saint_monkey

• Sun, 19:04: Just made some Phad Thai, it always tastes so good, but always takes a ton of concentration to get it all together.

The recipe is all prep, then a few minutes (no more than 7 or so) of cooking. It's like a fried rice in that regard. It's all in the assembly.

The other tricky bit is that this makes 1 portion, the recipe can be doubled or tripled, but the phad thai (or at least the noodles and the sauce part of it) must always be made 1 portion at a time because of the technique used.

Soak Phad Thai noodles (4 oz) for 20 minutes in warm water, drain and set aside.

Dice 4 to 8 oz of firm tofu into small "dice," Make a mixture of 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon of tamari, 1 teaspoon of tahini. Add a little water to thin it out if necessary. (I usually leave it thick, it coats inconsistently but that's fine with me.) Toss the tofu in this mixture until well coated. Set aside.

Dice 4 cloves of garlic or 1 shallot, (or a little of both) set aside.

Cut 5 to 10 asparagus spears into small 1 inch pieces, set aside.

Beat 1 egg, set aside.

Mix together 2 teaspoons of tamarind paste, 2 teaspoons of "XO" sauce, 1 to 2 teaspoons fish sauce, a pinch of red chili flake, 1 tablespoon tamari, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1/4 cup of veggie broth or water, until all is well combined into a smooth sauce. Set aside. If you are doubling or tripling the recipe, make sure that you set aside 1 portion of sauce for each portion of noodles (4 oz) that you plan on making.

Cut 3 or 4 scallions into tiny slivers, set aside.

Chop up about 1/4 cup of roasted shelled peanuts, set aside.

In a wok on high heat, add about 2 teaspoons of unrefined peanut oil. Add the tofu and cook until golden brown. Remove the tofu, set on a paper towl covered plate to drain.

Add a little more oil, then add the shallots and/or garlic to the wok and cook for a few seconds until fragrant. Add the asparagus and cook for a few minutes, or until tender.

Add the beaten egg and let set, breaking it all up into bite size pieces. Remove from wok and add to a big bowl that you will use to hold the entire phad thai once complete. Since the tofu is probably drained by now, throw it into the bowl as well.

(At this point, you'd probably want to cook any seafood that you planned on adding, and put it in the bowl. We've never made it with shrimp or anything, so this is just a guess on my part.)

Add another tablespoon of oil (or two) to the wok. Carefully tilt the wok to ensure that the oil goes up on the sides of the wok. I would say to vigorously swirl the oil up onto the sides, but this could seriously burn you if you do it wrong.

Take 4 oz of the soft noodles and spread in a thin layer across the wok, letting the noodles go all the way up the sides. Pull the noodles into as thin a layer as you can manage in a few seconds, then scrape it all down into the middle of the wok. Getting as much of the noodles in contact with the hot surface of the pan is the second vital step to getting the proper texture. (The first is the soaking time for the noodles. More than 20 minutes and they are far too soft and will fall apart in the pan, less than 15 and they are too hard and will stick to your teeth.)

Add the sauce, stir, and then spread the noodles up the sides of the wok once more. You want the rapidly carmelizing sauce to combine with the starch coming off of the noodles, and then thicken and stick to the noodles.

If done properly, the sauce should just coat the noodles and shouldn't be pooled up in the bottom of the wok. Scrape the noodles down into the bottom to pick up any excess sauce, and then scoop this all out of the wok into your big bowl. Add the slivered scallions and peanuts, toss well, and serve with a sliver of lime. Tell whomever you serve it to that the lime juice is mandatory.

(Begin making the next portion so that you can eat too.)

Mystery liked this so much, that I have to write down the recipe. It's my improvement of a Jack Bishop ancho chili sauce. It's all mine, really, I only credit Bishop because I made this sauce to taste like what I imagined his should have tasted like. (Don't get me wrong, he's a great chef, but I imagined a totally different sauce. His was perfect for the recipe in his book.)

1 small onion, minced
1 small clove of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon oil
Salt to taste
Drained liquid from a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (or 1 box of Pomi brand chopped tomatoes.. use the tomatoes for something else, like a nice pasta sauce.)
2 sprigs of fresh oregano
2 tablespoons powdered ancho chile
1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (the kind with cumin, that you use to make chili.)
Dash (about a tablespoon) Tabasco sauce.

