Pizza Making Essentials For the Home Pizza Chef

!±8± Pizza Making Essentials For the Home Pizza Chef

Frozen pizza is all right, takeout pizza does the job, but homemade pizza is simply out of this world. Creating pizza is a very personal thing and when you make your own pizza recipe, you can create your perfect crust, add your favorite sauce and toppings, and cook it just how you like it.

If you are a keen home cook, you have probably seen all kinds of "must haves" in the kitchen store and wondered which are essential to pizza making, which are worth having and which are a waste of time.

Pizza Paraphernalia

Do you need a pizza stone? Do you need three different pizza cutters? What about a bread machine for making your dough or a pizza oven for baking your creations?

The truth about pizza making equipment and cooking equipment is that none of it is essential and you can make great recipes without any of these utensils at all. The real essentials are your ingredients, an oven, a good recipe, and a healthy appetite.

You might want to invest in a pizza oven, pizza stones, and other equipment if you make a lot of pizzas but, for the casual home cook, you can make great pizza recipes without it, right from the delicious toppings down to the tasty, homemade crust.

Herby Pizza Crust Recipe

The following recipe makes enough dough for a twelve inch crust. The dough is flavored with fresh Italian herbs and you can vary the kind of herbs you use. Any fresh herbs are nice in this dough recipe.

You will need:
2 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour 1 teaspoon sugar 1 package active dry yeast 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup fresh herbs (basil, parsley and oregano are good) 7/8 cup warm water 1 tablespoon garlic flavored olive oil Oil and cornmeal for the pan
How to make it:

Combine the sugar, yeast, and warm water and let it stand for ten minutes until it goes frothy. Chop the herbs in a food processor with a steel blade. Add the flour, salt, and pulse briefly. Add the yeast mixture and process until you have a dough ball.

Add the garlic infused oil and process for another thirty seconds. Alternatively, you can chop the herbs with your hands and knead the dough by hand for ten minutes. Put the dough in an olive oil greased bowl, rotating it until it is oily all over.

Use a damp towel to cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise somewhere warm for about an hour. When it has doubled in size, roll it out on a lightly floured board. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Lightly grease a pan with some oil and sprinkle cornmeal over it. Put the dough on the pizza pan, trimming the edges and bake it for ten minutes. Take the pizza crust out of the oven and brush a little more oil over the top. Add your favorite toppings and bake until it is done.

Pizza Making Essentials For the Home Pizza Chef

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How to Cook Brown Rice in a Rice Cooker

!±8± How to Cook Brown Rice in a Rice Cooker

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How to Cook Brown Rice in a Rice Cooker

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How to Cook Frozen Crab Legs

!±8± How to Cook Frozen Crab Legs

Strictly speaking, you probably won't need to cook those frozen crab legs you purchased at the supermarket or at the discount club store--it has already been done for you. You will just need to heat them up. Make sure you do it properly, though, by following these tips.

You must first thaw the crab legs. Allow them to thaw in your refrigerator overnight; don't make the mistake that many people do of thawing them at room temperature or, even worse, thawing them by zapping in a microwave oven. Thawing at room temperature is a bit risky from a food-safety standpoint , and microwaving can overcook crab legs.

Once the legs are completely thawed, then you can heat them in the microwave--or in a conventional oven. You can also steam or boil them.

Microwaving

Place crab legs in a microwave-safe pan or on a dish. Cover with a couple of thicknesses of paper towels and heat on high for 2 to 3 minutes.

Boiling

Fill a large pot 2/3 full of water. Add several shakes of salt and any other seasoning that you like. Bring water to a boil. Drop crab legs into the boiling water. Immediately reduce heat and let the pot simmer for 4 to 6 minutes.

Steaming

Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil on stove. Place crab legs in a vegetable steamer or a colander and place over the pan. Allow the legs to steam for 4 or 5 minutes.

Heating in an Oven

Heat oven to approximately 420 degrees F. Place crab legs on a baking sheet and place in oven on a top rack. Roast for 4 or 5 minutes.

The best crab legs are king crab legs, but most types of crab sold for food have a good deal of meat in their legs and especially their claws. Sometimes there is more meat in the legs than in the body itself.

Crab legs are made up of three distinct sections. To get at the meat, just break the sections apart at the joints. Then take hold of one of the sections and press it with your thumbs on the flat side until the shell cracks. You should be able now to remove the shell and pull out a good-sized piece of meat. The claws will probably need to be cracked with pliers or with special tools available from kitchen specialty shops.

Cooked crabmeat straight from the legs is delicious by itself, or you can brush it with melted butter before eating. Crab leg meat is also good in any recipe calling for crabmeat generally.

How to Cook Frozen Crab Legs

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