Thai Chicken Pizza On Studio 5

Sorry!  I didn't tell anyone except my mom that I was going to be on Studio 5 today.  I didn't find out until Tues. and you know how it goes.  So for anyone who cares here's the recipe I did today, and also a link to the segment.  Sorry grandma!  She always wants to know, and I just didn't tell today.  I hope you still love me:)

Studio 5 Cooking Segment


Original Post



One of the best weeks of the year is when my little family spends a few days on the shores of Jackson Lake in Teton National Park.  It has become a tradition over the last 7 years.  It started in a canoe with a lot of portaging and paddling, and has evolved into packing the ski boat down with all sorts of camping gear and buzzing off to a remote back country camping site.  For years James and I would stuff one canoe with four kids, and all our gear and canoe up String Lake and then have to unload everything and portage across to Leigh Lake to finally paddle to a beautiful little camp site at the base of Mount Moran.  It still is the most stunning camp site on the planet, but after I shared it one year with a cute grizzly bear I asked if we couldn't find a way to evacuate our camp site a little easier than paddling our canoe back three hours to the car.  Bears can swim you know.  So now our lake of choice is Jackson Lake where motor boats are permitted.  We are usually the only boater on the lake.  Actually I feel like the only humans on the entire planet most years at Jackson Lake.

I have never seen more beautiful water than Jackson Lake.  The trip is magical.  The kids laughing, and getting along, and playing non-stop Uno.  Fishing, and whittling, and eating camping treats.  Roasting marshmallows, and drinking unlimited hot chocolate on each chilly morning, and just staring at the most beautiful surroundings in the world.  The trip is perfection.  Do you ever get that feeling, where you don't think you could be any happier than right at that moment in time?  I have that every year.

The annual camping trip has evolved over the years.  I first tried to do some pretty fancy camping meals, but over time I've realized that simplicity is key to a fabulous trip.  And I've also realized that there is the best little pizza joint right on the lake and it's only a 10 minute boat ride to get there.  It's become the highlight of the trip.  We play hard all day, jump in the boat and enjoy the water as we head to Leek's Marina on the North end of Jackson Lake.  There they have the best pizza on the planet!  Really!  We always get the Thai Chicken Pizza, and the Margherita Pizza as well.  We eat to our hearts content and then jump back in the boat to head back to our campsite for smore's or eclairs.  Nothing can beat this.  So if you're traveling to Yellowstone by way of Jackson Hole you'll go right past Leek's Marina in Teton National Park.  Tell them I sent you.  Just kidding.  They won't care.   But I promise the pizza is superb, and your tummy will be happy all the way to Old Faithful.

Thai Chicken Pizza

Pizza Dough

Courtesy of The Pioneer Woman

FOR THE CRUST ( I actually doubled the recipe and have a Ziploc filled with extra dough.  It lasts a while.  It probably makes about 10-12 individual sized pizzas.)

1 teaspoon Active Dry Or Instant Yeast

4 cups All-purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

TO MAKE THE CRUST:

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.

In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it. ***It's best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

Toppings:

Shredded cooked chicken

fresh bean sprouts

shredded carrots

sliced red onions

cilantro or basil

Mozzarella cheese

chopped peanuts 

drizzle of peanut sauce

I roll out the pizza and drizzle it with Olive Oil.  I then top it with all the good stuff and bake in a 500' F. oven until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden.  Drizzle the peanut sauce over the pizza right before eating.

Thai Peanut Sauce

1/4 c. peanut butter

1/8 c. fish sauce or soy sauce

sugar to taste

Thai chili paste

water to thin

Stir all these together and taste.  Add a little more sugar or fish sauce to adjust to your taste.  Thin with a little water and drizzle over your pizza.  You'll love it!

Studio 5 and Spring Rolls

Darin, Me and Jimmy

Yeah I am just giving my fellow loved ones a heads up.  I have gotten in trouble the last few times for not mentioning that I'm going to be on Studio 5 from my family, so here's your notice.

Studio 5

Date:  Monday March 14, 2011

Time:  10-11 am

Place:  KSL Channel 5

Menu Item:  Spring Rolls

Who:  Me and James will be cheering me on from the sidelines!  I love him!!

The actual filming of the segment.  

