cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Baking’ Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

How I came up with this dish has an odd little road to it. A couple months ago I had friends coming over for a get together and I had my cooking itineary planned, complete with an Italian dessert. No, not one of my own. I do do other people’s recipes at times too. Sometimes I make so many changes that they end up turning into something different and my own, but this was one of those times I was going to pretty much go along with the recipe I had. (At least that had been the initial plan.)

Listen up, this will teach you the value of reading something first, and all the way through and thoroughly. I was going to make this chocolate ricotta dessert (forget what, maybe was a cake, I seem to think it was going to be one of those custard things in ramekins. I had read the recipe throught and even did the two hour prep (again this was a while back, Iwrote down the recipe, but I didn’t write down this story, so bear with my fuzzy memory.)

The important thing was, I never apparently read to the bottom of the recipe. (There’s a lesson in there for both me and you!) It said now chill for six hours in the fridge. I could scream. I knew the cooking was to take an hour, the prep two hours, but now if I went ahead the stupid dessert wouldn’t be ready for six hours? Damn I was annoyed at myself. And a tad frantic. The plan was dinner was to be served in an hour and a half, and dessert needed to be ready in two. No time to run the market or the bakery. So I rushed up to my computer and started searching for “chocolate” and “ricotta” everywhere, and looking for something that would be servable in two hours. In short I found an Emeril recipe for Italian Easter Pie that met my criteria and looked delicious and set on that.

When I printed it out and took it downstairs though, I did what I hadn’t expected at the time doing … changing things around. I didn’t like this. I liked that. He had a flour pie from scratch. This I could have done as I had two premade pie crusts in the refrigerator. I didn’t like that it was a normal crust. I also didn’t like that it was two, one on bottom, then a second one making it a covered pie. I knew I also had in the cupboard a premade shortbread and another chocolate crust. Hey, nothing like chocolate in the filling and as the crust I thought.

It was after Thanksgiving and I had sweetened dried cranberries lefover. I knew from past experience this would not only go very well with the other ingredients but would give it a totally new dimension. Long story short, by the time I was done, the look and the taste were so very different from the original that this very much became my own version. As said, that was two or three months ago. I didn’t take photos of what I was doing as it wasn’t originally going to be my recipe but someone elses. I did write down my new recipe afterwards, but no photos. Ah well, it was a great pie, and I knew I would do it again and take the pics at that time. Which I just did.

Ok, so this came from a mistake I made misreading the initial recipe. And then changing around Emeril’s. Thing is, when doing my research for this recipe here, the background, it seems another mistake was made by Emeril. I wanted to see what was the deal with this Easter Pie concept. So I looked around the web and the first thing I came across was how this was supposed to be a savory, not a sweet pie, in Italy. Huh? Seems after the old conservative Catholic fasting of meat during Lent, the idea was to make a cheese and meat pie. Ok, that made sense. But still could the big E get this wrong or what? There must be sweet variations too.

More digging around and nope, couldn’t find any. So I went to see if the three most famous Italian chefs in America had versions of this and were they sweet or savory; all three, Mario Batali, Giada De Laurentiis amd Lidia Bastianich, had only savory versions of Easter Pies. Yep, other than Emeril’s there wasn’t a single sweet one to be found anywhere. Hmm. So, no idea where he got the idea from, but, that said, it doesn’t matter. I’m not calling this any kind of holiday pie, I’m just calling this what it is, which is delicious!

Whatever the case then, a big tip of the hat to Chef Lagasse for the inspiration and for “version 1.0″ of this dish. And to you folks, I think you will love this “version 2.0″ emmensly. For now, I’m leaving it with the store bought crust in the recipe but I’ll make a version 2.1 at some point and tell you how to make the pie crust from scratch at some point, til then enjoy. I am 100% once you’ve made this pie, you will make it over and over again as one of your favorites.

Harry’s Chocolate Ricotta Cheese Pie
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 premade 9-inch chocolate pie crust

1-1/2 lbs ricotta cheese, drained well
3/4 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup shaved almonds
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt

eggwash (one egg and two tbsps water)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly brush eggwash over premade pie shell and place in oven for five minutes. Remove and let cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer (note I used my handheld for this, but you can use your big stand mixer if you wish), beat the ricotta cheese with the sugar until combined; this should take 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, approximately another 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix in for anoterh 2 minutes. Pour into pie shell.

Place pie on baking sheet (optional). Bake until golden brown, roughly 50 minutes. Let cool on counter for 10 minutes, then place in refrigerator (suggest atop a diviot) and allow to get firm for at minumum 60 minutes, and preferrably 90-120 minutes. Serve. Makes 6-8 slices.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Here’s the second homemade cookie recipe I promised I’d get up to the site that I did over the holidays. Applesauce cookies. Yum! And while this is a good one to eat all year round, it definitely has those fall – winter spices we’ve come to associate with the Holidays. Moms take note: with fruit, nuts and raisins in this it’s no doubt a higher than average nutritional cookie too.

There is one important baking item I want to touch on though, and I should have done this with the butter cookie recipe probably, and that is the whole discussion or school of thought about salted versus unsalted butter in baking and especially cooking recipes. Salted butter, even though most of us don’t taste the salt, is the most commonly found one at markets and convenience stores. And against popular thought, it’s the one I use.

Yes, I’m such a rebel. LMAO! Truth is I often do what’s eaisest. I usually grab the first butter I see in the market and the only butter sold at my convenience store, and that’s the common salted butter. I know, I know, all the chefs and cookbooks say use unsalted butter in baking recipes. Who’s right?

Believe it or not, I’m willing to admit I might be wrong. (Gasp!) Ok, remember I said “might”. Here’s the thing. No one who tasted my apple sauce cookies tasted salt. I also made some rugelah cookies — sorry, you will not see that recipe here any time soon. While they were tasty, something I did wrong with the recipe that I’m still figuring out, they did not come out exactly as rugelah is supposed to be, tasty as they were. When I do figure it out, I’ll put the recipe up then. As the Orson Wells wine commercial of the 70s said “no wine before it’s time”; same with my recipes.

However, of the seven people who had my butter cookies, one out of those seven tasted the salt. Interesting. Not enough to be a perfect survey or accurate barometer by any means, but it does show that some folks, especially in a more “bland” recipe (compared to this one) can taste the salt. Should one use unsalted butter then? Well here’s the opposite thing, upon researching this I’ve found discussions where people (adults and children both) who are so used to the “normal” salted butter they noticed the absense of the salt. Either they realized it was salt that was missing, or — most of them — realized something they couldn’t put their finger on was not present and didn’t like the cookies as much as those with salted butter in them.

