I ran across a recipe for Shrimp and Basil Stir-Fry in Bon Appetit magazine and decided to try it since it’s fairly low calorie depending on how much sugar you use to balance the heat. I liked it the first time and have since tinkered with it a bit. I thought I’d blog it so I have a record of my version.

Shrimp, Chicken, & Basil Stir-Fry

Marinade

• 3 Fresno chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons canola oil

Additional ingredients

• 2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 handfulls basil leaves
• 1 lime, sliced
• canola oil for the pan
• water to deglaze the pan
• salt to taste

Instructions
Blend the chiles, garlic, sugar, fish sauce, oil, and salt in a blender until smooth. Transfer the marinade to a bowl and add the shrimp. Stir until coated evenly. Let rest 10 minutes at room temperature.

While the shrimp is marinading, add one tablespoon of oil to a large, nonstick skillet over medium heat. Slice and cook the sausage until browned on all sides and cooked through. Set aside in a large bowl or platter and tent with foil. Do not wash out the pan unless something burned. Burning is really only possible if you use a chicken sausage stuffed with small ingredients like garlic, cheese, fruit, or vegetables. They fall out and char. You want fond on the bottom of the pan, but char will just taste like carbon.

Increase the heat to medium-high. Add one tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Just when the oil begins to shimmer, add the shrimp using a slotted spoon to drain the marinade or else the shrimp will boil instead of fry. Cook, turning only once so that each side has time to caramelized around the edges. This only takes about a minute per side depending on how much liquid has to cook off. Add the cooked shrimp to the bowl or platter with the cooked chicken sausage. I usually have to cook the shrimp in two batches.

Add the lime slices to the pan as the marinade cooks off. You’re really just browning the lime and adding some flavor to the pan. Remove the lime to the bowl or platter with the shrimp and sausage.

Add about a tablespoon of water to the pan to deglaze the bottom. Turn the heat down to medium-low and toss in the basil. You can chop the basil if you want, but I like whole leaves. Stir until wilted.

Add the shrimp and chicken sausage stirfry back to the pan and stir so that the basil is evenly distributed. Remove the mixture back to the bowl or platter and season to taste with salt.

I usually have to do this in two batches as well. I just add half of the basil, wilt, mix with cooked ingredients, and remove to the serving bowl or platter. Then I wilt the rest of the basil and repeat the process. Everything is cooked, so it’s just a matter of trying to get a uniform basil and lime flavor on all of the shrimp and sausage.

You could probably do this in one batch if you have a big enough nonstick pan, but I don’t.

The flavors marry very well in this recipe. And it’s incredibly versatile. You could add chopped pineapple and bell pepper if you wanted to make it sweeter, or lo mein if you wanted something more like dan dan noodles. Feel free to get creative.

The photo above is actually from a version I did without any oil in the marinade. I wanted to lighten up the recipe. It tasted great, but the shrimp didn’t quite caramelize the way they do with the oil. I think the extra calories are worth it.

This is what the shrimp will look like when marinaded as the recipe dictates.

The post Shrimp & Sausage Stir-Fry With Wilted Basil appeared first on Chad Chandler.

No one really needs a recipe to make old-fashioned chicken soup. But I tend to get stuck in a rut, so I browse through recipes looking for ways to put a new spin on the old classic. I’ve tried adding ginger and chiles to give the soup an Asian flavor, but I ran across this recipe that’s halfway between Tom Kha Gai and Campbell’s Chicken & Stars. I loved it for its simplicity, speed, and flavor.

Thai Style Chicken Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 bunch scallions, whites and pale-greens thinly sliced, dark greens sliced 1-inch thick
4 garlic cloves
1 1-inch piece ginger, peeled, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled, shredded
1 jalapeño, with seeds, thinly sliced (or seeded if you prefer less heat)
1 cup quartered stemmed shiitake mushrooms
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs
1 quart low-sodium chicken broth
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 tablespoon (or more) fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam)
Kosher salt
2 cups thinly sliced sugar snap peas
1 teaspoon lime zest, divided
Fresh tender herbs (such as cilantro or basil)
Lime wedges (for serving)

RECIPE PREPARATION

Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Cook scallions, garlic, and ginger, stirring frequently, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add carrot, jalapeño, and mushrooms and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add chicken, broth, coconut milk, and fish sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cook until chicken is cooked through, 15–20 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate and let cool slightly.

