A leftover lunch

This is it!

Today I have leftovers I hate to waste.
Roast Greek chicken thighs
little tomatoes that need to be eaten
mushrooms
leftover chicken fat and chicken jello from the chicken thighs
I made French bread from leftover pizza dough
that should be enough but I will add a pack of brie cheese baked because we are piggies.

I started with melted oil in skillet, added chopped garlic and basil and added whole tomatoes, don't cut them up.
When skins started to wrinkle they were done. I added shredded chicken to the mix and some paprika sprinkled on that.
Next sliced mushrooms to a new pan. Butter in pan, add mushrooms and fresh thyme and let them go until brown. Don't have to stir them, just tip them over a bit to brown.
Next using the chicken jello and additional mushrooms made soup. The chicken jello was loaded with garlic and lemon. I added a piece of hot pepper and called it hot and sour mushroom soup.
Brie, stuck some rosemary and garlic in the top and baked it until soft.
So all of it could go on the bread or get dipped in bread and eaten separately. It's really nice to have leftovers.

What was left.

Pizza on the Road

Fresh mozzarella is best!

Can't make pizza without a pizza oven, don't like most pizza in restaurants, I am from New York so I gots to have pizza... what's a girl to do?
We are in Dominica on a job. We are housed in the currently closed university housing and they just so happened to have a kitchen on the grounds we can use.
It has a big commercial stove and a couple of inexpensive counter top ovens electric.
But until I found a recipe for really quick dough and a very cheap Chinese made flat steel pan I had to go without.
The pizza dough recipe is so simple and so fast I am kicking myself for not knowing about it sooner. It came from www.ricardocuisine.com. It is called homemade pizza dough. It is fabulous.
Dough
1 cup warm water
1 tea yeast
1 tea sugar
1 tea salt
2 cups flour

Don't judge my stove.

Mix the yeast the water and the sugar and let sit to proof 5 minutes.
add the flour and the salt.
I mix by hand, no mixer here.
Let it sit for an hour, Ricardo says a half hour so that works if you run out of time. You can also store in fridge till ready to use that day or freeze it, I did that, it works too.
Note: I would not double this recipe. Flour gets funny when you add more. So either cut back on the water and add till you are happy or do them in batches.

simple but effective

Flour board or table and spread your dough gently as usual. Oh, you should have already heated your counter top oven that has an exposed element and put your dry steel skillet on the stove and cranked it up but not too much, commercial stove gets really hot really quick. This might work on a regular range I will give it a go.
Have some corn meal ready and sprinkle on skillet.
Pick up your spread dough and gingerly place it on the already hot skillet.
Use a squirty bottle to add olive oil to the top. This keeps the sauce from wetting the dough.
Then spread sauce. Don't put too much. That is really for any pizza, don't add too much sauce.
Add cheese and toppings. Once again don't get carried away. Overloaded pizza becomes something else. Pizza is a delicate balance of flavours, if you load it up it is more like an open faced sandwich.
Have a spatula handy and shove it under the dough which is already well on its way to being done. You can see it bubbling on the top.
Move the pan around on the stove, shake it and look underneath. If the dough is getting brown in spots it is ready to transfer to oven. The oven is hot, make sure the top element is red.
Get the pizza as close as possible to the top even if you have to put an additional pan to lift it a bit.

make sure it has exposed elements to brown dough

It will not take long keep a watch. Move the pan with the pizza on top to the oven. Shift it if your oven gets hotter in some places.
It is done. It will have the nice brown spots, the crust will be chewy inside crusty outside. Perfect.
A word about sauce...
If you have nice fresh tomatoes and a blender or food processor there is no need to struggle with sauce that takes hours or something out of a jar or can. Just cut up tomatoes, dump in blender and blend. Add a small can of tomato paste. Add seasoning such as garlic, basil, oregano, make it your sauce. You don't need to cook it. Just put it in a jar and store in fridge. It works great and gives pizza nice fresh taste, not heavy or greasy. It is also vegetarian for all your vegetarian friends. If you want meat you can add it to the toppings.