Yeah, I know. Can’t please every palette. That’s life.

So what’s the answer? Well, I think it’s fairly obvious. If doing a simple cookie, butter cookie, sugar cookie, with a more “bland” or neutral taste it’s probably wiser to go the extra step and get the unsalted. And what about the rest? Well, I leave that up to you. (You’ll notice in my recipes I usually just say “butter”. In non-baked recipes that leaves it up to you to use margarine. In baking recipes I leave it up to you whether to make it salted or unsalted.)

As for me, I’m probably going to remain “lazy” for now and do what’s convenient — as long as no one complains or if the recipe is not so “blandish”. How much salt is in butter, you might be wondering? It varies from brand to brand, however a supposed average I’ve found repeated in my research indicates about 3/8 of a teaspoon of salt per stick, just under a half teaspoon in other words. Why is it in there in the first place? Apparently as a natural preservative.

That’s it. Class dismissed. It’s time for milk and apple sauce cookies!

Harry’s Applesauce Cookies
©2008 Harry Kenney

1-1/2 sticks butter (12 tbsps)
2-1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
1 cup, packed, brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt (unless using salted butter)
1-1/2 cups applesauce (suggest chunky, natural)
1 cup dark raisins
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cloves
pinch, ground ginger
3/4 cup shaved almonds (you could use walnuts or other nuts)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Use parchment paper lined cookie sheets (if you don’t have that, then definitely grease them instead.)

In a mixer cream together butter and brown sugar. Add egg. Add applesauce. Add trest of the dry powedered ingredients. Add nuts and raisins at the end.

Place on parchment-lined sheets in one to two tablespoon sized drops. (See photos) Space about two inches apart from each other. Depending upon your oven it should take 10-14 minutes. Look for the slighest browning on the edge and do not hesitate to gingerly lift one cookie up with a metal spatula and check underneath. Makes about four dozen.

I said previously that I had made some cookies during the Christmas holidays but had forgotten to get them up here. Well here’s the first of two cookie recipes. This is one of those classic, basic cookies. The butter cookie.

Now there’s a variety of things you can do with butter cookie dough. This particular recipe is (mainly — you’ll see what I mean at the end) for use with a cookie press or cookie “gun”. If you’re a woman you probably say press. If you’re a guy, you probably call it a gun.

A versatile batter, you can also make butter cookies by rolling them out then using cookie cutters, forming them into logs, cutting them into slices and shaping them into balls (hint, keep reading). In the past I’ve had weird success with cookies, burning the easy ones, and making excellent complicated cookies (such as biscotti).

I can’t candidly tell you why because I’m not certain what I did wrong exactly. I can tell you that my four years of cooking experience since has either given me the experience or the intuition or the “something” that I had only one or two miscalulations this time. Which is actually good because I can warn you what to be aware of as well as share a tip or two.

My first tip is avoid the bottom rack. You see, we all think our oven is even. We’ve cooked roasts and casseroles and maybe even pies and cakes, and it seems even. Until you get to the cookie. Cookie batter is hyper-sensitive. Where you think there’s no difference between front and back, left and right, top or bottom of the oven, you will learn quickly there is.

The bottom rack will always mess up your cookies. Now, some people subscribe to the notion — and I know Alton Brown is one of them — that you do a “Chinese firedrill” (my words, not his) by at the half way point, taking the bottom cookie sheets and moving them to the top, any pointing right and front to turn left and back and that this assures heating. This one I don’t seem to be capable of mastering — hey if it works for you, awesome! Since it doesn’t for me, I’m confined to the two sheets at a time insted of four method.

Which reminds me of my one mistake this year and my big tip. Oddly the first batch in I used both racks. I also forgot to try the fire drill thing. I caught the bottom in time though, and took them out only slightly overly browned. Good enough for me not to serve to guests but I could eat them fine. The second batch on the top actually did burn. This purplexed me how the ones that came out fine the first time burned the second time. I realized the cookie sheet I had had in the bottom helped deflect the burn. So the third batch I put two sheets on the top and one large empty baking sheet on the bottom rack. Perfect cookies.

Another thing, I’ve seen a lot of recipes that say make the shapes and chill them. I’m sorry. I’m a normal person. More than that, I’m a person who not only cooks but cooks a lot. My refrigerator is in an almost constant state of being too full to keep sheet after cookie sheet inside them to chill. To make it worse, I have a side-by-side refrigerator. (Hey it’s the one I have and it works, I’m not about to spring for a new one to fit in cooking sheets.) I’m betting most of you have the exact same problem. So, chilling shapes? Nice idea in a perfect world. But that’s not my world so it’s not done by me.

Ah one more thing. After a bunch of cookies, it seemed my cookie gun got tired. In other words, it got clogged, I couldn’t unclog it without having to take it a part. I got inpatient and I had only a bit of batter left. So the last batch I spread out, put some dried cranberries on top, mushed them in, made them into balls and cooked two minutes longer than the rest for a totally different treat. (Told you if you read to the end you’d get rewarded. There, two recipes in one.)

One final thing. This isn’t my recipe. That is, I got it off the Internet from a location that had general recipes and no one’s name attached to this. Mind you, I did make a modification or two from the original and the Great Law of Cooking says I could therefore call these mine. But since this recipe is generally so basic and generic, and my modifications so small, let’s just leave it that way. So I’m leaving my copyright off this puppy.

Butterflies or butter cookies … let them be free!

Homemade Butter Cookies

1 cup and three tbsps (19 tbsps) butter
2-1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsps cream of tartar
salt, a pinch (unless using salted butter)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 375°F. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients seperately in the mixing bowl. Turn on mixer to beat or medium for a few minutes. Turn mixer to low. Slowly add dry ingredients a bit at a time. Mix a few more minutes. Take the bowl to the counter and start filling up your cooking press or gun and go to work.

This batter works nicely on ungreased cookie sheets. I suggest doing two at a time on the top rack and placing an empty cookie sheet on the bottom rack. Depending upon your oven it should take 6-9 minutes. Look for the slighest browning on the edge and do not hesitate to gingerly lift one cookie up with a metal spatula and check underneath. Makes roughly 100 cookies.

