Street Food & Comfort

After last week's ambitious birria pizza, I planned to keep it simple this week. I thought, that I would just do a plain sausage pizza. Then, what would be the harm in adding some pepperoni? Everybody loves pepperoni! Could I leave it at just that? Heh. What if I added some color? Maybe a green pepper? Couldn't leave well enough alone.

So, off to the market I go. The first store, I head to the produce. I look around. I don't see it. I see a worker on the other side of the produce section. I asked them if they are out of green bell pepper. They inform me they've been out for 2 weeks. That seems bizarre in my world. I pick up some mushrooms because now I got to have mushrooms. And a few other things. Since I'm there.

I decided to head over to one of the Mexican stores. Surely they will have a green bell pepper and have a really good price on it. I'm looking around and I don't see it. I see an employee. I asked them if they were out of green bell pepper. They look at me strangely. They fumble with what to say. I understand. They don't speak any English. I thank them anyways and leave to try out yet another store.

I head over to Kroger's. I'm hoping this is not a green pepper shortage. I look around. I don't see it. I ask an employee, who is stocking the area, if they had any green bell pepper. He points to the corner of a shelf. There it is! And it's a buck. For one measley green bell pepper. I get it anyways and head home.

I decide to go light on the bell pepper and mushrooms. Trying to keep balance with the rest of the pizza. First, I hand-sliced the pepperoni. I then diced up four rings of the bell pepper. Lastly, I thinly sliced four white mushrooms and dry sauteed them to reduce their moisture.

My plan was to keep it simple. Heh. Maybe I'll go simple next week. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Hand sliced pepperoni, Italian sausage, green pepper, fresh sliced mushrooms, (my own) tomato sauce and cubed mozzarella!

Not sure if this is common smash burger knowledge or not…

I always used baking paper/parchment paper when smashing because the meat would stick to the press.

Then I saw someone online just place the meat balls down first, let them cook for like 20–30 seconds, flip them, THEN smash. Completely non-stick.

Now I barely use paper at all.

Not sure if it’s just because I’m using a stainless steel smasher or if I’ve been overcomplicating this the whole time 😂

Paper or no paper?

I’ve recently branched out to trying to make some Chicago tavern style and New England bar style pizzas.

Tavern style in pics were:
Sausage/pickled jalapeños and pepperoni and cherry pepper.
Sausage, pepperoni, pickled jalapeño.

Bar style:
Chorizo, Sautéed Serrano peppers and onion
Sausage, cherry peppers, black olive

They were all pretty good.

For the tavern dough (2 pizzas) -

360g Bread Flour
12g Cornmeal
30g Olive Oil
185g Water
2g Instant Yeast
5g Sugar
5g Salt

Rolled out very thin, and laid to rest on parchment in fridge for 48 hrs

For Bar dough (2 12” pizzas) -
260g APF
145g water
20g EVOO
5g salt
2.5g instant yeast
4g sugar
Pinch of Diastolic malt powder

Fermented in fridge for 36 hrs, then shaped in 12” Lloyd bar pan.

This is gonna be one of those memories that flashes before my eyes when I die.

Italian sausage and olives… and buttered tf outta that crust.

My Sourdough pan fried in butter, sliced Chicken Brest, Streaky Bacon, Lettuce, Beef Tomato, Garlic Mayo

It’s so white
* edit: boiled pork neck bones, femurs, chicken feet, and some dried shrimp peels overnight. The instant-pot photo was just me straining the broth into another big pot 😅

Time to eat!
Itadakimasu!

Had to post this one as it’s one of the best sandwiches I have had in a very long time.
It’s slow cooked brisket on a toasted sourdough bloomer.
This was from a beachfront restaurant in Terrigal (Sydney Northern Beaches area).
When I go back, I’m going here for another one !

Maybe it’s nostalgia talking, but Ginza Kagari will always hit different for me. First ramen I had in Japan 🥹🍜

Have been wanting to try a butter chicken pizza for a while, and finally got around to it today - this will definitely be one I repeat!

Mozzarella, then topped with homemade butter chicken that I thickened with ricotta. Finished with a cream/ricotta drizzle, honey, and cilantro.

Poolish dough made from King Arthur Sir Lancelot, cold fermented 72 hours. Baking steel preheated for 90 minutes, baked 7 1/2 minutes with one turn.

cooked on baking steel at 550f

Lloyd pan bar style pepperoni pizza. 550° until it was done.