Stove top pizza
One of the biggest things to get used to in moving from the US to Korea is learning to cook without an oven. Korean homes, by and large, do not have ovens. Ovens are becoming more popular these days, but if you're living in an apartment? You are doing all your cooking on a pair of electric range burners. Needless to say, if you want to continue making the recipes that you love, you will have to get a little creative. Home-made pizza is one of our favorites and, if we wanted to continue making it, we had to figure out how to do it on some burners. After consulting various online sources, and a bit o trial and error, we figured out a recipe.
This recipe will make one thick crust pizza in a roughly 10 to 11 inch frying pan. We recommend using a frying pan that is at least 10 or 11 inches. If you have a smaller frying pan, you may want to use less dough. If your crust is too thick, it won’t cook correctly.
½ t. active dry yeast
½ t. honey/sugar
½ c. warm water
1 c. all purpose flour
½ t. baking powder
pinch of salt
a good dash of garlic powder or one minced clove of garlic
Mix yeast and honey or sugar into the warm water. The water should be warm, but not hot. You are trying to activate the yeast, and hot water will kill it. Let the yeast mixture stand for about 5 minutes, until the water is cloudy and slightly frothy.
Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture, and mix ingredients thoroughly. If you have a little extra time, and you want an airier crust, you can knead the dough for about five minutes. The dough should be elastic and soft, but dry. You can add small amounts of flour as kneading to reach this consistency. Then let the dough rise for ½ hour. (If you’re hungry and you don’t want to take the extra time, you CAN skip kneading and rising. The dough will cook just fine, though it will be more dense).
Turn on your burner and preheat it to medium heat with the frying pan off the burner.
Grease frying pan lightly but thoroughly with olive oil or some other vegetable oil. Press dough out in the frying pan until it fills the pan.
At this point, you add whatever pizza toppings suit your fancy. For the pizza in the picture, we used olive oil, basil, garlic, oregano, red peppers, and cheese.
Cover the frying pan tightly with a lid or foil… we’ve also used an inverted metal bowl that completely covered the pan. Place the covered frying pan on the burner and cook for five minutes on medium heat.
Open cover slightly to vent the moisture. Reduce burner heat to medium low. Let the pizza continue to cook for another 15 -20 minutes with the lid slightly ajar.
Devour.
-Sam and Erin