Add fish sauce to soup and season with salt and more fish sauce, if desired. Shred chicken into large chunks and return to pot along with sugar snap peas. Stir in lime zest. Top with fresh herbs and serve with lime wedges alongside.

I doubled the recipe and used a rotisserie chicken instead of breasts. I also added some vegetables that were wasting away in the crisper.

This recipe was fantastic and I thought I’d blog it before I forgot where I found it. The only real change I made was to not double the (lite) coconut milk. I would also substitute bean sprouts for the sugar snap peas if I made it again, but that’s just my personal preference.

This would also make a good Tom Yum knock-off if you added rice noodles and swapped out the chicken for shrimp.

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If you search online, you’ll find millions of ways to make shrimp and grits. I even have some older recipes here on the Hobby Blog. But if I can oversimplify it a bit, there are only variations of two ways.

There’s the thin, sauceless topping of shrimp cooked with vegetables and rendered fat, usually bacon. Then there’s the thicker, sauced version of shrimp cooked in sauce thickened with roux or tomatoes/peppers, or in this case, both.

I usually cook the thinner, stripped down version of this recipe. It’s relatively lower calorie and is much faster to make. But I finally came up with a recipe/method for thicker, sauced shrimp and grits that puts out consistently great results.

I almost never get an itch to make shrimp and grits and then go buy all of the ingredients. This is one of those recipes that seems obvious when I realize I have leftover grits in the fridge. I usually have ½ pounds of andouille sausage in the freezer, and everything else aside from the shrimp is a pantry staple.

This comes together in about 20 minutes and requires little effort beyond chopping and stirring. I usually keep my grits in the pot in the fridge. When it’s time to reheat them, I just toss the whole pot into a 300° oven for at least 30 minutes, maybe more. At some point, I fluff them up with a fork. If they’re dry and crumbly, I add a few tablespoons of milk or cream—whatever I have on hand—into the pot and stir. They become creamy again.

This recipe assumes that you already have some grits prepared. If not, follow the first half of this rich and creamy cheese grits recipe to just make the grits. Let them cool a bit before serving.

Sauce ingredients

• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• ½ pound spicy andouille sausage, cut into half moons
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 small sweet onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can Rotel fire roasted tomatoes and peppers (with liquid)
• 1 cup reduced sodium chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons cream
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• salt, pepper, and Voltron seasoning to taste

I’ve mentioned before that I have a spice shaker in my kitchen with a picture of Voltron on it. It’s my blackening seasoning for fish, chicken, and everything else that I want to spice up. For the record, it’s 1 part Wondra flour to 3 parts Tony Chachere’s to 5 parts Old Bay. I also mix in some dried Parsley, but it’s not enough to make up a “part.” Keep in mind that even though Wondra is very fine, the flour taste still need a little time to cook off.

Sauté the andouille over medium heat. You want a lot of flat surfaces here so the edges will sear and the fat will render. I should add that you need a very spicy andouille sausage to recreate this recipe. I buy 2 pounds of Ragin’ Cajun brand when I make gumbo. I use 1½ pounds in that recipe and usually freeze the remainder for a recipe like this.

When the sausage is nicely browned, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, reserving the grease. Add the all-purpose flour and whisk with the rendered fat to make a roux. You don’t have to stir for too long. Maybe 3 minutes. Next, add the peppers and onions and continue to stir. When the onions and peppers start to brown, add the garlic and cook until it’s starting to brown as well.

Add the Rotel tomatoes and the chicken stock to the pan and stir until the roux is incorporated. Add the sausage back to the pan and simmer until liquid is reduced by half.

Add the shrimp and cook until pink and cooked through. Season the sauce to taste. Remember that you want the flavors to be a little bold. They will be muted by the addition of the cream and butter. I should add that you don’t have to add the cream and butter, but I like the smooth, finished texture they add.

Serve over warm grits. Garnish with fresh chives and parsley if you’d like.

Other good additions: cannellini beans, fresh spinach wilted in the sauce, hatch chilis, roasted peppers, okra. With this recipe and a frittata (or some egg foo young) the next morning, I can clean out the crisper.

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I’ve been making variations of this recipe for a couple of years. I usually make it when I see kale on sale or I have an extra smoked turkey leg that I need to use up. It’s always ben good to me, but I guess I didn’t realize how much of a crowd pleaser it was until I used it to top some leftover rich and creamy cheese grits as a side for BBQ ribs.

