Sausage Calzone - Victor Style
I came home from work yesterday to the most wonderful aromas wafting through the house! Victor was making calzones! What a treat!
He used Lidia's pizza dough recipe:
Pizza Dough
Ingredients:
1 tsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour, and more as needed
1-1/2 tsp. salt
Olive oil
Preparation:
Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water (110 to 115 degrees) and let stand until dissolved. Toss the flour and salt together and stir into the dissolved yeast, using a wooden spoon or your fingers, until you have a stiff dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead 5 to 10 minutes, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn the dough to coat all sides with oil, and cover with a damp cloth. Set the bowl in a warm, draft-free spot until it doubles in volume, about 1-1/2 hours.
Punch down the dough and divide dough into number of portions called for in the recipe. Place the dough balls on a lightly oiled baking sheet and cover with a piece of plastic wrap pressed directly against the dough. Refrigerate until the dough is roughly doubled in bulk. This can take from 12 to 24 hours.
The filling was pure Victor... Fresh tomato sauce, Italian sausages, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, locatelli...
I tried eating it by hand, but after the first few bites it was eveident that a knife and fork were going to be needed. The filling was sliding down to the bottom and I was eating really good, crispy crust - but not a lot of filling.
And that's one of the best things about the dough recipe - it does make a crispy crust.
Victor's mom just came over for her Sunday visit and we gave her one to take home. That leaves one to split for lunch.
And right now I'm baking Pumpkin Pies and making Julia Child's French bread.....
We're going to eat well today!
Potage d'oignon dans Les Halles
We have friends in Paris right now. I hate them.
They have rented a flat for a month in the 7th. Did I mention I hate them?!? We originally planned on joining them for a week or so, and then financial reality roared its ugly head. Prices were literally double what we paid a couple of years ago. And we are getting married next month...
So... we're living vicariously through their photos.
Yesterday, it was Onion Soup at Au Pied de Cochon in Les Halles. Just a couple of blocks from the Louvre. I really do hate them.
One of my fantasies is to have a kitchen in Paris and go roaming the markets early in the morning and come home and cook fabulous meals with fabulous products.
One of these days.....
The Last Summer Salad?!?
Beautiful weather out there and that called for a salad. We've already been flirting with the fall dishes, but the weather was just too perfect for anything but greens and the grill.
Bed of lettuce, fresh-from-the-garden tomato, a handful of raspberries, blanched broccoli and snow peas...
I grilled some tri tip steaks that were marinated in a bit of steak sauce and hot sauce.
Victor made a dressing of honey, honey mustard, olive oil and vinegar.
Yum.
Chicken with Spicy Peaches
This was an easy one. Okay... They're ALL easy ones. But this one was really an easy easy one.
I pan-fried two boneless chicken breasts in a bit of olive oil. When they were about 3/4 cooked, I added some sliced peaches and a teaspoon of sambal oelek - chili paste for the uninitiated.
White rice, and fresh carrots with honey and ginger.
The only disappointing thing was the peaches weren't that good. They had a great aroma, but just lacked in the flavor department. Oh well. The chili paste made everything all better. :)
Steak Tips
I've had a bit of a craving for steak tips, lately. I don't eat them often, but I really do like random chunks of beef cooked in various ways.
I'm trying to remember a restaurant I used to go to in Boston that had steak tips... It wasn't a fancy place - more like one of the Greek places on Huntington Ave with excellent food and inexpensive prices. (Okay - it was the 1980's...)
I just remember them being melt-in-your-mouth-tender. Pretty much like what we had tonight!
I did a quick marinade with Moore's Teriyaki sauce and fired up the grill. Meanwhile, I sliced a couple of potatoes nice and thin and into a hot skillet they went. After browning them for a few minutes, they went into the oven.
30 minutes later, potatoes were done, steak tips were done, corn was done, and we were enjoying dinner.
Scallops, Pancetta, and Spinach
I'm a day late, here! This is LAST night's dinner - Scallops in a pancetta and cream sauce.
It was a really quick dinner... Pancetta in a fry pan, added the scallops, browned on one side, flipped, added a bit of sherry, cooked it down a bit, added a splash of cream, salt, and pepper. Served over rice with spinach. It was yummy!
Chicken and Stuffed Shells
Last night, Victor made some excellent stuffed shells - from scratch, of course! They were so good, I was going to serve them for dinner again, tonight. But, during her weekly Sunday visit, we sent half of them home with Victor's mom. That meant not enough for an entree, but definitely enough for a side dish!
