Thursday, September 9, 2010

Pizza on the Grill

I have cooked a lot of different foods on our grill, but not pizza. But my son had found a recipe for grilled pizza and tried it our on his grill. So on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, he offered to cook up a feast for us. We didn't object even if we thought this might be sort of unusual. I was placed in charge of starting the fire and drinking a beer or two, a job which I took with utmost seriousness. The other preparations for various ingredients were done by my son and other family members.
There is no such thing as a recipe card. A laptop displays the recipe and the other toppings are in various stages of readiness.
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He prepared the crust from scratch. A litle flour, yeast and water. He carefully kneaded the dough and used a rolling pin to create the pizza crusts.
We covered the grill grates with foil. The idea is to cook the crust for a few minutes on one side, then turn them over, place the toppings on and cook to the finish.
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You are supposed to turn the crust over after it begins to bubble a bit. All went according to plan. I just watched, my son did al the heavy work.
The crust is bubbling. A little extra virgin olive oil helps keep the crust from sticking to the foil.
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After turning the crust over, the first step is to put on the sauce. We just used a mixture of organic tomato paste and sauce. To the sauce we added some herbs from our herb garden, oregano and basil primarily.
The placement of the sauce done with great care.
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The other ingredients go on next. In this case pineapple, ham and sauteed mushrooms. Each person got to put on their own ingredients.
We sliced up a fresh pineapple for one of the possible ingredients.
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After the main ingredients are placed on the pizza, the final ingredient was some very nice mozzarella cheese. I think a few people added in some feta and parmesan cheese as well. I'm not sure because I was in charge of drinking beer at this point.
Cheese is good, Cheese is fine, we like cheese all the time!
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Some others, me included , opted for a more pepperoni type pizza. I added in a bit of fresh pepper from the garden. We have been disappointed with the production of peppers on our plants this year, but what peppers that have been produced have tasted very good.
A veritible plethora of pepperoni.
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Ready to cook. It doesn't take long. The first pizzas produced were placed in the oven to keep warm. We did two at a time on the grill.
Ready to close the lid and cook.
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We ate like little pigs, drank a little more beer and generally had a great day.

The pizza was fantastic!

8 comments:

  1. Yep, you sure did do something different. I'm glad you turned drinking beer into a labor of love. It was good to bring in the Labor Day theme.
    ~Keith

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  2. In a couple of months it should be cool enough to mess around with the grill and I will suggest it to Layne. It looks excellent.

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  3. cpa3485:

    looks tempting and delicious, esp with more pepperoni like yours. With the hot summer, we have hardly used our BBQ at all, only once that I can remember

    bob
    Wet Coast Scootin

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  4. Keith,
    I am really not a big drinker. A six pak can last for months in our refrigerator, except in the summertime. LOL

    Jim

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  5. Conch,
    We really haven't barbecued as much this summer. For one thing, Jayna and I eat less meat than we used to, but the hot weather has held us back a bit too. You ought to try the pizza. It was surprisingly good.

    Jimbo

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  6. Bobskoot,
    Fire up that barbecue after it gets cooler outside. In our case it works out well for family gatherings, and I know you do that every once in a while too.

    Jimbo

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  7. What I like about this post is not the food, but the way you tell a great story about something as simple as making a pizza. The post does center on the food, but it was more about the people there and what they did. I like it!

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  8. Dear CPA3485 (Jimbo):

    My friend and riding buddy, Jim Ellenberg, does pizza on the grill all the time. Hisa parties attract crowds of 60 or 70 people. And I love Hawaian pizza, with pineapple and ham.

    Neat post.

    Fondest regards,
    Jack • reep • Toad
    Twisted Roads

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