For a variation: Skip the cookie gun, instead take some dough, add some dried cranberries — sweetened ones are the best — and mix into dough and form tablespoon-sized balls or ovals. For these add two minutes cooking time but even more careful of not over-browning the bottoms.

©2008 Harry Kenney

If you enjoyed my very recent Chocolate-Raspberry Lava Cake recipe, then you are going to love this “makeover” or redeaux as well. Remember the original lava cake was made as a mistake. And this dish came about when I messed up my lava cake. So much for the saying two wrongs don’t make a right!

Think of it almost as a crunchy chocolate pudding “slash” cake. Obviously since it never leaves the dish it can’t “lava” out like the original. And as you see the cracking on top in the photo, you see why I had to call this chocolate cave-in cake.

I wanted to make something special for when my brother came over. And he has one of those intestinal things where you can’t eat little seeds. And I ran out of my original jar of raspberry jam and when I reached for the spare I had in the cupboard, turns out I’d mistakenly purchased preserves containing seeds (mistake one). That meant no raspberry sauce so I switched to orange, and instead of sauce, whipped cream.

Mistake two came when I forgot to grease my ramekins. Ooops! But wow what a delicious mistake! Plus, this recipe is even doubly fool-proof then the other one. Since you don’t have to take it out of the ramekin, even less chance to mess anything up. And yet, lip-smacking good. My bro’s girlfriend thought it was going to be as rich and dark and too sweet as a death by chocolate cake, and was surprised how it had just the right amount of sweetness but not that overpowering kind.

Btw, as always, when a recipe calls for an orange liqueur as this one, I say use Triple Sec instead of Grand Marnier because they’re the same taste, but the former costs about 10 times less while the second has a better marketing name and bigger price tag. Period.

By the way, did I mention this version has 2.5 to 3 times the amount of liquid chocolate inside?

Chocolate-Orange Cave-In Cake
©2008 Harry Kenney

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 oz butter
5-6 oz milk chocolate (or semisweet) chocolate chips
3 tbsps orange liqueur

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 egg yokes
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Orange Whipped Cream
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 pint heavy cream
3 tbsps sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
6 tbsps orange liqueur

Note: This recipe is based on 6 oz. ramekin size.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs and yokes and sugar together and cream. Over double-boiler melt bittersweet chocolate with butter. Slowly pour into beating mixture. Add flour, sugar, salt, vanilla and orange liqueur until well mixed.

With six ramekins (not greased) placed on top of baking sheet, fill the ramekins 2/3s to 3/4s of the way with cake mixture. Place about an ounce of chocolate chips (10-15 chips) into the middle of each and let sink. Pour rest of cake mixture on top. Place in oven for 22-28 minutes until see good cracking on top and firm around the sides.

Take ingredients for whipped cream and place in mixer (or use hand beater), adding orange liqueur half way through.

When cakes are done, let cool a few minutes. Top each cake with orange whipped cream and serve in ramekin with spoon. Don’t forget since you’re serving it in the cup itself, clean the cup off first before giving it to your guests. Makes six servings.

Lava cake, aka molton cake, aka volcano cake (hmm, I sense a theme here) … whatever you want to call it, it’s fun and delicious, rich though lighter than you would expect — a chocloholic’s dream. Women want it and want to run away from it at the same time (because they want it, you see.) Kids love it, so do guys. What’s not to love about a miniature chocolate cake that oozes out even more liquid chocolatey goodness when you cut in to it?

There seems to be two basic ways to make this cake. The way that’s most difficult (patterned on the original “mistake cake”) that can easily fail, and the way that guarantee’s success every time. Being one of these crazy people who actually expects things to behave the way they are supposed to be — you know, purchasing a watch with the expectation it tells time, a refrigerator that stays cold, crazy things like that — my version falls into the latter category.

Ah, but first. A quickie history lesson. Where did this delight come from? In America, at least, many agree it was chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten in 1987 when he was head chef at the Lafayette in NYC. Apparently, “he pulled a classic chocolate pain biscuit (sponge cake) from the oven too soon and it had a runny, but very delicious center” says Arthur Schwartz recounting the tale. Other’s such as chef Jacques Torres say the dish already existed in Europe.

That out of the way, I mentioned there’s two ways to make this, by that I mean there are probably hundreds of recipes but that they all fall into one of two groups. The first is similiar to that made by Vongerichten, where you have to time the cake perfectly within a 30 second window and not be several degrees higher or lower or you end up firming the center. To which I politiely laugh my head off at.

The second class is that which mine falls into wherein you need not be a chef skilled in the arts nor a nuclear scientist or have the so-called perfect oven. In short, there is a greater “mess it up” tolerance. Oh, you can still mess this up. I know this because I did it this time even. Fortunately another four minutes back in the oven cured it. (Two things: Do look at the photos at the very bottom to see the proper “doneness” to look for, and secondly, if I can still mess this up — and recover though — imagine how one could mess up the other class of recipes where there is no recovery from!) Not only that, mine is microwave reheatable. You see, this second class or style rests on simple common sense. Rather than partially bake something so the center remains liquid — ensure a liquid center.

Quick tip. Make more than you need. For one thing, you’ll love the “leftovers” the next day, for another, having one or two to “test” and make sure they’re where they should be (in terms of doneness) is a good idea if you’re serving guests. You yourself won’t mind eating up any mess over ones; they’ll taste just as yummy. And this way you can assure they will turn out. Again, with this recipe, you can just put them back in another four minutes or so if you’ve misjudged at all.

And of course, rarely one to leave a good thing alone without taking it up another, um, level … I had to add raspberry sauce. Both on top and on the inside. So it’s not just a chocolate lava flow, but it’s a raspberry chocolate lava flow. Simple to make. Easy to give away as a sorta food gift (though yes, I always want my ramekin back.) I don’t know if it’s possible to use muffin or cupcake pans, because how will you manage to get each out without it falling apart. Try to find individual throw-away muffin tins or minicake things. Really though, it’s worth it to get some ramekins if you can.

That said, this recipe is easy to reheat. And you are going to impress your family and guests immeasurably. Enjoy these outstanding little bites of pure decadence!

   Left: Not quite done. Right: Properly done.   

