Sunday 15 September 2013

:: the secret to a professional pizza ::


Pizza!

They are so easy to make, yet so often we buy them. I'm guilty. Oh, I don't buy Domino's/Pizza Hut etc (hope I don't offend anyone while I say "grossssss..."). Sticky, sauce-soaked fake-meated things. But I do love every mouthful of a piled-high "Pizza Capers" creation, or a gourmet-type pizza from a local resturant. They always seem to be so much yummier than anything I could create at home. And besides... they always look amazing. Why don't mine ever look that great? Even when I've gone to more trouble and carefully chosen 'matching' ingredients. They just don't seem to ever photograph well.

But yesterday I was speaking to Mother-Dear, and mentioned that we were making pizzas that night for Jason's family who were due to visit. She had also recently made pizza and had made an interesting observation when comparing store-bought frozen pizzas to home made. You can never see what's on a homemade pizza because it's always covered in melted cheese. Where's the cheese on shop pizzas? On the bottom.

Ah-ha!

Why does no one notice this? Or is it just me...
I think it's because the cheese rises up and oozes around the other toppings while it cooks, and we're always so ravenous when we finally get our order, that all we notice is that there is cheese on there somewhere, and that's all we care about. But whenever we (read: "I") make a pizza, I chuck that cheese all over my pretty arrangement and then wonder why they always look the same.

So last night, the cheese went on the bottom, on top of the sauce and in amongst the pre-fried onion. They were magnifique. The best I'd ever made, the boys of the family went back for piece after piece. And as you know, that always is the best sign (*heart puffs*).

Below:

I like to pre-cook a lot of my ingredients so that you don't get crunchy onion etc. My homemade dough bases only take 20mins in the oven once assembled. Here we have:

just-soft onion - diced red capsicum
just-cooked potato - variety of meats (kransky pre-fried)
pre-cooked-and-shredded chicken from the freezer, tossed in satay sauce



L: Meatlovers (a tad of extra cheese on top)     R: Satay Chicken


Have you tried potato on a pizza before? I hadn't until recently. Yes, I know it's carb-on-carb, but ahhh it's perfect.

Here we have beef pre-fried with garlic, cracked pepper and gravy powder with potato & flat-leaf parsley. And of course lots of cheddar and mozzarella underneath. This was the winner of the night.

What do you like to put on your pizzas? And where do you put your cheese?


6 comments:

  1. So glad I read this in time! We're making pizza tonight - dough in bread maker as we speak. Just why don't we notice cheese on the bottom? Am going to try it tonight.
    I'm still a vego at heart and love mostly veges and spices on my pizza but also appreciate the meat varieties.
    Love gourmet pizzas, particularly the spicy type. And... I also love dominos! Hate frozen pizzas with a passion.

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    1. That potato pizza looks delish!

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    2. Haha, good timing!

      I didn't realize you were a vegetarian. There are soooo many good vego pizzas to make though. Things with pumpkin, beetroot.. feta!!! Yum.

      What do you like from Dominos? Surely they can't have many veggie pizzas?

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  2. My family went through a vegetarian phase for a few years, some years back. I do enjoy meat but I love how creative you can be with food as a vegetarian. I'm not vego now and we were never vegan or hard core.

    Haha, I like the price of dominos pizzas, homemade is often expensive! But I quite like the vegorama and the firebreather. I do agree though that they are artificial tasting and certainly not as filling.

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  3. Yup, I do half and half... half the cheese goes on the bottom cos I was told that it holds meat and toppings in place and then half on top... yum :D

    Ashlee J

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    Replies
    1. Good idea Ash! That's kind of what I ended up doing, because I couldn't bear to not have ANY cheese on top ;). But it was great to be able to actually see the toppings for once!

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