Pizza Night

Two posts in one week. I wonder if that means I have finally shaken off my winter cyber-hibernation?

Had a good Sunday, went and picked up a bunch of veggies for my garden. I'll be potting them throughout the week.

I also got ambitious with dinner and decided to make pizzas with homemade dough and mozzarella.

This was definitely my best batch of mozzarella yet. The consistency, flavor and melt point were all excellent.

Took some pics along the way.

Here is a pic of the supplies I used.
I was able to find unpasteurized (raw) cows milk at whole foods.
I think this may have been one reason this batch was so good.

Here are a couple pics of the different milk stages after adding the rennet.
When the curd pulls away from the side and the whey is basically clear its time to start ladling it into a large bowl.

Pre-stretching/ post-draining

Post-stretching
(modified the recipe and stretched once rather than twice, I think this helped with the melt-ability)

For storage, petite mozzarella balls in olive oil w/ chili peppers and parsley.

Pizza Pics:

Ingredients: Mike's had Dino Kale lightly sauteed w/ chili oil and fluer de sel, House-Made Arugula Pesto, House-Made Chili Oil, Fresh Mozzarella & a Fried Egg. Mine had Rapini lightly sauteed w/ chili olive oil and fluer de sel, Truffle Oil, Prosciutto de Parma, Fresh Mozzarella and a Fried Egg.

Both were served w/ a lovely Rose of Pinot Noir from Robert Sinskey Vineyards, Caneros.

Mike's pizza pie

Hilery's pizza pie

I'm Back...

Don't have any new garden or cheese making photos right now. So thought I post some photos from the Taste of the Nation (http://tasteofthenation.com) benefit my friend Steffi and I attended on Thursday.

fore warning I've said it before and I'll say it again a photographer I am not, especially once the wine starts flowing. I think you'll get the idea though. Remember clicking the photos makes'm bigger.

The Menu, sorry I know its hard to read, did my best w/ it but using crappy iphoto software and was pretty buzzed by the time I remembered to take a photo of it.


The line from were we sat, if you squint or click and enlarge the photo you'll see Jamie Lauren, Absinthe, Top Chef. Her Crudo of Kampachi w/ pickled peppers and lemongrass oil ended up being the favorite dish of the evening for our entire table (of course we all forgot to take a photo of it).

Our table, Steffi and I were assigned to table 62 and had great table mates in Rick and Luis.

And now to the food:

Grilled Asparagus salad w/ Meyer Lemon and Smoked Mozz by Koren Grevson, Avec Chicago


The soup, Onion Veloute w/ spring garlic puree and crispy frogs legs, Gavin Kaysen, Cafe Boulud NYC. Man those frogs legs were delicious.


Chris from Incanto, SF's Braised Beef Shank w/ Bone Marrow Horse Radish Creme Fraiche. This was definitely my favorite of the main courses. The next pic is all of the main courses, the snapper was good but wrapped in grape leaves and dill, which made it a bit bitter for my taste. C'est la vie.




The dessert prepared by Elizabeth Falkner, Citizen Cake, Orsen both SF. She called it Earth, Air, Fire. The fire was the chocolate mouse w/ Cayenne Pepper. The air was a meringue and the chocolate cookie crumbs along side were the earth. They had a nice explosive quality too, a "pop rocks" feel.