Roasted Eggplant Sweet Sausage Pizza

Summer is chugging along and we have started to actually get some weather that is enjoyable.  We have moved past our spring like June and July with 11 inches of rain in six weeks and temperatures in the 70's during the day and the 40's at night.  Mowing the lawn was twice weekly act of desperation rather than a weekly chore.  But, as the weather has changed a bit and the lawn mowing duties are now in a more manageable schedule, the farm markets are starting to sell their summer bounty.  Yesterday at my local market, one of my favorites was siting on the shelf: purple eggplant.

Yes, all eggplant is purple of varying shades.  The eggplant that most people associate with is the dark purple, almost black variety.  Our farm market also offers an eggplant that is a lighter shade of purple and an all white variety as well.  I like the higher shades better.  The skin is thinner, there are less seeds, and the taste is milder than their darker cousins.  For dinner, I was thinking pizza.  Roasted eggplant pizza to be exact.

First, I trimmed the stalk from the top of the eggplant, then cut lengthwise.  Half went back into the refrigerator and the other half I diced.

I tossed the diced eggplant with about one tablespoon of salt and placed in a small colander for an hour to remove the excess water.

After sitting for an hour, I rinsed the excess salt from the diced eggplant, then squeezed dry in some paper towel.  Next, I tossed with about one tablespoon of olive oil, placed into a cast iron skillet, and roasted in my oven at 350 F for about 45 minutes.

Yes George, there was shrinkage.  In hindsight, I should have used the whole eggplant.  Lesson learned.  By the way, I tried a piece of the eggplant at this stage.  Crispy, caramelized, sweetness.  I could have stopped here.  But, no, there was pizza to be made.

While the eggplant was roasting, I browned about 1/3 of a pound of sweet sausage, caramelized 1/3 of a medium sweet onion, sliced some fresh mozzarella, and created a white sauce with olive oil, 3 cloves of minced garlic, crushed red pepper, oregano, basil, and thyme (about 1/2 tsp each).  Time to build the pie.

I brushed my dough with the white sauce, then layered the cheese, eggplant, sausage, and onion.  My creation was now ready for the pizza oven.

Ten minutes later, I had a pretty sweet looking pizza pie!

Good stuff.  In hindsight, I wish I had used the whole eggplant.  The roasted bits added a nice crunchy sweetness to this pizza.  There is some work to be done in the future with this pizza.  I have some ideas.  Fortunately summer is not quite over and there is plenty of eggplant to be had, for now.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

Bacon Pesto Stuffed Turkey Breast

Earlier this year at the World Bacon Championships in Rochester, NY, one of the turn in categories was turkey.  It could be any kind of turkey, it just had to contain bacon in some form.  So, after some thinking and experimentation over the spring, we settled on a turkey breast stuffed with basil pesto and bacon.  Bacon and pesto match well.  At least I think so.  But the judges didn't think so as our entry finished in the middle of the pack.

First, we took a turkey breast and butterflied the meat so that it could be stuffed with the bacon and pesto filling.

Once butterflied, we brined in a batch of our homemade brine solution.

I always use this brine when I am smoking chicken, turkey, or any thing with wings.  It really does tenderize the meat and take out all of those bad juices.  I always reference this recipe in my poultry posts.  So, I decided to make my life (and yours) easier and make a separate link.

BOS's Chicken Brine:

Ingredients:
1 gallon Water
1 cup dry wine
¾ cup Kosher Salt
¾ cup Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Granulated Garlic
2 Tbsp Chili Powder
¼ cup Orange Juice
⅛ cup Worcestershire Sauce

I placed the turkey breast in the brine and allowed it to soak for about four hours.

As preparation time drew closer, we prepared the bacon pesto filling.  For the bacon, I took about a half pound of bacon and cut it into small cube.  Then, I browned the bacon until slightly crisp, then I drained the fat.  Once this was done, I stirred the bacon into 1/2 cup of basil pesto.  Then I removed the turkey breast from the brine, rinsed well with cold water, and patted dry.  Then, the breast was stuffed with the pesto mixture, rolled up tight, then tied shut with butchers twine.  Then, I lightly coasted the skin with olive oil and seasoned lightly with salt, thyme, and rosemary.

I smoke roasted the breast on a smoker at 350 F with a piece of pecan wood in my ash pan for smoke flavor.  I roasted the bird until the internal temperature reached 160 F, about one hour.  Then, I removed the breast from the smoker and allowed to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

The meat was tender and juicy.  The flavors mixed well.  The leftovers made a great grilled turkey club of sorts the next day with crusty white bread, provolone cheese, and sliced tomato.  Obviously, this recipe did not work well for us in competition.  But, for at home, I'll be making this again.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

Southwestern Roasted Corn and Grilled Chicken Pizza

Last weekend is one of the weekends of the year that I look forward to with unbridled anticipation.  Yes, it was the weekend that our favorite farm market, Ambrose Farm Market, was open for business.    They offer various types of greens, peppers, cucumbers, melons, and squash.  But, what they are known for is their butter and sugar corn.  This corn is the best corn in Butler County, period.  Never starchy, always sweet.  It is worth the hour round trip drive.  Last weekend, my bounty also included some beautiful Early Girl tomatoes and jalapeño peppers.  Life is good.