Cook the minced onion and garlic in the oil, until onions are translucent, add salt, chili powder, salt, chile powder, cook until spices are fragrant, about two minutes. Add the tomato liquid and the oregano. Bring this to a boil, and then lower hear and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Served over frijoles burrachos¹ on top of a fried egg on corn tortillas

---

¹ Frijoles burrachos (Drunken beans) are simple. Heat up about a Tablespoon of oil, add a half of a thinly sliced onion. Cook this, stirring very infrequently, until the edges of the onions brown and singe. Add a can of pinto beans (drained) toss with some salt, add one medium bodied beer, like an Anchor Steam, or an English ale. Cook until the beer is pretty well evaporated. (These beans, leftover, cooked in a skillet with lard, are frijoles refritos, or re-fried beans.)

Made this in the morning today for breakfast, my twist on a Tuscan egg and green dish.

2 Eggs
1 Large bunch of spinach, de-stemmed and washed. (Any quick braising green will work, like chard, arugula, or a mix!)
A pinch of cardamom,
Freshly ground nutmeg.
Olive oil for your pan.
1 small clove of garlic, pressed
1 to 2 tablespoons of pine nuts, toasted in a skillet until lightly browned.
pinch of salt.
2 Cups of Beretta brand "Gran polenta express," Instant polenta (1/2 cup polenta, to 2 cups water makes about 2 cups of polenta.) (I know, instant polenta? but it works pretty well. Go ahead and make slow cooking if it is more to your liking, just adjust your times accordingly.)
1/2 cup grated cheese of your tastes, to go in the polenta, I used a mild cheddar. Parmesan works as well.

Turn on your oven's broiler, start the water in a pot on medium.

In your skillet, cook the spinach with olive oil, pine nuts, salt and the pressed garlic until wilted. When wilted, add the pinch of cardomom and the grated nutmeg. Remove from the pan, put the spinach in a strainer with a bowl beneath to catch the runoff. Allow to cool for a minute. (i suggest until the water comes to a boil, or until your polenta is about 7 minutes from being done if you made slow cooking polenta.)

When you can handle the spinach safely, make a small mound in an oiled, oven proof pan. (I use an iron skillet, I bet a greased muffin tin would be a nice twist.) The idea is to make a birds nest shaped mound with a depression in the middle. Crack your raw egg into the depression. If it runs out of the nest a tiny bit, that is ok, that is why we oiled the pan.

Place this under the broiler for about five to seven minutes, or until the tops of the greens begin to brown. If you like a cooked yolk, pierce the yolks about three to four minutes after they go under the broiler.

By now the water is boiling, add the reserved water and that you squeezed from your spinach, some salt, and your dry polenta. Cook until it begins to thicken, then add the cheese. Stir until polenta is thick and creamy.

Divide the polenta into two bowls, and top with a "Nest." Serve immediately.

This sounds tough, but the only hard portion is timing, the nests must come from the oven just as the polenta is finished. But once you get that straight, it is actually a pretty quick and easy breakfast that has a very nice presentation appeal.

---

The original version of this recipe calls for the spinach to be blanched, drained, braised in a pan for 5 minutes, removed from heat, excess liquid removed, and then made into nests. The egg white and yolks are separated, and the greens with whites in the nest, are slowly cooked in the oven at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for ten minutes. In the last five minutes, the reserved yolks are poured over the nests. In my version the greens are more tender, and the egg ends up more like a poached egg.

(We stole this from the internets, Precious, yessssssss....)

You'll need a big cast-iron skillet or griddle and a tortilla press, too. Tortilla presses have become pretty easy to find in kitchen-supply stores. Not exactly a high-tech gadget, if you pay more than $20 for one, you've paid way too much. If you can't find a tortilla press, it is possible (but not preferable) to press out your tortillas on a flat surface using a heavy, flat-bottomed dish. You'll also need some plastic bags of the sandwich or freezer variety, but more about that later.

In most every recipe for corn tortillas, the proportion of ingredients called for is 2 cups of Masa Harina to 1-¼ to 1-1/3 cups of water. However, the difference between ¼ cup and 1/3 cup, while only 4 teaspoons, can be critical.

