We’ve been living in the Philippines for a long time now, and we’ve been longing for a good pizza for that long too. I have been trying to make pizza since learning how to cook. I made some that it tasted good and some just okay. We like our pizza to be super thin crust. Our kids like to helped out putting the toppings too. In our household we all like meat toppings like pepperoni, ham, sausages, salami and others. Some of us like Hawaiian pizza, I like the pineapple a lot on the pizza.
A few weeks ago I saw a cooking show of Jaime Oliver cooking a pizza in just 30 minutes. Wow, that sounds great and quick too. As I was watching I told Bob we can do that. It was a simple recipe. Almost all of the ingredients were readily available here. The only ingredients I am having a hard time finding was the self rising flour. I went to every mall and baker’s shop here in Davao. Well it well worked with flour and the yeast anyway. For now I got a solution for my dough I have our bread machine to do all of that. I just slap all the ingredients in the bread machine and in no time I have my dough ready to go. Before rolling the dough turn your oven all the way and turn down the temperature a little before putting the pizza inside.
When the dough was ready, just roll it with the rolling pin and make the shape that will fit in a frying pan. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil in the pan, then put the pizza dough in the pan. Put pizza sauce (I use del monte pizza pre made sauce already, if you have sauce of your own you can use that) on top of your dough, then put chunks of mozzarilla cheese, fresh basil leaves, anise seeds, salami, ham and grated parmesan cheese and drizzle a small amount of olive oil. Turn on your stove in medium heat and put the pan with your pizza. Let it cook until the dough turn brown on the bottom, and put in the oven with the pan and cook more until the cheese and the crust turned brown. When the pizza were cooked already it will shaped like the pan. The crust was so crunchy and yummy.
The pizza really is a big hit in our household. The kids will not mind to have pizza 3-4 times a week. They love it. They also like to help out on putting the toppings too. With the kids pizza, basil was not included. They just don’t like the tastes of it. But with our pizza we like to put basil and anise seeds on top. The one with the breakfast sausage, salami and ham really did taste very good. I had to make few batches with our oven I will just put 2 pans inside. Really I can put more pan but the cooking will take longer. Its a time consuming.
You can share your pizza recipe here. We will gladly try your recipe.
Have fun eating!
Feyma:
OK… I’ll give it a go.
Kesong Puti can be a good substitute for Mozzarella di Buffala when mixed half and half with the store mozzarella. Give it a try.
A pugon or floor tile placed directly on a BBQ grill grate gets as hot as in a wood fired pizza oven. For the thin pizza, margarita, roll as thin as possible. I use crushed plum tomatoes with a little sea salt and garlic, thin layer on the crust. The mozzarella, and fresh basil. Drizzle with olive oil. (Here in Manila, there is someone making fresh mozzarella from Carabao’s milk… That is best, but the Kesong Puti does in a pinch)
Rebecca has modified the above to the LPG oven, highest possible temperature, top and bottom burners, but you miss out on the smoky taste from the BBQ.
I also make Chicago stuffed pizza that weighs in at around 3 kg… Won a pizza contest with Bon Apetit for it in my chef days. Expect to spend 3,000 pesos or so for the ingredients, though, so I don’t make it very often (Stuffed with cheese, spinach, and mushrooms)
Hi John – Now you had us thinking on how to make our bbq grill work on cooking the pizza. I’m pretty sure it will have a good result. Let you know on that.
Maybe put a drop of liquid smoke liquid smoke to your sauce to have a little bit of smoke flavor from the bbq. Rebecca will order that bbq grill or the pugon soon. 😉
Good thing mozzarella is pretty much available here in Davao City. I will look for the mozzarella from Carabao’s milk. Hopefully we have that here. Your Chicago stuffed pizza intrigued me. Wow, but its spendy though.
Thank you for the tips John. Highly appreciated.
Take care!
I love pizza. Best one I found so far is “Pizzeria Michelangelo” right next to Gustavian Restaurants located near Banilad in Cebu. Wish I had an oven here to try to make one myself. If I do move here I may bring in one from the states. They have Italian style wood burning as well as electrical. Or maybe I will go with John suggestion to use a floor tile on a BBQ as I will be doing alot to that on the Weber I will be purchasing.
Hi Dwayne – Good that you had a place you liked to have pizza here in the Philippines. Hey, I think you can find good quality oven here too. You just have to spend big money for it. Try also going to those expo’s shows especially the food expo. I’m pretty sure they have booth for selling different kinds of oven.
