Friday, March 4, 2011

A Homemade Treat

It seems like all the cooking I've done in the past week has been homemade versions of my favorite junk food: fajitas, ribs, and today, Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I have such warm memories of ordering deep-dish pizzas at The Keg in Joliet, plunging into the soufflé-depth crust to release a gush of cheese and tomato sauce. Mmmm. Since we're a long way from the Keg here, I thought I'd take a crack at making my own version of a Chicago-style pie at home.

If you've never made pizza at home before, you must try it because it is SO EASY. You mix up flour, water and a little yeast to make the crust, and while it rests for 30 minutes you can get your toppings ready (whatever you want, however much, and in any crazy combination you can think of), which means you can have fresh pizza at home in about the same time it takes to get a greaseball delivered from Domino's. My deep-dish pizza had a flour crust, which I prefer to the more authentic Gino's-style cornmeal, and I'll admit the fresh buffalo mozzarella didn't gooze stringily out over the pan the same way aged mozzarella does, but who cares? IT WAS DELICIOUS. And because I put green pepper and olives on it, it was also HEALTHY. Crust recipe here; filling/assembly instructions here.

Sorry, no leftovers!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Pizza Blasphemy! Heretic! Boo!

That's it. I can't in good conscience call you my sister anymore. You're just some stranger that grew up in my house!

How can you even pretend to make a Chicago-style deep dish pizza without a cornmeal crust! Impossible! This flour business is that namby-pamby Edwardo's junk, not real deep dish....And you claim you're from Illinois...

Secondly, the Keg never made deep dish pizza...they made thick-crust pizza which is not the same thing. I don't know what kind of communist pizza brainwashing they do in England, but here in America, all decent right-thinking folks know that cornmeal is king when it comes to the deep dish.

I'm not mad, really...I'm just, disappointed.

-Bill

A Puppet Opera said...

Okay, first of all, the Keg did make a deep dish pizza and it was awesome. I used to order it with Joanna Marino all the time.

And second of all, I HATE cornmeal crust. I hate the flavor of it, the texture of it, everything. I don't care how inauthentic it is (as I wrote in this post), I just prefer the taste of flour to cornmeal. I don't care how disappointed you are, you are not my tastebuds.

And third of all, you smell.

SJ xoxoxoxo

Unknown said...

Personal Preference aside, you can't claim a deep dish pizza without a cornmeal crust. That's like making risotto and substituting the rice for mashed potatoes...it might taste OK, but it's not the real McCoy.

Secondly, just because a pizza's got a lot of dough on the bottom, doesn't make it deep dish. The Keg never made deep dish pizza, they made a doughy, flowery, thick-crust, monstrosity. They may have called it "Chicago-style" but I can microwave a plate of fish-sticks and call it bouillabaisse...just 'cause I say it, doesn't make it so.

Thirdly, I smell like victory, and your taste buds are broken.

Blurg.

-B

A Puppet Opera said...

Bill,

You smell like a goat, and that's the long and the short of it.

As I said, I never said that my version, or the Keg's or anything was authentic. I only ever said that I liked it. I do not claim to be an expert on anything, I just like to evangelize the stuff I like. My flour-crust pizza wasn't doughy, it was crisp and delicious and 2-inches deep.

And it was incredibly good. So you can put that in your pipe and smoke it.

SJ xo

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