Saturday, May 28, 2016

Teresa L Greenway's Neo-Neapolitan Sourdough Pizza

Okay, okay, okay. I know that I've been posting everything sourdough of late.But really, is there anything as good or as tasty than baked goods made with honest to goodness, beautifully, exquisitely naturally fermented flour and water. 
When I saw Teresa Greenway's generous offer for a free course on making pizza with a sourdough crust, I jumped at it. I'd been wanting to try the pizza dough for a while but didn't have a recipe I felt I could rely on.
Teresa is a sourdough-baking guru who has an online coursework site called Udemy. The courses are affordable and very good. She demonstrates every recipe in video and you can follow the courses at your own pace.
I adapted the recipe to my own needs by converting the measurements to ounces, but for the most part it's Teresa's recipe. I encourage you to take the course because that's where I learned invaluable techniques like how to shape the pizza, or how the dough should look like when it's ready.

Sourdough Pizza

Ingredients
24 oz. flour.(I used 15 oz white AP and 9 oz white whole wheat)
.25 oz yeast
.6 oz salt
10.6 oz sourdough starter
12 oz water
1.8 oz milk
1 oz Greek extra virgin olive oil


In a bowl mix the flours, the yeast, the starter, and the salt. Warm the milk and water together(I did this in the microwave) and pour into the flour mixture. Add the olive oil and mix for five to eight minutes.
Let the dough rest for 15-20 minutes so the gluten develops. 
Resume mixing until you have a well developed dough where you can pull a nice window pane.
Place a pizza stone in your oven and preheat to 550 degrees.

Line a pizza pan with parchment paper and spread a little olive oil on it so the dough will not stick.
Cut your dough into 4 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and proceed to shape your pizzas. I placed half my dough into an oiled Ziploc bag and kept it in the fridge to bake the next day. If you have enough mouths to feed and want to bake all four in the same day, shape each one separately and bake one at a time.

Once the pizza dough is shaped, add your favorite pizza ingredients. For me those are a few tablespoons of Trader Joe's marinara sauce topped with sliced mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, grated Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

Place pizza with parchment paper directly on the heated stone and bake for about 8-9 minutes.
Voila! The pizza is ready to eat!
Repeat as needed!

Thank you Teresa L Greenway for a wonderful sourdough pizza making course!

Pair your pizza with a nice salad, pop a couple of beers and your have dinner on the table!
Enjoy!

Maria

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Ancient Pergamon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World.
That's the name of the exhibit that Stelios and I recently had the pleasure of seeing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
When I saw the map of the ancient world that was Hellenestic, I felt proud for being Greek as well as sad for loosing all those lands through the ages.
The treasures exhibited from those Kingdoms are incredibly beautiful. There was immense wealth as well as an appreciation of art that promoted the creation of amazing statues and objects.
There was so much beauty that I had a hard time choosing which ones to show you, my dear viewers!
A statue of Alexander the Great riding his horse Buchephalus.

Statue of Alexander the Great
Statue of Hercules
The giant statue of Athena Parthenon, replica of the statue that had existed in antiquity in the Parthenon in Athens.
Giant fragment
This is a statue of Homer
Detail from a giant urn

Eros
Mosaic

Statue of the goddess Kybele
Statue of a dead Amazon

Shield and speer
Hercules




Jewelery

Golden Head Dress
The famous statue of the hermaphrodite

and the front view of the statue
Eros sleeping






Golden Wreath with Myrtle leaves

Statue of a fallen warrior
Giant Head of Zeus