Peking Duck Pizza Recipe

With great pizza, comes great responsibility

Holy shit it has been a long time since my last post. I have been putting this off due to reasons. Reasons like focusing harder at work, shifting my priorities in life to a more health-focused mindset, and recognizing patterns in my life that do nothing for me and breaking them. Definitely in a transitional phase where I am realizing what things I actually enjoy and receive value from. Life is a journey, and growth is a huge part of that journey. Something about cyclical phases and introspection, blah blah blah.

Anyway! Peking Duck Pizza. This is a pizza recipe that myself and my good friend Reid collaborated on to create, and have collectively made it together a total of three times. This is the first recipe I will post and definitely won't be the last. It is a decadent fusion style pizza (no fucking shit) which boasts a wealth of middle-upper class flavor. Don't eat this every day. You will go broke and/or die of respiratory failure, heart disease or some other disease I know nothing about.

ALSO: This isn't the only Peking duck pizza recipe on the internet, but it is ours. I am not claiming to have created Peking duck pizza. Just this recipe.

Recipe:

• Pizza Dough (Don't use the pre-cooked stuff unless you want it to suck)
• Hoisin Sauce
• Sesame Oil
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Peking Duck (I recommend getting it from here or if you're not in SD, some local dim-sum style/take out Chinese place should have it)
• Pickled Carrot & Daikon
• Green Onions
• Cilantro

Optional ingredients:

• Sesame oil and roasted garlic emulsion
• Crisped duck skin

This has been a hit every time we've made it, and especially the second time since we were at Burning Man, and everything, especially something like Peking Duck Pizza, tastes remarkably better when you are on the Playa at Black Rock City. We've made it on the grill and in the oven, both involve different processes. This is the process for making it in the oven.

Preparation:

Slice onions and chop cilantro. Preheat oven to 425F. 

Using a pizza pan or a baking sheet, complete the following steps:

Stretch the dough to the shape of your liking. If you're not capable of this, reconsider your adulthood. If you want to be a fuckin' showoff and make the dough yourself, use whatever recipe suits your preferences. If not, grab some from the grocery store. Trader Joe's, Von's, Ralph's, who gives a shit, it's dough.

Once the dough is prepared, coat crust lightly with sesame oil, and then hit it with the hoisin. Hoisin is a really powerful flavor, so be easy and try not to overdo it. Optional ingredient: emulsify the sesame oil with roasted garlic before coating, not a crucial ingredient, but YMMV.

Top with mozzarella, duck, sliced green onion, pickled carrot and daikon. Place in oven for approximately 12-15 min, and finish with fresh cilantro. Optional ingredient: crisped duck skin. Place the skins in a Pyrex dish and broil them for an indiscriminate amount of time. After the indiscriminate amount of time, and allowing the skin to cool, you can crumble the skin over the pizza during the last minute of cooking.

This is about what it should look like with both of the optional ingredients, though you can't really see the sesame oil roasted garlic emulsion underneath all that decadent ducky deliciousness. This one was made on the grill, and was the first one we made.

Look at all that duck... just look at it!

Until next time!

Live long and pizza,

Payam

Pizza Fries - Taste of Chicago Wagon, San Diego, CA

There is nothing better than innovation. Sometimes innovation can be a very simple difference, and that difference always has the potential to be a game-changer. This was one of those times.

Today, a colleague tagged me in a comment on a post from Taste of Chicago Wagon's Facebook Page (Like Them!), and they just so happened to be the visiting food truck today at my place of work, Sequenom Laboratories (Like us!). Naturally, I was giddy with excitement, as the concept of Pizza Fries was new to me, and something that was brought to my attention fairly recently.

There was no question as to what I was going to order. So I walked right up to the guy at the order window and asked for the Pizza Fries. He initially told me that they are unable to make them due to their oven being down and explained to me the amount of demand they've had for this particular dish since they've begun offering it in May. I told him, jokingly, how upset I was (I wasn't actually joking) and he apologized profusely. "Good thing you are coming back next week," I said to him.

Then the man at the helm of the kitchen (Chef Rigo Vallejo) said something to the man at the window about being able to try an alternate method of making them - and after a brief exchange between them - Jason Leon, the owner of the truck, offered them to me to try on the house. My eyes lit up and I asked myself, "is this real life?" Yes it most certainly was. He advised that this is an experimental version since their oven was not operational.

Here is the finished product:

Pizza Fries in all their glory. 

It turned out pretty damn great, even for not being done in the oven. The sauce was dense with flavor and not watery in the slightest. The spice from the red chili pepper flakes was perfect, and the herby flavor from the oregano was prevalent but not overbearing. All in all, would pizza fry again. Good thing they are coming back next week. If you enjoy Chicago Style eats or just want to indulge in some Pizza Fry goodness, I suggest giving them a shot. I would never steer you wrong.


The Taste of Chicago Wagon on Facebook

Did you know that they cater too? Send inquiries here:

tasteofchicagowagon@gmail.com 

As always, live long and pizza,

Payam

So I just had grilled, marinated lamb on a Pizza...

..and it was pretty much amazing.

In the neighborhood of Clairemont, in my beautiful hometown of San Diego, CA, Aladdin Cafe brings delicious, mediterranean inspired recipes to the world of pizza.

The crust they use is more or less akin to the consistency of a naan, chewy, almost fluffy but not crispy. Which was different yet worked with the flavors of the ingredients. I was happy to learn of this place's existence, being my middle-eastern, pizza-obsessed self, via my (amazing) friend Laura, who demanded I try this but not without her. Of course I obliged, and tonight we enjoyed pizza alongside our mutual friend (and her awesome roommate/best friend forever, transcending space and time) Julie, at their lovely home in University Heights.

This pie was named "Jafar's Pizza" and the toppings, per Aladdin Cafe's website, included:

"Delicious Marinated Pieces of Lamb, Herbed Onions, Three color Peppers, fresh Tomatoes with our Tahini Sauce ."

I want to say that the lamb was finished with a dusting of sumac, but I could be wrong. Either way, it was everything I could ask for in a middle-eastern/mediterranean themed pizza, and you should definitely go there, if you value my expert opinion. We didn't hesitate with the Sriracha and I happened to bring a couple of 22s of Ballast Point's Tongue Buckler, an Imperial Red Ale. Needless to say, I was thoroughly impressed and will be going there in the future to try their other pizzas, and of course their more traditional dishes.

Check out their menu here:

http://aladdincafe.com/aladdin-mediterranean-restaurant-menu.php

Please find the time to visit this place, and definitely try Jafar's Pizza. Yeah, the dude may have been a jerk to Aladdin in the movie, he is certainly making up for it indefinitely with this pizza.

Until next time.

Live long and pizza,

Payam