Chocolate-Raspberry Lava Cake
©2007 Harry Kenney

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 oz butter
2 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 egg yokes
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
confectioner’s sugar (for dusting)

Raspberry Sauce

8 tbsps raspberry seedless jam
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
2 tbsp southern comfort (or same amt. orange juice)

Note: This recipe is based on 6 oz. ramekin size.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs and yokes and sugar together and cream. Over double-boiler melt bittersweet chocolate with butter. Slowly pour into beating mixture. Add flour, sugar, salt, and vanilla until well mixed. In sauce pan mix together ingredients for raspberry sauce.

With six ramekins, greased with butter, placed on top of baking sheet, fill the ramekins 2/3s to 3/4s of the way with cake mixture. Place 5 or 6 chocolate chips into the middle of each and sink. Pour teaspoon of raspberry sauce on top of chips, keeping to exact middle as possible. Leave a minute and let sink. Pour rest of cake mixture on top. Place in oven for 15-20 minutes until sides look firm and middle looks soft. (see photos).

When done, let cool about 3-5 minutes. Lightly go down edges with sharp thin knife, then turn over onto plate. Pat bottom gentely and let fall out upside down on to plate. Top each cake with one tablespoon of remaining raspberry sauce. Dust liberally with powdered sugar and serve hot/warm. Makes six servings.

What’s a great any-time appetizer and definitely a crowd pleaser? Stuffed mushrooms. Especially now, the “holidays” between Christmas and New Years when family and friends are more apt to come visit.

Want not one but two items that will not only impress guests but both are simple to make, taste delicious and can be done rather quickly? The first is Pancetta Wrapped Shrimp which can be done in under 20 minutes. And (bet you saw this one coming) the second one is stuffed mushrooms which can be made within 30 to 45 minutes.

Portobellos or the smaller ones, lately marketed as “Baby ‘Bellos” are perfect for stuffing. As with many other dishes (meatloafs come to mind) there’s probably a hundred different ways to stuff a mushroom, and this is only one of a handful that I like to make. I was originally intending to do this with bacon bits (real ones, naturally), but having recently purchased a container of finely-diced prosciutto and being undecided what to do with it yet, this lent itself perfectly.

So, spinch and cheese, and now Italian ham. What for a stuffing binder? Could do Italian bread crumbs, but I had still had some ricotta left over from my pie the other day, so that was perfect. Add some grated parmegena to it and little bit of onion for some bite, and wham. Although having mixed it up, even with minched garlic, it was lacking and a tad dull. To the rescue I added two tablespoons of marsala wine which rounded it out nicely and added a needed wetness. Still missing something, I opted for a recent favorite of mine, horseradish sauce. Just a tad. Turned out great.

Funny thing, this particular night I made these there were no guests — I was just in the mood for stuffed mushrooms and didn’t want the package I had in the fridge to wait too much longer and possibly go bad. So for dinner I took the remainer of last night’s fennel salad, some shrimp left over from a couple days ago when I had company over and added the stuffed mushrooms. Plus a couple of thick slices of Italian bread and some White Zinfandel, and voila a very very tasty and slightly different dinner.

Prosciutto, Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Portbellos
©2007 Harry Kenney

1/4 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup frozen spinach (measured before taking all the water totally out)
1/2 cup ricotta
1/3 cup parmegan
2 oz. finely diced prosciutto (or ham or bacon or pancetta)
2 tbsps minced garlic
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsps dry marsala
salt
pepper

Take off inner mushroom stems if present. Clean off top and sides of bello caps with a moist paper towel and ready. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl and mix well with fork.

Spoon mixture into mushroom cap with tablespoon. Now use clean hands to gently press as much as you can into cap. If lots of excess, return to bowl. Some excess, smooth around to form slight mound. Do this to the rest.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place mushrooms on baking sheet face up. Lightly drizzle some olive oil on top and add additional pinches of parmagen. Place in oven for about 25 minutes. Cool slightly and serve hot.

The above is enough stuffing for roughly 8-10 baby portobellos. Mind you, sizes of these have no standard, so it could even be as little as 6 or as many as 12.

This year I wanted to make stuffing from scratch and I wanted to do something completely different from the usual, traditional Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing. I also wanted it to be something a bit more “modern”. Seems chorizo is all the rage, and as I finally got my hands on some — yes, it’s easier to find in the South and Southwest then here in the Northeast — so I decided that was where I would go with this recipe.

Now then we have the words “stuffing” and “dressing”. So what is what with that? Well, they’re pretty interchangeable, basically. In the US, stuffing is used more often in the Eastern and Southern areas, whereas dressing more preferable in the rest of the country. That said, none of this is written in stone by any means.

As to where did the word dressing come about, it seems the word stuffing was replaced in Victorian times with “dressing” because in that age of going all sexually conservative and repressive, it was decided that “stuffing” sounded rather vulgar to the new straight-laced society. Tsk-tsk.

Technically though, nowadays, stuffing tends to mean it’s been cooked in the bird. Whereas dressing suggests it’s not been in it. (Yes, I know, Stovetop Stuffing mix is technically incorrect; but then let’s ruin a good alliteration.) For my recipe, then, dressing is the more correct word as instead of an entire bird, I did the Turkey breast with ribs as I often do anymore. So there was nothing here to actually stuff in the first place.

The technique of stuffing, by the way, historically goes back quite a ways. Turns out the Romans were big on stuffing things, not just fowl. One of the oldest cookbooks we have is that of Apicius’s “De Re Coquinaria” with recipes for stuffing chicken, pig, hare and that lovely delicacy of the ancient empire, dormouse. Another fun historical fact, in France during the Middle Ages, stuffing was called “farce”; yes, the one we know from writing and comedy. And at the time it initially referred to a short, light-hearted skit or play “stuffed” in between more lengthy and weighty productions.

A recent search by me for this article on regional differences for stuffing, surprising I came up empty-handed. That said, I think it’s safe to say that oyster stuffing is more popular in the New England states, and cornbread stuffing is more commonly found in the Southern states. Fine. Enough of what the Romans and the French did and what they do elsewhere. What exactly did I end up doing?

I initially wanted to use Challah bread for my stuffing as it would have given a nice texture and sweetness to it. Unable to find any the day before I needed it, I decided upon good ol’ Italian rolls, specifically the kind here in Philadelphia we use to make cheesesteaks and hoagies with — soft but very firm inside, with a nice crust, not too much, on the outside. I took the classic mirepoix and rearranged the amount so there would be more celery, as to me, I can’t think of stuffing or dressing without having that more predominant flavor. That and of course sage.

