A friend recently wrote me a question about making pizza dough. She had made a number of batches but wasn’t happy with the results. Do you have a good recipe? She asked me. Any suggestions? Which gave me pause.

When I was in culinary school, one of the first classes I took was at 6am—with a then very-pregnant chef whom I love to this day—Intro to Baking & Pastry. It was a perfect way for me to ease into the realm of culinary school, and all of its nuances and requirements. I was getting used to wearing an apron, with a towel hanging off my rear-end. It was the beginning of folding ‘mis en place’ into my kitchen… and life. I learned to keep a wet washcloth nearby to keep my working space clean, and to gather all my tools and ingredients—and read the recipe thoroughly—before I began.

It was a good time in my life—when I finally captured the dream of going to culinary school.

And I was full of questions. And I knew some were stupid questions—but I had those kind too. I had gaping holes in my culinary repertoire, things you would assume I knew but I didn’t. Things anyone would have known if they spent 5 minutes in the kitchen… even some of those details evaded me. It was time to put it altogether.

In culinary school I learned habits (here are five weird ones), over-arching cooking methods, cultural cooking (American cuisine, Asian cuisine, French cuisine), history and current trends. I learned that I had a lot to learn. And it occurred to me: at cooking school some things you only try once (fabricating a duck, making salmon terrain, cutting open a chipolte comes to mind)—then you need to go home and practice beyond that ‘once’. I also learned a little science. Especially in this very first baking class.

Eggs, for example. I am equally perplexed and intrigued when it comes to eggs and their lavish wardrobe… so many possibilities and ways to use them. Yeast too, is really quite magical—an ingredient to befriend. Part of learning to bake, I realized… is learning a lot about a few seemingly simple yet extraordinary ingredients.

Like flour.

And when you get to know flour, then you will have an understanding of how flour behaves when heated or mixed or dampened. And then you will know exactly what type of flour you want for your pizza dough: just the way you like it. And you will learn that the flour you choose for cut-out cookies has a little extra protein/gluten so it won’t spread during baking. And if you want a bread-y dough for pizza: again, higher protein in the flour. Want a crispier crust or cookie? Less protein in the flour… and so on. Here is a quick low-down for you to commit to memory:

Different types of flour:

Bread Flour: 12-15% protein
All-Purpose (AP) Flour: 10-12% protein
Cake Flour: 6-8% protein
Pastry Flour: 8-10% protein
Italian ‘00′ Flour: 7-9% finely milled/fine grind. (roughly translates to southern soft-wheat AP flour; used for cookies and pizza)
Italian ‘0′ Flour: 9-10% medium milled/medium grind. (roughly translates to northern/midwest hard-wheat AP flour; used for pizza and bread)
Semolina Flour: 13% or more (made from durum, the hardest wheat grown; used to make pasta).

Name brand ALL PURPOSE flours:

King Arthur: 11.7 % protein
Hodgson Mill: 11.5-11.9 % protein
Gold Medal: 10.5 % protein
Pillsbury: 10.5 % protein

Keep in mind/good to know:

• more protein means more gluten means more structure. More protein is ideal for breads, cut-out cookies and baking-with-yeast.
• use low protein flours for a more tender crumb; best for cookies, muffins, quick breads.
• use cake flour for biscuits, cakes and pie crusts.
• to answer my friends question about pizza crust: if you want a bread-like crust use high gluten or AP flour. If you want it thin and crispy, use half AP and half pastry or low-protein flour. (in Italy I use half ‘00′ and half ‘0′).
• please note: this is a general guide. Protein content and quality differ based on where the wheat is grown, when it is harvested, how it is milled and processed.
• think: when making cookies or bread or pie… the more flour you add the more protein you are also adding… each Tablespoon counts.
• AP flour from the southern part of the US has less protein than AP flour from the midwest/northern US.
• although whole-wheat flour technically is high protein, the bran itself cuts gluten strands… making its protein qualities less effective. In other words: it is typical for whole-wheat to be mixed with AP flour in recipes, to obtain the sought-after results.
• check out the label: if it says ’soft wheat’ that is a loud hint for ‘lower protein.’