Anyway, have fun eating.
Take care!
Hi Feyma. Self-raising flour, is just plain flour with baking soda already added, so it really a modern convenience lol. 2 level teaspoons of baking soda added to 1 cup (150gm) plain flour.
I had to search through a few books to find this info. Modern Recipe Book are no help at all lol. Happy cooking.
Hi Marjorie – Good tip. I’m going to print it and save. Thank you so much for sharing. I really appreciate very much.
Nice to see you here again.
Take care!
Looks great Feyma and sure tastes great…Looks like Bob will have to have a Mindanao Bob brick pizza oven built then with that and the Mindanao Bob BBQ your all set……Oh, and a modified Mindanao Bob BBQ grill so the juices can drip down on the potatos and corn…hahaha
Hi Dan – We’re brainstorming already. Ha ha ha…lol… That would be something to do for a project. Don’t worry you guys will see it later. 🙂
Thanks for the helped too.
Take care!
i was just dropping by for a quick skim but i can’t resist this one.
Feyma!
I use strong flour or what they call the bakers flour. This way you can practice tossing the dough. And the texture after cooking it will not go sloppy with all the juices of your toppings. Also, apply semolina on top of your base sauce so your toppings won’t go surfing on the bread.
For sauce, i always make my own because i don’t trust cans. just find the sweetest tomatoes, put it in a foil, drizzle a generous amount of fruity olive oil and a bit of salt and stick it in a pre-heated oven for 200 deg C for 20 minutes covered. mash it and get the sauce add basil and rosemary, salt and pepper and taste test. 🙂 heaven.
Feyma
If you don’t feel like making the crust you can substitute flour tortillas. Good for a quick pizza and very crunchy. Your pizza looks really good. Looks just like brick oven. Good article to write about. Have a nice day!
Hi Papa Duck (AKA Randy W.) – A good tip too. I will try to use my homemade flour tortilla next time I make the pizza. That sound good. I will have to work on the brick in the bbq grill. I’m excited for that to happen. Let you guys know.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
Take care!
Hi ziggy – Thank you so much for the good tip. Will try it sometime.
Good to see you here.
Take care!
That looks like agreat Pizza in the pic Feyma. I remember my mother making pizza when I was a kid although it is something I never even attempted myself. At home for myself I usually bake a frozen Pizza and occasionally get a take out from a local Pizzaria here.
Maybe you could come up with a ” secret ” recipie and call it a ” Mindanao Bob ” Pizza, baked in a custom Mindanao Bob Pizza Oven. I can just imagine walking into a pizza place somewhere in Mindanao and reading the menu board :
Plain
Extra Cheese
Pepperoni
Hawiian
Mindanao Bob
Combination Deluxe
Thanks for this article and the variations of recipies in the comments. I think I will print all of them and if I feel adventurous in the kitchen sometime maybe I will give it a try !
Hi Bob New York – Thank you so much. I’m glad it brings back memories for you.
Ha ha ha, wow, what a good looking menu you have there. 🙂 Don’t worry you will see that restaurant coming up soon here in Mindanao, and ready to franchise for a good and descent price. 😉 lol… Maybe you will franchise for Iligan. lol
Thanks for the good tip Bob. Thank you for stopping by!
Take care!
Yes, please, Ms. Feyma. I’ll take 1 or 2 or maybe 3 slices. Ha ha. Who doesn’t love Pizza?! The pic you have, that’s the finish product? Yum! Very nicely done. I don’t like pineapples as toppings, though. You mentioned bread machine.. I think I’m interest to buy one too.
Hi sugar – Hey common down here to Mindanao and I will gladly make it for you, and without pineapple too. 😉 … Really yummy for your tummy.
I encourage you to buy bread machine if you foreign bread(not sweet). You can buy it on ebay.ph now. We’ve seen a few for sale there last year. Even malls carry that product now too.
Good luck and have fun making bread.
Take care!
I guess you’re a Jamie Oliver fan. Loved his show. Mmm…maybe you and Bob should just put up a pizza or liempo joint.
Alex
Hi AlexB – Yes a big fan of Jaime Oliver and other chefs on TV.
Ha ha ha… But hey you’ll never know… Watch out for it guys.
Good to see you here again. Thanks for the advice.
Take care!
