Pizza Made in Indoor Electric “Pizzaiolo” Pizza Oven

After my wife gave me this indoor electric pizza oven for my birthday (at the end of March), I have made quite a few pizzas (4-5 times, total of 10-12 pizzas) in the past 2 and half months. The  pizzas I made were quite good (better than the ones I made using our regular oven) but they can be improved and I kept changing the settings and dough recipes. I also got a pizza steel made for the Pizzaiolo and tried that too. 

Compared to the pizza stone, the steel retains and conducts heat better. When making multiple pizzas, the pizza stone requires a few minutes to recover and reach the correct heat settings after making each pizza. The pizza steel appears to stay hot.  The bottom of the crust gets carbonized a bit too much, though. I only used the pizza steel once.  I have to try a few more time before I can evaluate properly.  I am sticking to the pizza stone for now. 

In any case, picture #1A is my most recent pizza (using “00” flour, half Margherita and half pepperoni). To me, the crust charr marks are just right (“Darkness” setting at 11 o’clock) as compared to #3 which was too charred with the “Darkness” setting at one o’clock.

The next pizza (picture #1B) is our first attempt using pesto (from the basil on home-grown on the window sill) and red pepper sauce. The cheeses are low moisture Mozzarella and fresh goat cheese.

The picture #2 is another Margherita I made earlier. It looks “charred” but the taste was not bad, it did not taste like you are eating pure carbon but it was too much charr. This was the “darkness” setting at one o’clock.

Picture #3 is one of our most popular pizza; artichoke hearts (from a jar) with olives. Cheeses are mozzarella, Irish cheddar, smoked gouda and fresh goat cheese. This was baked immediately after the #3 pizza (I prepared this pizza in a wooden pizza paddle while the first one was being cooked). This made this pizza crust bottom not as crispy and charred since the pizza stone was not completely recovered heat.

Although this is still on-going process, the below are my current set-ups for the oven and dough.

Dough: I tried both “00” and bread flours with and without addition of olive oil. “00” dough without olive oil is a bit too chewy for us but addition of a small amount of olive oil appears to make it better (may not be authentic for Neapolitan or New York pizza). For us, the bread flour or “00” flour does not make a big difference but  we may even prefer “bread-y” consistency of crust using the bread flour.

Ingredients:
3 and 1/2 of flour (either bread or “00”)
2 tbs olive oil
1 (or a bit more) cup of water
2 tsp Kosher salt
2 tsp instant yeast

Directions: (I use the food processor fitted with a kneading blade in low-speed up to 4 cups  of flour).
After running the blade to mix all the dry ingredients, I drizzle the water in a thin steady stream as it is running until the dough forms above the blade (the surface is a bit sticky). Let it sit for 5 minutes for better hydration and run another 1-2 minutes. Take it out on a floured board and hand knead until elastic. Placed the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn it over to coat all the surface, cover it with a plastic wrap and place it in a proofing box at 85F for 1 hour or until doubles.

Deflate gently, fold several times and divide it up into 4 equal dough balls (I weigh making 4 balls of a bit over  200grams each). After the first rise, I divide the dough and form 4 balls with a smooth surface. Place it in a small Ziploc bag coated with olive oil inside and let it sit in the refrigerator at least overnight or up to  several days. I take out the dough balls one hour before baking and let it come to the room temperature. If I do not use it within several days, I freeze them. (to use the frozen dough, I transfer it to the refrigerator one day before to completely thaw).

I hand stretch the dough to make 10 inch pizza, coat it with olive oil with crushed garlic. I place the slices of  low moisture Mozzarella first and then tomato sauce.

Oven settings: “Wood fired” and the darkness setting to “11 o’clock”. Preheat for 30 minutes. I use the modified the wooden paddles which fit the oven perfectly. I use corn meal on the paddle so that the dough slides better. I cook for 2 minutes (as it is the automatically setting). Steam and some smoke come out during cooking so I use the oven under the hood with the exhaust fan running. For the next pizza, I wait until the stone temperature completely recovers (a few minutes until the “at temp” indicator light stops blinking).

Is it worth it?? Although pizza I made using the regular oven and pizza stone was quite good, pizza cooked in the Pizzaiola is definitely much better. They cook so quickly (instead of 6-7 minutes in the conventional oven they’re done in just 2 minutes). So if you have a pizza party, you could turn out a few pizzas in a jiffy. I am trying to keep this oven clean but it is a bit of a chore. Other use of this oven may be to bake focaccia (which we tried with a good result) or naan (which we have not tried yet).

Red and Green Udon “Pasta” with Prosciutto 生ハムのせ緑と赤のうどんパスタ

I came up with this for lunch one day. This is a left-over control dish. A few days ago since it is getting hot, we had cold “udon” pasta with tomatosトマトの冷製パスタ for lunch.  We usually make this dish with thin udon 糸うどん rather than fettuccine. I also cook up more than what we can use for this dish since cooked udon noodles can be used for other dishes and are handy to have. We also had left-over roasted red pepper sauce and pesto which I made a few days ago and used to make a white pizza with those sauces on top. We still had a bit more of the red pepper sauce and pesto left, so I came up with this dish (picture #1). The topping is prosciutto. It was also left over from the cold tomato pasta. I also added grated Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of our favorite Spanish olive oil. 