Such an easy, useful little mix; Gremolata is a traditional Italian combination of fresh garlic, lemon zest and parsley.

The first time you make it and use it won’t be your last.

Gremolata
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced

Combine. Uses for this humble little combo:

1. spread under skin of poultry before grilling or roasting—use a little oil or butter to help it spread.
2. as a colorful garnish/topping for seafood
3. as a last-minute add-in to minestrone or ribollita
4. mix it into butter, roll it in a log and freeze it: instant compound butter. Later, use slices of it to top grilled steaks or fish
5. use ‘gremolata butter’ to spread on french bread cut the looooonnnnnnngggg way into two halves; toast under broiler and serve.
6. think pasta: this plus olive oil and just-cooked pasta (add a little pasta water to for distribution if need be) plus some grilled shrimp on top? dinner is served.
7. spruce up the side dish: add to green beans, asparagus or buttered red potatoes
8. In Italy, gremolata traditionally tops osso buco (veal).
9. add 1/3 cup olive oil, put in a fancy dish. Surround with the best bread you can find. Dip away!
10. stir into mayonnaise, then apply to sandwich or burger.

And more.

Now that you have THAT down, you can play with your gremolata:

• try orange zest, rosemary and garlic instead.
• make traditional gremolata, but sub half an orange for half the lemon (zest).
• I found a recipe at Epicurious for mushroom soup with hazelnut gremolata.
• on the blog BeyondSalmon I found a wonderful looking recipe for striped sea bass with orange cilantro gremolata.
• new york times: honey gremolata. Yeah, you heard me.
• Martha’s site has a mint gremolata (more like gremolata plus mint marries pesto) to add to grilled lamb chops.
• thanks Mario: Osso Buco with toasted pine nut gremolata.

Please tell me you have tried this. We eat our broccoli this way 90% of the time. And we have it every single week. Yes I am serious. Don’t you have side dishes that are frequent visitors? The stand-by, consistently good, easy-to-make-in-your-sleep vegetables?

This is ours. I was mortified when I was searching my blog-of-over-4-years and ALL THOSE POSTS and not one, not one of them talked about this ever-present crispy-crunchy yummy broccoli dish. This is the green vegetable I have to thank. The vegetable my sons became comfortable with. It is broccoli that helped me round out many meals—otherwise full of proteins and carbohydrates. I could count on oven-roasted broccoli to add that certain special semblance of nutrition to the diets of my growing boys.

Further into their palate-development, my sons welcome a plethora of vegetables onto their plates and into their systems. But still. Our lives changed when I first lubed up broccoli in olive oil, twisted chunks of salt over the tray and set it to rest in a very hot oven. For 20 minutes or so. Please tell me you will try this?

Oven-roasted broccoli
serves as many as you want.

oven 400
bake 25 minutes
(I confess: 425 for 20 minutes works too)
olive oil
coarse salt
optional: Italian herbs, pepper

hint: if there is olive oil hanging out on the bottom of the tray, rub the brocolli’s little heads in it before you pop them into the oven. They love the extra ‘love’ and will reward you with crunchy bites in the end…

I knew it.

I had my favorite kitchen tools as a cook. But then I went to culinary school. And wondered if my favorite, lovingly-worn out kitchen toys would start getting less attention. Get left on the shelf, forgotten in a drawer—icons of a novice cook. I remember watching myself… would my preferences completely change [because of culinary school] or would I retain my enthusiasm for using kitchen shears? Will I become snotty about using only metal mixing bowls and scoff at rubber spatulas, leave my garlic crusher by the wayside—and would I still err on the side of gluggs, tosses and pinches?