The process is this:

1. Mix the Masa Harina and the water; knead to form your masa (dough)
2. Pinch off a golf-ball sized piece of masa and roll it into a ball
3. Set the masa on a piece of plastic in the tortilla press; cover with another piece of plastic
4. Press the masa
5. Transfer the tortilla to a hot, dry skillet
6. Cook for about 30 seconds on one side; gently turn
7. Cook for about 60 seconds (it should puff slightly); turn back to the first side
8. Cook for another 30 seconds on the first side
9. Remove and keep the tortilla warm

Sounds simple enough, but there are several crucial considerations along the way and, until you have made a batch or two and get the hang of it, a few tortilla-making tips will ease the way.

* When mixing the masa, mix all the Masa Harina with 1-¼ cup of the water. You can work it with your hands, if you like. If it seems too dry, add additional water, a teaspoon at a time. Too much water, and you won't be able to peel the plastic off the tortilla; too little and your tortilla will be dry and crumbly. Unlike pastry dough, masa does not suffer from being over-handled.
* The masa will dry out quickly. Keep it covered with a piece of plastic wrap while making your tortillas.
* Cut up sandwich or (my favorite) freezer bags work better than the flimsier plastic wrap or waxed paper.
* Hold the pressed tortilla (with the plastic on both sides) in one hand. Peel away the top plastic from the tortilla (not the tortilla from the plastic). Flip it over into your other hand, and peel away the other piece of plastic.
* Gently place the tortilla on the hot skillet or griddle. It should make a soft sizzling sound when you do. If your tortillas are not perfect circles, don't worry; they will still taste wonderful.
* If your skillet or griddle is at the right temperature, a tortilla can be cooked in no more than 2 minutes.
* The use of cast-iron utensils is important. You are cooking at high heat on a dry surface, and a lighter-weight utensil could warp.
* Brown spots on your tortillas are good -- an indication that they are handmade, rather than punched out of a big machine and cooked assembly-line fashion.

The number of tortillas you make with this basic recipe depends upon their size and thickness. I usually get about 12 to 14 tortillas approximately 6 inches in size, depending upon the number I am compelled to eat while I'm cooking (I usually keep the butter and salsa handy during the process).

(This recipe comes from a small mom-n-pop bulgogi house in Kunsan city, Korea. A friend went to work there part-time just to learn the recipe.)

While fermented cabbage is what most people think of when you refer to kimche, the word is a sort of blanket term for any and all pickled vegetables. While still strong, and still kimche, cucumber kimche is a sort of instant pickle that is much kinder to the western palate than the admittedly aggressive fermented cabbage. It is great as a snack or a side dish for any rice based dish, but not something to eat prior to a hot date. This, mixed with a bowl of rice and topped with a fried egg, is a great breakfast for the adventurous.

One large cucumber, cut into carrot-stick sized strips. (I use the long english hothouse cucumbers, not short, lumpy american pickling cucumbers.) If you use an american cucumber, you will want to use two, and you may want to peel and seed them, as the skins are bitter. The koreans do not peel and seed cucumbers, and I tend to find it unnecessary as well.

Two scallions, diced. If you can get them from an asian grocery, do. They are much stronger.

A clove of garlic, minced. If you can get it, use the red korean garlic, and perhaps you should cut back to half a clove.

A tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds.

1/2 teaspoon to 3/4 teaspoon of coarse kosher or rock salt. (Or more to your taste. Be careful of the salt. (More on that later)

1 Teaspoon of red pepper flakes. There is a very specific Korean dried red-chili called gochokaru or gochujang. If you can find it, use it. It alters the entire flavor of the dish, and is more authentic. It will also turn the pickle redder over time, while normal dried chili will not. But barring that, the version made with normal dried chili tastes just fine.

A few drops of toasted sesame oil.

Chop it all up, and toss it all together in a bowl. Taste. It should be mildly salted. If you are like me, you are going to eat half of this right now, while watching television, and drinking a soda. You might be tempted to salt it more. Don't do this. Get out an individual portion and salt that to taste. As the kimche sits, the salt will pull the liquid from the cucumbers, and make a strong brine that seems to get saltier with time. If you salt the kimche too much, within a few days, it will be too salty to eat. If this happens, add it to an asian stew, and let it salt the soup.

