Adventure to Calzone Land

Pizza is one of those dinners that I enjoy immensely, especially if it's homemade. Yeasty dough, fresh sautéed veg, more pizza sauce than strictly necessary and real cheese. I've made a lot of pizza in my life, but for the first time ever the dough made a fold and my first calzone was born.

The adventure starts with the dough. When I worked for a test kitchen, my favourite recipe tester created an easy and quick pizza dough recipe. 

Pizza Dough

(Sourced from the Blue Flame Kitchen)

1 1/2 cups (375 mL) warm water (104ºF/40ºC) 
1 tbsp (15 mL) sugar
1 pkg (8 g) active dry yeast 
3 tbsp (40 mL) olive oil 
3 cups (750 mL) flour 
1 tsp (5 mL) salt 
Cornmeal 
Olive oil

How to knead. In triple speed.

How to knead. In triple speed.

Combine warm water and sugar, stirring to dissolve. Sprinkle yeast on top. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Drizzle in 3 tbsp (40 mL) oil.
Place flour and salt in a food processor fitted with a dough blade; process to combine. With machine running, pour yeast mixture through feed tube of food processor. Process just until dough comes together and forms a ball, about 1 minute.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 1 – 2 minutes. Shape dough into a ball. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl; turn dough to coat with oil. Cover with a plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm draft-free place for 30 minutes. (Aside: I usually pre-heat my oven before I start the dough. That way the top of the stove is warm by the time the dough needs to rise.)

Preheat oven to 425ºF (220ºC). Grease a rimmed baking sheet or pizza pan and sprinkle with cornmeal. On a lightly floured surface, flatten dough and roll out to fit prepared pan. Pat dough into prepared pan and press dough up around edges to form a rim. Brush dough with oil and prick all over with a fork.

Bake, uncovered, for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden brown. May be frozen. Makes 1 crust.

While the dough definitely makes the homemade calzone mouth wateringly amazing, the filling is just as important. I have two picture sets above. One of Veggie Pepperoni (my first calzone) and the other of Spinach, Goat Cheese and Chili Pulled Beef (respectively, my second).

Veggie Pepperoni Calzone Filling

1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 white onion, chopped
6 - 8 large white mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp coarsely ground pepper
1 large zucchini, sliced into 1 cm rounds, halved
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and halved
200g deli pepperoni
Old Cheddar, grated
Pizza sauce

  1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Add onions. Sauté till translucent. About 10 minutes. 
  2. Add sliced mushrooms. Add pepper. Cook until mushrooms start to reduce in size.
  3. Add zucchini. Stir together. Cook till zucchini is starting to turn translucent and mushrooms start to brown. Remove pan from heat.
  4. Spread pizza sauce on one side of prepared pizza dough. 
  5. Layer pepperoni, mushroom and zucchini mixture, artichokes and cheese on top of sauce.
  6. Fold over non-pizza saucey side on top of toppings, rolling the dough edges together slightly. Cut slits in the top. Bake according to dough instructions. 

Spinach, Goat Cheese and Chili Pulled Beef Calzone Filling

1 TBSP olive oil 
1/2 red onion, cut into rings, halved and broken up
1 bunch spinach, washed and dried
1 lb chili pulled beef (recipe below)
130g goat cheese, crumbled
Pizza Sauce

  1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Add onions. Sauté till they start becoming limp. About 10 minutes.
  2. Add spinach. Stir. Let leaves cook until limp. Remove pan from heat. 
  3. Spread pizza sauce on one side of prepared pizza dough. 
  4. Layer spinach mixture, pulled beef and goat cheese on top of sauce.
  5. Fold over non-pizza saucey side on top of toppings, rolling the dough edges together slightly. Cut slits in the top. Bake according to dough instructions. 

Chili Pulled Beef

Pre-heat oven to 325F. 
In a oven-safe pot or dutch oven, heat 1 TBSP oil. Sear 1 lb chuck beef roast on all sides. Add 4 TBSP of chili powder (two to each side of roast) and 4 tsp cumin (two to each side of roast) to roast. Fry in oil till meat is golden.  Add one can of beer (I did an IPA) to the dutch oven, pouring it over the meat. Bake, with lid on, for 2 hours, flipping over meat every 30 minutes, or until liquid is reduced to about a 1/4 cup (eyeball it!).
To pull beef apart, take two forks and pull meat apart by criss-crossing the fork tines and then pulling them away from each other. 

Now that I have adventured into the land of the Calzone a may only infrequently return to pizza-ville.

Hope you can recreate!

-Andrea 

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

Twisted Tradition

I don't often make family heritage inspired dinners. My Father's side of the family is from Germany and I've been able to make goose for Christmas dinner and rouladen, but I've not really made anything inherently French-Canadian (Mom's side). This thanksgiving, however, I thought I'd make a meat pie.

My grandmother used to make a traditional French-Canadian tourtière years and years ago. (I don't personally remember but my Dad swears they were to die for.) So I thought I'd try my hand at it. I didn't have a recipe so I just made one up. A little twist on the traditional half-beef, half-pork tourtière. 

