After having lived in Chicago for 10½ years, pizza that’s 3″ thick and full of cheese kinda gets into your blood. I’ve been making Chicago-style deep dish pizza for a number of years, mostly because it’s impossible to get outside of the city. (No, Uno’s doesn’t count. Especially not if you ever had the privilege of going to the original Uno’s. Or the original Gino’s East, with that delicious corn bread crust. Or Giordano’s. Or tasted Edwardo’s stuffed spinach pizza. Or Lou Malnati’s – still my favourite place to head when I have a few hours layover @ ORD.)

Speaking of Edwardo’s, this weekend’s experiment was a stuffed spinach and onion pizza, topped with peameal bacon. That’s what you Americans like to call Canadian bacon, though it’s virtual impossible to find real peameal bacon south of the border.

I’ll post the recipe later – I’m still tweaking it, it’s a combination of my friend Fred’s recipe and one I’ve been working on independently – but this week’s experiment included the following ingredient variations:

• Whole wheat flour (because I’ve run out of all-purpose)
• 1 lb. fresh spinach, wilted in hot pepper olive oil with fresh garlic, stems left on
• A large handful of fresh oregano and basil from the backyard garden
• Pecorino romano instead of parmesan cheese
• Layering, from bottom to top:
  • whole wheat crust
  • brushed with hot pepper olive oil
  • 80/20 mix of shredded mozzarella / shredded romano
  • homemade pizza sauce, from scratch, including fresh herbs
  • Wilted spinach, prepared as above
  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped, raw
  • More 80/20 cheese mix
  • 3-5mm slices of peameal bacon, quartered
  • 20/80 mix of shredded mozzarella / shredded romano
  • edge of crust brushed with melted butter, then re-brushed halfway through baking

The result was outstanding:

The photo was taken after the pizza had cooled off a bit, so imagine it just oozing with juices and smelling outrageously delicious.

Fixes for next time: cook the sauce a bit longer, it was too watery; replace some of the average-grade mozzarella with buffalo mozzarella, especially in the top 2 layers; try a 50/50 mix of white/whole wheat flour in the crust, or possibly corn meal for a corn bread crust.

P.S. This is my 500th post!
P.P.S. Yes, that’s my Kohjinsha SH6 on the left there. I’ll post about it next.

A couple of weeks ago, I made some plum wine (umeshu) with Joanna and her adorable 19-month old daughter Isabella! It’ll be ready to drink in about a year — so Joanna can have a taste, but I think Isabella will still have to wait a bit longer.

You can see the process here. It’s quite simple. The hardest bit is getting the right kind of fruit. Umeshu is usually made from unripe, green plums. I substituted these delicious Ontario yellow plums, what the Quebecois would probably call “des prunes.”

First, sterilize your container. I used an old cookie jar with a sealable top I got at Value Village for about $1, then ran it through the dishwasher. (Be sure to take the rubber gasket off the lid first.) Layer your plums in the container with sugar. Rock sugar is preferable, but since I couldn’t find any, I used some organic sugar I got at the Bulk Barn.

Once you’ve layered the jar with the plums and sugar, you add the alcohol. Typically this would be shochu, a sort of Japanese whiskey made from rice (Suntory Whisky, anyone?). I substituted some cheap sake I got at the LCBO, and added a little Spiritus (95% alcohol) to get the mix around 70-80 proof (what you want).

Seal tightly and shake. Store in a dark, cool place, but not in the refrigerator. Ready in 1 year.

I sure hope it tastes good…