When you have eaten all you want, seal this in an air-tight container, (if you don't use an air-tight container, it'll make the milk go sour. Seriously, it's strong stuff.) It will keep forever. (Several months.) In antiquity, this was sealed in a jar and buried in the ground three feet deep for a anywhere from a week to a month to all winter. The ground stays at 52 degrees Fahrenheit all year, the result is similar to keeping it in a root-cellar. Since most of us have refrigerators, we can keep it in there and there is no need to bury it.

You are going to want to eat it or throw it away or use it in soup before a week though, because soon kimche will take over the entire fridge. (This is why I've given you the "small" recipe. A larger recipe would conquer your fridge quickly, your neighborhood in a week, and within a month, be the head of an empire that stretches from Philadelphia to West Memphis.)

So. Have I ever told you that I used to be indifferent to beets? I did. Nasty vegetables that always taste like something artificial. Like that cranberry sauce that has the shape of the can.

( a story about the wild youth of beets )

A lot of the negative properties still associated with beets can be eliminated with proper preparation. So for your edification, a method of preparing beets that does them a great service:

First, preheat your oven to about 450 degrees F. (205 degrees C. or gas mark 6.) peel and cut three or four beets into smallish 1 to 1/2 inch dice.

Take a good foot and a half of aluminum foil, and place this in an oven-proof pan. If you are afraid of the properties of aluminum, parchment paper works nicely, but it may burn if you don't eyeball it carefully.

Put the sliced beets into the foil, and make a packet. Into the packet pour 1 to 2 Tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 2 or 3 teaspoons of red wine vinegar. Optionally, I sometimes add a Tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and also optionally, a tablespoon of a nice sherry if you are afraid of all the vinegar. You could put some peeled and quartered shallots or garlic cloves in there, or sprigs of fresh herb like oregano or rosemary, but it isn't at all necessary, and I tend to stay pretty minimalist and stick with just the beets and vinegar. You do not need to add salt or pepper. Close the packet and put the pan into the oven. The packet must be carefully made to not allow the liquid to evaporate.

Roast these, for at the very minimum, 40 minutes, or until fork tender.

When the beets are done, pour the roasting liquid into a bowl, and mix with either sour cream or yogurt. This has two advantages, 1) it tastes great poured over the beets, on mashed potatoes, or the sauteed beet greens. 2) It becomes a vivid shade of fuschia that is pretty much unknown in foodstuffs without some serious food coloring, and has a nice shocking effect on the plate.

These beets will be quite vinegary, but the natural sweet nearly disgusting waxiness of beets is mellowed considerably and compliments the strong vinegar flavor perfectly. Roasting them gives them a much better texture, and really all they lack to be perfect is something to take the edge off, and the sour cream or yogurt in the sauce does this well.

I am not often a consumer of meat, and even less a consumer of beef, but this recipe, and its resulting roasting liquid, go extremely well with a good steak and potatoes. In these instances, you might even swap the yogurt or cream cheese with an exceptional Bleu Cheese (Might I recommend Point Reyes Blue Cheese?)

In any case, I hope you do try the recipe, and find beets to be a better vegetable than its checkered past paints it.

---

(Recipe stolen and altered from the fantastically incomparable Jamie Oliver, who made a much more high-octane version to compliment a beef carpaccio.)

Recently I put up a post on finding parking in NYC, for an upcoming day trip, (on the 8th.) guineapig responded to my side note on the entry (which was about my coffeemaker dying,) with a delightful story about how he used to make coffee out of an old sock and a GI helmet.

It reminded me of this recipe, which comes from my year-long search for the perfect Chai Masala recipe. (The simple question "how does one make a proper cup of tea?" on the forteana newsgroup, kicked off a long debate which may still be raging, "take the kettle to the pot!" "take the pot to the kettle!" "add the milk to the tea!" "Add the tea to the milk!" never mind "What spices go into 'proper chai?' " My favorite answer to the whole "How do you make the perfect pot of tea?" is still: "POLLY! Be a dear and put the kettle on!")

In an old book on tea (I can dig out my sources if anyone wants them,) I read about Australians that were laying a railway across the Outback, and their unique and simple recipe for tea, which they called "Rust and Rails" for its bright red color. The method was employed to preserve their limited supply of tea.

