So the contestants only had 20 minutes to complete the appetizer round on episode 10. I say screw that. I’m going to take my time if I were given the following ingredients: mountain tea, graffiti eggplant, salmon sausage and barbecue sauce. I’m going to make pizza. Because I said so. And because this is a fantasy recipe I haven’t made yet and because, well, I’m not on Chopped.
Mountain tea leaves
The day before, I’ll make the pizza dough using a standard recipe. However, rather than plain water, I’m going to use brewed mountain tea. This would be ready for the next day. On Day 2, it’s time to actually make the pizza. The dough is rolled out into whatever shape of pizza you want. Ideally, it should be Salmon sausages are removed from its casings and cooked in a little bit of olive oil. Some remaining mountain tea leaves are tossed in with the salmon. Once cooked, it is set aside. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and follow the directions according to the pizza dough recipe you used the day before. Once it’s rolled and flattened to a thickness of your preference (I am personally a fan of thinner crusts), you are ready to continue with the toppings. However, first, you’ll need to chop up the eggplant into bite sized pieces. To make the pizza a bit more colourful, add other vegetables such as chopped green peppers, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes (or whatever pizza toppings you like).
This pizza is a “brown” pizza – not rosso because it doesn’t use marinara and not “blanco” either as there is a sauce. Instead, we are going to use barbecue sauce. This will be followed by a little bit of mozzarella and then the salmon sausage and veggies. Depending on the thickness of your crust, the pizza should be baking between 10-15 minutes – most recipes will note a cooking temperature 500-550 F (which is not that high compared to pizzerias – most run at 900 F these days, which is how they get them to you so quickly). Many recipes suggest that you turn the pie around 180 degrees halfway. Once the pizza is cooked (when the crust is blistery), throw on some arugula if that is your preference, then slice and enjoy.
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