We have a bag of plum tomatoes from our neighbor, so I just made a quick sauce with the fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, and herbs from the garden. I grilled a couple of chicken breasts about 3/4 through and set them into the pan with the sauce. I also added the stuffed shells to reheat, made a bit of garlic bread and steamed some broccoli.
Grated some cheese on top and called it dinner!
Tomato Chutney
Underneath that cheese and those tomatoes is a kickapoo Tomato Chutney covering a grilled chicken breast. Can we say "delicious" boys and girls?!?
We got in a new product yesterday - a Tomato Chutney - that is just fantastic! Those who know me, know I don't usually go gaga over things. I'm going gaga over the Tomato Chutney, though! It is just the kind of thing I totally love! There is so much flavor going on, you forget that it's also hot and spicy. They did a good job with this one!
And... I got to learn a bit about chutneys in general. I have made chutneys in the past - and everyone knows "Major Grey's Chutney" but I always thought chutney by definition was meant to be chunky. Ooops! I was wrong! Like salsa, it can be chunky or smooth - and smooth is probably more traditional, as it is often made in a pestle with mortar, crushing everything together. (I learned French cooking in school - what do I know?!?)
I have a hundred and one ideas going through my head for this stuff - including using it in soup for a demo at work in a couple of weeks. I'm definitely going to put it on a grilled cheese sandwich, and on a burger?!? Definitely! With sliced and roasted potatoes... In a homemade BBQ sauce...
The possibilities are endless!
Stuffed Peppers and Pasta
We had Victor's mom over for dinner the other night. She is the perfect guest. 90 minutes of chat and dinner and she's ready to head home. We pack up a bag of goodies for her to take with her. Besides an extra pepper, I had picked up several meals at work abnd divided them all into single-serve portions she could freeze. (I love my FoodSaver!!!)
Victor did the cooking, and we had stuffed peppers that were most excellent! It was a beef filling - much like his meatballs - and a side of pasta. Fresh sauce made from fresh tomatoes from our neighbor. Yum.
Mom didn't stick around for dessert. We had cake.
Thai Beef Curry
Last night was a preety quick and easy dinner. I had a couple of blade steaks marinating in the freezer that I sliced thin and stir-fried.
Into the pot went some onion, bell pepper, carrot, celery, mushrooms, bean sprouts, snow peas, broccoli...
Added some Thai Green Curry Paste and a can of coconut milk and served over rice.
Yum.
It was really quick and easy, and used up some veggies that were hanging around with nothing to do.
Guamanian Pepper, Pork, and Peaches
I want more of those peaches! Alas, I don't believe there are any more. The last of them went to dinner tonight. And it was a damn fine dinner!
My sister-in-law Marie's nephew is from Guam. We've met Jay a few times - he's a really great guy. The most recent was as Little Gram's funeral. Not the most pleasant times to be meeting up with folks you haven't seen in a while, but...
At the luncheon after the services, we were talking about different things and he mentioned a local Guam pepper he uses on everything. Naturally, I was intriqued, and he went out to his car and brought in a small jar of a firey red powder. One little dip of the finger had my eyes watering and my tastebuds clamoring for more! He said he'd send me some when he got home.
And he did!
I love sweet/spicy flavor combinations, and these fantastic peaches were the perfect foil for the hot and spicy pepper.
I floured and then browned two boneless pork chops and took them out of the pan. I added 1 sliced red onion and cooked it down. I added two sliced peaches, sprinkled a bit of the ground pepper, salt, and black pepper, put the pork chops back in, covered the pan and continued cooking about 10 minutes.
Served it all with a homemade rice-a-roni of angel hair spaghetti, rice, peas, and beef broth.
My stomach is definitely smiling tonight!
(And there's more peach pie for later!)
Sunday Breakfast Sandwich
Or...
How to Make Sunday Breakfast in 10 Minutes.
Really. 10 minutes. Less time than it takes to order at a fast-fooderie. And so much more tasty!
I chopped up a bit of chicken breakfast sausage and put it in a skillet. Meanwhile, I split a half of a loaf of focaccia and on one half went thinly sliced fresh tomatoes and the other half cheese. Under the broiler.
When the sausage was cooked, I scrambled in 4 eggs and cooked until set.
Onto the focaccia, topped with the other half, and cut in half.
Voila! Breakfast for two in no time, at all.