As I mentioned on the About page, experimentation is the name of my cooking game. I’m not afraid to add new and “nonstandard” ingredients in my dishes if I so feel the inclination. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Have you always wondered how a certain ingredient might taste if added to a certain dish? Well go for it. Needless to say, one must exercise appropriate discretion while testing out a new twist to a tried and true dish.
This brings me to my earliest memory of a food experiment... that went all wrong! I must have been around 8 or 9 and out of nowhere came this idea to add cinnamon to rice. I don’t know why I thought this would be a good idea. I didn’t see it done by somebody or read it in a cookbook. But I was determined. “What would cinnamon rice taste like?” I thought to myself. Well I was about to find out. After somehow convincing my older brother that this would be a wonderful idea, we went on to lade the pot of boiling rice with a very generous amount of ground cinnamon. Note the keywords: "lade" and "very generous".
Well, things didn’t exactly turn out swimmingly. The resulting cinnamon rice dish was a disaster! Hey, I was a kid! Cut me some slack. It was overloaded with the overpowering taste of cinnamon. I like cinnamon but this was a hot mess. Literally. And so a lesson was learned: use restraint. The idea of cinnamon rice in and of itself wasn’t bad at all. A couple splashes of cream and some spoons of sugar and I’d have had a delicious warm bowl of cinnamon rice pudding. On the savory side, I could have added some chicken and tomatoes with a fraction of the cinnamon to the rice and had a splendid twist on boring rice and chicken. Oh well. I'll chalk it up to youthful indiscretion. On to the next!
So let’s get to the present: chicken. I made some jerk chicken. Alas it wasn’t made from scratch. I used a store-bought pre-made jerk marinade – a great time-saver. All you have to do is marinate and cook. Easy peasy. Then I put this chicken along with some green pepper on a pizza. The end result: delicious! When most people think pizza they think pepperoni. But imagine a world where you could put virtually any topping you want on your pizza. Those toppings you would never find in your run-of-the-mill pizzeria and certainly not at your neighbourhood Pizza Pizza. Meat or veggies – take your pick. Well that world is right here. Last night’s leftovers could be today’s pizza toppings. Hmm, somewhere out there someone is contemplating a filet mignon pizza and I approve. Now let’s break out of the delivery cardboard box and make some pizza from scratch.
Pizza is made up of 4 parts: the crust, the sauce, the cheese and the toppings. The crust starts out as dough made from flour, yeast, water, salt and a little oil. So simple. The sauce is nothing but cooked tomatoes seasoned to your taste. Cheese – well you have to buy that from the store unless you’re into cheese making which is a field I will NOT be taking up any time soon. Shred up the cheese - usually mozzarella - as it is easy to distribute and cook that way. Top it up to your fancy and you are good to go.
The recipe I use for pizza dough makes 3 batches, which means I can freeze the dough portions and make pizza 3 times a week if I so please. Or 3 times a day. Or 3 times in an hour. You get the gist.
Start out with your pizza dough ball – fresh or thawed from frozen like I the one I used or (if you absolutely must) store-bought.
Roll and flatten the dough into a rough round shape of about 12 inches in diameter. The best way to do this is to use a rolling pin. Next, you spread some pizza sauce over the dough.
Leaving the edge of the dough bare is optional. You can spread the sauce all the way if you’d like.
Sprinkle the aspiring pizza with shredded cheese. If you love more or less cheese on your pizza, feel free to add more or less. And that applies to the sauce and toppings as well.
And now for the star: jerk chicken. I scattered chunks of jerk chicken over the cheese. Drools.
Then the green pepper.
Here’s a neat little hint. Sprinkle a little more cheese on top so that when the cheese melts in the oven it serves as a glue to hold the toppings on the pizza. This really helps when you have a pizza that is loaded with toppings. Without that extra layer of cheese, you might find your toppings falling off as you handle and eat the pizza. Minimize this potential problem by adding a little cheese on top.
Slide that bad boy into the oven and bake.
What are you waiting for? Devour!
RECIPE: Jerk Chicken & Green Pepper Pizza
Makes 3 medium pizzas
Ingredients
Makes enough for 3 medium pizzas
Adapted from The New Best Recipe
Ingredients
Makes about 3 cups
Adapted from The New Best Recipe
Ingredients
Makes 3 medium pizzas
Ingredients
- 1 recipe pizza dough (see below)
- Extra-virgin olive oil for brushing on the stretched dough
- 3 cups tomato sauce (see below or use other)
- 12 ounces (about 3 cups) mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 3 cups chunks of jerk chicken
- 1½ cups diced green pepper
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into three portions with a knife. Form each portion of dough into a smooth, round ball and cover it with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no more than 30 minutes.
- Working with one portion of dough at a time and keeping the others covered, roll and flatten the dough with a rolling pin until the dough reaches a diameter of 12 inches. Transfer unto a sheet of parchment paper (recommended) or a greased pan.
- Lightly brush the dough round with olive oil. Spread 1 cup tomato sauce evenly over the dough round, leaving a ½-inch border uncovered. Sprinkle with ⅔ cup mozzarella. Evenly distribute 1 cup of jerk chicken chunks and then ½ cup of diced green pepper over the cheese. Sprinkle ⅓ cup more mozzarella over the toppings.
- Transfer to the oven on a rack in the lower third of the oven and bake until the crust edge browns and the cheese is golden brown in spots, 8 to 12 minutes. Cut the pizza into wedges and serve immediately. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 with the remaining two pieces of dough and the remaining toppings.
Makes enough for 3 medium pizzas
Adapted from The New Best Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
- 1 envelope (2¼ teaspoons) instant yeast
- 1¼ cups water, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 cups (22 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- Olive oil or nonstick cooking spray for oiling the bowl
- Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add the room-temperature water and oil and stir to combine.
- Combine the salt and half the flour in a deep bowl. Add the liquid ingredients and use a wooden spoon to combine. add the remaining flour, stirring until a cohesive mass forms.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 7 to 8 minutes, using as little dusting flour as possible while kneading. Form the dough into a ball, put it in a deep oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and use as required.
Makes about 3 cups
Adapted from The New Best Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press
- Salt and ground black pepper
- Place the tomatoes in a food processor or blender and process until smooth, about five 1-second pulses.
- Heat the oil and garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the garlic is sizzling, about 40 seconds. Stir in the tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until the sauce thickens enough to coat a wooden spoon, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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2012
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