Pizza on the Grill

Continuing on our quest to find exciting ways to prepare the chicken sausages we get from Papa Franks/Pete's Place, hubby came up with the idea to make pizzas on the grill.

Can I just say, O.M.G.  I am not a big pizza fan.  Blasphemous, I know, right?  I don't eat many carbs anymore, and pizza weighs me down for what seems like days.  But these pizzas were fantastic!

We started with homemade dough.  We modified the Basic Pizza Dough recipe from Steven Raichlen's The Barbecue Bible.  Let me just say, if you want to learn how to grill just about anything, this is the grill book for you!  We've tried many recipes and techniques from The Barbecue Bible and they've all turned out great!

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH

Prep
2-3 hours for making and raising dough

Ingredients
1 envelope active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons coarse salt
3 tablespoons cornmeal (original recipe calls for fine 'white' cornmeal)
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed (original recipe calls for whole wheat flour)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus oil for the bowl
3 to 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, more as needed

We mixed our dough in our mixer using the dough hook.  You can also mix by hand or in your food processor.

Place 1 cup of warm water in mixing bowl and add the yeast and sugar.  Stir until the sugar dissolves, then let the yeast mixture sit for 5 minutes.  Stir in the salt, cornmeal, flaxseed and olive oil.  Turn mixer on low and using dough hook, gradually stir in enough all-purpose flour to form dough ball.  Mix until smooth and elastic.  The dough should be soft and pliable, but not sticky.

Lightly oil a clean large bowl.  Place the dough in the bowl, brush the top with olive oil, and cover loosely with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size, 1-2 hours.  Punch down the dough.

Let the dough rise again until double in size, 40-50 minutes.  Punch the dough down.  The recipe makes enough dough for 2 - 9x13 pizza crusts.  We divided it into 3 equal sections so we could make individual pizzas.

The dough after we split into 3 sections.

Set up your grill for two-zone grilling.  In our case, our gas grill has 4 burners, the two on the left were on high, the two on the right were on low.

Stretch the dough on a cookie pan using olive oil. Using oil helps crisp the dough (as opposed to using flour).  Keep stretching until the dough is the thickness you prefer.

We like our crust on the thin side.

Grilling Instructions
Working with one rectangle of dough at a time and using both hands, gently lift the dough from the baking sheet.  Drape it on the grill grate over the hot (high heat) zone.  Within a minute or two, the underside of the dough will crisp, darken and harden and the top will puff slightly.  Using two tongs or a spatula, turn the dough over and move to the cool zone (low heat) of the grill.

Once you move to the cool zone, lightly brush with olive oil (or not) and begin putting your toppings on.

 Can you guess who's pizza this is?

Haley opted for regular pepperoni pizza.  And, yes, there are way more pepperonis under the cheese.  I just added the three on top of her pizza to be goofy.

This is MY pizza.  I used a very light roasted red pepper alfredo sauce and topped with mushrooms, green onions, yellow summer squash, the to-die-for spicy chicken sausage and mozzarella cheese.

We had grilled the sausage and veggies before we started the crusts.  These were the toppings for hubby's pizza... basil, sausage, mushrooms, yellow summer squash, tomatoes and red onions.  Everything was grilled except the basil.  He also added feta, goat and mozzarella cheese.

Jim decided to add a bit of pizza sauce after he'd assembled his pizza.


Once your toppings are loaded on, we grilled on cool zone (low heat) for about 15 minutes or so, until the cheese was melted and golden brown. Haley's cooked a bit faster because she had less toppings, so just ensure you watch it until it's cooked the way you like it!

This pizza rocked!  It's all about the crust!  It was flavorful, hearty, rustic and crisp.  And light.  It didn't weigh me down like normal pizza crust.

This isn't something to do if you're in a hurry, but it makes for a fun family event when you can all hang out and prepare it together.

We're thinking we might actually make a larger batch of dough, do the initial grilling and then freeze the grilled dough to use later.  That way, you can pull it out, defrost, toss on the grill to reheat and then add your toppings.

Yummy!  Yummy!  Yummy!

Til next time - find your joy!
Kelly

Farmer's Market Dinner!

Today, hubby and I visited the local Farmer's Market.

