Your second step........ The pissaladière (or the pizza ancestor).

Hi there,

This next  recipe will bring you to discover Two new tips 'cause you already know the technique  of "Dough 2** ".We saw it last week in the Dark  Ganache Chocolate Tart.

 So , we shall discover how to cook softened onions in order to use them later on.The purpose of simmering  the onions like a kind of jam will make them more tender and the strong smell which burns your eyes will disappear to reveal the real flavor of the onions. This technique named "cooking 3" is very useful when you deal with strongly flavored veggies / fruits or very long to tenderize.

This is a key  for your  chutneys  or onion soups for exemple...

So ....Let's go!



 "Dough 4" :The pizza dough  *  

INGREDIENTS for 2 PIZZAS( or pissaladières)

• White flour           425 GR (1,5 OZ)
• Olive oil               5 CL ( 0,17 OZ
• Table salt              8 GR  (0,3 OZ)
• Brown sugar         4 GR (0,15 OZ)
•  Water                   35 CL  ( 12 FL OZ
• yeast                      8 GR (0.3 OZ)
• garlic , oregano ( just a little bit)

Technique:

1. To begin with , pour the water ,the yeast and the brown sugar  in a jar and mix well. This step is important and can be done even a bit earlier in the day  so the yeast becomes active. Yeast is a sort of mushroom that needs water and food ( sugar ) to develop.                                                                                                                                                                                                             INFO: Never leave yeast and salt in contact , it would lead to the sudden death of the yeast !!!May be does it give you an answer to your  previous missed yeast risen doughs?                        
2. Sieve the flour  in a preparation bowl  , add salt ,  olive oil  and if you wish to give extra flavors to your pizza dough  :Add crushed garlic and oregano( some cooks pour a dash of viandox as well).                                                                                                                                                        
3. Mix all this very well and add  your sourdough (Yeast-water-sugarmix). Keep on mixing until your have a homogeneous ball of dough.                                                                                                    
4. At this step , your dough won't make it because it's not elastic at all. In order to rise properly your have to knead the dough until you get  an elastic dough. When the kneading process is ok , you will notice that your dough doesn't stick anymore neither to your fingers nor to the bowl. Notice that the kneading action is working on the gluten and is the key for an elastic dough. If the dough sticks to your hand , do not add flour , just knead a bit more...                                                                             
5. You've sweated a bit and you're proud of your first pizza dough; leave it in the bowl  and sprinkle just a bit of flour on top. Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave the dough rise at room T°C (20 -30 °C is fine --70 - 90 °F)  it swells to the double     .This operation may last 1 to 2 hours according of the yeast quality and surrounding temperature.                                                                                                                                                                                                         The fact of being elastic doesn't allow   the Co2 bubbles produced by the working yeast  to escape from the dough. As bubbles cannot escape , they just grow .......leading the dough to rise itself. 

                                                              

"Cooking 3":"jam like" simmering for the onions  *

First thing, you will have to peel  1,5 kg(3,3 LBS )of  onions and slice them . This technique was seen already in my september post named "How to safely use your chef's knife step by step".Once you're done,you can cook the onion jam.

1. In a cooking pan , bring  8 cl ( 2,5 FLOZ) olive oil to medium heat and the aim of this technique is to cook the onions very slowly without any brown color . Leave it for an hour or so simmering and mix regularly to avoid the pot to burn.
2. After that time you will have some  blond jam like onions , which become really good and sweet. Season  your preparation and leave aside.    Easy , no?                                                     For an onion soup  you would proceed the same way....Some French people add a bit of tomate or tomatoe paste in the jam , don't be surprised if you find this out in other recipes......

"Dough 2" :rolling  a dough  *  check our last week 's post "the dark ganache chocolate tart".
          So roll your dough like you would for a tart , round shaped  at pizza size. Remember you'll have to nice pizzas with this amount of dough.....Set the pizza dough on a non-sticking baking dish and we are almost ready...

1. Just spread your onion preparation on the pissaladière , add anchovy fillets in a fishnet pattern, few black olives , sprinkle some oregano . Notice we don(t use any cheese in this recipe).The cheese was added later on by the italian cooks.                                                                                        
2. Bake in a very hot oven (250°C -480°F)for about 20mn and you're done.

Enjoy....