And you know what happened? It changed, but it didn’t. I still use all bowls—not just metal ones. I fell in love with sharp knives—I started to notice that my knives at home were annoyingly dull—and I purchased a scale for my counter. But I still use my micro-planer [for nutmeg, chocolate, cheese, zest], and my kitchen shears [to cut pizza slices, herbs, fat off of poultry], and cook with gluggs, tosses and pinches (maybe even more so).

But I added a few. All of a sudden I loved my hand-held immersion blender, regularly used a strainer to smoothen out my sauces and was increasingly a fan of whisks. And I appreciated my knife—more than before.

Besides, I actually really like the weird habits I learned at culinary school.

And now it has been a year plus since cooking school and you know what? It changed again. Not because of training, but because of circumstance. I lived in Italy for the better part of a year, in a little, furnished, rented flat. And with it came 3 shoddy knives (1 was double-sided serrated, another had such a warped wood handle it pinched you while you cut and the 3rd was less than an inch high, 14 inches long, dull and wobbly). And no hand-held immersion blender or food processor, no microwave, no pizza stone or garlic press. No kitchen aid, no blender, no silpats or muffin tins. No coffee maker, no disposal, no spatula or micro-planer. I was starting from scratch. It would be like taking all your kitchen tools, toys and accouterments, dumping them into a box (oh yeah…. I actually DID that) and walking away.

I was stubborn, too. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money filling in my kitchen-toy void. Not when I knew I would only be here temporarily and suitcase real estate was in high demand (better to buy cute little bowls). Nope, I would wing it. Be creative, innovative, figure it out with what I had. I was up for a challenge. I DID buy: a cheap toaster (but barely use it, now I use my stove-top grill), a stove-top cast-iron grill, a little strainer, a cheese grater, cutting board, silicon brush, tongs, cheap scissors and one 9×13. Huh.

And in this kitchen I constantly use: the stove-top coffee maker, the food-mill (pictured; especially for basic tomato sauce), a set of tongs (WAY more than before; I love tongs!), the stove-top grill, my 9×13 pan, shoddy knives, cheap scissors, 1 lovely whisk, wooden spoons, cutting boards, skillets, and a large pot for boiling water and stock. I use foil and parchment more, grill more bread and vegetables, and reheat sans microwave. It has been a fun challenge to make it work; challenge makes you grow. And this sparsely equipped kitchen pushed me to stretch my habits and try new things. And I founded out I needed less, and that many of my kitchen tools really are clutter.

But here are toys I missed:

1. my salad spinner. Yeah, the green leaves over here are really out-of-the-ground dirty, and when I clean them and want them dry, I swing them around—in a kitchen towel—like a madwoman and it makes tread marks up and down the walls. Though… it makes me laugh every time.
2. my immersion blender. I miss it less than I thought I would, but the lack of my little hand-held has led to less soups.
3. a good knife. I miss this the most. I am holding out for a really good one… I hope to buy the new ‘knife of my life’ in the coming months.
4. my pasta roller. I love that I miss this… because I have had one for years that I never used. I WILL use it when I return to the states. I am ready to make pasta, roll it out and stuff it a million times over. A roller will become a new favorite toy.

So tell me… what are your favorite kitchen tools toys?

Looks like a conversation gone sideways.

Hehe, couldn’t resist. It would take me hours to fillet this pile of fish. It is on my life’s ‘bucket list’ to master the art of prepping, cooking [and eating] seafood. At some point I hope to work for a fish monger, as a means to this proficiency. Are you fantastic at wielding a fillet knife? Do you often cook muscles and clams, pluck out crab, de-vein shrimp and boil live lobster? Where did you learn?

School? Yes I learned in culinary school, but truth be told we hardly touched on seafood. We included it here and there, but not nearly as in-depth as I had hoped. But that is part of culinary school: you are introduced to a lot of things, once. But if you really want to become proficient it is all about repetition, practice, pursuit of mastery.

Sure, I can buy fish already cleaned and deboned and ready-to-cook. But that isn’t enough for me. I want to get to know my fish, to handle them from the start, to know a good one from a bad. You get the drill.

