Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season filled with friends, food and relaxation. Burma was quite the trip and I’m still a little jetlagged with thousands of pictures to sort through but if you want a sneak peek, I have complied a set in Flickr of the “on the go” pics from the trip from my iPhone. They’re not the best but you will get the idea of the trip pretty quickly – lots of fab food and pagodas!
This first Tuesdays with Dorie/ Baking with Julia recipe for 2013 (Pizza with Onion Confit, p 159) was kind of a perfect one to welcome us home – after a steady diet of noodles and rice (not that we were complaining!), pizza was something both of us were craving a little, though not a rich cheesy, heavy kind of pizza. So this one was perfect.
The dough was easy enough though I did find it a little on the dry side and found myself adding a touch more olive oil and water before it felt like an “elastic” dough. I know that I still need to work on figuring out pizza dough though because this effort, whilst tasty, was not quite there. The edges puffed and crisped and looked right but the middle was a little too dense (thin, granted, but dense and not quite “pizza dough” in its consistency.
It would have been tasty enough on its own but I added some arugula, for both colour as well as a taste contrast. The confit onions (basically caramelized – brilliant, I must say – with a touch of red wine and crème de cassis) were quite sweet so I added the goat cheese for some sharper flavour but it still needed more. Fresh arugula piled on the pizza just before serving added some bitter as well as crunch (and colour!).
A perfect segue into “western” food after our trip.
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia hosted by Paul of The Boy Can Bake and you can find the recipe posted on his blog. Tuesdays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs except if we happen to be the host for the week, rather, we prefer if you purchase Baking with Julia for yourselves which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us, baking along at Tuesdays with Dorie. Go on, you know you want to.
It has the perfect color, and arugula was a must! I didn´t have any at home when I made this, too bad. Those pics from the trip are fabulous, the colors! Happy New Year Mardi!
Thanks Paula – I was pretty pleased. Not perfect but not bad!
No, this definitely did not make my list of top 10 or 20 favorite pizza doughs – but we loved the onion topping. Adding the arugula was the right call – because those wine-tinged onions were rather off-putting.
Oh I loved the onions but the colour was a bit odd before they went in the oven…
I love the term “western food”! Made me laugh when I was in Malaysia!
Finding a good recipe for pizza dough is so hard. I agree with you that they all work out more or less, but they are never quite like pizza!
Nothing *quite* like it huh?
Ooh Burma! I’m going to go check out your pics right now! The pizza with arugula looks great! I can never ever find arugula here so maybe I will try to grow some next summer.
Growing your own arugula? Wow – impressive!
Looks marvellous – I’d never considered creme de cassis as a pairing with onion but I bet it goes very well, especially with some nice cheese.
Yes it really did work!
Very nice! The edges of the pizza colored up nicely, and it really does look nice with that pop of green! Beautiful!
Thanks so much Sara!
I love the look of arugula topping a pizza. Looks so fresh.
I found the dough a little stiff. But I think I shouldn’t have just followed the recipe when it said to add 2 cups of flour. I should have added a little at a time and checked it along the way. So my first pizza crust seemed a little tough. But the other half of dough I left in the fridge overnight. The next day I made another pizza and the crust was so much better. Guess it just needed a rest.
I didn’t add all the flour and it was still stiff…
I’m on a serious pizza kick lately and this looks DIVINE. I crack for anything with caramelized onions!
Yes this is a great combo!
Your pizza looks nice!!! I love arugula on top, it gives a lovely color, and I’m sure a good taste!!!
I enjoyed the onion confit, but I didn’t put the crème de cassis inside, so maybe it’s the reason it wasn’t too sweet!!! Great job!!!
I think it needed the crème de cassis to give it a little “ooomph”. I didn’t find them too sweet, they just needed something to offset it.
The onion must be so sweet & tangy…
It was a little sweet, yes, hence the need for arugula/ rocket.
From rice and noodles to pizza – a cultural bridge indeed.
Welcome back, Mardi.
Indeed!
Mardi, may i say that we seem to have had similar ideas more than once (so far) as far as the recipes for both the FFwD as well as the TwD groups go. You made a very pretty (and very tasty sounding) presentation of the pizza with the onion confit, arugula and goat cheese – I went with watercress, goat cheese and fresh figs. This was a wonderful recipe that left a lot of room for all kinds of wonderful ideas for different toppings!
I love the idea of figs – seems a few people used them and I will next time too!
Beautiful pictures and wonderful post! Welcome home. Blessings, Catherine
Thanks so much.
I used arugula (rocket in aussie) too. Great photos! Re noodles, I am getting ready for a lot of traditional Chinese food with Chinese new year coming up.
Yeah, I call it rocket too 😉
You pizza looks so fresh and light!
Love the colours
Thanks so much.
Beautiful pizza! I agree that the dough was a little tough. Still, it was a good pizza.
Yeah, I need to work on this…
Confit onions- yes please! This pizza looks delish- though I don’t eat gluten so I am still ever searching for the perfect GF pizza crust. Thanks for sharing this- is anything ever bad with arugula on top!?
Arugula, onions and goat cheese make a great topping!
I enjoyed your photos during your trip, Mardi. Beautiful job on the pizza. The arugula was a good choice not only for color, but I am sure it offset the sweetness of the onions perfectly.
Yes I thought it needed it for sure..
Love your pizza with arugula and goat cheese. Looked up your pics on Burma. What a fabulous trip. Great photos.
Cheers 🙂
Your crust got great color! That’s where you get flavor when your dough kind of carmelizes. Pale dough doesn’t have as much flavor. Good job! I don’t care for a pizza entirely of carmelzied onions either. I use them as a condiment or complimentary topping with other ingredients that go together.
Yes I was happy with the crust!
The arugula makes it looks so fresh.
Yes I think it needed it!
We made similar pizzas. In addition to the goat cheese and arugula, I added dried figs. I thought this was a wonderful recipe. You made a beautiful pizza.
Oh I love the idea of figs!