When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

That's Amore!
(Dean Martin- That's Amore!)

Lesson-4  Commonly used doughs- Part 1

Today's class was on doughs, and we focused on making Pissaladiere, a French interpretation of pizza from Provence. Instead of a cheese and tomato sauce base, the dish used caramelized onions, and is topped by typical Mediterranean ingredients such as olives, anchovies and tomatoes.

I was pretty depressed after the fiasco last class. So I thought the best way to cheer up myself was to ace the next class. I took copious amount of notes during the demo, reviewed the notes, and made sure I knew exactly what I would be doing before entering my practical class.

Of course, no amount of planning could fully prepare a person for the heat and pressure in a kitchen. Right off the bat I screwed up the amount of olive oil in my dough, effectively rendering my dough too wet. I poured in an incredible amount of flour hoping to dry my dough but at the same time fearful that I'd overcompensate and make my dough too dry. I managed to stabilize the situation and let the dough rest.

Then I screwed up the caramelizing of my onion. A friendly classmate walked by my station and said "I think your garlic is burnt in your onions." Shit, what should I do now? I decided that I was so determined to do well this class that I had to chuck the entire pan of onion and garlic out and refire. Fuck it. I am not letting some stupid garlic ruin my dish.

The end product was fantastic. The chef that day (Chef Vaca) was very impressed by my pie crust, which was golden brown but still soft. He said the only comment he could give me was that my onions could have been softer, which made sense because I refired my onion and didn't have enough time to cook them thoroughly.

I was so happy with my product. Here's a victory pose:

 

I think my expression sum up how I felt

Pissaladiere:
200g flour
Yeast
5g salt
5 g sugar
2 Tbsp of olive oil (Not 3!)
60ml water
1 egg

Garnish with caramelized onions. Top with anchovies, olives, tomatoes, ete.

By the way: I love the French and French cuisine, but honestly leave pizza making to the Italians. I know a pissaladiere isn't the same thing as pizza, and the cooking methods of the two are pretty distinct, but pissaladiere is definitely a relative of the pizza. Sadly I would say they are the ugly cousin of the Italian pizza, below the New York or Chicago pizzas. The Pissaladiere's dough was too thick and fluffy, and frankly a pizza without the tomato sauce or cheese just tastes weird.

Tip of the day: If you think anchovies are too salty for your taste, you can soak them in milk to take away much of the saltiness. Pretty cool huh?