People are always excited about the ribs, but the grits and greens are the star of the show. #bbq

A post shared by Chad Chandler (@chad.chandler) on Jul 1, 2017 at 4:42pm PDT

FYI—This is the first time I’ve put anything from Instagram on this website. Most of my Instagram posts involve the outdoors and complement the content at my other website, C.C. Hikes.

This is a very good dish. I never make it the same way twice, but I follow a basic primer that I think was based off this Bon Appétit Recipe: Braised Kale and Turnips with Smoked Turkey. At least I think so. I thought I had kept a draft of this recipe in my email, but a search only pulls up a link to this webpage.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds kale, rinsed, thick stems removed, cut into 1″ ribbons
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 cup reduced sodium chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce (like Valentina)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Prep the kale, onions, and garlic. Add 2 tablespoons each of oil and butter to a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they start to caramelize. Don’t overcook them or they will turn to mush. Add the garlic and red pepper and cook until the garlic just starts to brown.

Add the chicken stock, vinegar, and hot sauce to the pot and deglaze the bottom.

Add the kale a couple of handfuls at a time and stir until it wilts. You’ll need to trap some moisture with the lid on for a little while to help it break down.

Once the kale is evenly wilted (but not soggy), add the smoked turkey leg to the pot. You may have to cut it in half with a butcher’s knife to get it to fit. Reduce the heat to low and simmer with the lid on until the skin and meat pull back from the bone, about 1½–2 hours.

Remove the turkey leg from the pot and allow it to cool a bit. Leave the lid off the pot for the remainder of the cooking time to let the steam escape. You may need to turn up the temperature a tiny bit to maintain a slow simmer. Once you can handle the drumstick safely, remove the meat form the bone. Add the pulled meat to the pot and continue to simmer for a few minutes to allow the meat to further season the greens.

Taste the greens and season accordingly with salt and pepper. It shouldn’t need much. I usually add another teaspoon or so of vinegar and hot sauce. Finally, incorporate the last tablespoon of butter and serve.

I like to serve this over grits, but it would be great over rice, beans, crusty bread, or noodles like ditalini.

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Like I said before, I’ve been making a lot of Asian-style foods lately. Part of that involves recreating Asian-American standards. Many of the more common dishes that people think of when they’re considering Chinese are loaded with sugar in one form or another. I’m not big on sweets, so making these dishes at home has allowed me to dial back the sugar, carbs, and calories. Here’s the version of lettuce wrap chicken that I’ve been making lately.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 cup button mushrooms, diced
• 1 small or ½ large sweet onion, diced
• 1 8-ounce can sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 green onions for garnish, chopped (white and green parts)
• Lettuce for wrapping

There’s really not much to explain here. Toss the chicken pieces with corn starch and 2 teaspoons of the sesame oil and prep all of the vegetables.

Mix the sauce (hoisin, soy, vinegar, sriracha, remaining sesame oil) in a bowl.

Heat the wok on high and add the canola oil to the wok once it’s hot. I do this outside on my grill’s side burner. I get 15,000 BTUs out of this burner and can remove the diffusor. That gives me a steady flame. Although it’s nowhere near as hot as an industrial wok burner, it’s the best I can do at home. Plus, cooking outside means I don’t have to deal with smoke inside my house.

Once the oil starts to smoke, add the chicken and cook until browned on all sides. You don’t have to cook it through. Remove to a plate and set aside.

The weather was nasty, so I didn’t take a lot of pictures. Add the mushrooms and onions to the wok and cook until the mushrooms release their moisture. Turn the heat down to medium and add the garlic and ginger and cook until the garlic just begins to brown. Add the water chestnuts and deglaze the wok with the sauce mixture. Finally, add the chicken back to the wok and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Garnish with green onions, season with salt and pepper, and serve with lettuce (this is Boston lettuce).

Sometimes we eat this with just the chicken and lettuce. Other times we serve it over rice. If I don’t mind making a mess in the kitchen, I’ll fry up some of those cellophane noodles that usually accompany this dish at restaurants.

In this recipe, most of the sweetness comes from the hoisin sauce, which is just a soy-based BBQ sauce popular in China. The sweetness is balanced by the salty soy sauce and the vinegar. Sriracha provides the heat and the sesame oil adds depth of flavor. You could add or substitute oyster sauce, fish sauce, palm/brown sugar, or anything else that you think will alter the flavor.

