The first time we made grilled pizzas, Lenny thought I lost my mind. The next time we decided to make them, I also decided our guests would make their own individual ones, he really thought I lost my mind. Both times, he was wrong. Grilling pizza is easy and having your guests make their own is a huge hit!
Recently, when we had a warm pre-summer evening, we invited a couple friends over for pizza and wine. The only thing was, they would be cooking their own pizzas. These friends were newbies to our pizza dinner party concept and they loved it! As this was completely last minute (say 6pm) we were not prepared, so we had to use what we had in the house. The toppings we came up with was: black truffles, white corn, cilantro, prosciutto, caramelized fennel with red peppers, blue cheese, Parmesan cheese, and eggs.
We have been meaning to give Celine a new recipe using her wonderful truffles and used this opportunity to exactly that. We made a luscious prosciutto and black truffle pizza with egg – it was amazing!!! Slightly salty and earthy with the creamiest of the just cooked egg! If you love pizza, prosciutto and truffles, this is your pizza!
Recipe: Grilled Prosciutto & Black Truffle Pizza
pizza dough, see recipe above
parmesan cheese
good quality prosciutto
good quality black truffles
organic eggs
black truffle oil
sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
Basically, we used our basic pizza dough recipe, topped it with Parmesan cheese, prosciutto and black truffles; grilling it just until the dough was set and then topping it with an egg and cooking for another 3 – 5 minutes, depending on how you like your egg. Before serving drizzling with a little black truffle oil, a sprinkle of sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper …. amazing!
Chez Us (particularly Lenny) is hungry for a burger and not an ordinary burger such as this Chipotle Buffalo Burger with Feta Cheese, he needs something more. The search is on for the Ultimate Burger.
Chipotle Buffalo Burger with Feta on a Baguette
Lenny is on a quest and he NEEDS your help!
Do you have the Ultimate Burger? We challenge you to make us drool and want more! Get out there create that burger, snap a photo, write a post about it (be sure to include a link to the ULTIMATE BURGER CONTEST) and send an email with all the mentioned goodies over to the head burger master: hamburger@chezus.com.
We are giving a prize for the Ultimate Burger, it is this great cookbook. “Build a Better Burger“.
If you don’t have a food site or blog, then you can still email us everything minus a link to a site.
We will update this post with the burgers as they come in!
Hungry? No food in the house? Don’t want to do a big grocery shop? Not take out again! This is an easy dinner to make in a snap. Hot Italian Sausage grilled to perfection and served on warm toasty ciabatta bread with caramelized onions, red peppers and fennel pollen.
We are not quit settled into our new place. Boxes are everywhere. The fridge is bare. The pantry is smaller, so there is not much there. And we are tried of take out. On our way home from work we stopped by our favorite little neighborhood market, BiRite, with all intentions of picking up stuff for spring pea soup – they were out of peas. Time to switch gears. After wandering around, I found some of their housemade sausage and decided to make sandwiches.
A couple Superbowls back we made a warm red pepper slaw and served it with sausage, this is where I got the inspiration for this dish. I was going to toss in thin slices of fennel but then remembered the lovely addition to the package, David of Earthy Delights sent us, Fennel Pollen; this would be perfect, I was sure! I slowly caramelized yellow onions with red peppers and seasoned with black Hawaiian Lava salt flakes and before serving, sprinkled the fennel pollen over it – WOW! Not only does the pollen smell fantastic but it tastes amazing.
Before reading the recipes don’t forget to FLIP OUT & enter our gift away!
Recipe: Caramelized Onions and Red Peppers
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
black hawaiian salt flakes, to taste
fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
3 teaspoons fennel pollen
2 of your favorite sausage, grilled; we used hot italian sausage
2 ciabatta, split in half and warmed
Heat olive oil in large skillet. Add onions and peppers, lower heat, and slowly cook, stirring often until caramelized, about 15 – 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off heat and sprinkle fennel pollen over the top.
To serve: split ciabatta in half, layer with caramelized mixture and top with grilled sausage. Serve. Eat.
In Greece they make Souvlaki by marinating chunks of meat, usually pork or lamb, in olive oil, lemon juice and oregano, then they grill it over an open fire. This dish is easy to make at home and we show you how you can make it with a grill pan if you do not have access to a BBQ or open fire.
We love Greek Food but never seem to eat it that often. Over dinner tonight we reminisced about how much we really enjoy it and that we only seem to eat it when we are in Hawaii or Paris – some of favorite Greek restaurants are there.
This recipe is fantastic as it brings Greece into your dining room, in under an hour. I used fresh Meyer Lemons and oregano for the marinade; it was incredibly aromatic while sitting out on the counter as well as when cooking. It filled our tiny kitchen with fresh scents of citrus and grilled meat just as it is on the streets of Greece … okay, we have not been to Greece, but we have a feeling this is what it would smell like, as it does in one of our favorite neighborhoods in Paris.
Pork Souvlaki is about to become our favorite summertime grilled meals, I cannot wait to try it with lamb. You will love it was well!
Recipe: Pork Souvlaki with Tzatziki
* adapted from Food & Wine
1 1/4 pounds trimmed pork shoulder, cut into 3-by- 1/2-inch strips or you can use lamb
1 large onion, cut through the root end into 1/2-inch wedges
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 meyer lemons squezzed, reserve the juice
1/8 cup chopped fresh oregano
2 garlic cloves, mashed to a paste
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
7 oz Greek-style whole-milk yogurt
1/2 European cucumber, seeded and finely diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
Warm pita, for serving
n a medium bowl, toss the pork strips and onion wedges with the olive oil, lemon juice, chopped oregano and garlic paste. Season with 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and let stand for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix the yogurt, cucumber, and the mint. Season the tzatziki with salt and pepper.
Heat a large cast-iron griddle or grill pan until very hot. Add the pork and onion wedges along with any marinade and cook over high heat, turning once or twice, until the pork and onion are tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer the pork and onion to plates and serve with the tzatziki, and pita.
While we were in Montana last November I wrote a post about how I was appalled that the beef sold at the local grocery store (Safeway) was not local beef. Instead it was from somewhere else. Shortly after coming home from Montana I received an email from Le Cense, which happens to be in Dillon, Montana, which happens to be where we were for over a week – they are not only local but they have grass-fed beef! Long story short, they sent us some steaks, which we have had in the freezer. We did do a steak tasting with one of them and have been saving the rest for another night. Tonight was the night.
We had planned on having dinner with a friend of ours, but that never happened. While we were looking forward to hanging out with him, gnawing on some beef, drinking wine and catching up, we were kind of excited to be home alone as it has been a pretty crazy couple of weeks. Dinner was going to be simple. Pan grilled steaks, some veggies and a great bottle of 2006 Tobin James Cab/Syrah blen(big & bold so that it would stand up next to the steaks) .
I have learned more the past month, about the beef industry and the beef we purchase and eat, then I ever thought I would – this is a very good thing! Being a regular reader you know how I was appalled but intrigued, when I found out that the beef we purchased, while in Montana, was not from Montana; but, instead imported from either the USA, Mexico or Canada. Shortly after that post I received an email from Le Cense saying they were shipping us some steaks out to us. Now this was funny being we were just in Dillon, MT and did not have the access nor the resources to try out the beef while there. As well, due to this post, I had the pleasure of meeting Carrie of The Oliver Ranch Company, they hand-select Artisan Ranchers who produce delicious (we have yet to try, but am pretty sure of it) cuts of meat. Carrie enlightened me to how the industry works, from how the cattle is raised at birth to slaughter – it truly was fascinating and I cannot wait to suck all this knowledge in even more so in 2009.
But at this time I am going to go back to the steak tasting we did using one of the the Le Cense steaks and 3 other brands. While I was in Reno last week I sucked in my sister and brother inlaw as well as two friends to be the guinea pigs for our 1st Chez Us steak tasting. I used the Le Cense steak as well as two steaks I purchased at Whole Foods – one being grass feed and the other being hormone free (I will list the ranches later), the other two steaks I purchased at Raleys and they were just your run of the mill, “could be from the USA, Canada or Mexico” beef.
I am basically behind on life. I can not seem to catch up on working, phone calls (sorry everyone), emails and especially Chez US. Life has become so incredibly busy with switching over to FVM and getting back into the “work” mode instead of fun. Who was I kidding, make a major life changing change during SUMMER FUN!
Anyhow, enough whining! The weather was scorching hot the past few days and one must take advantage when that happens in the city. We were really taking advantage of it … late night dining on the deck, leaving work early for icy cold beers beers at Revolution, scooter rides and now, we decided to invite a couple friends over on Saturday night for a bbq.
While we love to entertain, we both hate the fact that, that means I cook and barely get a chance to really sit down and enjoy everyones company. So, we came up with the idea of grilled pizzas; but, setting up a make your own pizza bar and to have everyone get dirty. Now this “revelation” came to us, during one of these pre-mentioned late night dinners, so when I was setting up everything, it just suddenly hit Lenny in the head like a 2 ton brick! “What?” “Have everyone make their own?” “Have them come in & out, making pizzas?” Did I lose my mind somewhere between, “What a Great Idea” and “WHAT????”. The plan did not CHANGE
