This is why You're Fat: Cooking with whisk.e (2012-02-13)

[WhatThaFrig]

Those carnitas look fantastic! And I'm def gonna use the salsa verde recipe.

[skelco]

did the salsa verde last week, it's pretty awesome

[whisk.e.rebellion]

Been cooking all weekend. Got three more recipes going up, hopefully, tomorrow.

[austin93906]

new seminar idea for the tenth. cooking with whisk.e!

[whisk.e.rebellion]

Mmmm, pork.

This one's pretty simple, but there's a good chance the brown sugar is going to make a huge mess of your pan. If so, just deglaze the pan before cleaning it.

Gather your ingredients:



* Desired number of pork chops
* Brown Sugar
* Salt
* Pepper
* Sprig or two of rosemary

Let your raw chops rest at room temperature for 20-30 minutes, especially if they're thick like these ones. The closer you get them to room temperature, the more evenly they'll cook.

Heat your oven to 350. Drop some oil in a pan, swirl it around and heat over medium-high heat.

Liberally salt and pepper one side of your chops:



Now put a nice, thick crust of brown sugar on them:



Repeat on the second side, then drop into the hot pan:



See what I mean about the mess? As that sugar cooks and caramalizes, it gets messy:



Give the chops about 5 minutes on the first side, then flip:



I like to spoon some of the caramelized sugar back on top of the chops:



Only give the chops about 2-3 minutes on the second side. Add your rosemary:



Cover:



And put in the oven (Damn, I need to clean my oven):



Cook until done. These chops were about 3/4lb each and took about 20 minutes in the oven to hit the medium side of medium-well. Remove from pan and rest at least 5 minutes before serving:



And, for serving, my preferred dish?

PORK CHOP SANDWICHES!! <-- link to recipe

[whisk.e.rebellion]

What you need:

* Sandwich rolls. I prefer bolillos or teleras
* Leftover black beans from Bacon and Black Bean Quesadillas
* Leftover, or fresh Brown Sugar and Rosemary Porkchops
* Mayo
* Onion
* Avocado
* Lettuce
* Hot sauce of choice (Valentina for me)
* Cheese



The pork chops are still cooking, that's why they're not in that picture

Reheat your beans:


Preheat a comal, flattop griddle, toaster oven, something to toast your rolls:


Slice your rolls:


And toast:


Both sides:


While the rolls are toasting, slice your avocado and other veggies:




Slice your pork, against the grain. Reheat slices if using leftovers:


Mayo on both sides of roll:


Hot sauce:


Beans on bottom half. The mayo will help hold them in place, but I like to mash them down a bit:


Cheese:


Porkchop:


Veg:




Close, slice and serve:

[whisk.e.rebellion]

If you're cooking for one or two, and use an avocado, chances are you'll have half left over. Once you cut an avocado, oxygen starts to work on it turning it brown and nasty. There are a number of old wives tales about keeping a cut avocado green that I won't go into because they're all bullshit.

Oxygen, in this case, is bad. How are you going to keep oxygen off of your avocado?



Submerge it in water and shove it in the fridge.

That's it.

It'll only keep about a day, so use it quick. It gets a little slimy, but this can be mitigated by wrapping the half in paper towels after removing from the fridge. The next morning, I used about half of the leftovers for breakfast burritos then scooped the other half right out of the skin using Fritos.

[whisk.e.rebellion]

I love pizza, but making it at home has always been challenging. I've tried dozens of dough recipes, most of which have resulted in failure. Other than this recipe, the only one I've had turn out well was a recipe for New York style dough from Peter Reinhart's book, American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza. It was good, but it was a lot of work.

The main problem is I've never owned an oven hot enough to get the dough to cook right. The NY style pizza, for example, required me running my oven at 500 for an hour (with a pizza stone of course) then running the broiler for another half an hour to try to raise the temperature.

Recently, I discovered this recipe for New England Greek Style Pizza from Serious Eats. Now, by all accounts, Greek style pizza is pretty bad, generally speaking. I've only had one encounter with it at a crappy "house of pizza" type place in or near Boxborough, MA, and this recipe produces a far superior pizza.

Oh, and this is a no knead dough, too.

On to the porn and instructions:

For the dough:
* Bread flour. This is vital. The higher protein content gets you a nice, chewy interior.
* Water
* Kosher salt
* Yeast (instant or active dry works)
* Extra virgin olive oil

For the pan:
* Vegetable shortening (aka, Crisco)
* Olive oil

For the toppings:
* Whatever you want

Making the dough:


We're going to go by weight for the flour. Measuring flour by weight is inherently more accurate since flour can settle during shipment and everyone scoops differently.

Start by putting a large bowl on your scale and taring it:


We want 14oz of bread flour:




Yeast. 0.15oz, or 1/2 teaspoon:


Kosher salt. 0.30oz, or 1 tablespoon:


Stop here. Whisk together all the try ingredients until well mixed.

Extra virgin olive oil. 2 tablespoons:


Water. 9oz. If your tap water has a lot of chlorine, use bottled or filtered. By the way, one fluid ounce of water weights one ounce. Nifty, eh?






Stir everything with a wooden or plastic spoon until it comes together. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl:






Cover with plastic wrap and stash in a warm place for 8-24 hours. My house is cold, so I gave the yeast a jump start by putting it in a warm oven (about 85-90 degrees):


BEFORE YOU CONTINUE, PLEASE SEE THIS NOTE: LINK



19 hours for me...

Dust your workspace with flour:


Turn your dough out onto your workspace:


Lightly oil two bowls. Pour some olive oil in the bowls then wipe it around with a paper towel. Half your dough, form into two balls, place in bowls, roll around to cover in oil then cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes:




Put your oven rack as low as you can. If you have a pizza stone, put it on the bottom rack. Preheat your oven to 500.

Again, flour your workspace:


Try your damndest to stretch the dough into a circle the same diameter as your baking vessel:


Choose your baking vessel. If you have a pizza pan, good on you. If not, or if you're a cool kid, just use a cast iron skillet:


Lubrication:


Take 1 tablespoon of shortening, and rub down your pan with it:



Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and swirl it around:


Drop your dough in the pan and try to stretch it out to the edges:



Let it rest for a few minutes then try again:


Let the dough rise in the pan for another 30-60 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your toppings:



After the dough is done rising, top it as desired:


My wife's not a big fan of tomato sauce on pizza, so it turns out I'm not a big fan of sauce on pizza, either.

Throw the topped dough in the oven:


It should take 15-20 minutes for the pizza to cook. Pull it out when the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted and brown in spots:


Use a metal spatula to lift up the edge of the pizza and see if the bottom is brown enough:


Not done enough? Throw your pan on a burner and crank it up to medium-high heat until it is done enough:


Place on cutting board and let rest for 2-3 minutes:


Slice and serve:


Post mortem shot:

[Mad_Maxx]

Dang, i feel hungry now..... and i just ate

[whisk.e.rebellion]

Sorry to bump without a new recipe. but:

I made the basic pizza dough again today. I was tired last night, and the wife and I convinced ourselves that it doesn't really need 24 hours, but it'd be fine with just 8.

She thinks it's still great, I think the finished product is a bit doughy. It's still really good and totally edible and it's now the 2nd best pizza I've made at home, but I think this dough really does benefit from a longer rise time.

[Oneswunk]

Damn that looks good.

I really have to try making pizza dough. We make pizzas almost weekly and buying dough balls from a kick ass little pizza shop is just lazy. But for a $1.70 a dough ball its convenient.

I do cheese and sausage with no gravy often. Sometimes with a little sweet and spicy mustard.