You could also give this dish a more Thai-style sauce and garnish with fresh mint leaves, bean sprouts, chopped peanuts and lime juice.

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Ever since we moved into our new house, the wife has been telling me that the scale of our old barn wood picture frames is not right for our new den. She insisted that we needed one large painting over the couch instead of two small ones. Well, she bought me a beginner painting kit that’s been collecting dust in the basement for a few years, so I decided to paint the artwork myself. How does the saying go? Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.

I wanted to do an abstract piece that was a hybrid between classical impressionism, Lichtenstein-esque comic panels, and aboriginal art. I know that sounds unbearably pretentious, but it’s really just a fancy way of saying I wanted to paint with dots. The wife likes owls, so my idea was to paint a horned owl (we have one in our back yard) camouflaged in fading moonlight.

To begin, I painted the background the same color as the rug in our den. This color is also incorporated in the fireplace mantel artwork I made as an anniversary gift.

I found a photo of a horned owl online and ran it through a filter that greatly oversaturated the colors. I changed the aspect ratio to match the canvas and drew a 1″ x 1″ grid on the paper. Next, I drew a corresponding 4″ x 4″ grid on the canvas with chalk. Then I used the gridlines to plot the shape of the owl on the canvas.

Once the outline was drawn, I used sponges and a small brush to fill in the darkest parts on the image. I wanted the entire painting to be made up of dots.

Then I mixed paint hues to give the owl a multi-colored contrast.

It’s really coming together here like a tile mosaic.

Once the owl was finished, I went on vacation. That gave the paint over a week to dry. When I got back, I used a wet towel to remove the chalk and then drew a new grid with my 4′ level. This was for the background coloring.

The idea was to have the background color mimic moonlight in the woods. I decided to use a larger sponge to make dots that transition from white in the top-left to black in the bottom-right.

It was a challenge to maintain a consistent color transition, but I think it came out okay.

The I added colors in the gaps to camouflage the owl, making sure to use darker shades than the owl’s bright yellow eyes.

Finally, I varnished the painting to seal the paint and add some gloss to the colors. It really stands out now, doesn’t it?

Then I built a frame and hung it on the den wall. I should really take pictures in natural light, but it’s hard to do when the days are so short.

In retrospect, it was a little ambitious to do a 4′ x 3′ painting on my first try, but I think it came out okay. It took me ten hours to make the painting and another three to build and stain the frame.

The post My First Acrylic Painting appeared first on Chad Chandler.

This is one of the easier sauces to make. Plus, it’s a great way to get rid of some garden produce. All you need is a cutting board, and knife, and a bowl. Mix everything together and keep the sauce in the fridge. It’s fine to serve immediately, but it’s even better the next day.

Homemade Tzatziki Sauce

6 oz Greek yogurt (Fage, 0%)

6 oz sour cream

½ red bell pepper, diced

½ garden cucumber, peeled and diced

½ red onion, diced

½ lemon, juiced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

kosher salt and coarse-ground pepper to taste

I serve this with homemade gyros, Greek-style lamb burgers, gravlax, and many other dishes. I like to pair it with Trader Joe’s red pepper spread with eggplant and garlic, which I think can’t be beat since it’s impossible to make at home in small quantities. The creaminess of the tzatziki and the tanginess of the pepper spread go so well with anything grilled.

Here’s the tzatziki on some homemade cevapi.

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Labor Day is usually a good time for BBQ, but I recently cooked some pulled pork and ribs. I simply didn’t have the urge to make BBQ again so soon. I also recently made hamburgers, hot dogs, and Chicago-style deep dish pizza, so those American standards were out too. I wanted to cook something different.

There’s a popular dish throughout the Balkans that’s similar to gyros called cevapi (or ćevapčići). It’s the street food of the region. My father-in-law is Croatian, so I’ve had it a few times over the years. The method below was cobbled together by combining my father-in-law’s recipe with several others that I found online. It’s not “authentic” since it doesn’t have a handful of Croatian MSG—a.k.a. Vegeta—in it, but I was pleased with the results nonetheless.

Homemade Cevapi

• 1 pound ground beef (80% lean)
• 1/2 pound ground lamb
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 3 garlic gloves, microplaned
• 1/2 small, sweet onion, grated
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
• 2 teaspoons coarse-ground black pepper
• 1¼ teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½–1 teaspoon cayenne (to taste)

I doubled the recipe above so we’d be able to freeze some leftovers. It’s a chore to clean the sausage grinder/stuffer whether you make 1 pound or 4, so it makes sense to go big or go home.