So how did it turn out? Overall, enjoyable. It must be noted this is a strongly flavored dressing version thanks to the chorizo and the smoked paprika and other spices that make it. I wanted something not traditional but still delicious and that’s exactly what I got. One thing though what is missing from dressing (done outside the bird) compared to stuffing (done inside it)? Turkey drippings. So what ends up tasting best — no surprise here — is putting the stuffing on the plate and then being sure to add the traditional turkey gravy on top of it. By itself, this dressing is very nice; with the gravy on top, mmm, a home run.

Cranberry-Chorizo Dressing
©2007 Harry Kenney

1/2 cup red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup carrots, grated
1 cup celery, finely diced
12 oz. chorizo sausage
three six-inch Italian rolls, small chunks
2-3 cups chicken stock
2 cups dried, sweetened cranberries

to taste:

sage
rosemary
thyme
salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder

Take your chorizo sausage links and brown and cook them well in a frying pan on medium heat. Let cool. Remove to plate and cut up into chunks. Preheat oven to 350°F. Take your bread, or in this case, roll chunks. Place them on a baking sheet, drizzle plenty of oil (extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil, your choice) over them. Season well. Add more oil. Mix them around. Put in oven for 10-15 minutes until browned.

Take your onion, carrots and celery, place in a larger than needed sauce pan on low heat. You want to sweat these together, but zero browning. Add the chorizo to the pan, then the chicken broth. Stir and let simmer slowly a few minutes. Take off heat and add the toasted bread chunks, stir well, season as required. Add the dried cranberries. Add butter if desired. Add more chicken stock if needed to get the desired consistency.

Take mixture and place in a deep casserole dish, cover with aluminum foil and place in oven at 400°F for 20 minutes. Remove foil and let top get a bit crunchy, leaving it in another 10 minutes. Done. Be sure to serve with liberal amount of traditional turkey gravy on top. Makes roughly 8 servings.

There are so many combinations of meatloaf in the world. Use 100 percent beef. No, use beef and pork. No, has to be the tri-meat combination of beef, pork and veal. No, it’s lamb as the third, not veal. You can use milk-soaked bread, big crouton things purchased or made yourself. You can use breadcrumbs. Nope, use the oats in oatmeal. With and without eggs. Mayonnaise as an extra binder; no way, hold the mayo. Gotta have some gravy. Gravy has to be brown. No, it’s gotta be tomato. No gravy anywhere; that ruins it. … And the list goes on and on.

And then, like myself, many cooks have more than one meatloaf. Why? Same as above. There’s so many ways to do it and there’s no one right way. In fact, it’s pretty tough to mess up. Hope all you newbie cooks are listening up. Meatloaf is many things: The perfect comfort food being one. And an excellent dish to start on if you’ve never or rarely cooked before.

I mentioned various meatloafs myself. I recall it being one of the first things I ever did, back around the age of 18 or 20. I followed the directions on the side of the Quaker Oats box, and yeah, oats, the stuff I would have for breakfast on freezing cold winter days here in Philadelphia, it actually worked. It was a pretty decent meatloaf as I recall.

Since then, who knows how many variations. Many of the early ones I would overcook and make too dry inside, and sometimes burn the glaze (if I remembered to have one, that is.) Sometimes myself I use the triple combination of meats, sometimes it’s all beef. Each has it’s own interesting characteristic and flavor from the other. I came up with another interesting variation about a year ago when I had a big jar of salsa left over after a party. It dawned on me, the ingredients were basically three I would normally use in a meatloaf: tomato, and red and green peppers. And yes, the jalapeno gave it a really nice kick, not too hot either. I’ll no doubt get to making that one later in the season and of course, when I do, I’ll publish it here complete with the requisite photos.

For this recipe, I decided to do a gravy. I don’t always do that. This time it was simple. I had a half pound of gorgeous pre-sliced mushrooms I picked up from the store and needed to do something with. While a vegetable or chicken ratatouille came to mind, I knew with Thanksgiving days away, the last thing I needed in the fridge was going to be not one but two kinds of leftover poultry. In fact, each year the same thing happens. Before Thanksgiving you can’t wait to “get to the bird”, and days later you get tired of eating turkey and turkey and turkey. One of the best things I know is to get around that — besides creative leftovers, I mean — is to vary the leftover meals by having something beefy to switch off from. Meatloaf will work perfectly.

So, that meant I knew what I was going to do with my mushrooms, make a chunky gravy with them. I decided to go for the creamy and the wine version. Yes, it is more of a contrasting gravy than a complementary one, but I think it still works. That said, no, this meatloaf — and this new glaze I tried on it, big yums! — does in no way need the gravy. It’s got a bit of crispness on the outside and it’s moist inside. So, feel free to skip the gravy by all means, you will not miss it. On the other hand, if you want to treat yourself to something extra, something involving mushrooms, heavy cream and wine, I say go for it. You’re worth it.

     

Meatloaf with Tomato-Balsmic Glaze and Creamy Mushroom Gravy
©2007 Harry Kenney

Meatloaf:

2 lbs combination of ground beef, veal, pork

2/3 cup green pepper, cut finely
2/3 cup red pepper, cut finely
2/3 cup onion. cut finely
3 cloves garlic, cut into slivers
2 tbsps worchesterhire sauce
1 1/2 tbsps soy sauce
dash of hot sauce
2/3 cup grated parmegan
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 egg, whipped slightly
1/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup dijon
to taste:
salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder

Tomato-Balsamic Glaze

1/2 cup ketchup
4 tbsps balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp worchestershire
dash garlic powder
dash onion powder
2 tbsps light brown sugar

Creamy Mushroom Gravy

8 oz sliced button mushrooms
1 cup beef stock
1 cup red wine, Merlot
1/2 pint heavy cream
1/4 tsp corn starch
to taste:
salt
pepper
garlic powder

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix all of the meatloaf ingredients well and by hand in a large bowl. Free-form into a loaf, place on baking sheet and put into oven.

Mix ingredients for glaze and apply to meatloaf, half-way through cooking (the 30-minute mark), covering the top and letting some spill down the sides.

For the gravy, medium heat, oil in pan, a light dusting of garlic powder in the oil, dump in the mushrooms, and cook well until browned, stirring often. Toss in the beef stock, mix, two minutes later toss in the cream and the wine. Reduce by at half to a third. Season. Add cornstarch. Let thicken and reduce until you get a nice gravy consistency.

Meatloaf should be done after one full hour. Check to make sure glaze is not getting burnt, and use a meat thermometer to check for doneness. Serve gravy a top of or on the side of the meatloaf. Makes 6-8 servings.

Whew! The last three recipes were each a bit complicated and time-consuming in terms of preparation and cooking … got to do plenty of interesting cooking things though: turned a slab of beef into steaks, pounded meat thin, made a meat stuffing, created a custard in a pot, made a ganache, took a squash apart, made a puree with the food processor, oven-roasted vegetables, got to cook some chorizo…

Time then to switch things up and do something quick and a bit more whimsical. So for today, it’s pizza for kids. Yes, I know, kids like any kind of pizza; but that said, they’ll like these even more. Moreover, you don’t have to have kids, these are definitely pizzas for the kids in us all!

Before diving in, be sure to check out my previous pizza foray, where I made the more convention Pepperoni Pizza as well as a Ham and Pineapple one. There are more basic tips in that one. Think of this as a continuation. As said, last time was somewhat more traditional. This time, I went and let my inner child run wild, hmm, maybe even a tad amok. hehe

And this is one of the best things about doing pizza at home: you can create pizzas you will not find at your average around-the-corner, down-the-street pizzaria. One element I kept running up against doing this — can’t recall if I complained about this in my other recipe or not — but that was that my dough wants to basically stay round, and my baking sheets are rectangular. What happened each time then, in my personal experience, was I would end up with one large rectangular pizza and one smaller rectangular one. You see I had to go the width of the baking sheets and that would have made too doughy a pizza. Following the outline or dimensions of the sheets though made for thin, crispy crusts. While nothing wrong with that, I do personally like a bit of more medium dough. I’d also like to make a “real” round pizza too.

So, realizing I am definitely going to make more of these in the future, I went out and got a round pizza pan. I measured my oven first to ensure I could get the largest that fit, and found a 16″ would do it. Next stop at K-Mart and I grabbed one for about 10 bucks. So I’m looking forward to — if not tossing it in the air — at least letting my dough make a nice big round one. If you follow my recipes and get some ideas of my philosophy when cooking I tend to like to go zen and let my food tell me what it wants. (Asparagus tells you where to cut it; frying pans tell you when you can have your browning meat…) Since pizza dough wants to stay round,

Ok, the cheeseburger pizza is fairly explanatory. Actually, so is this particular dessert pizza too. However, just so you can get into the mood of it, let me say all you have to do is think what would each particular ingredient be for a dessert pizza as compared to a standard pizza? Mozarella cheese … then you need a sweet cheese … ricotta or perhaps a mascapone if you can get a hold of some. Ok, what replaces the pizza sauce? At first you go “huh”, and then you start getting into the swing of things and go “ah, jelly!”. Ok, pepperoni or whatever topping becomes some kind of fruit. Garlic powder? Maybe it becomes cinnamon. Basil? Maybe (or not) it becomes sprigs of mint. Maybe jimmies. Who knows? You tell me.

Play with it, think it out, give whatever comes to mind a try. Now you’re getting the idea. So let that inner kid go run wild — better yet, do it with your children — have some fun, and enjoy!

Cheeseburger Pizza
©2007 Harry Kenney

pizza dough
tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce with meat works nicely
shredded mozzarella
American cheese
ground beef
ketchup

salt
pepper
garlic powder
dried oregano
dried basil

Too many variables (plus this is supposed to be fun) to list actual amounts. Just go free-for-all.

Make dough into pizza form you want. Place sauce on dough and spread with tablespoon or larger spoon. Don’t over do it. Spread some mozzarella, light, not as much as a regular pizza. Rip slices of American cheese and place on top. In frying pan, pinch off pieces of ground meat, make small, larger than a pea, smaller than a lima bean. Pinch, roll between thumb and forefinger, place in pan and cook. Do not overcook, keep moist, this is going to cook further on the pizza remember. Add tiny bits of American cheese on top a minute before done. Place atop pizza. Add spices to taste. Squirt small streaks of ketchup here and there. 350°F for 14-16 minutes.

Peach Ricotta Dessert Pizza
©2007 Harry Kenney

pizza dough
can of peach halves
Ricotta cheese
Apricot preserves
cinnamon

Make dough into pizza form you want. Spread out ricotta cheese, then preserves, put on peach halves, dust with cinnamon. This cooks a bit faster than a traditional meat pizza. Keep and eye on it. 350°F for 10-12 minutes.

Sometimes you just want to have it all. And sometimes you can — especially when you’re cooking. And in this case, baking. How this recipe came along was simple: I had a couple of bananas, I wanted to use them to make some kind of sweet desert, preferrably something baked and I wanted it to include chocolate.

While it’s true with this basis there’s a hundred things I could choose to do, the first thing that popped to mind was maybe a banana cream pie. Graham cracker crust, chocolate pudding (some folks do vanilla), sliced bananas and whipped cream. Yummy but way too easy. No challenge in it.

Then I thought about the Boston Cream Pie, which is actually a cake, but done in a pie pan. (No I have no idea why.). I checked out some recipes. Spongy vanilla cake, custard filling, chocolate, but nope, no bananas. I then said to myself: what the heck, there’s bananas in it now.

Looking around for inspiration and to see how others did it, I found a ton of recipes that called for plain old chocolate icing, the kind you get out of a can. Even made fresh, those recipes with photographs showed one sloppy affair. Where was the kind of topping I recall when I’ve had this in a diner or a restaurant long ago? And then I found one at last. The topping was a ganache. Yes, that looked correct.

Later when I traced the original recipe as having come from the Parker House Hotel in Boston about 150 years ago, it too said the icing should be a ganache. Why all of those slopping and boring “plain icing” recipes around? No idea. But hey, if I was going to mess with a classic, it was going to be the classic version I was going to mess with.

Btw, I had to do this recipe twice. That is, the cake twice. You see, I’ve baked before, but I am not a baker. Cook, yeah. And I think one darned good one. Baker though? I’ve said it before, cooking is an art, baking is a science. While it seems the second is easier, it isn’t, it’s quite unforgiving at times if you make a mistake.

To make a long story short, for those of you (who are like me) not experienced bakers: Do not let anything “foreign” get into your egg whites or they will not turn as they should. I had some batter on my beaters and couldn’t get a soft peak after 20 minutes. I knew I did something wrong, but instead I put it in the mix and baked it. Disaster. I should have know to toss it, and start over with two new egg whites. So that’s today’s tip for you.

