Reuben Pizza with Bison pastrami

My friend Andrew was telling me the other day of a great Reuben egg roll he had just tried at a restaurant near the Tech Center here in Denver called Maxwell's Steak House. He and some friends went there after work. Reuben Egg Roll! WOW.........I wanted to eat one right then and there. I could whip some-up at work the next day to satisfy this new craving, but did I really want to drag out the deep fryer, stink-up my whole kitchen and get grease all over the place? Well...it was an egg roll and last time I checked they need to be deep fried. And do you know what the best part was? I could dip the whole thing in 1000 isle dressing!! I love to dip things. Sometimes the thing I'm dipping isn't so important as the sauce I'm dipping it into. I have a friend Janice to whom french fries are nothing more than the carrier for ketchup....she gets me!! So here I am mulling over these egg rolls and how I'm going to make them, dip them, eat them, dip some more... when I thought the heck with the egg roll I'm going to make a Reuben pizza. First I'll make a rye crust, then I'll spread that luscious 1000 isle dressing all over, add Bison pastrami, sauerkraut and top it all off with Swiss cheese. Now that would be good. Pizza's. Why can't I seem to get them out of my head? I sort of have a love/hate affair with them. I worked at a great private hunting lodge in Gladwin Michigan awhile back. Lost Arrow Resort on the Water is where I made way too many pizzas, make that ate way too many pizzas. The owner Avery Sterling had just purchased a recipe from a famous pizzeria down near Sterling Heights and they had just started to make pizzas when I went to work there. I have had pizza on my mind, and my hips, ever since then. What made me think of them is that a Lost Arrow pizza had a buttered crust that was sprinkled with sesame seeds before baking. In 1990 worrying about the crust, and what it might have tasted or looked like was a fairly new thing. Thinking about the Reuben Pizza and Lost Arrow got my mouth watering because I wanted to butter the crust of this new pizza and sprinkle it with chopped caraway seeds and kosher salt to complement the toppings and sort of provide a cool and tasty garnish. To get started I had to make a crust that would be like the swirled marble rye that I like to use when making a Reuben. So I modified a basic pizza dough recipe by futzing with the ratio of the flours to include gluten, rye and wheat flours.

1. 2 cups Rye Flour
2. 1 cup Whole What Flour
3. 1/2 cup Gluten
4. 1 3/4 t. salt
5. 2 tsp instant yeast
6. 1/4 cup olive oil
7. 1 3/4 cup water
   

1. Stir together the flours, salt, and instant yeast in a 4-quart bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer). Stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed mixing on low speed with the paddle attachment, do this for 5 to 7 minutes and then switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet and doesn't come off the sides of the bowl, sprinkle in some more flour just until it clears the sides. If it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a tea- spoon or two of cold water. The finished dough will be springy and elastic

2. Sprinkle flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Cut the dough into 3 portions and gently round it into balls. If the dough sticks to your hands, dip your hands into the flour again. Transfer the dough balls to separate zip lock bags.

3. Put the dough balls into the refrigerator overnight to rest the dough, or keep for up to 3 days. (Note: If you want to save some of the dough for future baking, you can store the dough balls in the freezer. Transfer them to the refrigerator the day before you plan to make pizza.

So now the dough was done and it was time to work on the toppings. First I sauteed the Bison Pastrami for 10-12 minutes to brown it up after cutting it up. I drained it well after cooking to keep the pizza from getting soggy

Then I drained the sauerkraut and sauteed it. This helps to add flavor by browning it up a little and reducing the moisture.

Now I put the sauteed Bison pastrami in a zip lock bag with paper towels on the bottom of the bag to suck up any left over juices, I did the same with the sauerkraut in a separate bag. It is really important if you want to have a crisp pizza to mitigate any moisture in the toppings. The next day I pulled the pizza dough out of the refrigerator and allowed it to set at room temp for 1 hour. I removed it from the zip lock bag and then reformed the dough balls and allowed them to rest for an additional hour back in the zip lock. I preheated my oven to 500 degrees about 45 minutes before I planned on baking the pizza to insure it was hot and would hold the heat once the cold pizza was put into the oven. I rolled out the dough using flour to keep it from sticking to the counter and placed it in a cake pan, stretching the dough to fit and rolling over the edges to form the crust. I used a 16" cake pan. Then I spread about 1 cup of 1000 isle dressing all over the top of the crust for my first layer, followed by the sauteed and drained Bison pastrami, then the sauteed and drained sauerkraut and topped with a generous layer of sliced Swiss cheese. When making a pizza one of my pet peeves is that all of the topping ends up in the center of the pie. Make sure you spread the toppings evenly all over the pizza to ensure even baking. In fact keep the center of the pizza the area where the least of the toppings are. This will help the pizza bake more evenly and you will have a better chance of having that perfect bite in your slice every time.





Don't forget to butter the crust and then sprinkle with caraway seeds which you have crushed-up and then sprinkle ever so litely with kosher salt. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until crust is firm and the cheese melted and browned. Enjoy. Everyone in the office ate it up. If you want..... serve with extra 1000 isle dressing for dipping. The heck with egg rolls this Reuben Pizza with Bison Pastrami ROCKS!!......................Chef Forrest