Quesadilla Style Pizza

It was early in the day Super Bowl Sunday.  We had yet to be excited by the best catch in the history of the game to be followed by the worst play call in the history of organized football.  On our minds was the topic of eats.  What to make?  After looking through the refrigerator, we decided upon a traditional go to meal for the big game.  Pizza.  Hope and The Youngest wanted a traditional pie with sausage, pepperoni, and cheese.  I was looking for something different.

I set forth to rummaging through the refrigerator for some ideas.  Perhaps Greek yogurt and spinach? Nah.  Olives, broccoli, and processed cheese product?  Nope.  My eyes fell upon the batch of pinto beans I had made the day before.  It had been awhile since I had indulged in some Mexican fare.  I had just bought a chunk of Thunderjack cheese the other day.  Hmmm, a plan was developing.  Lets to go back to the pinto beans and start from the beginning.

My mom has made pinto beans for years.  Beans are not every ones cup of tea, but I grew to like them.  No, actually love them.  Beans of all types prepared in many ways.  But, my go to dish is Mom's good old pinto bean recipe.  Quick, simple, and great with some stovetop Mac and Cheese and a wedge of corn bread.  Here is the recipe:

Homemade Pinto Beans:

1 lb dried Pinto Beans.  Rinsed and stones removed.
1 small sweet onion, roughly diced.
1 bell pepper, roughly diced.
4 cloves of garlic, minced.
1 Tbsp of freshly ground pepper.
2 tsp ground cumin
Salt to taste.

I soak my beans over night.  You don't have to do this, but I think that it provides a smoother bean after cooking.  After soaking overnight, drain your beans and rinse with cold water.  Place the beans and all of your ingredients, except the salt into a pot with enough water to cover and an inch more.  if you cook with the salt at the beginning, you will end up with a tough bean that is no fun to eat.  Bring your pot to a boil, then simmer your beans for three hours.  I crack the lid on my pot so that I reduce the amount of liquid a bit while cooking.  Why?  I like a thicker bean.  After cooking, remove the beans from the heat and add salt to taste.  You could add a hamhock or some bacon while cooking, but I like the pintos just like this.  Here was my last batch.

How was I going to incorporate beans into a pizza?  Refried beans of course.  This recipe is quick and simple and way better than any refried bean you will get at a Mexican restaurant.

Homemade Refried Beans:

One cup of your Pinto Beans, plus the liquid.
1/4 cup shredded four cheese Mexican blend.
Olive Oil for your pan.

First, get a small skillet and add just enough olive oil to prevent your beans from sticking.  Turn your burner to medium heat.  Once the oil is starting to shimmer, twirl your pan to coat all surfaces and add your beans.  Then, start mashing your beans with a potato masher.

Once you get your beans to the consistency you want, add the cheese and mix until melted and combined.

I do not mash my beans until they look like something that comes out of a baby food jar.  I like some texture to my refried beans.  I would say the biggest chunks are about 1/4"

Now, for the pizza.  First, Hope made a batch of pizza dough.  Here is the recipe.  It is Jeff Smith's The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian Recipe...

Pizza Dough

3 1/4 cups AP flour
1 tbsp yeast
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/4 cups warm water

Put all of the ingredients into a bread machine, yeast on the bottom.  Hit start and let your machine go through one knead and raise cycle.  Then remove your dough from the bread maker and cover with a clean towel for 15 minutes to raise.  When handling the dough, spray your hands with cooking spray.  You'll thank me later...

Quesadilla Style Pizza:

1/2 of our Pizza Dough recipe
1 cup of Refried Beans
Enough sliced Thunder Jack Cheese to cover your pie
1/2 small Red Onion, diced
2 oz Black Olives
Hot Peppers, sautéed in oil, to taste.  You could use sweet if you like

Lets run through the ingredients.

Thunder Jack Cheese is the best Co Jack I have found at our local grocery store.  It can be found in the specialty case of your local Big Bird.  It is better than any pepper jack cheese I have ever found.  It has that great Co Jack flavor with big hunks of real pepper.  I could eat the whole block myself.

Next up, the hot peppers in oil.  I have found a great product from Suhey's Peppers.  Suhey, sound familiar?  Yes, these peppers are made by the same Matt Suhey that rumbled through the Penn State backfield back in the day.  It is tough for a Pitt guy to like this product, but I have put my college rivalry aside.  These peppers are perfectly spiced and prepared with whole cloves of garlic.  These peppers top out on the top of the heat scale.  Blazing hot, but not in an obnoxious way.  They add lots of flavor to any dish.  I have even started adding them to my tossed salads.  Warning though, they are not for the capsicum challenged.  Suhey's does make a sweet variety that is just as good.  I recommend either.

So, I built my pizza.  I spread my refried beans on my crust, then topped with the cheese, onion, olives, and peppers.

I fired up our new toy, the Pizzakettle, then cooked this pie in no time. Seven minutes to be exact, with one 180 degree turn halfway through the cook.

Seriously, this pizza was everything I had hoped for and more.  Was this a quesadilla or an open faced bean burrito?  The inner part of the pie was like a bean burrito that had been grilled due to the crispy crust on the bottom.  The outer edges were more like a crispy happy hour quesadilla.  This pizza had it all.  The beans crisped up on the outer edges and so did the cheese.  The oil from the peppers slightly caramelized the red onion.  Everything just came together.  There are even options for future versions of this pie.  Why not add some grilled shrimp or chicken breast?  I just might try the shrimp the next time.  One thing I will change the next time I make this is to use more refried beans.  Perhaps a double recipe the next time.  The outer edges could have used a little more bean coverage.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

Wood Fired Sweet Sausage and Broccoli Pizza

We have a local pizza joint around here that has a specialty pizza made with broccoli rabe and sweet sausage.  The sauce is a white base: olive oil, garlic, thyme, oregano, and a hint a basil.  I love that pie.  Ever since I had my first piece, I have wanted to make one at home.