In the end this turned out very well. Two bananas. One went into the pastry filling. The other one got split, half in with the cake mix, the other half sliced thinly and added in between layers. You see this desert is basically three elements, none of which I’d ever “played” with before … basically it’s a sponge cake, a custard and the ganache. I’ve made cakes from scratch before but not a sponge. Puddings before but never a custard. And first time for the ganache.

Toughest part of the recipe? Cutting the thin cake layer in half. And other than to tell you to use a long serrated bread cutting knife, I have no tips to tell you how to not go awry and to make a perfect half. Just do your best and it will work out. Remember if I can do it, you can too.

Quick note: As Thanksgiving is nearing, yes, this would make a nice and different desert for your guests to enjoy!

  

Banana Boston Cream Pie
©2007 Harry Kenney

cake:

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted, along with 1/4 tsp cornstarch
(or 1 cup plus 2 tbsps cake flour, sifted)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 banana, mashed
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil
2 egg yolks
1 tsps vanilla
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

filling

2 cups whole milk
1 tbsp vanilla
6 egg yolks
2/3 granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 banana, mashed
plus 1 banana, sliced thin

ganache:

8 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream, boiling

Pastry filling needs to be made first as it needs to set, then cake, then ganache icing.

Filling: In a medium saucepan heat milk and vanilla, bring to boil over medium heat. In a bowl, whisk egg yolks and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add cornstarch and whisk vigorously until there are no longer any lumps. Whisk in a small amount (1/5) of hot milk into mix to temper the eggs. Once well mixed, take bowl mixture and pour all of it back into the saucepan with the hot milk mixture. Mix and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly until it is thickened and slowly boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Let cool slightly, then place in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill at 2-3 hours or until ready to serve. (The custard filling can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Must be refrigerated a minimum of 1 hour before using.)

Cake: About an hour after making the filling, start to make the cake. Doing it this way assures both will be ready at about the same time for assembly. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add milk, oil, egg yolks, mashed banana and vanilla extract. Beat with electric mixer on low to medium speed until combined. Beat an additional three minutes on high speed and set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a small to medium mixing bowl, beat eggs whites and cream of tartar together. If you are using the same mixer, you must clean the beaters before doing this, else the whites will not set. Set mixer on medium to high speed until achieving soft peaks. Pour egg white mixtures into egg yolks mixture, folding it in. Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch pie pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden and testing with a toothpick shows it is cooked inside. Place on a wire rack and cook.

When cake is cooled. Slice across to make two layers. Let cool further.

Ganache: In a medium bowl, pour the boiling cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until melted.

Assembly: Place bottom layer on plate. Atop put all of the custard filling. Atop filling place thinly sliced bananas. Place top layer on. Pour warm ganache completely over top, let some spill down the sides. Store in refrigerator at least one hour prior to cutting.

First let me direct you to my recipe on Fruit and Cream Cheese Triangles as that covered a lot of the basics found in this recipe here. In fact, this recipe is in many ways a continuation or the next step after those delicious little triangles.

Using the same amount of puff pastry dough that made the nine triangles, one sheet, I was this time able to more simply create four large turnovers. Since I’ve never really played with puff pastry dough prior to these two outings, I saw no sense in making the filling from scratch, as I was more interested in getting the pastry correct and learning from what I was doing.

Speaking of which, I found with the nine mini tarts that 350°F for 16-18 minutes worked best. No doubt because they were larger and each individual item has a lot more filling, 375°F for 22-25 minutes turned out to be the time for the apple turnovers.

With that in mind, I “copped out” and used a can of apple pie filling I had gotten from the market on a previous outing. That said, I also “upped the ante” a tad by deciding I would make frosting for the maybe the second time in a decade. So, for me, a second learning experience with the dough and basically a newer one with the simple icing.

Btw, although I do have an icing bag that comes with the variable nibs to make designs, I decided to do “the old plastic baggie trick” for you (see photograph) just to show this easily can be done without all the fancy “equipment”. That means you can do it too!

What can I tell you, this was so easy and delicious it tasted like I bought them at my local bakery shop. And there, where they cost three bucks a piece, I’m sure I spent considerably less with my ingredients, and they tasted as good — if not better — afterall I was able to eat mine 10 minutes after out of the oven.

  

Apple Turnovers
©2007 Harry Kenney

1 sheet puffed pastry
1/2 can of apple pie filling
1/4 cup of raisins
1/4 cup of golden raisins
1 tsp of lemon juice
egg wash

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Take one puffed pastry sheet, slice into four squares. Take filling above, mix and place as much as can hold into the squares, roughly three or four tablespoons. Fold one corner over to the opposite corner creating a triangle or “turnover”.

Brush egg wash along the two sides, press together, then use a fork on the edges to further press sides together and to make that nice ribbed design along the two sides. Also make two sets of steam holes in the top.

Place on cookie sheet with parchment paper on top. Greasing or flouring can work, but it will not work as well as the parchment paper will. Cook until brown about 22-25 minutes. When cooled, put on royal icing. (Recipe below)

Royal Icing

2 egg whites
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Place all ingredients in bowl and beat on medium high for a full 10 minutes. Icing will become thick and glossy. Keep covered with damp cloth while using, removing small portions to bowl as needed. Fill a Ziplock or other plastic baggie. Move contents to corner of bag, using scissors, carefully snip a small — repeat, small — area of the corner. Gently squeeze the icing to and fro across the top of each tart to make wavy pattern.

Good news, it worked. Bad news, you’re going to have a lot of icing left to figure out what to do with. (I’d cut in half or quarter it but then how do you get 1/16th of vanilla extract?) So I suggest save in the refrigerator a few days and find something else to make and use up the icing on.

I love this town. I love it for so many reasons, too many, I won’t even get into cause I might not be able to stop. But one of the reasons is food, baby. Philly is hometown to so many foods, it’s just crazy. Probably first that comes up on everyone’s list is the Philly Cheesesteak. If not that, it’s the Hoagie. Whats a hoagie? Ever have something called a “sub” or submarine? Ever have something called a “hero” or hero sandwhich? Well, if so, they are just pale, lack-luster imitations of a hoagie.

