Kimchi Pizza

Kimchi has been in my life a lot lately because I wanted to eat up the batch I had before it got past its fresh and crispy stage. I also wanted to make room for my third (and possibly my best) batch. I've made a simple stew (kinda like an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink stew), fried rice, and even pizza.



Kimchi is not an ingredient I would have imagined using in pizza, but it actually works really well. It had been on my mind for a few weeks because the idea just popped into my head when I was trying to come with different ways to eat kimchi. So I went Googling and I'm lucky I found this one recipe. This is exactly what I had in mind: an all-Korean pizza. I have seen pictures of pizzas in Korea where they have kimchi and cheese on top which I thought was weird so I kept looking until I came across this one. The pork belly adds a nice meaty texture, but you don't have to add it if you want to keep this meatless. Bacon would probably work but keep in mind that bacon is a lot saltier than pork belly.



This was definitely a successful cooking experiment. I didn't think this could go wrong anyway because they are all ingredients that I'm a big fan of. My cooking experiments this weekend, however, are another story. To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I tried to cook with Guinness as much as I could. I made Guinness pancakes (this recipe with half milk/half Guinness), which weren't too bad. Then for dinner, I made Guinness mashed potatoes and Shepherd's Pie meatballs with Guinness gravy. Bitter is all I can say. My boyfriend said it was fine, but he could have just been saying that. He was nice enough to keep eating it though. Next time, we'll have to make Guinness brownies instead so that most of it is baked out! Enjoy this pizza meanwhile.

Kimchi Pizza
From No Recipes

For the sauce
1 tbsp Korean red pepper paste
Kimchi juice
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed

For the pizza
1 lb of dough
Flour
Cornmeal
1/2 cup kimchi, squeezed of excess juice and chopped
4 very thin slices of pork belly, cut into squares
1 scallion, sliced thin on the bias

Put the oven rack in the upper middle position, put a pizza stone (or baking sheet) on it and preheat to 475F.

To make the sauce, just mix the gochujang with enough kimchi juice so it’s thin enough to easily spread (but not watery). Add the sesame oil and garlic and stir to combine.

On a well floured surface, roll the dough out until it is less than 1/4″ thick. Dust a pizza peel (or wooden cutting board) with course ground cornmeal and lay the dough on top. Use a spoon to spread the sauce on the dough. Top with chopped kimchi and sliced pork belly.

Gently transfer the pizza to the preheated pizza stone and bake until the crust is golden brown. Remove from oven, sprinkle with scallions, slice and enjoy!

Corn and Tomato Pizza

I looked in the freezer the other day and noticed something wrapped in foil in the shape of a pizza. Aha! An easy dinner. Must eat now. Unfortunately, an onion pizza did not appeal to me at all. Then I went to Baked Bree to read her latest entry, which was a recipe for pizza, just what I wanted. It was a combination of new flavors, too, so I was inspired to make it. I had to adjust the recipe, though, because I didn't have any pesto or mozzarella on hand, so I had just a Corn and Tomato Pizza.



I'm sure the pizza would taste much better with the pesto and the mozzarella, but it tasted great without them too. The absence of those two ingredients made the pizza less greasy and less heavy, which I prefer. Parmesan and sugar, by the way, tastes fantastic together. Even though I used sweet corn, it didn't make the pizza too sweet. It was a great mixture and the tomatoes added a nice juicy flavor.



Instead of using the pizza dough recipe that Baked Bree provides, I used one from Martha Stewart. I have about 20 other recipes bookmarked too, but decided to give this one a try because I love cornmeal. It's an easy dough to put together and the end result is a soft and chewy crust. This one turned out a lot better than the one I used to make pizza last year. But then again, the recipe was meant for a bread machine, so I probably didn't knead it enough. This pizza dough didn't require a great deal of kneading, thankfully. I was cooking for myself so I made mini-pizzas, but if you'd like to make one big pizza, just don't divide the dough as the recipe states.

Corn and Tomato Pizza
Adapted from Baked Bree

- 1 pizza crust (recipe below)
- Cherry tomatoes
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup corn
- 1/4 cup Parmesan
- 1 tsp sugar

1. Cut cherry tomatoes in half. Sprinkle the cut-side up with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix the corn, Parmesan, and sugar.
3. Roll out pizza dough and cover with corn mixture and tomatoes.
4. Bake according to pizza crust recipe. Serve immediately.



