Monday 5 March 2018

Fried pizza or What to do when your gas flow goes low!

Ever since our new gas maters were put in, whenever it rains we have trouble lighting our oven.  So much trouble that on Friday night when I tried to light the oven to bake pizza, I ended up frying pizza on the stovetop.  It was ok but not the same as baked pizza.  But as I  may have to do it again, I thought it was something to write about.  It seems crazy to fry pizza but it is an option when ovens break or you don't want to turn on the oven in a heatwave.

I have had a few times when I could not light our oven. Or rather the oven lights but will not stay lit, or even more frustratingly will seem to stay lit until I check in 5 minutes, 10 minutes or even when a cake should be baked and it is out.  I have had more than one occasion when I have sat with a newspaper to read while I hold my hand against the oven knob to keep it on to bake sausage rolls.

So right now I usually bake with contingency plans in mind.  Meaning that I am quite cautious about what I bake and am baking far less than I would like.

The pizza I made is my regular Fast track sourdough pizza dough. Let me tell you how I fried it:
  • This pizza recipe makes a very sticky dough so I had to pat it out on baking paper.
  • Flip the dough with paper still sticking to it upside down on a buttered frypan over medium high heat Fry for a few minutes with the paper on dough and a lid on the frypan until it gets a cooked dumpling look - doughy but less floppy.
  • Peel the paper off the dough.  If it sticks the pizza is not quite cooked enough and might need another minute or so.
  • Flip the pizza (I used an eggflip), it should have brown markings on the underside when it is turned over.it
  • Spread the tomato paste and sprinkle with grated cheese.
  • Cook a further few minutes with the lid on again.  It is cooked when brown marks on the underside and the cheese is melted.
  • Slide it onto a plate cheese side up!

Next time I might put it under the grill at the end to crisp up the cheese.  I lost the will to add extra toppings but might if I fry pizza again.  If I wanted to put extra toppings on top I would make sure they are cooked before cooking the pizza (eg mushrooms and red peppers) or use toppings that don't need cooking (like olives and tinned pineapple).

Yes I was pretty annoyed about my oven.  I blame the gas company because this has only started to happen since the new gas meters went in.  So as I stood there in despair over my oven I rang the gas and was told they would check the meter.  Ironically instead of having my pizza cooked by 6.30, it was not cooked until about 8pm when I was doing the last pizza.  At which time the gas man arrived to turn off my gas and check the meter.  I was pretty unimpressed at how hard it was to cook a pizza!

He says there is no problem.  I say there is.  He checked my appliances and found the gas hose under my oven is pinched so the flow is not great.  So I need a plumber to fix it.  But it still doesn't explain why I have had poor gas flow since I have lived in the house and why it got even worse since the new meters arrived (as well as them doing their best to ruin the bit of garden by taking out all the plants and then leaving off the garden edging so all the soil ran out when it rained next).

 Yes I am frustrated.  Indeed.  But I am relieved that I can fry pizza!  And can you blame me if I need a chocolate dessert pizza to get me through the night!

UPDATE: April 2018 - the oven is finally fixed - check out my In My Kitchen post with more details on the saga.

9 comments:

  1. We use exactly that technique for pizza over a barbecue grill, including the baking paper to stablize the soft dough when you place it on the grill, and then flipping & putting the ready-to-eat toppings on the cooked side.

    Your gas company sounds pretty bad! Sorry for your difficulties.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. "It seems crazy to fry pizza but it is an option when ovens break or you don't want to turn on the oven in a heatwave."
    Wow. You seem so calm and steady and I really admire how you were able to quickly come up with an alternative when the oven wouldn't work (we have a very large toaster oven for such instances).
    I also find it a little suspect that it seems that the flow of gas isn't great from a pinched hose and it wasn't noticed until after they changed the meters. That would really annoy me. Sometimes when we need things fixed, the blame always is placed elsewhere. We recently had the streetlamps on our street changed to new, more efficient LED, which I honestly appreciate, but they are SO BRIGHT that we cannot sleep with our sheer blind. We now have to buy curtains. I tried emailing them about it and they said to suck it up (not in those words, but you know...).
    "And can you blame me if I need a chocolate dessert pizza to get me through the night!"
    Most definitely ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I feel your pain with the gas people. I had a complete circus trying to get a final reading on my rental when I moved out about a month ago. Let's say the conversations were lengthy and not pretty. However, fried pizza sounds good to me, albeit unintended.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a fun twist on pizza. I shall remember it if our oven dies! I do like the idea of having an alternative to oven cooking for hot periods too (less relevant in the UK but nevertheless) :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've made pizza in the pan before, but then have normally put it to the oven to get nicely grilled on the top as well. But it looks like it's also fully fine on the pan alone. I might also try it one time. It's good that you are thrifty anyway, when not everything works. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I did not know that you could fry pizza, and I'm impressed to find out you can. At least you got some hard won experimental and dessert pizza to compensate you for all the annoyance. I hope you get the gas sorted somehow.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, how frustrating! My mum used to use the electric frypan to make pizza when I was a kid, though like VegHog's the cheese received an extra grilling at the end.

    ReplyDelete
  8. How irritating for you. I hate when I am trying to solve a problem and no one will take responsibility and keep passing the buck. I’m impressed you stayed (relatively) calm and still managed to get a tasty looking pizza variation on the table though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That doesn't sound like fun. What a frustration for you. Mind you.... I think I would have given up trying to cook and head out for take away..... So hats off to you for making pizza x

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)