Happy reunions and three more ways with Pizza on the Big Green Egg

Moments don’t come much sweeter.

Throughout the 18 hour journey from Dublin I quelled my nervous anticipation about meeting Dermot again. I practised my “happy face” to mask my disappointment when he reacted warily to me. I warned myself to hold back, not crowd him or drown him in slobbery kisses while he connected the face and the voice with a pixellating image he is vaguely aware of once a week on an iPad and perhaps some tiny memory of his visit to Ireland nearly five months ago.

Shane was at Beijing International Airport to greet me with a hug. MaMa, my quin jia, had a bowl of noodle soup on the table when I was barely in the door of their 21st floor apartment. Shan was waiting to show me my room (Dermot’s room really) . More hugs and smiles. I felt a swooshing release of tension at arriving at my Beijing home. Dermot was having his afternoon nap.

So I waited some more, weary after the journey and with the surreal sense that I had come all this way and perhaps my beloved grandson was a figment of my imagination despite the baby paraphernalia all about. I snuck a look at his sleeping form to reassure myself . He was indeed real.

An hour later a sleepy whimper… I held back as Shane went in to release him from his sleeping bag and lift him over the bars of his cot. Surfacing out of sleep he turned to me, frowned for a moment as the wheels whirred in his little brain and then broke into excited burbles and giggles of pleasure, reaching into my arms.

Moments don’t come much sweeter and Shane had an iPhone in hand to capture it.

Hello Nai Nai

“Yeah!” says Dermot (word of the moment)

What is it with an eight month old baby? a familiar voice, a memory of touch and smell, of me crooning to him out of tune in the early hours in Duncannon last June, a recognition of his father in me? All I know is that when our eyes locked we were connected again as if by an invisible thread. For the next hour he examined me closely, my face, my hands, my finger nails painted a suitable Chinese red “ooh, tasty…”, my rings, my watch, as if he too wanted to confirm that I was real.

And now we are pals again, getting to know the Gruffalo and a noisy toy guitar, him careering around the apartment in his walker for nai nai hugs – our very own “Derminator”, plopped on the floor of his play room with my quin jia and a neighbouring nai nai with her one year old grandson PePe, swapping words using Google Translate so that his grannies can tell him the names of animals and numbers in Mandarin and English. And when we are on Skype to his Grandad in Dublin, he cranes his neck to look back up at me and stares intently at the iPad screen as if to say “ah, now I’m beginning to get this Skype lark.”

Shan’s MaMa, my quin jia, is a special woman, warm, generous and with an engaging sense of fun. We have found a way of making sense to one another when alone and then Shan and Shane fill the gaps when they are at home. She has been trying out pizzas in their tiny electric oven since Shane introduced her to the concept at a local Italian here in Beijing and she is very enthusiastic about helping me make them in Duncannon at Christmas.

So here, as promised, are the three other toppings I tried with the Pizza Stone on the Big Green Egg recently. I made these using the Birra Moretti base and cooking method set out in the last post. I would love some more  suggestions for toppings that might appeal to my Chinese visitors in December.

Butternut Squash and Goat’s Cheese Pizza

This recipe came from my Italian friend Solange. She and Agustin based it on their favourite pizza in her local pizzeria in Pontadera, Italy. It’s what the Italians call a “white pizza” as it doesn’t have a tomato base.

Ingredients

• ¼portion of Birra Moretti pizza dough (see last post)
• 1 small or half a large butternut squash
• Olive oil
• Sea salt and black pepper to season
• 1 small packet of sliced goat’s cheese
• 2 tbs of chopped fresh rosemary
• Semolina for dusting the pizza peel

I used this goat’s cheese that Solange buys in Ireland.

Sliced Goat’s Cheese

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Slice the butternut squash in two and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast uncovered in the oven on a baking tray until the flesh is tender and can be pierced with a fork. Allow to cool completely then scoop out the flesh and dice.
3. Roll out your pizza base and cover with a layer of goats cheese. Scatter over the butternut squash and rosemary.
4. Drizzle with a little olive oil, season with black pepper.
5. Bake in the Big Green Egg (at 220 – 250 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes or in a conventional oven (at 200 – 220 degrees C) for 18 to 20 minutes until golden with a crisp base.

Potato, Pancetta and Shiitake Pizza

Pizza with potato and bacon topping has always been one of my favourites at Gotham Cafe in South Anne St., Dublin where it is called a “Flatiron”. I created my own variation of it and added in some sautéed Irish shiitake mushrooms which I found in The Happy Pear in Greystones. This year is a wonderful year for wild Irish mushrooms so ceps or other native varieties would also work. This is also a “white pizza”.

Ingredients

• ¼portion of Birra Moretti pizza dough (see last post)
• 2 to 3 medium potatoes, peeled
• 100g pancetta, diced
• 100g fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tbs of chopped fresh rosemary
• 100g Taleggio cheese, diced
• 50g Parmigiano cheese, grated
• Light olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Semolina for dusting the pizza peel

Method

1. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for about 20 minutes until tender. Leave to cool then slice thinly.
2. Meanwhile fry the pancetta in a dry pan over medium heat for a few minutes until softened but not crispy, then drain on kitchen paper
3. Fry the mushrooms in a little light olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes to soften, then drain of any excess liquid.
4. Roll out your pizza dough and arrange the slices of potato on top. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for about 8 minutes in the Big Green Egg (at 220 – 250 degrees C) or for 15 minutes in a conventional oven (at 200 – 220 degrees C).
5. Then scatter with the pancetta, mushrooms, cheeses and rosemary, season with salt and pepper, drizzle again with oil and bake for a further 4 to 5 minutes on the Big Green Egg or 7 to 8 minutes in a conventional oven until the cheese has melted.

Roasted Peppers, Mozzarella and Basil Pizza

To be honest this was just a way of using up left overs from the other three pizzas I made that weekend and a reminder of how simple and delicious a pizza can be.

Ingredients

• ¼portion of Birra Moretti pizza dough (see last post)
• About 5 tbs spicy tomato sauce, cooled (see last post for recipe)
• 1 to 2 roasted and skinned red peppers (mine were from the deli counter at Cavistons in Greystones)
• 100g fresh buffalo mozzarella
• A handful of fresh basil leaves
• Light olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Semolina for dusting the pizza peel

Method

1. Sliced the red peppers into segments and the mozzarella into similar size pieces.
2. Roll out your pizza base and brush with the spicy tomato sauce.
3. Arrange the pepper and mozzarella slices in a cartwheel, reserving one piece of mozzarella for the centre.
4. Scatter with basil leaves, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
5. Bake in the Big Green Egg (at 220 – 250 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes or in a conventional oven (at 200 – 220 degrees C) for 18 to 20 minutes until golden with a crisp base.

Enjoy! Next up is cooking lessons from Beijing.