Bubba Ho-Keg changed his name to Bubba Tow-Keg yesterday and took his act on the road as a mobile pizza kitchen.
Once mounted, off we went over the river and through the woods to LizBob’s house, where I turned the photography assignment over to Bob as he has much better skills than mine. Besides, I was too busy making a complete mess of their kitchen to stop and take pictures of it.
In addition to taking Bubba Tow-Keg on the road, there were some other new stuff going on again last night. Among other things, we learned how to use a pizza peel properly (about darn time, and not without a couple of near disasters) and that extremely high heat (above 600°F) cooks with the cast iron pizza pan will blacken your pizza crust long before the rest of the pizza is done cooking.
Here’s an example of how to save a pizza from becoming a complete disaster when it sticks to the peel: turn it into a calzone/stromboli/whatever…
Notice how Bob has done an excellent job of capturing all the fine details in this picture. The burnt cornmeal, wayward mushrooms, flour on Bubba Tow-Keg’s tables, and the hint of char around the bottom of the not-pizza. This was actually the second not-pizza that was cooked; here’s what the first one looked like before it got turned into a pop-tart.
As you can see, a pizza peel is in use. I finally broke down and put some of those Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupons that keep showing up in the mail to use and picked up this synthetic monster made by Epicurean. Not cheap, but I’m real please with it now that I’ve had a chance to practice with it. Here’s an action picture of a successful pizza launch.
Pigdog and his family were over as well, so we made a variety of pizzas, all using an Olive Oil dough from the “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” book I mentioned the other day. Here’s a finished version of the pulled pork, mozzarella cheese, pineapple, and cashew pizza.
We also had gourmet style pizza for those with more discriminating palates. Here’s a sun-dried tomato with mozzarella and fresh basil leaves ready to go on the grill.
And a pulled chicken with mozzarella, onions, bell peppers, and olives. As you can see, these pizzas actually made it from the peel to the grill without coming completely apart. We think we know how to make this work now…
In spite of a few accidents, a floured kitchen, some charred crusts, and 8-plex (inside joke) the evening turned out quite nice. Bubba Tow-Keg is safe back home and had returned to his normal Bubba Ho-Keg identity, and hopefully my wayward pizza pan (not the cast iron one; it came home safely) will find its way home this evening as well.
Many thanks to LizBob for allowing me to trash their kitchen in the quest to use up birthday leftovers, and to Pigdog and his family for joining us and eating a year’s supply of blackened crusts while claiming to enjoy the pizzas. Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you all to take a minute or two and check out Bob’s website where more examples of his photography live. Who knows, you might even see a glimpse of pizza in the wild there someday…
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