply the best

November 13, 2007:  Mary Stadnyk, my mother, passed quietly away.  She was 95 years old, but had treasured her family, friends, and life to the end.

Mom always loved to laugh: here with grandsons, Nicholas and Lee

Mom would have been so pleased to know that the granddaughter she is cuddling in this picture will soon be holding a tyke of her own.

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Nov 15, 1991:   Mom wrote:  I been crotcheting hats for Diana and slipperettes for Marion.  I will send them for Christmas.  I always give her & Wes mitts. 

In her 90s:  Mom’s hands continued to be busy.

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Mom never stopped enjoying good food . . . especially Ukrainian food.

One time when I had made Thai chicken, Mom asked what was in it.  Then she said, “Why can’t we have some plain Ukrainian cooking?I was surprised because she loved Asian food, but maybe what she needed that day was comfort food.  

Funny, isn’t it, that anyone might think of perogies as plain cooking .  .  . To me, there is nothing plain about something that takes so much work . . .  but Mom could boil up a batch “in jig time” and she loved to make them for her family.

In 1989, she was still making pyrohi for the guys when they were harvesting. 

In 1991, Mom wrote: 

This week I did a lot of work; made a lot of holoptsy.  On Monday I made sauerkraut perohy and potato & cheese ones.  Today I made pyrizhky, double batch.  I gave some to Matt.

 In 1993, Mom wrote:

Wednesday morning I will make sauerkraut perogies as the ones I made – they ate them all.

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When I make perogies, I can’t help smiling as I remember how annoyed Mom got with my squares that I invariably produce in all shapes and sizes.  Mom’s perogies, of course, were beautifully regular and looked as though they’d been stamped out.

   

 Here are my 'anything goes' pyrohi with  another unusual but wonderful filling:

 VARENIKI/PEROGIES with GREEN ONIONS and DILL   (Nachinka z zelenoyi tsibooli)

Based on Mrs. Rudewska’s recipe in Savella Stechishin’s TRADITIONAL UKRAINIAN COOKERY.

4 hard-boiled eggs

12 ounces green onions

3 tbsp butter

fresh dill

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1.       Chop the eggs.

2.        Slice the onions finely.

3.       Chop ½ cup dill finely.

4.       Cook onions in the butter over medium heat (dial 5) for 5 minutes.

5.       Add dill and cook for 1 minute.

6.       Remove from heat.

7.       Stir in salt, pepper, and eggs.

For Perogy dough and method for cooking perogies, see my first blog:

http://eleanorstadnyk.blogspot.ca/2012/06/perogiesvarenikipyrohi.html

 

                                     a cold bath for perogies that are going into the freezer

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Mama, I wish you were here to enjoy these with us.  

Granola, a book, and a home

Another lovely, sunny day in Surrey. 

For breakfast, I had some of the delicious Cherry Vanilla Granola I picked up in San Antonio at Central Market. 

(Bryan’s finishing their not-so-great Cranberry Craze Granola by sprinkling it on yogurt.)

I’ve only a hundred pages left of the novel I’m enjoying. 

At first I thought I was going to just drop Slammerkin because I didn’t like the main character, Mary Saunders, but then I started feeling sorry for her.  Imagine being kicked out of your home into the night by your own mother . . .  I always knew that no matter what I did my parents’ home was a refuge for me.

Friday Night Pizza and a Movie

 Dinner tonight was excellent:  Corn and Tomato Salad (recipe clipped from a newspaper) and the “Mexicana Pizza” from PIZZA PRESTO by Norman Kolpas.

Afterwards, we watched “The Artist.”  I’d give it 2 ½ stars out of 4.  Hey, I liked the dog, but I'll take a pass on the nostalgia.   Bryan, however, enjoyed it more and our daughter even found it moving.

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 Spread the following ingredients in this order onto a 15 inch pizza crust:

Tomato sauce

¼ cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

12 ounces chorizo sausage:  coarsely chopped in food processor (remove casing first)

4 ounces garlic sausage:  coarsely chopped in food processor (remove casing first)

6 ounces Feta cheese: crumbled
1 Jalapeno;  finely chopped (after seeds are removed)

8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese :  grated

Sprinkle 1 tbsp chopped cilantro onto pizza before serving. 

Making the Right Choice

U.S. Election Night Dinner

Menu:

Cocktail:  Ward 8:  traditionally served on Election Night

SMOKY HOT ADOBO CHICKEN IN ALFREDO SAUCE:

http://food.chatelaine.com/Recipes/View/Smoky_hot_adobo_chicken?print=1

Angel Hair Pasta with Cilantro and Adobo Chile Sauce

Carrot Babka:  Bohdan Zahny’s The Best of Ukrainian Cuisine

Lettuce Salad

Medivnyk (Honey Cake) from Treasured Recipes BOYKO Family Reunion

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Growing up on a farm, I looked for recipes that I could make with readily available ingredients.  Good food, however, does not depend only on good ingredients.
There weren't many recipes to choose from but I found a carrot soup in one of Mom’s cookbooks.  “That doesn’t sound good,” I thought.