I thought of making cold pasta but ended up with warm pasta. I just sautéed the pasta in two separate small frying pans with small amount of olive oil. I added the red pepper sauce and pesto to each pan and warmed them up.

I topped this with prosciutto, grated parmesan and drizzle of olive oil. This was a quite good pasta dish. In addition, we managed to finish a few left-overs.

Egg roll 春巻き

Although I posted a few egg rolls 春巻, none are traditional/classic. So, I tried to make something close to “classic”. After consulting several recipes, I came up with this one. The filling is mostly vegetables (cabbage, carrot, bamboo shoot, rice noodle, shiitake mushroom, and a small amount of pork that I had roasted (in Weber with some smoke). It came out ok but we decided we are more used to and probably prefer gyoza 餃子 and shumai 焼売. We had fried shrimp heads from when we took out sashimi and sushi from Tako Grill. We re-fried and served them with the egg rolls. Sweet and sour sauce must be the most common dipping sauce but I did not make any sauce and instead, served this with green tea salt. 

Since I did not measure the ingredients, this is not recipe but note to myself. The filling made a total of 14 egg rolls.

Ingredients:
3-4 leaves of cabbage, thick ribs removed and cut into small rectangles
1 small carrot, peeled, sliced and Julienned
Half of a package of boiled  bamboo shoot, sliced and julienned
Ginger, skinned and thinly julienned
2 caps of fresh shiitake mushroom (dried could be better but I did not have time to rehydrate them )
1/4 package of dried rice “harusame” 春雨 noodle, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes, cut into bite sized pieces
1 tbs vegetable oil plus a splash of sesame oil
4-5 slices of roasted pork julienned (or uncooked julien or ground pork and shrimp)

Egg roll wrappers
Mixture of water and flour to make a slurry/glue (to fasten the ends of the egg roll wrapper)

Seasonings:
2 tsp oyster sauce
2 tbs Xiaoshing wine
2 tbs Soy sauce
2 tsp potato starch + water to make slurry
Salt and pepper
1 tsp sesame oil

Directions:
In a wok on medium-high flame, add the oil and sauté the ginger, vegetables and the pork. Season with the salt and pepper. When, the vegetables are cooked add the seasonings and mix. Add the starch slurry and splash in the sesame oil and mix.
Spread the filling on a metal cookie sheet to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate covered.
(I made the egg rolls several days after I made the filling)

Assembly:
Place the wrapper diagonally and place the filling near center but more toward the bottom, fold the bottom corner over the filling and then both sides and roll. Paint the flour/water mixture on the far conner of the wrapper and complete the roll (see picture below). (I made the rolls 1-2 hours prior to cooking. I covered  them and placed them in the refrigerator).

Instead of my regular “tempura” set up, I used a 10 inch frying pan for to  “fry” them.  Place the rolls with the end seam side down first and turn it over after the bottom is brown and continue cooking until the wrapper is all brown and crispy.

These were pretty good. The filling was adequately seasoned and the wrapper was crispy. Initially we thought there is too much wrapper as compared to the filling since we were more used to the proportions of gyoza. But over time the flavors melded together and actually tasted better. We discovered one egg roll made a nice lunch. Also they crisped up very nicely in the toaster oven.

Nine “Otoshi” Appetizers お通し九種類

This is another installment of 9 “otoshi” appetizers. I managed to fill all 9 spots with small dishes I made. Three fish dishes and 6 vegetable dishes but no meat.

A1: Wood ear mushroom dressed in Japanese hot mustard soy sauce 木耳の芥子醤油和え.  Blanched fresh wood ear cut into strips and dressed in a mixture of Japanese hot mustard, sugar and soy sauce. I also added small amount of roasted sesame oil and garnished with white sesame seeds..
A2: Cucumber and sweet onion salad 胡瓜と玉ねぎのサラダ
A3: Pickled daikon and cucumber. 大根と胡瓜の漬物 with Campari tomato.
B1: Salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き. I started making this not just for New Year. This one was particularly good because of the good quality kelp.
B2: Pickled herring (from a jar in wine sauce) in sour cream dill sauce, ニシンのサワークリームソース, which makes it much better.
B3: Marinated “ Russian ” Salmon “ 鮭のロシア漬け.
C1: Blanched asparagus dressed in sesame mayonnaise アスパラのスリゴママヨあえ. The dressing is a mixture of roasted and  ground white sesame, mayonnaise and soy sauce.
C2: Garlic chive in broth (“Ohitashi” お浸し) topped with golden thread egg (“Kinshi-ran” 錦糸卵), ニラのお浸し金糸卵のせ. The broth is half and half mixture of Japanese “dashi” broth and x4 Japanese noodle sauce. The golden thread egg is thin omelet julienned.
C3: Braised daikon, carrot, daikon green, fried tofu pouch or “abura-age” 油揚げ. 大根, 大根葉と油揚げの炒め煮. This is my impromptu dish since we got daikon with some green top attached.

