Normally, for us, eating in front of the television is equitable to wearing wet underwear. I mean, we could do it, but why? Tonight was a special occasion, though. Tonight was the season premier of our most favorite show in the entire world and the only show we actually watch on television, L O S T.
Yes. Eight long and lonely months have passed since we got the flash future forward and so for the last couple weeks Justin & I have been discussing the menu drink and accoutrements of what we are fondly terming “party night” at the Lewis – Marion homefront.
So we decided: Pizza. We must have pizza. We love pizza and we hardly ever have it. And chicken wings with buffalo sauce. Oh, well, okay, not chicken, Tofu! Beer! Soda! Home Fries! We just couldn’t stop ourselves!
So this afternoon I started the dough for the pizza, pressed and drained the tofu, sliced the potatoes and built a batter and coating. I chopped the vegetables and then we were on!
Above: Fried tofu with (from L to R) Jalapeño Mustard, Brown Mustard, Red Hot Devil Sauce and Ranch with plenty of celery, of course.
Tofu Sticks:
- 1/2 brick of pressed, drained tofu. We used firm, but both agreed that extra firm /baked would be even better cut into desired “nugget-like” sizes
- 1 egg
- crust-dusting (flour, salt & spices)
- oil for frying
Beat egg until it’s a little foamy. Take nuggets and dip them in the crust-dust, then egg, then back into the dust. Allow nugget to rest in the coating, giving it a final toss before putting on plate to go into oil. Fry in oil until golden, drain, keep warm until serving.
Home Fries
- Potatoes, sliced into rounds
- Olive Oil
- Crust dust (flour, salt, spices)
Towel dry the potatoes. I wrapped mine in a towel, rolled them up and placed on top of the radiator for about 10 minutes. Prepare crust dust in any proportion you like. I go for color, mostly. I want a kind of reddish-beige end result. Usually that color tastes very nice.
Put about 1/4c olive oil in a small bowl. Dip a slice of potato in the oil. Rub the oiled potato in your hands (to coat your hands and to remove some of the oil from the potato) and then toss lightly oiled potato slice into crust dust. Bake at 35o for a while.. maybe 40 minutes.
Rustic Deep Dish Pizza
- Pizza Dough
- 3/4c warm water
- 1tsp yeast
- 1/4tspbrown sugar
- 2c flour (I used King Arthur unbleached, but you can pretty much have your pick)
- Vegetables (we used sliced tomato, mushroom, red onion & olive)
- Cheese (we used Narragansett Creamery’s Salty Sea Feta & Adwell’s Gold)
- Spices (we used thyme & basil)
- Cornmeal to keep pie from sticking to pan
Place Yeast in a bowl, crumble brown sugar and pour the warm water into dry ingredients. Swish mixture around in bowl to make sides of the bowl clean. Allow mixture to stand for 15 minutes or until nice and foamy. Add flour 1/2c at a time until pulls away from the bowl and is stiff enough to handle with your hands. Turn dough onto floured surface, knead for about 5-8 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place dough ball in a clean, well-oiled bowl; allow to rise at least one hour or until doubled in bulk, punch down, turn onto floured surface.
Lightly knead dough into a ball and flatten, working the dough into a sort of pizza like shape, somewhat round. I like to take the edge and let gravity pull on the dough to stretch it, lightly tossing it. Some people use a rolling pin to do most of the work and then hand shape it. Find your way, young Luke. Whatever works for you works for the pizza. All your good energy will be harvested by magic pizza faeries.
I used my 10″ cast iron skillet. I covered the inside of the skillet and up the sides with cornmeal and had Justin help me maneuver the dough into it with the edges overhanging the top. Then we filled it with the stuff and baked it at 350 for 45 minutes or so.
We took photos and then we ate like kings! (and then we crawled to the office, aching in agony with our pants at our ankles because we are *that* full). I feel so fortunate! Especially about leftovers tomorrow!
And LOST rocked, of course. Now Jack is the one with the big “whoopsie” look on his face. “Soo-rry” Jack had the same look on his face as Locke would have shrugged in every similar situation.