Then, I made it anyway.  .  .  

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With many more choices available to me now, I found two Ukrainian dishes that sounded appealing.

Cheflovik did his best. . . 

And the sweetness of the Carrot Babka (from the Vegetable Section of Bohdan’s book) did work as a foil to the hot spiciness of the chicken and pasta, but it wasn’t good enough to make me think I would ever make it again.      

After 35 minutes in the oven, the Medivnyk was looking quite dark so I tested it even though the recipe gave the cooking time as 45 to 50 minutes.  At 45 minutes, the tester still came out sticky.  At 50 minutes, the cake was dry -- just on the bottom and the side edges, but still . . .

                                         Though it was light and flavourful, the recipe is tricky.   

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Fortunately, the chicken and pasta were great!

SMOKY HOT ADOBO CHICKEN IN ALFREDO SAUCE

4 large chicken breasts, with skin and bone intact

2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (one of the larger peppers plus one smaller)

1 cup alfredo pasta sauce

2 green onions

2 ounces old cheddar

2 ounces mozzarella

1.       Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2.       Blend 2 chipotles, all the adobo sauce, and alfredo sauce.

3.        In casserole, cover chicken breasts with sauce.

4.       Loosely cover casserole with aluminum foil.  Cook 30 minutes.

5.       Grate cheeses and chop onions finely.

6.       Remove foil.  Top chicken with onion and then cheese.

7.       Cook 20 more minutes.   

Cranberry Muffins and Tea

Toast for breakfast again?  Alright, if you have changed the jam and the bread . . . otherwise, I’d rather a muffin, please. 

Over the years, I have made soooo many different muffins.  There was nothing special to draw me to the recipe in The Nancy Drew Cookbook except that it was Halloween and the book seemed to fit the theme.

To my surprise, I loved the muffins; hot, dense, and buttery. Perhaps not for breakfast, but . . .  

Perfect for Tea in the Afternoon 

BLACKWOOD HALL MUFFINS

4 tbsp soft butter

½ cup sugar

1 egg

1 ½ cups flour

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

½ cup milk

½ cup dried cranberries   (Nancy suggested 1 cup fresh blueberries)

1.        Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.       Grease a jumbo muffin tin (makes 6 muffins).

3.       Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl.

4.       Mix in 1 egg.

5.       In a smaller bowl, mix together flour, salt, and baking powder.

6.       Stir milk and flour into butter/egg mixture.

7.       Stir in cranberries.  (The dough is very stiff; it’s a mystery how it will work  . . . but it does.)

8.       Bake 20 to 23 minutes.

9.       Serve with butter and tea.

Delicious and very sweet!   Since I made them for Halloween, I can’t resist pairing this recipe with this adorable picture:

late 1980s:  my cousin Marilyn and her children

Come to Tea, Cousin, anytime!

Bohdan Zahny's Ukrainian Green Peppers, Homesick Texan, and Halloween Fun

HALLOWEEN DINNER 

Roasted Stuffed Pumpkin:   http://homesicktexan.blogspot.ca/2011/11/stuffed-pumpkin-cheese-bacon-chipotle.html

Ukrainian Green Peppers (Salat z Pairtsyoo from The Best of Ukrainian Cuisine by Bohdan Zahny)

Lettuce Salad

Okra Pickles (a wonderful find -- brought back from our trip to Laredo)

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When my daughter suggested the recipe for the pumpkin I was skeptical, but it turned out so amazing I would definitely make it again:

ROASTED PUMPKIN

 4 pound pumpkin

 

Salt & pepper

4 ounces bacon

Crusty white bread

4 ounces Gruyere

4 ounces white cheddar

4 cloves garlic

3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce  (from a can in Mexican section)

¼ tsp cumin

Pinch nutmeg

½ cup half-and-half cream

1.        Cut the top out of the pumpkin and reserve.  Clean out pumpkin.

2.       Salt & pepper the inside of the pumpkin.

3.       Broil the bacon, chop, and put into large bowl.

4.       Slice 4 ounces of bread, cut into cubes, and add to the bowl.

5.       Mince 4 cloves garlic and add to bowl.

6.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

7.       Grate the cheeses & add to the bowl.

8.       Chop 3 of the chipotle peppers & add to the bowl. 

9.       Stir everything together and stuff the pumpkin.  (Pack tightly, if necessary.)

10.   Mix together cumin, nutmeg, and cream.  Pour this over the stuffing.  Cover with top of pumpkin.

11.   Place pumpkin in a round pie plate and cook for 2 hours.  (The stuffing looked great when it expanded!)

12.   To serve, cut into 4 sections.   

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Bohdan’s  YUMMY Green Peppers

2 large green peppers

1/3 cup mayonnaise

Cut the peppers into 1 inch pieces. 

Bring 1 cup water to a boil with ¼ tsp salt.  Add peppers and cook for 10 minutes.

Drain, refresh with cold water, and set aside to cool.

Mix in mayonnaise.

My daughter liked the peppers but thought them too rich to accompany this pumpkin.   But I argued that “too rich” does not compute in Ukrainian cuisine . . .