I’ve found that the secret to good sausage is to grind the mixture at least twice. I usually buy the meat already ground, mix everything in a bowl by hand, partially freeze it, and then grind everything again with the seasonings included. During the second grind, I add the extruder to the grinder. That way, I just have to cut the sausage into links as it comes out.

I didn’t think to take a picture until everything was mixed. I spread it on a baking tray so it would freeze faster. This step is crucial. Grinding lukewarm meat in a KitchenAid Grinder Attachment is an exercise in futility. Another tip is to freeze the grinder as well and then spray some cooking oil in it before adding the cold meat.

Here’s the grinder/extruder set-up. I did the stuffing/grinding while the wife cut and arranged the sausages on lightly oiled parchment paper.

These are the cevapi we saved for later. We put them in the freezer on the tray. They won’t stick together once they’re frozen, so you can just divide them into zip top bags.

A lot of people grill their cevapi, but I wanted to fry them in their own fat to preserve the flavor. I cooked them over medium heat in a pre-heated cast iron pan on the side burner of my grill.

Check out the crust on these guys. Great flavor and texture.

Traditionally, cevapi are served in lepinje (an airy flatbread) with raw onions and kaymak (a spreadable cheese). We have a place down the street that makes really good pita, so we just dropped by and picked some up for a couple of bucks. It’s not the same thing, but I didn’t feel like baking. I can’t get my hands on any kaymak, so we served our cevapi with some homemade tzatziki, added a little ajvar (red pepper spread—Trader Joe’s sells a very good version), and garnished with heirloom tomatoes from our garden. We basically used the cevapi to make gyros.

This was really good. After tasting it, I made some updates to the recipe that are reflected above. This is going in the permanent rotation.

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I’ve never been a huge fan of Chicago-style deep dish pizza. That’s not to say I dislike it. I get the itch to have it every so often for variety’s sake. Work seems to take me to Chicago occasionally, so I get to scratch that itch every few years. Lately I’ve been craving a slice of the deep stuff, and to my genuine surprise there’s not a single place that serves Chicago-style deep dish pizza in Greenville, SC.

I’ve written before that there is no great pizza in Greenville. That’s why I built my DIY pizza oven. I mentioned this to someone at work (I commute to Clemson) not too long ago and she said, “there’s a place just down the street that does deep dish.”

I was surprised, so I checked the restaurant’s website. Sure enough, the restaurant’s marketing angle seems to pit NY- against Chicago-style pizzas. I dropped in for lunch last Friday and was happy to see that they indeed offered both styles of pizza on their menu.

“A small sausage and peppers deep dish pizza, please,” I told the waitress. I looked around, but no one seemed to be eating deep dish. “I guess NY wins,” I mumbled to myself.

I settled into my booth, expecting to wait at least half an hour for my lunch. When the pizza came out in ten minutes, it was the second biggest surprise of the meal. The biggest surprise was that my meal wasn’t Chicago-style deep dish pizza at all.

“Excuse me,” I politely said to the waitress. “I think I ordered deep dish?” She looked at me with condescending bemusement and replied, “that is the deep dish.”

She had served me a standard pan pizza. This is what Pizza Hut made famous in the ’80s. It’s basically just a puffier NY-style pizza. I am not a fan of pan pizza. Why would you take the most boring part of a pizza—the crust—and make it 3/4 of every bite? It never made sense to me. I ate a couple of pieces and left. I was back at square one.

As so often happens, the best solution was for me to just do it myself.
 

Making Deep Dish At Home

When you think of Chicago-style deep dish pizza, two varieties come to mind:

1. Standard deep: oiled pan, then dough, then cheese, then toppings, then sauce
2. Giordano’s-style stuffed crust: oiled pan, then dough, then cheese, then toppings, then dough, then sauce

I decided I wanted to make a clone of Lou Malnati’s pizza (video), so I went with variety #1. There’s really not much to this if you know how to work with dough. I doubled this recipe from the pizzamaking.com forums to make two dough balls. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, there are conversions at the link.