What else? There’s the Philly pretzel. Much superior to those things they burn in NYC and call pretzels. There’s scrapple, a mysterious and wonderful substance — sorta like haggis, not in taste, in mystery — that is a wonderful alternative to bacon, ham and sausage as a breakfast meat to go along with your eggs. And then, to my surprise, there’s the stromboli.

To my surprise? Well I’ve known strombolis ever since I was little. The local pizza shop or steak shop always had them along with the calzones. Wasn’t actually until just a few days ago when I looked up in various food encyclopedias on the web — Epicurious’s is my favorite by the way. And I was wondering just what was technically considered the difference between a calzone and a stromboli.

According to the Epicurious-Barron’s database: “Originating in Naples, calzone is a stuffed pizza that resembles a large turnover. It is usually made as an individual serving. The fillings can be various meats, vegetables or cheese; mozzarella is the cheese used most frequently. Calzones can be deep-fried or brushed with olive oil and baked.” Whereas a stromboli is “a specialty of Philadelphia, a stromboli is a calzone-like enclosed sandwich of cheese (usually mozzarella) and pepperoni (or other meat) wrapped in pizza dough.”

So, a stromboli, yet another food originating here in Philly, is something akin to (but not) an inside-out pizza, a loaf of Italian bread that’s stuffed, a giant non-fried calzone, the world’s biggest “hot pocket” (except it tastes 100 times better). Let’s face it, these are just comparisions. A stromboli is what it is — a stromboli. And it’s delicious!

Now, as said this here is not your average stromboli. (Oddly, now that I’ve made the monster one, I’ll have to make a “normal” one to show you in the near future.) This is brimming with pounds of delicious meats, plus a substantial amount of savory veggies too. Some believe that where calzones were made to be eaten by hand, that strombolis were too. Personally, I have never (even with the normal ones you get from the shops) believed that. When you slice it you have two open ends, what a slop that would make eating by hand. So I’ve always used the knife and fork. And with this particular one, heavy-weighted, jam-packed “big guy”, manly-sized log, that is the only way to eat it.

Needless to say, this is one puppy you definitely want to make for a tailgating party, or bowling night, or on the big game day to feed a bunch of big hungry guys. The loaf ended up being 17 inches long, 6 to 7 inches wide and an inch to an inch and a half thick and even weighed (I’m guessing here) a good five to seven pounds. Tell me this isn’t going to be the hit of the party?! You know it!

When slicing a serving, figure rbout an inch width; perhaps an inch and a half or even up to two for a jumbo slice. This is going to make anywhere from 10 to 16 servings. If you figure in the price of the ingredients, and what the same amount of food would cost at the pizza joint, this is even a pretty sweet budget saving meal to boot. Oh, and just cause it is party food, doesn’t mean it’s not dinner or lunch. I didn’t make this for a party but for “dinner with lots of leftovers”, the kind I can reheat for a couple more dinners or as a few more hot lunches later in the week.

One last item here, before we hit the recipe. There’s also two schools of thought with those who make strombolis. (Geez, aren’t there always at least two schools of thought with food?) One is, you put some of the sauce inside; other’s say no, it leaks, it’s too messy; no sauce inside the stromboli itself, instead have some spaghetti sauce or marinara on the side for dipping. Me? I figure why does is it always have to be one way or the other — both ways together works! You need some of that inside, and hey, offer some to dip too to accomodate people’s taste.

Ok, get yourself plenty of napkins, grab a cold one to “go along” outta da fridge, dig in, and enjoy!

     

Over-Stuffed Meat Lovers Monster Stromboli
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

3/4 lb sweet Italian sausage, cut open from casing
3/4 lb hot Italian sausage, cut open from casing
1/2 lb thinly sliced pepperonis
4-5 slices of frozen sandwich steak, chopped

3 green (or red or mixed) bell peppers, cut to chunks
1-2 medium yellow onions, cut to chunks
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1/2 pound baby portebellos (or any mushrooms) chopped

one portion of pizza dough (enough to make one large pizza pie)
12 oz marinara or spaghetti sauce
6 oz shredded mozerella or mixed Italian cheeses

grated parmagena
salt
pepper
garlic powder
oregano

Take one serving of pizza dough, roll and knead out into a rough rectangle about 18 inches long and 8-10 inches wide and place inside baking sheet. Add oregano and grated parmagena to dough and press in with palm of hand. Lightly add shredded cheese all around and do same with hand again, pressing in slightly

In one very large pan, bring up to medium-high with very little oil, add half of sliced garlic, put in the pepperonis and brown. These have ton of oil. After turning constantly a few minutes, dump the oil, place pepperonis on a plate with paper towels and let sit, getting off the excess oil. Add sausage mixture into this pan and start to brown, lightly salt and pepper only as these are already well seasoned.

In a second smaller skillet, add oil, remaining sliced garlic, and put on medium-low and add the peppers. Remember you’re browning the meat, but you’re going to be sweating (not browning) the veggies. As peppers start to soften slightly add onions and mushrooms. You want all the ingredients to soften, stir constantly. Add some seasonings including some oregano.

In meat skillet, make some room in the pan and add the crumbled steak, season and brown. When everything nearly done in the meat skillet, put the pepperoni back in, mix everything up and add about 4 oz of marinara or spaghetti sauce and incorporate well.

Now to layer. Take handfuls of shredded cheese and thickly make a line down the center, about six inches or so wide. Take meat and spoon out down the middle of the dough, forming a line from near top to bottom, should end up being four to six inches wide and maybe half inch or so high. Now, do the same with the veggies, right on top, form a line top to bottom, should end up being roughly two to three inches wide. Take your sauce and add a thick bead, no more than an inch wide again down the length, atop the veggies.

Fold one side up across the top, then the other side, gently prodding as needed to make oval loaf. Fold the two ends up neatly as possible. Score slits in top of dough width-wise roughly four or five inches in length and spaced and inch-and-a-half or two down entire length. Take grated parmagena and liberally sprinkle atop the entire loaf. Now drizzle some olive oil across top. This will add flavor and aid in browning. Place the baking sheet into a preheated 400°F for about 35 minutes. When nice and brown, and you see the liquids inside boiling through some of the slits, you’re done.

Let sit on sheet at least 15 minutes before serving. Optionally take some of the sauce and add to a bowl for additonal dipping. Serve with knife and fork and plenty of napkins. Servings 10-16. Beverage of choice, beer of course, but works with anything.

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