Feyma
If your family likes their Pizza crunchy, lightly coat your pizza dough both sides with olive oil.
Hi Paul – Yep did that. It really is crunchy. Liked it a lot….
Hey, are you thinking of cooking pizza on your barbecue grill too? Let us know the result. You might be ahead than us on that. It will be awhile for us, JunJun(my carpenter) still busy working in GenSan. No time to come up here in Davao right now.
Thanks for the tip Paul.
Take care!
Feyma;
I’ve never thought of that, I wonder if the flavor would be close to the Pizza’s I got in Naples Italy, right out of that big stone over? Last night for Mayang’s birthday party we did cook oysters and mussels on the Mindanao Bob’s Deluxe BBQ Grill, and they were great. Pizza will be next!
Hi Feyma – Do you deliver to Talakag lol.
Regards.
Jim.
Hi Jim – Not a problem your pizza is on the way now…. 🙂
Take care and hi to Marilou!
Hi Feyma,
I’ve made my own pizza a number of times before. The crust was *_ALWAYS_* the hard part. However, as you note for super great thin crust roll it out paper thin. I too use a bread machine on the crust cycle and have found a whole wheat crust recipe. Good stuff, the crust recipe makes more dough than what I usually use up at once, so I make a number of crusts and have croutons for my salads!
I’ve made my own sauce too (from canned tomato sauce) and use red wine, garlic, romano, parmesan, and asiago cheese and plenty of the Italian herbs basil, oregano, anise seed, and fennel seed. I have a bunch of that frozen and when we thaw it out, a lot of the water separates out.
I like all the toppings (errr, except the salty ones — yeah the bagoong, no anchovies! 🙂 ) and load my pies up. As you say spread some olive oil on the pie, spear the crust with a fork a number of times and then top. I have a stone I bake the pies on (the peel and the stone get some corn meal spread out on them) and the crust comes out crispy and hard. I can hold a slice without the slice wilting and as soon as I bite into the crust it easily shatters!
Great post!
Hi Mark Framness – To be honest I used to make my own crust but with my bread machine I’m kind of lazy now. Ha ha ha… I used some fresh herbs too. With sauce, Bob makes a good spaghetti sauce that Father Franco taught him lately. I will try to use that for pizza sauce. When watching Father the ingredients were just similar to the pizza sauce. Really you can’t even taste the anchovies. I am not using anchovies now, a few people in the house will not eat anchovies. Good tip there for the crust.
Thank you so much for stopping by and the comment.
Take care!
Feyma,
I sometimes use thinly sliced green olives as a substitute for anchovies ( which I enjoy, but many others don’t) they give the pizza the slightly salty taste that the anchovies do, but without the fish taste!
Jade
mmmm; that looks delicious Feyma.
Like you, I much prefer thin crust to thick gooey dough. And I like a zesty rich tomato sauce, not this wimpy, hardly there yellowish stuff they like to use here.
Around here it seems when one can find a thin crust it cools quickly and the bottom gets soggy.
That’s why sometimes I just through a frozen pre-made thin n crispy store bought concoction in the oven and bake it for longer that what it says.
That pizza in your photo looks like a real winner !
Hi pete – Thank you. Thin crust really is good for us too anyway. Do you live here in the Philippines? If you do, where do you usually go for pizza? I bought frozen crust before, not a fan of it too. Greenwich have some variety of pizza now and they can make thin crust for you too. I saw at the mall a few days ago.
Good to see you here.
Take care!
No, not there Feyma. Maybe one day..I hope.
Feyma,
I also love pizza but i don’t like it w/ thin crust, i always go w/ a thick crust so do you mind to give me the ingredients for making thick crust and how to do it, i found pizza w/ thin crust a bit dry. I tried Philippine pizza when i went home for vacation at home but they say most of it are made of thin crust. Actually i can make my homemade pizza but i have a problem making a thick crust. Thank’s a lot….
Hi rebecca – Hey, good for you that you liked thick crust. We just defer on that. Maybe for your pizza to have thick crust(since you have yeast on the dough), when you roll the dough and form into pizza crust, try to put all the topping you want and the sauce and leave it on the counter(warm area of your kitchen) for awhile. Maybe it will rise then you will have a bit thicker crust. Just a thought though.
Good luck on your cooking.
Take care!
By the way Feyma i make my own sauce and white sauce to go w/ it (Bechamel and Ricotta filling ) and garnish it w/ mozarella and parmesan cheese on top.
Hi rebecca – Sound good too. We might try that.
Thanks for the good tip.
Take care!
mmm…yummy! job is a pizza addict, he can eat an entire pizza by himself. he likes thin crust too!
Hi Lizy – You have to get busy then in making a lot of pizza for Job. His gonna be addicted after trying one. Stock up a lot of ham, salami and sausages and cheese then. 🙂
Have fun cooking and eating.
Take care Lizy and hi to Job and Cache!
This is a particular food/treat I’ve wanted to make in the Philippines. Not sure if I’ll get the chance when I arrive, but I am hopeful. I want to try my hand at a Chicago-style pizza (preferable deep-dish). If I can’t make it this time, I want to scout around for the ingredients when the opportunity rises.
Hi Henry – Hey your on vacation. Just try to relax here. If your not into pizza here in the Philippines , lots of other food for you to taste here anyway. If you want to cook the pizza, just try to find the ingredients in the malls. You can find most of the ingredients here now.
Have a good vacation and happy eating.
Take care!
Hi Feyma,
I should be in Davao on April 11. Still here in Chicago.
Hi feyma this could be something that could blossom into a small buisness you know ,if they are very good and word gets around bob will have to put on his chefs hat (that would be something to see) ,in all seriousness here in australia a pizza buisness if they are any good go like wild fire we have dominos ,eagle boys ,pizza hut and many private shops that do a very good trade as a lot of people dont like the muti nationals and prefer home made (hands on) pizzas instead ,the beuty about pizza is it is not expensive to make ,it tastes great ,you can have so many combinations it is unbeleivable and peple love to eat them, for a meal or a snack snyway something to think about
chris
Hi chris – Thanks for the thought. I’ve been told same thing before. Hey watch out you guys, you’ll never know. Will see what happen.
To be honest a lot of the complains here. When a restaurant opened, they will be good for awhile. Then in a few months the quality of the food they served will deteriorate. They cut back on some of the ingredients big time. So a lot will closed down.
Yes, the pizza that I made doesn’t cost me a fortune. It’s cheap and delicious.
Thank you so much for stopping by. Good to see you here again.
Take care!
Hi feyma if you were to go into this endevour i am sure that you would not let quality change if a product is good then it will sell so many times you see either size or quality deteriorate to the detroment of the product
chris
Pahingi Ms. Feyma, ang sarap! Lol
Hi jonathan – Sure. What payment methods you prefer? 🙂 lol…
Do you accept Paypal, Visa, Mastercard or the ever reliable but seldom used IOU’s! Lol…Set-up a pizza shop real quick, it will be a blast!
Hello Feyma.
You got me on that one. I am hungry now…grrrrr
But here in Canada/USA you can’t get a really good Pizza. If the cook is not a truly Italian, maybe 3rd or 5th generation Canadian or American 🙁 , the Pizza is more like a frozen Pizza from the supermarket.
But that is the problem here. If I like to go for a Pizza, I have to be happy with Boston Pizza :-/ or Pizza Hut 🙁 . It isn’t a good Pizza. I am missing the Italian Restaurants, the true Greek Restaurants where I can get a real Greek grill plate for 4 people (mixed grilled meat, fries, veggies) or a simply Doner (you guys call that Donair LOL – it is a Turkish sandwich )
The last time I invited Audrey to a “Greek Restaurant” we where both badly surprised. They offered Texas Burgers, Cheese Burgers and not to forget a “Greek Burger”. We left for MacDonald not willing to pay $17 for a “Greek Burger” with fries. The owners ->True Canadians. 🙁
I don’t have time for cooking after 17-18 hrs work. I am toooo tired.
But for recipes look at:
http://www.italy-pizza.com/ (I know there are Americans.)
http://www.chefkoch.de/rs/s0/italienische+pizza/Rezepte.html (A German site with 78 Pizza recipes – use translater in google chrome.)
Hope you have fun and enjoy.
Hi Holger – Hmm never had that Greek sandwich before. I’ve tried some sandwich in one of the nice mall here Chimes). It was Mediterranean sandwich don’t know what country that was. Oh well, I will go there again soon and see the menu. lol.. 🙂
Well, if your up to making the pizza its quick and easy. You can also put the stuff that you like. Just have your bread machine make the dough and just let it rest for a few minutes.
Thank you so much for the links. I will try to look on that.
Take care!