Cornmeal Pizza Crust
From Martha Stewart

- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- Pinch of sugar
- 2/3 cups warm water
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
- 1/4 cup cornmeal, plus more for baking sheet
- 1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the warm water. Let stand until yeast is dissolved and mixture is foamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Combine flour, cornmeal, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center, and add the yeast mixture and oil. Slowly stir ingredients with a wooden spoon just until dough starts to come together. Turn out dough on a lightly floured work surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, 7 to 10 minutes.
3. Divide dough into four equal-sized balls. Place balls in a shallow oiled bowl, turning to coat with oil; cover with plastic wrap, and let rise 1 hour at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.
4. Preheat oven to 500F. Stretch dough into 6- or 7-inch rounds. Sprinkle cornmeal on foil lined on baking sheet. Place dough rounds on top, and cover with toppings, as desired. Bake until crust is crisp and golden and toppings are bubbling, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from oven; serve immediately.

Super Supreme Pizza

In elementary school, I had to keep a log of the books I read. I actually enjoyed reading so I didn't see this as a chore. But the best part was getting a prize after reading a certain number of books. What was the prize? A voucher for a small pizza from Pizza Hut. I loved and still do love Pizza Hut. Personally, I think they are the best compared to Domino's and Papa John's. The cheese is seriously cheesy and the dough is soft but can hold up to any number of toppings. Just look at their Super Supreme, the only thing my parents will order from Pizza Hut. After I decided to make pizza for Sunday night dinner, I looked on Pizza Hut's website to figure out exactly what ingredients were on the Super Supreme Pizza. So many! I didn't even know there were four different meats. That's a little too much for me, so I went for just Italian sausage and ham. Even though I bought lower sodium ham, I washed and patted the slices dry to lose even more salt. I bought sweet Italian sausage from Trader Joe's and it tasted EXACTLY like the sausage Pizza Hut uses! Green bell pepper, red onions, mushrooms and black olives were the other ingredients I used, but of course you can add whatever you've got in the fridge. That's the great thing about making pizza at home. You know what ingredients are in the food and you can choose what you want instead of spending maybe half of dinner time picking things out. I used to do that when I was younger and not so fond of veggies as I am now.

The only thing I'm not too crazy about is the pizza dough. While it did cook up nicely, it wasn't strong enough to hold up to all the toppings that I put on. The bottom did not crisp up as nicely. The crust was a wee bit too dense to me, too. I probably did something wrong because the recipe I followed was for a bread machine, which I do not have. It was the only recipe I could find that claimed to be a Pizza Hut replica. Other ones used dry milk powder, which I also do not have, so I didn't even bother with those. I think as long as I got the taste of the toppings down, my mom wouldn't mind if the crust did not taste just like Pizza Hut's. It sure was damn close and good enough for me. My mom loved it, especially since it is not as salty as take-out. I used no-salt-added tomato sauce for the pizza sauce and added no salt except when making the dough.



What I absolutely loved was watching the crust rise. How could the middle of the pizza stay as is while just a 1-inch border around the dough rises to form a crust? And this is when I was baking the dough by itself. Amazing.

Super Supreme Pizza

For the sauce (from That's My Home)
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
- 1/2 tsp dried basil [I went for 3 leaves of fresh basil since I had lots in my fridge]
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic

For the pizza
- 1 batch of pizza dough [I used this]
- 1/2 small red onion, sliced thinly
- 1/2 green bell pepper, sliced thinly
- 3 large button white mushrooms, sliced
- 1/4 cup pitted black olives, sliced
- 2 thin slices of ham, cut into 1-inch squares
- 1 sweet Italian sausage
- 16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Mix together all ingredients for the sauce and set aside until ready to use. Do this at least an hour before using.
2. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray pizza pan with non-stick spray. Roll out the pizza dough to fit your pizza pan. I used a 15-inch pan. Leave the dough for 10 minutes.
3. Bake the crust either alone or with a bit of sauce on top for 8 to 10 minutes.
4. While the crust bakes, take the casing off the sausage and cook, breaking it up into crumbles. Put sausage into a dish and set aside. To the same pan sausage was cooked in, add bell pepper, onion, and mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes. Set aside.
5. Take crust out of the oven and spread the rest of the pizza sauce on top of the crust. Sprinkle LOTS of cheese. Spread out the ham pieces, sprinkle on the sausage crumbles, then the bell pepper, red onions, mushrooms, and black olives. Sprinkle on some more cheese.
6. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

No more free pizza, but I still read. Halfway through One Hundred Years of Solitude. What is everyone else reading?