Pizza Today - April 2018 - 47

Whether debuting street foodinspired pizzas on their regular, special or
secret menus, pizzerias have found their
own ways to tap into the street movement in their shops.
Let's look at some common street
food favorites and how pizza chefs have
adapted them to their pizza menu.
BANH MI

Browse the menus of street vendors
in any given city and international cuisine is a major player. The Banh Mi is a
Vietnamese sandwich filled with meats,
pickled vegetables and chili peppers, and
it's hot on the street food scene.
Johnny Gilbert came out of the gate
with a Banh Mi pizza when he opened
Pizza Tree half a decade ago in Columbia, Missouri. Pizza Tree's version of a
Banh Mi features olive oil, pizza cheese,
sriracha-glazed pork belly, house-made
kimchi, chili aioli and fresh cilantro.
"We just really hit a home run with
the Banh Mi kind of unexpectedly,"
Gilbert says. "Everybody likes it. The
demand got so high on it and stayed
high for us. It was on our very first menu
we ever put out, so it's kind of part of our
identity at this point."
"It developed because it was 2012 and
sriracha was really hot. Also pork belly
was trending really hard at the time. I
don't know where the kimchi came in. At
the time, we were really trying to travel
the globe with flavors. We produce our
own kimchi for it.
"So we spent a lot of time just figuring
out how all of these elements would go
together. A Korean ingredient (kimchi) on a pizza that we were giving a
Vietnamese name? But it stuck and
the colors, the way they pop, is kind of
unique. That's another part of its claim to
fame - its sheer Instagram-ability."
MAC & CHEESE

When Laura Neely, co-owner of
The Post in Louisville, Kentucky, asked
Kitchen Manager Joshua McDonald
to come up with a macaroni and cheese
pizza, he was hesitant. "How could we
do that, where it's not something generic
and cheap, where I feel like they have

macaroni sitting on a hot plate and they
just spoon it down onto some pizza crust
and sell it to a child?" McDonald asks.
There is a caveat. "It has to be able to
be made in high numbers in the middle
of our busiest moments on a Friday
night," Neely says, without slowing down
the make line or ovens.
McDonald started on the mac-andcheese pizza two months before it
debuted as the monthly special. He
says he looks "at how many batches
of macaroni I made to make sure that
after it cools and it chilled off that on a
Friday night (pizza makers) could stick
their hands in it. I think it took me five
batches to get to a point where they
could do that, thinning out the sauce."
The end result was a popular monthly
special that featured five cheeses and a
drizzle of Buffalo sauce.
CARNE ASADA TACO PIZZA

Next to pizza, tacos are as street as it
gets. Gilbert knocked it out of the park
with his "Corne" Asada Taco Pizza. "It
makes great street food," he says. "You're
kind of confused. Are you eating a pizza
or a taco?"
The corn puree base gives the pizzas a corn tortilla taste. "We wanted to
start with the base of the taco, which
is a freshly made corn tortilla. But we
weren't crazy about putting cornmeal in
the dough or having a specific dough for
this pizza. We started combining corn
with cream in a fresh stock pot with a
little sautéed onion and a little salt and
stock. Whiz it all up with the immersion blender and we had this decadent,
beautiful - kind of like a polenta that
never sets up - sauce."
For the Corn Purée
½ pound unsalted butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup red onion (rough brunoise)
2 pounds sweet corn
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup heavy whipping cream
¼ cup lime juice
Dash of paprika for color
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
In a medium stockpot over medium

heat, add vegetable oil and red onions.
Stir regularly until the onions are soft.
Do not allow them to brown at all.
Add the butter, allow to melt and add
corn. Stir to coat. Cook over medium
heat until the corn is heated through.
Add lime juice and vegetable stock.
Stir to combine. Bring to a boil.
Add cream, salt, black pepper and
paprika to pot. Bring to near boil.
Reduce heat to low and simmer for
15 minutes. Remove from heat.
Pureé as smooth as possible with the
immersion blender. Cool in an ice bath
until the pureé has fallen to 60 F.
Refrigerate as needed.

For the Carne Asada
2 pounds flank steak
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
¼ cup paprika
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoon dried chilies (ground)
6 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 ounces vegetable oil
1 cup orange juice
4 ounces lime juice
Combine all ingredients except steak.
Stir well to combine. Tenderize flank
steak if that tool is available. Marinate
steaks in mixture for 3 hours.
Grill steaks over high heat until
seared on the outside and very rare
(120 F) internally. Let stand and cool
in its own juices. When cool enough to
handle, cut into ¼ inch cubes. Freeze
what you don't use immediately.

For the Corne Asada Pizza
On a 12-inch crust, spread ¾ cup of
corn puree with a rubber spatula on to
crust. Add 8 ounces of cut flank steak.
Top with 2 ounces of mozzarella, 2
ounces of white cheddar cheese,
2 ounces of crumbled queso fresco.
Bake until it's golden brown.
Finish with your favorite pico de
gallo, chopped cilantro and lime
wedges. n
DENISE GREER

Today.

is associate editor at Pizza

A P R I L 2 0 1 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 4 7
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - April 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pizza Today - April 2018
