Saturday, August 2, 2008

El Paso Pizza - Alliteration and Geographical Convenience Never Tasted So Good

I did something today that has always bothered me when done by large food corporations; I named a recipe based solely on geography and alliteration. This video recipe for a Tex-Mex style pizza was called "El Paso Pizza" because Paso and Pizza both start with P's, and El Paso is in Texas. I've never been to El Paso, nor do I have any knowledge about their pizza - if they even eat pizza.

Not many people realize that there are absolutely no laws or guidelines on the authenticity of food packaging names, claims, and histories. Those cute little stori
es that you always see on the back of labels about how Aunt Tillie invented her "Bakersfield Brownies" during the Depression, using chocolate smuggled into to the country by trained hawks. It's all made up. The name, the location, the part about the hawks - all invented in some marketing meeting.
I realize that none of you really care why this is called El Paso pizza, but I wanted to call your attention to the whole "amazing but true story behind the name" scam at the supermarket. Just another reason not to buy prepared foods! Anyway, this video recipe is quite tasty and a great idea when you can't decide whether to have pizza or tacos.

In the video I mention to try and use grass-fed beef, which is now available, ground in one-pound packages, at most major supermarkets. Here is a link that explains the many health benefits of this, over the conventional corn-fed beef. I'm also linking to the Pizza Dough video, in case you want to make your own. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
1 pound grass-fed ground beef
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp chipotle pepper - more if you likes it spicy
1 tbsp ancho chile powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup sliced Poblano pepper, or Anaheim, or other green peppers
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 1/2 cup tomato sauce
4 oz pepper Jack cheese
one crust or pizza dough for a large pizza


View the complete recipe
El Paso sign photo (c) Adriano Agulló

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK. First, you prep your taco ingredients - meat, cheese, onions, peppers, olives, and such. (this is usually done to use up left overs) Then, you mix some cornbread batter. Melt some bacon drippings in a cast iron skillet and pour the batter in. Top batter with taco stuff. Bake in 400 F oven. (About.com southern food can show you how) My momma was from Texas and I was raised in the Southwest. This Mexican Cornbread Pizza is pretty popular out that way.

John T. Rhoe

Anonymous said...

That looks so awsome, wanna try this.. was thinking about pizza tomorow so this will be done if so :)

Btw who commented what about your socks :O We wear socks in sweden and norway/denmark/finland

//Caesar

Anonymous said...

Looks delicious. What the hell was the story about socks?

Chef John said...

Someone saw my reflection in a video of me wearing shorts and shoe with socks, and said that you should never wear socks and shorts! I said they were crazy.

Chef John said...

Someone saw my reflection in a video of me wearing shorts and shoe with socks, and said that you should never wear socks and shorts! I said they were crazy.

texichan said...

Yum, looks good! I'll have to look around for some grass-fed beef, for sure. And I've been meaning to make some of that pizza dough for a while now. If I do, might have to keep it a secret from my neighbor... she'd take over my apartment if she found that I was making my own pizzas!

Chef John said...

there are worse things. ;)

Anonymous said...

I am laughing really loud John,
that was me commenting on you wearing white socks and shorts!

Never thought this would leave you with restless nights...

Keep up the great work John!

Greetings (not from Scandinavia but The Netherlands),

Väös

Anonymous said...

I am laughing really loud John,
that was me commenting on you wearing white socks and shorts!

Never thought this would leave you with restless nights...

Keep up the great work John!

Greetings (not from Scandinavia but The Netherlands),

Väös

Unknown said...

Looks pretty tasty. I love the little informational bits in the videos.

Gotta agree though, about the no socks with shorts.

Anonymous said...

We would like to feature this recipe on our blog. Please email sophiekiblogger@gmail.com if interested. Thanks :)

Anonymous said...

I have a friend who has kidney problems and cannot eat the sauce in pizza. Is there anything that can be used as a substitute and that could be consumed by someone with kidney failure?

Chef John said...

sorry, im not sure. i dont think this is the right recipe for them

Anonymous said...

Doubt you're gonna respond to a comment on a video as old as this one, but I'm planning on making this tonight with a few changes*, one of which I have a question on: As an experiment I'm using a small amount of masa harina (kinda sorta a very finely ground cornmeal, same stuff they use to make tortillas) inside the dough. Will this change the cooking time for the dough to be cooked through and nicely browned and chewy? Thanks for all your recipes.

*if anyone's interested in the other changes, I'm doing this in a cast iron pan, using New Mexico instead of Ancho chile powder, and using chihuaha cheese and a few serrano chiles instead of pepper jack, chihuaha cheese being a very nice, mild, Mexican white melting cheese. If you can get it or Oaxacan cheese I'd recommend it over jack!