Although each dish is small after having 9 of those filled us up considerably. It takes some efforts but we like many small dishes with many different textures and tastes rather than one or two large dishes.

Wood Ear Mushroom and Wakame Salad 木耳とわかめの和物

I made this dish mostly for left-overs control. I can now get fresh wood ear mushrooms from Weee. Previously the only wood ear mushrooms I could get were dried. Although we like fresh wood ear, we get a lot for one order. To make it last longer, as soon as we receive it, I wash it in cold running water and then blanch it. After blanching I wash it again and let it dry a bit on a towel so that there is no obvious surface water. I then place it in a sealable container with layers of paper towels on the bottom. Since the wood ear does not soften by cooking I can repeat this treatment (at least one more time). Besides making it last longer, if you use wood ear for salad, it is better to blanch it before hand. In any case, in addition to the wood ear, I had extra hydrated wakame so I came up with this Japanese style salad or “ae-mono” 和物. The contribution of sea plant and wood ear mushroom to the dish is mostly through their distinctive textures. Nonetheless this is a very refreshing small dish.

Again, this is not a recipe but just a note to myself.

Ingredients:
Blanched and chilled wood ear mushroom, cut into strips
Hydrated wakame sea weed
Sesame seed

Dressing:
Ponzu, sesame oil and olive oil (this is what I used this time)
or
Japanese hot mustard, soy sauce and sugar

These two items went very well together. They were similar in texture but just different enough to make an interesting combination. 

Miso-marinated Firefly Squid ホタルイカの味噌焼き

Firefly squid or “hotaru-ika” ホタルイカ is one of our favorites. Spring (April-June) is the season for it and we realized we have some from last year vacuum packed and frozen (the squid we received was pre-boiled). Since the new season started for some time ago I decided it was time to eat the batch we had been storing. I quickly checked and defrosted the batch. Although enjoying with sumiso 酢味噌 is the classic way, to eat the squid we like it re-cooked. We had some sautéd in butter and soy sauce with asparagus and really enjoyed it. I am always on the look out for other ways to serve it and came up with this miso marinated grilled hotaru-ika (I “grilled” them using a dry frying pan). I served this with cucumber and wakame わかめ in sumiso dressing (picture #1).

The reheating process plumps up the squid (picture #2) and miso marinade added nice flavor and some saltiness. This was a very good starter indeed.

I got a hint from “saikyo-miso marinated grilled hotaru-ika recipe I saw on line. Since I did not have “saikyo-miso” 西京味噌, I made with white miso, mirin and sugar. Again, this is not a recipe but a note for myself.

Ingredients:
Firefly squid, eyes and beak removed, if previously frozen, thaw and remove the excess moisture using paper towel.

Marinade
2 tbs miso
1 tbs (or more ro make the miso soft enough) mirin
1tsp sugar

Directions:
Marinade the firefly squid for 1-2 hours
Remove the miso as much as possible using a spatula
“Grill” using dry non-stick (or parchment lined) frying pan on low flame until the squid plumps up and fragrant but burned.

Cooking makes the squid plump and the marinade adds nutty and salty and slightly sweet flavor. I added 
cucumber and wakame with sumiso  dressing which went well.

Carrot Panna Cotta 搾りたて人参ジュースのパナコタ

When we get groceries delivered, carrots come in a 5 lb. bag. That is a quite a lot of carrots and before we could use them up, carrot tops sprouted and fine roots started growing. We ended up having to throw all of them out. So, in order to prevent that from happening with the next batch we got, we wheeled out our often forgotten juicer and made fresh carrot juice . Using the about 10 carrots, we made just over 2 cups of carrot juice. (We used the pulp to make a very nice carrot salad. So nothing was wasted).  The juice tasted very fresh and sweet. My wife wanted to use it to make panna cotta. She served it topped it with cream. This is a very refreshing dessert. (And don’t tell anyone but because it is basically vegetable juice we would like to think it is also fairly healthy.)

Ingredients:
2 cups carrot juice
1/2 cup milk 
1 1/4 tsp unflavored gelatin. (General rule-of-thumb is the ratio of  gelatin to liquid. I found 1/2 tsp of gelatin for every cup of liquid works pretty well. The ratio used for this panna cotta resulted in a vert soft jel. For a firmer jel use 1 1/2 tsp gelatin for  the 2 1/2 cups liquid. 
cream to top off the dish

Directions:
Put the milk in a side dish. Spread the gelatin on top to hydrate it. Put the hydrated gelatin/ milk mixture in the top of a double boiler.  Heat until all the gelatin has dissolved. Remove from the heat. Add the carrot juice.and stir until everything has been incorporated. Distribute the gelatin/carrot juice in the little jars or dishes in which it will be served. Put in the fridge until the liquid firms up. Top it with some cream before serving. 

This is a very simple but light fresh tasting dessert. It was a very soft get so it dissolved into a sweet carroty flavor in the mouth. (It is amazing how sweet it is given that no additional sugar was added.) This is a great way to take care of those extra carrots.