5.1.09

Easy Does It

So I'm trying out my new counter-top, infra-red, convective cooker. What does that mean? A glass vessel that cooks food in a variety of ways quickly, crisply and thoroughly. Or so it's supposed to. I decided to start with something easy yet demonstrative. Pita pizza. Could I make a delicious dinner for two in fewer than ten minutes?

Well I got two whole wheat pitas out and brushed one side with some of my new white truffle oil and a little juice from the artichoke hearts I wanted to use as a pizza topping. I placed the pitas in the cooker to toast them for two minutes at 500 degrees. They had a nice color.

In the meantime I had chopped five mini heirloom tomatoes, six artichoke hearts, a bunch of fresh chives and a handful of pitted kalamata olives. I mixed the veggies together into a little salad and put half on each pizza. Then I crumbled a nice piece of fresh feta cheese over each one and ground some black pepper on top.

I cooked them for another eight minutes on high (500 degrees) and watched them not only brown beautifully on top but saw the veggies being cooked through simultaneously. This was one of the promised features of the oven – the ability to broil and roast at the same time when necessary.

And the pizzas came out crispy, golden and flavorful. I finished them with the lightest sprinkle of my new pink Himalayan finishing salt. With all that goodness, they ended up being real treats that Julia and I both thought were great. So it was just over ten minutes, and a nice light and tasty dinner to show for it. Not bad. Maybe I'll be using the cooker for fast and easy steaming, grilling and baking too now. Hey, I mean no pre-heat time is nice!

Of course I'm not saying to go out and buy this cooker. You could have made this similarly in your oven – it just would have taken more time and maybe not had quite the perfect consistency of crispy and moist as this did. But the flavors are what really matter – and those, might I say, were spot on no matter the cooking method.

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