I will say, if ever you wanted to try one of my recipes, and seafood IS your thing, try this Soy Glazed Salmon with Lemongrass Buerre Blanc. IT IS DIVINE. And just one more reason why I want to cozy up to the bar… or should I say beach?

Do you have go-to recipes that include fish, shellfish or any other sea-living creatures? If so, please include a link in the comments below. I would love to hear about it!

We just returned from living abroad for one year—a family adventure that started with 4 bikes and a GPS and ended with Italian soccer and school. We cycled from Amsterdam to Paris, toured London, flew to Florence and settled in for the school year (where my sons age 13 and 14 attended an Italian school). We blogged all about it on www.familyfrolics.com.

Since we sold our home and cars and left jobs and school to climb aboard this adventure, our return state-side will be full of ‘reality-bites’ as we re-enter the work force, sign up for house payments and add car loans. Sure—we are broke now. But our hearts and minds gained immeasurable wealth—it was so, so worth it.

And this 24×24 meal (Foodbuzz event) is a celebration of our return stateside—full of ‘food-bites’ we missed while touring and living abroad. What would you miss if you were out of the country for a year? My sons wanted burgers and root beer, and since I was busy focusing on Italian food, I wanted to revisit a fave grilled chicken dish of mine—with ginger sesame peanut sauce. And doesn’t June/July just beg for watermelon and grilled corn? Rhubarb and strawberries and fresh green salad? All of those yummies made our list of must-haves for our return to America. Add all that summer-y food, some American beer and much-missed family: and we had ourselves a return-to-America celebration.

I must say, in all the countries where we ordered burgers, not once did they hold a candle to the hamburgers from bistros and backyard BBQ’s so common in the states. We think America ROCKS when it comes it comes to [beef] steak and burgers. This 24×24 menu rests on the laurels of the all-American burger. And Root Beer. You cannot find root beer in other countries—soda options are limited and root beer is not among them. My boys craved a classic root beer float!

A menu to come home to:

American beer: Pyramid and Deschutes Brewery (CA and OR)
Root Beer (my boys love root beer—impossible to find abroad!)

Hamburgers (w/balsamic caramelized onions, blue cheese and bacon)
Watermelon
Chicken with Peanut Sauce (marinated, grilled)
Grilled Corn (peeled, olive oil, S&P and Old Bay)
Roasted Potatoes (rosemary, S&P, olive oil)
Green Salad (spinach, dried cranberries, blue cheese)

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Notes from dinner: I always wanted to try red velvet cupcakes [with cream cheese frosting]; there are a ton of recipes online and I imagine the one we tried was typical. What I really love is that the cupcake color can be tailored to the holiday or event. The cobbler recipe I chose wasn’t my favorite—next time I will try a new recipe. The ‘winning’ recipe of the meal was by far the chicken with peanut sauce. People went back for seconds (self included!). Besides the flavor profile and thyme-citrus marinated chicken, I LOVE that this recipe can be made it in advance: the morning of our party I marinated the chicken and made the peanut sauce.

We have had our bites of burger and sips of soda, munched on morsels of red cupcakes, hailed the backyard BBQ and chatted—in person—with family. We are officially home. Our expat status is slipping away, despite my wallet-full of Italian codes and cards and official numbers. There is still so much to share, so much to appreciate from Italy, so much to re-soak up from the states… food to be cooked and consumed, our experiences to digest.

And this won’t be the last themed menu from me; look for Italian wine tastings and pizzas, ragu from scratch and tributes to cured meat. Italy was my chance to try balsamic-from-Modena and Parmesan cheese—right in the factory. Mixed in will be my new appreciation for America’s farmer’s markets, seasonal eating, and forays into various cooking traditions (shall I explore Spain next? Or India? Curries or that new cookbook I just received on New Orleans…). Thanks for taking this ride with me, for reading about my food-ventures from the seat of my bicycle, my flat in Florence and now my re-entry to the states. Life is just FULL of bites and am all about enjoying each and every one.