They'd take a large kettle, and place it on the fire on Sunday. They'd fill it with water, and put in a pound of tea leaves. This would steep on the coals all night, and the crew would partake of it until the water was depleted. They'd leave the slurry of tea in the bottom of the pot. The kettle would be put on a train car and pushed on down to the end of the line. Then the next night, they'd leave the slurry in place, fill the pot with water again, add another quarter pound of leaves. This would continue, all week, until Saturday, by which time, the resulting tea would be so acidic that only those with the most iron constitutions could drink it. On Sunday the pot would be emptied and they'd start the whole process again.

mash up the following in a mortar:

3 hazelnuts, toasted in a bare skillet with no oil. rub thier skins off in a dishtowel.
1 clove of garlic
5 olives
a small pinch of salt

1/3 of a pound of gnocci, cooked for a minute in boiling water, and finished in a skillet in:

a tablespoon of olive oil

after the gnocci brown a tiny bit, toss in:

1/2 of a largish heirloom tomato, diced,
and 1/2 of the olive-garlic paste

toss, let the tomatoes give up a tiny bit of their water

serve.

(mix the rest of the paste and the rest of the tomato dice, put in a bowl in the fridge, and eat the rest to-morrow, or if you are lucky, double the gnocci, and cook and share it all with someone.)

(this is a borscht made in the italian style of soupmaking. I made it the other night when I wanted an italian soup but only had ingredients for borscht. The result was really, really, good.)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees

5 beets, if you can get small ones with nice tops, get those, otherwise, medium beets in good shape
1 bunch of swiss chard if the beets had bad or sketchy greens
1 medium or large leek
1 large white onion
2 ears of corn on the cob
2 or 3 carrots
3 or 4 yellow finn, yukon gold, or other smooth skinned butter-textured potato
(optional) one or two fresh ripe tomatoes, cored.

Take the tops of the beets or the chard and set aside. Cut the green part of the leek top off, set it aside, cut the leeks in largish sections, leave the tomatoes whole, break the corn ears in half, Dice the rest into one inch squares, set aside the tops of the onions and carrots, arrange this in a 9x13 inch oven proof pan.

Pour over the veggies:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
1 or 2 tablespoons basalmic vinegar
sprinkle liberally with salt, cracked pepper, herbs of your choice. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and put in the oven for 20 minutes, remove foil turn the corn and tomatoes, stir, and put back in for 20 more minutes. At the end of the first 20 minutes, all the liquids will pool, during the second 20 this will thicken to a syrup, and the tops of the veggies will brown. This is a good thing.

Remove the beet greens or chard from the stems, set greens aside.

reserve the green leaves on the leek and the bottom of the leek, and the onion skins and tops and bottoms of the onions and carrots, the chard or beet stems, and use these and seven to ten cups of water to make a stock. I use a strip of kombu (a dried japanese seaweed) and a parmesian rind to enrich my stocks… boil all this for a half an hour with a few stalks of celery, do this while the veggies roast. Then strain off the stock and set it aside.

In the stock pot, start simmering in a tablespoon of olive oil:

One half a minced white onion,
A pinch of mustard powder,
A dash of ground cumin,
Some minced celery and carrot.

Once the onion is translucent, add the stock and the roasted veggies, (remove the corn from the cob, of course.) if the veggies are too chunky for your tastes, puree them with some of the stock. Make sure that you use a little stock to wash out all the syrup out of the roasting pan, and include that in the soup. Salt to taste.

Cook for a few minutes to meld flavor, add the chard or beet greens, cover, and cook for 10 minutes,

At the end, garnish each bowl with fresh minced dill and a dollop of sour cream.

this sounds odd, but it is a great pizza. the mint oregano pesto plays with the starchiness of the potato and the sweetness of the pear. the cheese compliments both. it was assembled out of leftover bits from our pantry when i was trying to avoid going to the store for groceries, and it was so good that i made it again, to see if it was a fluke. it wasn't.

the crust: (this makes two crusts, freeze one, or make another pizza or cinnamon rolls. halving the crust recipe has NEVER worked for me, the crust comes out horribly.) i've taken to using a focaccia dough for this, it has more oil, and gets crispier. for a less fattening crust, use a third of the oil... it isn't absolutely necessary for the chemistry of the bread, but it sure tastes good. by the way, a good olive oil is essential, i recommend a strong, flavorful estate bottled olive oil. if you want to go through the trouble, get a bottle from the Bariani family in san francisco. they make the oil in accordance to traditional italian methods. bariani olive oil is the best you can get in the united states. suprisingly, it is cheaper by far than many high end olive oils found in specialty stores. for info, email bariani@aol.com