We're going to be having a Spring Roll bar!  I posted about this last year and I'll do it again.  It's that good. I hope some of my friends tried these and maybe after watching how easy it is, more of you will make them.  Last year I called them Winter Wraps since we had received so much snow, and I'm starting to feel the same this year, but maybe calling them by their given name, that will usher in some warmer weather.  It's always fun to do a Studio 5 segment.  Darin Adam's was a friend way back in our Pocatello days and it is always fun to laugh with him.  And Brooke.  Well she's as fun and nice in person as she is on TV.  Hey Katie do you want to come down with me?  Anyways I hope you enjoy the recipe and the segment come Monday.  (I'll leave a link Monday for those of you not in Utah who would like to see the segment.)  I love all your guts!!  Lisa

(Original post from last year!)

They're actually called Vietnamese Salad Rolls, Thai Spring Wraps, or Summer Rolls but maybe I'll just call them Winter Wraps since it seems to be winter around here. I think we've received close to a foot of new snow. What an April Fools. A few weeks ago James and I attended a convention for Great Harvest in Napa Valley. It is a beautiful place even if you don't drink, but a favorite part of the trip was being able to take a cooking class at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. It was fantastic!! The building is the most amazing old wine cellar that has been converted into the most beautiful cooking school and restaurant around. Our class was very intimate. Only about 19 people, and the class was on Vietnamese Salad Rolls. I asked the instructor what the difference was in Thai Spring Wraps and Summer Rolls and he said it just depends on what country you're in. All of the above are one in the same. I've wanted to learn how to make these for quite some time, but I've just never got the courage up to do it by myself. Well I'm never going to let those little wraps intimidate me again. They were so tasty and really easy.

There really is no cooking involved with making salad rolls, but we learned a lot about flavors blending together. Each one of us had a little tray with all the goods to make the salad rolls and a dipping sauce. It was amazing how everyone's dipping sauce tasted so different. We all started with chopped garlic, sambal chili sauce, sugar, lime juice and fish sauce. If you don't know what fish sauce is, it is exactly what the name states. Barrels are filled with fish and then layered with salt, more fish, salt and on and on until it's full. The barrels are then left in the sun for months. The liquid is then drained off and bottled. Wa-La! Fish Sauce! It sounds sick and it smells sick, but it tastes lovely. It is what countries like Vietnam, and Thailand use instead of soy sauce.

Each one of us was then asked to create a sauce using all of the ingredients and varying how much of one thing we used to balance with the other ingredients. I like my sauce sweet and James' was a bit more salty. I also thinned mine with a little water and James used his straight up. It was so fun and so tasty. I was so excited to try it out at home.

The Saturday after we returned home we set up a wrap station in the kitchen for lunch and the kids went wild. I wasn't sure if the little boys would like the rolls so much. It's a ton of veggies, but they devoured about 10 wraps together. If you have all of your ingredients already chopped and ready to go the making of the rolls is quick. We made them again a few days later they were that good. I've been able to find all the ingredients for these wraps in my regular grocery store. An Asian market is always fun to visit as well. The picture below of the finished wraps is two wraps cut on a bias. Emma actually made one and I made the other. These little love nuggets are dang good and super duper healthy. Tons of raw veggies, some rice noodles (I added coconut milk and curry to mine.) and a protein of choice. We used shrimp in Napa, but chicken was perfect at home. You are going to love these babies!

Vietnamese Salad Rolls (AKA Winter Rolls)

1 (8 ounce) package rice vermicelli

8 ounces cooked, peeled shrimp, cut in half lengthwise (Or chicken)

8 rice wrappers (6.5 inch diameter)

(They are round disks that have a basket weave texture on them. You can find them just about anywhere.)

1 carrot, julienned

1 cup shredded lettuce (I used spinach)

chopped Napa Cabbage or purple cabbage (I used both. It was pretty.)

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil or mint or cilantro

Directions

Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Remove from heat. Place rice vermicelli in boiling water, remove from heat, and let soak 3 to 5 minutes, until soft. Drain, and rinse with cold water. I then added a can of coconut milk, a little sugar, curry powder or paste and a dash of fish sauce. I cooked the noodles until they had absorbed the coconut milk.

Fill a large bowl with hot water. Dip one rice wrapper in the hot water for 5-10 seconds to soften. You don't want them too soft. They'll be totally soft by the time it is ready to roll up. Lay wrapper flat, and place desired amounts of noodles, shrimp, carrot, lettuce and basil in the center. Roll the edges of the wrapper slightly inward. Beginning at the bottom edge of wrapper, tightly wrap the ingredients. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Serve the spring rolls with dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce

Chopped garlic

Sambal chili paste

sugar

lime juice or vinegar

fish sauce or soy sauce

Add little amounts of the above ingredients and stir until sugar is dissolved. Taste before using and add what you think it needs. I like it a bit sweeter. Experiement!