Urban Rush Friday, May 23rd, 2008.
http://www.eat-vancouver.com/
Mia Stainsby
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Bob Blumer has been called a glutton. He's also been something of the Salvador Dali of cooking, concocting surrealist food. Fortunately, he is neither when I call him about his latest project.
The Food Network celebrity who appears in Glutton for Punishment and formerly, in Surreal Gourmet, has teamed up with pal Elizabeth Karmel to write a cookbook devoted to the grilled pizza. Perfect timing, with Father's Day around the corner. What Dad doesn't like a pizza and cooking over fire? And what Dad wouldn't impress his clan by making the best pizza in the neighbourhood?
Blumer, a Canadian who now lives in the Hollywood Hills (in view of the famous sign), says the Pizza on the Grill cookbook was a natural progression from grilling pizzas so often at home. The big sell in grilling, rather than baking pizzas, is the crispier crust, he says. "The fundamental difference is, you grill one side [of the crust], flip it over, put the toppings on and grill the other side," Blumer says. "You have a flat bread that's super crispy on both sides. I personally love it to be crispy almost all the way through with a thin, thin crust."
Karmel is from the land of barbecuing -- North Carolina -- and runs www.GirlsattheGrill.com which offers up a line of kitchen and grill tools.
Karmel and Blumer's cookbook offers 50 pizza recipes and 50 accompaniments ("nibbles and noshes"). "Once you start making grilled pizza, it'll be like 'getting' religion. You'll want to preach the word to everyone," they trill in the introduction.
The pair found a sure-fire way to make the best grilled pizza and call it the 1-2-3 Technique. It involves putting the stretched or rolled dough on medium direct heat on the grill, closing the lid and cooking until the bottom is golden brown (about three minutes). If it's a charcoal grill, you put it on the side without briquettes. Once cooked on the bottom, you remove the crust from the grill with tongs or a pizza peel and flip it to reveal the grilled side. Spread that side with sauce and toppings and cheese. Return to the grill and place over indirect heat by turning off one burner to let the topping cook and cheese melt. (On a charcoal grill, return to same spot.) Grill until the bottom is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly, about seven to 10 minutes. Done!
I was able to ask Blumer about my own pesky grilled pizza problems. One: Why are my pizza crusts so darn cantankerous? I roll them out or stretch them out by hand and I've even stretched by twirling them in the air (okay, so maybe it was more flopping than twirling). And the dough shrinks like they're afraid of me. Easy, replies Blumer. "Let the dough relax for an hour before making the pizza," says the man who recently shot a not-so-relaxed episode of Glutton for Punishment in which he prepared, then ate a deadly fugu fish while in Japan.
"Poison is contained in any or all of the ovaries, skin, blood, liver, eyes and brain," he says, as we veer off-track from pizzas.
"Did you survive?" I ask.
Meanwhile, I'm thinking, maybe I'll play Pachelbel's Canon for my dough. If that doesn't help it relax, nothing will.
Pizza dough problem number two: It is physically and emotionally impossible for me not to double, triple, quadruple recipes so I always make extra pizza dough and freeze it in user-friendly balls. So why is it so lifeless when I use it the next time? "Pull it out. Thaw it to room temperature. Then give it an additional hour," he instructs. In other words, plenty of rest and Pachelbel. And pizza dough doesn't like to rest in the fridge. It likes to be at room temperature, just like me.
I put one more question to Blumer. As surveys show, guys hog the barbecue. Do you think when it comes to grilling pizzas with its requirements of fine motor skills and dough-handling, women will reign supreme?
"I've never thought of that. It's kinda like Barack and Hillary. They're both very attractive candidates," he says. (This was before Obama took the lead.)
mstainsby@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
Tags: Bob Blumer The Surreal Gourmet Glutton for Punishment food
