Last night wasn't one of those calm, relaxing evenings. It was late and I hadn't had enough to eat. Nor did I have any time to sit down at a restaurant. I kept running through the possibilities for a fast meal near my destination (one of the good things about writing a food blog is that you can always think of places to eat). I ultimately realized that my best bet was takeout from California Pizza Kitchen in Dunwoody. I am always in the mood for pizza. While I don't consider them truly New Jersey-class pizza, they're not bad and they were very convenient.
I had a vegetarian deluxe pizza with some goat cheese thrown in. The crust was whole wheat. I also ordered a nice garden salad. The entire experience was very satisfying; the pizza felt good going down. My big complaint about CPK is that the sauce doesn't come through strongly in their pizza. As a tomato fanatic, sauce is very important to me. Nonetheless, last night wasn't about culinary adventures. It was about comfort and reliability. And let's face it, those ideals are what food is really all about, isn't it?
OK, so it's been awhile since I've been outside. I didn't cook anything special on Wednesday, but that just caused me to start to idly consider what I would make if I could actually get to the store. I also spent too much time browsing cooking Web sites, always a dangerous pastime. I finally realized that although I had depleted a great deal of my stock of foodstuffs, I did have everything I needed to make pizza.
I made pizza several times while I lived in New Jersey but never made my own dough. Most pizzerias and Italian bakeries will sell you a pizza dough from their stacks of round, blonde domes that they make every day. Today, I made my own dough. The recipe is the essence of bread baking: flour, warm water, yeast, a little salt. After breakfast, I mixed the dough (thank goodness for Kitchen Aid mixers) and let it go through the two rounds of rising. I may have rushed it just a tad, but I was able to have a late lunch.
This photo doesn't do justice to the dough stretching process---I only have two hands so I couldn't stretch and take a picture at the same time. The basic technique, which I learned by watching the pros at work, is to continually work around the edge of the dough. Lightly pinch the edge of the dough and stretch it just a little bit, then move your hands to the next position and repeat. Holding it above the table seems dangerous at first but gravity helps stretch the dough---just make sure you keep it moving to avoid tearing. The dough should be very thin, almost worrisomely so. Just remember that it will rise while in the oven.
As you can see, my technique isn't perfect yet, but I did get it pretty thin. I covered the pizzas with my homemade tomato sauce and some high-quality shredded Parmesan. Another tip I learned from ordering too many pizzas was that cornmeal makes helps to move the pizza on the pan---the grains of cornmeal act as little tiny ball bearings. I cooked the pizza at 500 degrees, as hot as my oven would go. It took no more than five minutes to cook them through.
Here is the result. The edge was pale because my oven wasn't the 800 degrees that many pizza restaurants use. But overall this was my best effort at homemade pizza so far. The crust was properly thin. The hot oven gave it the right crusty on the bottom, chewy on the inside texture that is the mark of real pizza. I probably used a little too much sauce, but the only downside was a little mess as it dribbled. A hot, fresh pizza is a treat on any day but it was especially welcome today.
As the pizzas cooked, I noticed that the ice was finally melting. Not a moment too soon...
Leslie, my restaurant connection, introduced me to Desi Spice, which is above the Midtown Art Cinema. It's small and relatively cozy with both indoor and outdoor seating. I was in the mood for vegetables and so I ordered a mixed vegetable curry. The sauce was somewhat different than the curries I'm used to from New Jersey, although I'm not sure what they did. But it was enjoyable. The food is generally moderately spicy. We managed to put a major dent in the chutneys; papadum and chutney are one of the simple pleasures of an Indian meal.
Small world department---I used to eat at Penang's sister restaurant in New Jersey. This one is located in Chamblee, in the same shopping center as Pho Bac. (That little strip mall turns out to be a go-to spot for food in Chamblee.) Indonesian food borrows from a number of nearby traditions, as you might expect, including Chinese and Indian, but makes good use of its own local ingredients, the peanut being the most memorable.
Leslie, Mary and I tried several small items. I really enjoyed my order, satay tofu. The fried tofu was used as a pocket for sauteed bean sprouts and topped with peanut sauce.
My friend Leslie has excellent taste in restaurants. We visited Nino's on Cheshire Bridge Road. As a former New Jersey resident, I can attest that this is a real-deal Italian family restaurant. The decor is classic: somewhat dark, lots of photos, Sinatra records constantly playing. (The only thing they are missing is a photo of the Chairman of the Board to go with the music.) We started out with an antipasto, which I've always considered a treat. It has several different types of meat and cheeses along with peppers, eggplant, and other assorted vegetables. Leslie had the clams with spaghetti in white sauce. The clams were done just right and the pasta was al dente. The sauce was excellent. I had the lasagna, which is a great comfort food when done right. Nino's version has an excellent balance of the meat, cheese, pasta, and sauce. It's easy to make a lasagna that is too heavy, but this was hearty without being too much.
