And so we reach the thrilling finale of the Battle for Thanksgiving - Pizza Wars!!
Now, before all you NYC thin crust pizza peeps get your knickers in a twist/panties in a bunch (snigger), I think we can all agree right here, right now, that thin crust pizza IS the best pizza there is. As to which Original Ray's Pizza is the best, authentic NYC slice - well, I'm not going near that hot potato. http://gothamist.com/2011/09/27/the_hunt_for_the_real_original_rays.php
The reason for the preface is that this Pie Throwdown was taking place in Uno's Pizza - the original home of Chicago's deep dish pizza! And, depending on where you sit in the Great Pizza Debate, deep dish is either yummy or a complete abomination!! I think probably one of the only things that people can agree on is that no-one who actually lives IN Chicago eats deep-dish pizza EXCEPT for when they have out-of-town guests and then its the perfect thing to do with them!
Thanks to Travelzoo (love that website!), I'd managed to go one better than just eating there - I'd booked Komal and I into a Deep Dish Pizza Cooking Class, so we could learn how we, too, could make 1000-calorie pizzas in the comfort of our own homes for breakfast.
Yep, hot off the heels of Paint Wars last night, Pizza Wars started at the crack of dawn (-ish) with the class scheduled to kick off at 8.30am. We left the apartment around 7.30am (on a Saturday!!) and made very good time into the city, found somewhere reasonably priced to park, and wandered over to Uno's. We were a bit early so the doors were still locked, but the staff inside took pity on us looking in forlornly through the windows, shivering in the 30-degree cold. It was good that we arrived early, as we were able to get good seats, with a great front row view of all the doughy-action!
 |
| Smiling through the pain of an early morning - on a Saturday!! |
There were about 15 or so people in total - the class was very well organized - we all had little recipe booklets and they'd pre made the pizza dough beforehand, placed in little doughy lumps in individual pizza tins. The chap who taught our class was great and seemed to be genuinely enthusiastic about deep dish pizza (he even claimed to make it for himself at home - a likely story!). He gave us a bit of the history of the dish too - did you know that deep dish was invented totally by accident? The restaurant that originally opened was supposed to serve Mexican food - however, the first day of opening was a disaster, so the panicking owners started to experiment with other recipes in the kitchen. In the process, some bright spark (and exactly who it was who first created deep dish is not known for certain - though 20 or so peeps make that claim to fame!) put dough and cheese and tomatoes in a baking pan and baked it in the oven. The red sauce of the pizza was made from the tomato salsa and the dough was originally from the flour that was supposed to make tortillas. And thus, the deep dish pizza was born!!
Another interesting factoid - the "cornmeal crust" that is characteristic of deep dish contains precisely zero cornmeal! The texture of the crust is actually achieved by, get this, pretty much drowning the dough in oil - this is what gives it its crispy texture as it bakes in the pan. The other "secret" - the recipe for the tomato sauce - just tomatoes! A mix of plum tomatoes that you break up by hand and pureed tomatoes - and thats it!! For the mozzarella cheese on the bottom, its better to use low-fat cheese and, if you are going to be adding raw sausage meat, you want to make sure to put that directly on top of the cheese. Other than that, its pretty fool proof - the dough is a cinch to make (he demonstrated it for us) and they've modified the recipe so that it will work in home ovens.
So - let battle commence!!
 |
| Magic instruction booklet |
 |
| Easy peasy dough recipe! |
 |
| Don't add too many veggies or your pizza will get too watery (at last - an excuse NOT to eat your veggies!!) |
 |
| You are welcome, blog watchers! Happy pizza making! |
 |
| Dough ball, sitting in a slick of oil. Mmmm…..healthy!! |
 |
| Ingredients, ready for action! |
 |
| Our pizza guru with the super shiny head showing us how to mould the dough into the base of the tin |
 |
| My effort - not bad for a first attempt at dough smushing |
 |
| Nom nom nom… cheeeeeeeeeeeese. And, remember, by this point it was still only 9.15am! |
 |
| Tomatoes, chilis, spinach, mushrooms and onions - a veggie fiesta! |
 |
| Ta da!! Topped with pepperoni and sprinkled with parmesan! |
 |
| Making sure our glorious creations make it back to our plates - complete with seasonal name tag embellishments! |
 |
| Salad!!! At 10am!!! Mumsie - you'd have loved it! |
 |
| The finished yummy product! |
 |
| Mine's on the left, Komal's on the right! |
 |
| Yes - it was very very tasty... |
 |
| Thats one hellava lot of cheese!! |
 |
| Pans, pans, pans |
 |
| Showing us how its done in the kitchen |
 |
| Lining the pie with sausage meat |
So then, the final scores on the doors - an equitable, honorable draw! Now taking suggestions for suitable duels for next year's Thanksgiving battle…
 |
| After pizza, a quick trip to the Christmas market for some gluhwein and fancy festive ornaments! |
 |
| Bundled up against the cold, enjoying a civilized mug of mulled wine |
3 comments:
That is what I like about American quisine. it is so adaptable. You could remove the pepperoni, add some more pastry and you would have an amazing veggie pie xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Homemade deep dish pizza next time then darling ,all organic and yummy ( minus the pepperoni ).Must have smelt heavenly in that kitchen , and both your pies looked delicious girls !!!!! xxxxxxxxx
i love the guys head!!! am sure he sits with oil on it all night!! my that is a serious amount of pieage there!! look at you miss ginger bread, arty, pizza gal!! know what you will be doing when you get over here!! looks delcious although i think komal beat you only with the chrimbo tree on her name tag!! well done though looks a deep pan dream!! xxxxxxxx
Post a Comment