Lamb tourtière

Pastry

(Same as Apple Pie)

5 cups flour

2 tsp salt

1 lb shortening (LARD!!! Go French cooking!)

1 egg

2 TBSP white vinegar

Cold Water

Instructions: 

  1. Measure out flour and salt into a large bowl. Mix. 
  2. Cut in shortening until pea sized.
  3. Crack egg into a 1 cup liquid measure. Beat egg.  
  4. Add vinegar to beaten egg.
  5. Add cold water to egg and vinegar mixture until 1 cup measure.  Mix.
  6. Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture. Mix till a dough forms. (Add extra flour if dough is to sticky to handle)

Make enough for 3 pies (top and bottom).

Turkey.JPG

Meat Pie Filling

1 TBSP olive oil

1/2 medium white onion, chopped

3 celery sticks, chopped

2 tsp garlic, minced

1 lb ground Lamb (Frozen or fresh)

1/2 TBSP coarsely ground pepper

1 russet potato, cut into cube-ish shapes

1 medium zucchini, cut into cube-ish shapes

2 cups beef broth

2 - 3 TBSP flour

Instructions:

  1. Roll out pastry into a deep dish pie plate. Set aside.
  2. Prep all the ingredients. (Chop veg, defrost lamb, etc.)
  3. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and celery. Cook till onions are clear. 
  4. Add garlic. Cook for 2 minutes until fragrant. 
  5. Add ground lamb, breaking up lamb into peices. Cook till is lightly pink. Add ground pepper.
  6. Add potato and zucchini. Stir. Cook for 10 minutes or until potatoes begin to soften. 
  7. Pour broth into meat mixture. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. 
  8. With a slotted spoon, transfer meat mixture to pie plate.
  9. Add flour to remaining liquid in the pan. Whisk together. Heat over medium high heat until gravy thickens, about 5 minutes.  
  10. Pour gravy over meat mixture in pie plate.  
  11. Roll out pastry for the pie top. Seal with water. Press top and bottom pie shells together.
  12. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes or until filling is bubbling and pastry is golden brown.  

 

That pie was amazing. I will be definitely making tourtière again. (Christmas anyone?)

To be honest though, thanksgiving isn't quite right without a turkey, so we had that too. (Thanksgiving is my favourite food holiday, hands down.)

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

Cooking: Aged 11 and up

I started cooking for a family of four when I was a kid. This is probably the reason why I love cooking so much. From a young age I got to basically do as I pleased when it came to food. And, surprisingly, I only messed up a couple times. This is why cooking is my happy place, where I can create amazing meals that people enjoy, and feel accomplished at something.

Time for the Backstory! Both my parents were professional engineers and worked full time. So as a result, I had a nanny from when I was 8-months old on. When I got old enough to start looking after myself and my sister, my mom instructed Hilda, our then nanny, to teach me the meals she cooked for the family. I was probably around 11 years old. I was taught simple meals, that could be made in 20 minutes. (Also, to be fair, Mom taught me some meals too. I just don't seem to remember which ones.) Typically these simple meals, because I grew up in Alberta, had such staples as potatoes, corn and all the beef. 

So I learned how to chop onions and potatoes and other vegetables. I learned how much salt to add to a pot based on how much water you had. I learned how to cook ground meat and roasts. Little things that I figured out by myself over the years as I made the same 9 recipes for my family over and over. Now I definitely won't claim to have been a chef extraordinary by the time I turned 13, but I had mastered the meals I had been preparing, on rotation, for all those years. I'm not joking about there being only 9 meals. I made them Every Day.

It wasn't until I turned 17 that my culinary escapade really changed. After my horrible job at a Boston Pizza, I started to work for my then friend's, now BF/Husband guy's, Mom. She ran concession services for the city and a catering business on the side. That women can cook. The BF would talk, mouth watering, about dinners he was going home to after class at the University. Soon, I came over for dinner too and came to realize that all those years I had been making "food" in name only and not in flavour. I had never had a curry before, or sushi, or Chinese food, or Thai food, or any food that wasn't meat and potatoes. My eyes opened, I returned home with recipes and food ideas I'd never even knew existed. (Yes, I was super sheltered.)

I experimented with curry, much to the chagrin of my non-curry liking family; I made vegetarian chilis with different kinds of beans and actual vegetables; I made spiced chicken breast with basmati rice; I made risottos. I used spices I'd never knew existed and all was good in the world of the tastebud. 

When the BF and I moved out together in 2009, he taught me even more recipes that his mom would make. And we even improved on some of my favourite 'original' family meals. 

Really, the point is that I'm still learning about cooking even today. About really weird ingredients or about better ways to cook food X. It's been the longest and funnest adventure out of all my hobbies. The key: to always keep trying new things and learning. Sometimes things just don't work out and throwing out an entire meal out happens (which is a blessing in disguise, because then you have permission to order Indian food to comfort the Ego). But the next time will be better, and the next time after that even more so. 

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist