Where does time go? Because I blinked, and it has been two months since I have written a decent post. In all fairness, I have been drowning in a sea of research and procrastination trying to write this dissertation by March, so I think I should be cut some slack. Besides?.What other food blog takes you into the Outback? Or give you an outsider?s perspective on Melbourne? And does a little dance for you to keep you entertained while you are waiting for the latest post? That would be me. And maybe a handful of others, but let?s be honest. I am way cuter and funnier than most of those bitches. SO. One busy, homework-filled day, I got a craving for something lamb-y. I picked up a pack of lamb, garlic and rosemary sausages from the store, so I thought it would be a nice change to make my first from scratch pizza dough. GASP! She?s never made pizza dough??? How could she not??? Listen people, part of me loves food and the other part is trying desperately to cope with my convenience-food loving, exceedingly lazy inner child. I haven?t had McDonald’s in a year, unless you count the one soda I broke down and bought last week (the first one in months). I have made puff pastry, Danish dough, pate choux, brioche, ciabatta and the occasional biscuit dough from scratch. But there is just something so tempting about those damn Boboli pizza shells that make me a little happy inside. Picture a kick-line of kittens wearing cowboys hat and giving away bite -size Snickers bars. It?s that kind of happy. So my first attempt at pizza dough?was really my husband?s first attempt. Yup. Don?t ask how I conned him into that one. We used my food boyfriend, Tyler Florence?s recipe from his cookbook, Eat This Book. This one on Food Network?s website is similar, but use all purpose flour (you?ll see what I?m talking about). My man did a kick ass job for someone who has never made bread dough before, and it took so little time, this is definitely a recipe he—I mean,WE will have to repeat. Once the dough had risen, I shaped it first with two hands into a circle and spread it out, then did the cool thing where you throw it in the air to make it perfect. Only my dough gets around an inch of air, because the last time I threw it high, it fell on the floor?where the cat hair was. What a classy chick I am. It?s basically just a motion of putting your two fists under an area of the dough and pulling them apart to stretch it. You move the dough so you stretch all the parts, and tossing it in the air is an easy way to get the dough unstuck from your hands so you can move to another spot. Fun stuff. Try if you have some dough to waste or a cat hair free floor. Once the dough was stretched, I topped it with some of the lamb sausage, browned and sliced, saut?ed onions, halved cherry tomatoes and chunks of nice, salty feta. I baked it with the oven as high as it would go, and when it was done, I topped it off with fresh chopped cucumber and cold, minty tzatziki sauce.
It was good, but not great. No biggie, though; the sausage was just okay (repeat with me now: Don?t buy lamb sausages at Wooly?s no matter how pressed for time you are), the dough was not spread out as evenly as it could have been, and the middle was really thin, which in turn made the pizza a bit soggy on the bottom. Next time, I?d take care to roll it evenly (I swear, I must have Adult A.D.D.), but I would also bake the crust a bit without any toppings. Not too long, but just long enough to form a shield between the toppings and the bottom crust. Then I?d top it and finish it off in the oven until the cheese was browned and melty. Ah well. At least the partner learned a new trick. ~LTG