Unfortunately, I cannot find broccoli rabe, otherwise known as rapini, in my local grocery.  What is broccoli rabe you ask?  Think the love child of broccoli and spinach.  Looks kinda like spinach with a hint of broccoli, tastes kinda like broccoli with a hint of spinach.  It is a nice bitter Italian green that sauteés well.  A perfect balance to the fattiness of some browned sweet sausage.  Since I cannot find rabe in the store, I substituted regular broccoli.  Lets head to the kitchen.

First, I took enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a small bowl and added 1/2 tsp each oregano and thyme, then 1/4 tsp of basil.  I also added one large minced garlic clove and a grinding of sea salt and pepper.  Since this pizza was for me and not Hope, I also added 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper for some heat.  I allowed this to sit while I moved on to my other preparations.

Next, I browned some sweet Italian sausage.  I did not cook the whole way through.  Probably about 80% cooked so that it would finish the rest of the way while the pizza was cooking.  When done, I placed in a paper towel lined bowl to soak up the fat.

Next, I took half of a head of broccoli and removed the florets.  Then, with a pairing knife, I broke the florets down into smaller pieces.  For some texture, I took some of the stalks, quarter them, then sliced thinly.  In a saute pan, I heated some olive oil and sautéed the broccoli until it was starting to get soft, but still retained its crispiness.

I also added a little more crushed red pepper for a little more kick.

When the broccoli was done, I mixed it with a half cup of the browned sausage and mixed thoroughly.

While I was firing up our new toy, the PizzaKettle, Hope offered to build my pie.  She brushed the dough with the olive oil mixture, then layered sliced fresh mozzarella, then added the broccoli and sausage mixture.

After four minutes in the PizzaKettle with a 180 rotation two minutes into the cook I had a perfect pizza pie.  You can also bake this pizza in your oven at 450 F for 20 minutes if you choose.

I liked how my first attempt at this pie turned out.  I am missing the bitterness of the broccoli rabe, but the broccoli itself was a nice substitute.  If I cannot find rabe in the future, I might substitute half of the broccoli for some spinach.  The next time you are looking for something different in a pizza, give this one a try.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

Product Review - Kettlepizza Pizza Oven

Most of you in the smoking and grilling world will agree.  65-75% of the BBQ gadgets you see for sale do not live up to even the most average of expectations.  But, when you find one in the 25-35%, the feeling of success is great.  Isn't it?  I have had my eye on a Kettlepizza pizza oven for quite awhile now.  But, I was hesitant to pay the $149 for the base model fearing this would go the way of the majority of BBQ gadgets.  Last month though, I saw the basic set: oven insert, thermometer, and aluminum pizza pan, on sale for $99 with shipping.  Time to pull the trigger.  

The Kettlepizza oven is just a stainless steel insert that you place on top of your Weber kettle grill.  Minimal assembly took about 10 minutes and it will fit either the 18 or 22 inch Weber kettle grills. Once assembled, the grate from the grill is placed into the insert and the grill dome is placed on top of that.  There is a thermometer for monitoring your "oven" temperature and an opening in front so that you can slide your pie inside for cooking.    You can either cook your pizza in the aluminum pan or slide it onto a pizza stone from a pizza peel.  

For your heat source, the instructions state to light one chimney of charcoal, then spread in a semicircle in along the back half of the grill.  Then, splits of wood are placed on top of the coals so that the heat inside the grill gets up to or above 700 F.  

I chose to use the pizza stone/pizza peel method.  It was also suggested by a BBQ friend to place one or two bricks above the fire and behind your cooking stone to help distribute the heat.  So, once I had added the wood to the fire, I placed my stone on the grates along with two bricks, placed the insert on the grill, and covered with the lid to the grill.  

I also tossed some corn meal on the stone, as suggested, to aid in sliding the pie off of the peel.  Yes, it was raining out.  My luck.

According to the instructions, within 15-20 minutes, I should have a temperature between 600-700 F inside the "oven", hot enough to cook a pizza within four minutes.  I was not disappointed.  The picture is a bit blurry, but as you can see, right in the middle, 650 F.  I even had it pegged at 700 F+ at one point.  

So, time to slide in the first pizza.  Unfortunately, I made the dough (Hope usually does) and it was a bit sticky.  So, the pies did not slide off of the peel easily.  That is the explanation for the ugly looking  pizza shapes.  Rest assured, when Hope made the dough, it slid right off of the peel and onto the stone.  But, I digress.  

Once at temperature, the directions say to place the pizza on your stone, then rotate 180 degrees after two minutes.  Then, after two more minutes, your pie is ready to remove and eat.  How did this toy work?  I am glad to report that it met and exceeded my expectations.  After two minutes the crust was firm enough to turn with ease.  I would suggest doing so with BBQ tongs if you are not experienced with a pizza peel as I.  Then, when pulled after four minutes, the pizza was perfect.  

Before:

After:

Perfect, brick oven style pizza.  Crispy crust, brown and bubbly cheese.  Outstanding!

I would highly recommend this product.  Kettlepizza has many models that can include pizza stones and pizza peels. The base model is $149, but you can find deals out there.  Keep an eye out on the Internet.  This product is worth the $149 for the base model if you like good pizza.  We got a steal for $99.  In the future, we will not be cooking pizza any other way in the Three Dogs household.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill