I pride myself on being a fairly competent cook. While I'm no high-end chef (and thank fuck for that, have you seen the crap they serve on The Bear?), I've always enjoyed preparing meals for myself and my family. It's interesting to me, I've noticed a lot of women around me struggling with cooking, avoiding it altogether saying they can't cook, ordering takeout, subsisting on sandwiches and cold cuts, etc.
It makes me wonder what it means, on a societal level. I know modern so-called feminists will argue it's an improvement since women are no longer confined to the kitchen. In a sense. On the other hand, we're talking about an essential and sacred task, that of providing nourishment to yourself (chiefly) and to your family. There is no life without said nourishment.
I can't help feeling there's something much darker hidden in women's sudden animosity around cooking. A malfunction inside a very old sacred rite whose absence will echo throughout society. Mayhaps.
Until then, I made pizza.
Pizza has always been a culinary goal of mine, one I never dared towards until now. I mean the pizza dough. I've made a lot of pizza from frozen storebought dough, but in my experience, it's a far cry from the original.
Actually, now that I think about it, I think I made a sort-of pizza dough once or twice as a kid. My friend's mom made this homemade pizza that I loved and I got the recipe. To be fair, it was mostly really bread with tomato sauce and some toppings, really. Not exactly true pizza, either.
Mine at least looked the part.
After scouring the Internet, I ended up combining two recipes - this one and this one - since I wasn't happy with the ratios on the first. I used a packet of dry yeast, about 300 ml of water and maybe 600 grams of flour. You'll also need a bit of sugar to develop the yeast.
I was freaked out. I have very little experience with yeast (har-har) as I basically only know one other recipe where I use it, and it's been so tricky over the years. And that's active yeast. With dry, I felt in no man's land.
I'd had a shitty day, too, dealing with unpleasant, rude, crass plumbers that are replacing the building's water system. With less than an hour to go before the big game, I was irritated, all over the place trying to clean the mess, get some laundry in, etc, and sort of winging the pizza recipe.
Never had I been more sure of failure.
What I did: I developed the yeast in a cup of warmed sugary water (not boiling or too hot, as that would kill the yeast, but not too cold, either, as that wouldn't activate it). I mixed it until the powder had blended and left it to sit.
The recipe said you'd know it was done once it formed bubbles on top. Mine didn't so much bubble as sort of swell in the way active yeast does when activated. After 5 minutes, I figured good enough.
I dumped the yeast into a bigger bowl, and mixed thoroughly with one cup of flour. Then, add some salt. Don't add the salt before, as it does not mix with the yeast and needs the flour to act as an intermediary, apparently. It's cool. Who knew? It's like House of Dragon, but with food.
I folded in the rest of the flour, mixing until it was kneady and doughy (in my experience, when it starts making small blisters on top). You can knead it by hand or use one of them swively mixer appliances. Knead, then let sit for about 45 minutes. I ended up leaving mine for almost double that, as the game was on, but it grew nicely. Heat the oven (with the pizza stone/tray inside, maybe.
I only got a picture of the dough when I let it sit. I didn't document the rest, as I figured it would turn out shit. To my surprise...
Alas, my pizza didn't come out thin and Italian-y, but soft and puffy. While it wasn't what I'd hoped for, I was more than pleased for a first attempt. It ended up saving the night, as Romania sadly lost to the Netherlands. So at least there was pizza.