Lou Malnati’s Copycat Crust

• Flour (100%): 195 grams all-purpose unbleached (plus 8 grams semolina)
• Water (47%): 95 grams
• Active dry yeast (.7%): 2 grams
• Olive oil (6%): 12 grams
• Corn oil (18.5%): 38 grams
• Butter (1%): 2 grams
• Sugar (1.5%): 3 grams
• Kosher salt: 2 grams

Sift the all purpose and semolina flour to remove any lumps. Add salt, butter, and oils to the flour and combine with a spoon. Heat the water to 110°F. Dissolve the sugar in the water and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow the yeast to activate and foam, then add the water/yeast mixture to the flour mixture. Hand mix with spoon for about 30 seconds. The mixture should form a sticky ball (if it’s too sticky to ball up, add more flour). Knead on a floured work surface for exactly 1 minute. Place the dough ball into an oiled bowl, cover with foil, and put into a 95° oven for 2½ hours (I just heat the oven on the lowest setting for a minute and then turn it off). Remove the dough, punch it down, and let it rest on the counter for another 1½ hours.

Here’s what the dough looks like when it’s punched down after rising in the oven.

Punch it down again before pressing it into the pan. I used two 9″ cake pans greased with olive oil and lightly sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

Press the dough flat (less than 1/4″) in the pan and use your fingers to squeeze the dough up the sides.

I pre-cook my pizza toppings (but not the mushrooms) to cut the grease. Most places in Chicago don’t do this, but I have to please the wife.

Assemble the pizzas. The first layer is sliced mozzarella cheese. These pies had 1/4 pound of cheese each. Then you add the toppings. I made two pies: one with pepperoni, mushrooms, and basil, and another with Italian sausage, onions, and peppers.

The sauce is just a can of crushed San Marzano tomatoes. I simmered the sauce for a minute to infuse a little basil and crushed red pepper. Most places don’t cook their sauce, but it’s necessary for me to replicate the flavor. If you can find the 6 in 1 brand of crushed tomatoes, it’s supposed to be right on the money.

Spoon the tomatoes over the toppings in an even layer. I used a slotted spoon to avoid a watery sauce.

Finally, top with some finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Bake uncovered at 425°F for 25–30 minutes, depending on how brown the crust gets. You want light brown but not burnt. This is what it looks like when it’s done. If I had used a black pan, I would have gotten a slightly darker crust.

The crust came out perfect. That’s the hard thing to get right, but this recipe makes a clone of the best Chicago crust. It’s light, flaky, and buttery, yet strong enough to hold the heavy pie together.

I could have pressed the dough into the corners a little better. Here’s the pepperoni, mushroom, and basil pizza.

This is the one with Italian sausage, onions, and peppers.

You can see the cheese oozing out of the pizza here. Even though I used what I consider to be a lot, I would double the amount to 1/2 pound of cheese per pie next time.

I think I might plan a dinner where I cook Neapolitan, NY-, and Chicago-style pizzas and let the guests vote on their favorite.

The post Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza appeared first on Chad Chandler.

The wife has been updating her sewing and craft studio so she can white label the space and offer it to other entrepreneurs who have need of part-time workspace. When we were on vacation a couple of months ago, our hotel office and cafe made use of wall-mounted butcher paper rolls to display upcoming events and daily menu items. She thought it was a fun concept, especially since she already owns a big roll of white butcher paper. So she tasked me with creating some kind of wall mount system that would allow her and those sharing the space to use the butcher paper the same way they would use an easel pad or a dry-erase board.

I never thought to take progress pics, but it’s a pretty simple build. My explanation will have to do. As luck would have it, I already had some steel hanger brackets from an old project, so I just slapped two 1″ x 10″ x 4′ boards together and placed the brackets a little more than 3′ (the width of the paper roll) apart. Then I used a jigsaw to cut the top shelf so it will accommodate a full paper roll. I used some old, plastic spacers to mount a 1″ x 2″ x 4′ piece of lumber at the bottom to direct the paper against the wall. Then I bought a 1″ x 4′ piece of steel pipe to mount the roll.

I have a deal with the wife. I’ll build anything she wants as long as I don’t have to paint it. I did my part and then she painted everything black. I finished the assembly and hung the mounting system on the wall in her studio. A stud ran directly down the center of where we wanted to hang it, so I put two screws into the stud and used two screws with drywall anchors to hold the ends against the wall.

Here’s how it looks. You can see how simple the construction is from the pictures.

I think this is a pretty cool project. You can use any size roll of paper. It would look good in someone’s office or kitchen or even in a playroom.

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