We filled a bag full of fresh vegetables from Miller Farms, bought two pounds of fresh spicy chicken sausage from Pete's, some handmade tea, and fresh bread.

THIS is what we made for dinner with all our fresh veggies...a hobo dinner on the grill that included zucchini, yellow squash, onions, garlic, red pepper, baby red potatoes and spicy chicken sausages.

We sliced up the veggies, cut the sausage into 1" chunks, drizzled it all with olive oil, wrapped it up in tinfoil and tossed it on the grill for 20-25 minutes.

It was heaven.  Really.  Heaven.

Til next time ~ find your joy!

Kelly

It's Grilling Season!

I know I've already posted about our new grill and some of the food we've grilled, but thought I'd share more of what we've been eating.  Both Jim and I are on a quest to look and feel a little better before our daughter's wedding in June, so we've been eating a lot of fish/chicken and veggies (the ribeye was a special meal - no judging!)

I hope your spring is off to a fantastic start and you've cleaned and fired up the grill!

Til next time ~ find your joy!
Kelly

Grilled Tuna Salad

We have used our new grill every day since we assembled it on Sunday afternoon.  We christened her on Monday with two 1 1/4 inch thick rib eye steaks which Jim grilled to perfection then we thinly sliced and put on a bed of spring salad greens.  We grilled asparagus as a side.  It was heaven on a plate.  Unfortunately, I did not stop to take photos...I was too hungry.

Today we grilled Ahi Tuna.

 Each side was brushed with a dressing (recipe below) and seared.

 Sear on high for approximately 2-4 minutes on each side (for medium rare).

 Goat Cheese.

 Freshly chopped tomatoes.

 All placed on a bed of mixed greens.

 Topped with a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette.

It was yummy.

Dressing:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

ENJOY!

Til next time ~ find your joy!

Kelly

Chicken Fajitas!

We made chicken fajitas for dinner tonight.  They were so very yummy!  Recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated.

CHICKEN MARINADE INGREDIENTS

• ⅓ cup juice from 2 to 3 limes
• 8 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1½ teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, minced
• 1 Tbsp southwestern chipotle seasoning (optional)
• 1½ tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
• table salt and ground black pepper
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1½ pounds), trimmed, pounded to ½-inch thickness (I did not do that this time)

VEGETABLES

• 1 large red onion, peeled and cut into ½-inch strips
• 1 large red bell pepper, quartered, stemmed, and seeded
• 1 large green bell pepper, quartered, stemmed, and seeded
• 8-12 (6-inch) flour tortillas

DIRECTIONS

In a gallon size ziploc bag, mix together the lime juice, olive oil, garlic, Worcestershire, brown sugar, jalapeno, southwestern chipotle seasoning, cilantro, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¾ teaspoon pepper. Scoop out  ¼ cup marinade; set aside. Place the chicken in the marinade; refrigerate 15 minutes or longer.  (I marinaded for 2 hours.)

Brush both sides of the onion rounds and the peppers with some of marinade mixture; salt and pepper.  Preheat gas grill for 15 minutes; scrape the grill grate clean with a grill brush. Leave one burner on high heat while turning the remaining burner(s) down to medium.  Remove the chicken from the marinade and place it on the hotter side of the grill; discard the remaining marinade. Place the onions and peppers on the cooler side of the grill.

Cook the chicken until it’s well browned, 4 to 5 minutes; using tongs, flip the chicken and continue grilling until it’s no longer pink when cut into with a paring knife. Cook the peppers until spottily charred and crisp-tender, 8 to 10 minutes, turning once or twice as needed; cook the onions until tender and charred on both sides, 10 to 12 minutes, turning every 3 to 4 minutes.

 

Slice the bell peppers lengthwise into ¼-inch strips and place them in a bowl with the onions. Add 1/2 of the remaining marinade to the vegetables and toss well to combine.

Slice the chicken into ¼-inch strips and toss with the remaining reserved marinade in another bowl.

Serve with the warmed tortillas, shredded cheese, guacamole, sour cream and diced tomatoes.

Mine was a chicken fajita bowl (minus the tortilla) except it was on a plate!

Enjoy!

Kelly