1 and 1/3 cup of warm water (115 degrees or so.)
a packet of baker's yeast (about a tablespoon)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 and 1/2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of salt

place water, yeast and oil in the work bowl of a food processor, blend for a few seconds. add the flour and salt, run for thirty secnds or until the dough comes together in a ball. turn out onto a floured surface, separate into two balls, and knead for about a minute. place each into an oiled bowl., cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place (about 80 degrees) for an hour. (if you lack an 80 degree place, put the bowls in an oven that was been heated to warm, (generally, this is 200 degrees) and then turned off, and let sit for about five minutes, so that the temp inside the oven is no greater than about 115 degrees farenheit. any hotter than this, and you will kill the yeast. let this sit in the warm oven for forty-five minutes.) if you lack a food processor, you can mix the ingredients in a bowl, then turn out onto a floured surface, and knead by hand for five to ten minutes, until the dough is soft and firm, but yeilding about the texture of an earlobe. let rise as before.

the potatoes:
two medium new potatoes (yukon gold are good)
a tablespoon of fresh rosemary, diced
a pinch of salt
a pinch of cracked black pepper
a half a tablespoon of olive oil

slice two medium new potatoes into very thin slices, put in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper and rosemary, drizzle the oil over, and toss. spread the potaotes out on a baking sheet, and if you don't have the dough in there, bake in a 350 degree oven for ten minutes or so, or until they have lost most of thier crispiness. once the potatoes come out, the oven will need to be ramped up to five hundred degrees for at least a half hour before you put the pizza in.

the pesto:
1/4 loose cup fresh oregano leaves
1/4 loose cup fresh mint leaves
5 to 10 peppercorns
a pinch of salt
3 cloves garlic, diced
a dash of olive oil

put the oregano, mint, garlic, peppercorns, and a pinch of salt into a mortar. grind to a rough paste. the salt should pull the oils from the mint and garlic and make it a wet mix, if you have trouble, add a little of the olive oil to make a loose paste, but nothing runny. this pizza has enough oil as it is. you will only have about a tablespoon of pesto, do not be alarmed. this is plenty.

the onion base:
one half of a large sweet onion, such as a bermuda or vedalia or walla walla
a bit of olive oil for the pan
a sprinkle of salt
a half tablespoon of stone ground dijon mustard
a half tablespoon of cream sherry, mirin, sake, or white wine

slice the onion thin. heat oil over a medium flame, and then add the onion and salt. the salt will pull the water from the onion, and it will begin to go clear, and then to brown, add the mustard and sherry , stir until the mustard wine sauce covers the onions, be careful, this may burn.

the rest of the assembly:
three small pears
a good cheese, use your imagination, i used a "Drunken goat cheese" which was a goat cheese aged in red wine. i can see a good gorgonzola working here, as well as a nice swiss, or even a hard cheese like pecorino, asagio, or parmesian.
a dash of olive oil
some salt.

take the crust, and stretch it out until it makes a twelve to 18 inch round (depending upon how thin you like the crust.) place on a pie pan or pizza stone. if you want, you can let the crust rise again for about a half hour at this point. it makes the crust breadier. if you leave it as is, it will be thin, almost crackerlike. regardless of your choice, after the bread has risen again or no, spread the onions evenly over the crust, arrange the potatoes in a a thin layer over the onions. (you may have some left over, after the pizza is done, put them back into the oven on the cookie sheet until they brown, they make a good snack) peel the pears and slice them into coin sized chunks and spread over the potatoes. you want about half to three quarters as many pears as potatoes. take your pesto and put a dab here, a dab there, in little bits no larger than a penny, all over the pizza... use it all. using a brush, brush the crust of the pizza with olive oil, and sprinkle a tiny bit of salt all the way around. you can either put the cheese on now, in which case it will brown and harden and crust up like a cheese cracker, which is good, or you can bake your pizza and add the cheese in the last three minutes, which allows it do brown, but not harden up, which is also good. if you use a gorgonzola, you have no choice, you have to add it a the end.

put your pizza into a 500 degree oven for at least ten minutes, but more like 12, until the potatoes and crust are browning.