Last night was pizza night.  I wanted something different.  We had three ears of corn left in the refrigerator.  Not enough for a meal, but enough to experiment with a nice little spicy pizza pie.  I had been concocting this recipe in my head all day long.  If you are a Chilihead, you will not be disappointed.

First, I thawed some chicken thighs and threw them on a hot grill.  While the thighs were grilling, I whipped up a spice blend:

1 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Dried Parsley (you can substitute Cilantro here, but I am in the class of people that think Cilantro tastes like a bar of soap)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp oregano

After Hope removed the kernels from three small ears of corn and I thinly sliced half of a sweet onion.  The corn, onion, and two large cloves of minced garlic went into a bowl with three tsp of the spice blend and two tbsp of olive oil.  After mixing well, I placed this mixture into a cast iron skillet, then roasted on my grill when the chicken was done.  With the remaining spice blend, I added two cloves of minced garlic and enough olive oil to make the mixture mobile.  I placed this off to the side while I was roasting the corn.

The grill was around 400 F, so I closed the lid to help with the roasting process.  Every five minutes or so I gave the mixture a good mix.  After about 20 minutes the corn was starting the brown and caramelize.  So I removed the skillet from the grill and let cool while I prepared the final pieces of this pie.

While Hope sliced a jalapeño into rings, I removed the chicken from two thighs and diced an Early girl tomato.  Normally I would use a roma tomato, but, if you quarter an Early Girl and remove the pulpy interior, you can dice the flesh and substitute for a meatier roma.

The final piece was thinly sliced smoked chipotle cheddar cheese.  Time to build this pie.

On my dough, I brushed on a thin coat of the olive oil spice mix.  Next up I layered the cheese, followed by the roasted corn, onion, and garlic.  This was followed by the chicken, tomatoes, and jalapeño slices.  This pizza was ready to bake.

After 15 minutes in a 450 degree oven, my creation was ready.

I waited five minutes for the cheese to set up a bit, then I sliced this pie, grabbed a cold beer, and sat down to try this creation.

The first flavor that came though was the sweetness from the roasted corn, onions, and fresh tomato.  Where was the heat?  Well, that kicked in about five seconds later.  Lightly roasted jalapeño pepper, followed by the chili powder and cayenne, all tied together with the cumin.  This was one balanced pie.  Not that grab your tonsils, Atomic wing hotness.  But, rather that satisfying dull burn that deepens with each satisfying bite.  The chicken was a nice touch, but not needed.  If you wanted a protein on this pizza, you could even substitute shrimp instead of chicken.  Black beans maybe?  Why not.

I was more than happy with how this pizza turned out.  This recipe requires a bit of preparation, but it was well worth the work.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

Rethinking Chicken - Sticky Fish Sauce Chicken

Every year at the Crossboarder Blues, Brews, and Que competition the organizers, Carol and Frank have two extra categories in addition to the four standard KCBS entries.  One is always an entry where you have to make something with your leftovers.  The second category changes from year to year.  This year the entry was Rethinking Chicken.  Carol challenged teams to make a chicken entry that conforms to KCBS turn in rules, but did not conform to the rubbed and sauced standard that every team turns in every competition.  Alabama White Sauce, go for it if you choose.  Peri-Peri?  Why not.  While flipping through my one of m recipe feeds on Clipboard one evening, I found an entry that would definitely fit the "outside the box" spirit of this competition.  As a matter of fact, the idea was not only outside the box, but it was off the table as well.  I chose a Sticky Fish Sauce chicken.

The recipe came from this website over at White on Rice Couple.  It appealed to my tastes: sweet and sour with an Asian flair.  Perfect for this competition.  To practice, I whipped up a batch of sauce for some chicken I was grilling one night.  I liked how it turned out.  The honey started to caramelize and was complemented by the sriracha, lime, and fish sauce.  A nice alternative to sweet American style chicken.  We were a go for Wilson.

Come competition day, I chose legs for this entry and I also chose to cook using my KCBS chicken recipe with some changes.  For seasoning, I lightly seasoned the chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.  After the first 30 minutes on the smoker, I eliminated the butter bath component from the cooking method.  Our cooking method turned out to be one and a half hours at 275 F.  The legs were dunked in the sauce after 30 minutes and then cooked in a pan.  After 30 more minutes, I reapplied the sauce and let the chicken cook for 30 minutes more.  That is it.

Our entry turned out pretty good.  But, there was an issue.  The fish sauce this time around was a bit on the overpowering side.  I realized that the sauce needed that caramelization that you get from the grill.  I should have finished these legs over a hot fire.  Live and learn I suppose.

The entry came in 22nd out of 27 teams.  I would say though that we scored in the top 10 for Rethinking Chicken.  Would I make chicken like this again?  Yes I would, The Youngest scarfed these legs down.  But, I would not use the smoker and make these strictly on the grill.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill