The Lush Chef

Libations used: 1/2 cup of beer
Libations left over: 1/2 bottle of beer, so polish it off while the onions are braising...
Last month's issue of Bon Appetit was all about a pizza, and it was perfectly timed to Jim Leahy's new book My Pizza: The Easy No-Knead Way to Make Spectacular Pizza at Home.  While I don't have the book, I do have his no-knead dough recipe, which is incredibly easy to make and calls for ingredients that one almost always has on hand (I bake a lot, so I always have yeast).  I had this recipe for Beer-Braised Spring Onion & Herbed Goat Cheese Focaccia Pizza on file for a while, so I decided to take a few ideas and make my own spring pizza using Jim's dough.  I added asparagus because it's in season and I need my veggies, and I also put a few birds...err, eggs on it!  I don't have a pizza stone, so I just put some parchment paper onto a baking sheet.

While I made this pizza allll for myself, I'll definitely bust this out for a Lush Chef brunch or easy-going dinner party.  The great thing about Jim's dough recipe is that it makes enough for 4 pizzas, so you can roll the leftover dough into balls, wrap in saran wrap and foil and store in the freezer.

Beer-Braised Spring Onion, Asparagus & Herbed Goat Cheese Pizza - serves 2-3

Ingredients for the dough:

• 3 3/4 cups flour, plus a little extra for shaping
• 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• Cornmeal, for dusting

Ingredients for the pizza toppings:

• 3-4 large spring onions, skins removed, cut in half and sliced thinly
• 2 Tbs butter
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1/2 cup lager beer (I used Stella Artois)
• Salt & freshly ground pepper
• 6 oz plain goat cheese
• 2 Tbs fresh herbs (I used thyme, but you can use rosemary, basil or a combination)

To make the dough:
- Combine the flour, yeast and sea salt in a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon.
- Pour the water over the mixture and combine thoroughly, using your hands to shape the dough into a ball.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for at least 18 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

To make the pizza:
- In a large pan, melt the butter and oil over medium heat.
- Add the onions and stir to coat, then turn heat down to low.
- Cover with a lid and cook for 1 hour, stirring halfway through.
- While the onions are cooking, finely chop the herbs.
- Crumble up the goat cheese and add to a bowl with the herbs, mashing with the bottom of a fork until well-combined.
- After 1 hour, remove the lid and turn the heat up to medium to cook off all the liquid.
- Once the liquid is gone and the onions start to get a caramel color, add the beer.
- Stir until the beer is gone, making sure you get all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan.
- Divide the dough into quarters.
- With one of the quarters, on a heavily-floured work surface, fold the right side toward the center, then the left, top and bottom.
- Turn the ball seam-side down on the work surface.
- Cup your hands around the sides of the dough and press it down towards the work surface and in a circular motion to shape it into a mound.
- Press down on the dough and gently stretch it to a 6-8 inch wide disk (I actually made mine a rectangle).  Continue to massage and stretch it out to 10-12 inches (don't smooth out the bubbles or blisters).
- Transfer your dough onto a pizza peel or if you don't have one, I just moved directly onto my baking sheet, lined with cornmeal-dusted parchment paper.
- Crumble the goat cheese on the dough and add the asparagus spears.
- Pop in the oven for 2 1/2 minutes (I actually needed to cook mine longer).
- Remove from oven and spread the onions on.
- Gently crack 3 eggs onto the pizza.
- Place in the oven for a minute or two, or until the eggs are cooked.
- Season with some salt and pepper.
- Slice it up and make sure you cut through the eggs when serving so everyone gets some of that delicious, runny yolk.