I had the chance to teach grilled pizzas in front of the crowd at The Meet: Blues, Brews and BBQ contest this weekend. To share the stage with two renowned chefs like Ray “Dr. BBQ” Lampe and California champion Brent Walton of the QN4U teamis a great honor, and ton of fun. I had a great time all week hanging out with both of them.

Thanks to everyone who came out to watch the show. I’ll write a little bit more about this event after I’ve made it home, but wanted to get my pizza dough recipe posted for anyone who was interested.

Yield: 4 thin crust 9” pizzas

This formula is designed for a thin crust pizza, and should stretch thin without tearing. It contains a relatively high proportion of water, and is supposed to feel a little bit tacky to the touch.

It also contains a small amount of yeast. The formula is designed to be refrigerated overnight. If you’re in a hurry, you may increase the amount of yeast to 1 teaspoon, and let the dough rise at room temperature for 1½ hours.

4.5 cups (20 oz by weight) all purpose flour
1.5 cups (12 oz by weight) warm water (70 – 90 degree F)
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 Tablespoon (generous) olive oil
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (see note above about yeast)

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and allow to proof for 5 minutes. If you don’t see the yeast bubble after 5 minutes, you may have stale yeast.Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl
Add olive oil into flour mixture, and combine with fingers
Add the water into the flour mixture all at once, and stir with a rubber spatula until the water is mostly absorbed. You may have spots of dry flour, that’s ok.
Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, to allow the flour to absorb the water.
Knead the dough for 1-2 minutes, until it’s evenly textured. It should be on the wet side, somewhat tacky but not overly sticky. If it’s too wet, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time until it’s manageable.
Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces
Roll the dough into a smooth ball, pulling the skin of the dough tightly and pinching the seam that forms during the forming process.
Place the dough into a lightly oiled container, such as plastic wares, or even a zipper lock plastic bag.
Place in the fridge overnight to proof slowly. This dough is forgiving, and will allow up to 4 days of proofing without complaint. It also freezes well. Allow the dough to rise overnight prior to freezing, and use within 1 month.

I’m in Modesto, California this week for The Meet: Blues, Brews and Barbecue. It’s one of the biggest barbecue contests west of the Mississippi held in conjunction with a national caliber track meet. I’m sharing a stage with Ray “Dr. BBQ” Lampe and Brent Walton, one of the best competition BBQ cooks in the country who also lives in this area. We’re teaching a BBQ 101 class in front of 3000 or so people this Saturday, and my segment is about grilled pizzas.

As part of the buildup, we taped a couple of preview spots for Sacramento’s News10 morning show, Sacramento & Co. You can see me on today’s video clip here . Yesterday’s clip with Ray and Brent is here. Part of my mission was to pitch this class and get people interested in coming to learn how to grill a pizza.

How did that pizza look on the grill? Bet you didn’t realize it wasn’t baked. I was asked to have a pizza made before the spot because I only had about 60 seconds for my bit. That’s not enough time to bake pizza live for the camera. If making a cold pizza look delicious weren’t hard enough, we also didn’t have that grill fired up, either. We didn’t want spend all morning firing up the charcoal and waiting for the grill to cool down after the taping. So what to do? I put the flame spreader tip on my propane torch and “baked” the pesto and chicken sausage pizza. How’d I do?

We’re back from a marathon three day barbecue contest at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival. This massive country music event drew more than 120,000 festival attendees over three days, and the barbecue contest was a sideshow meant to fill some of time when the big name bands weren’t playing. We cooked pulled pork, chicken wings, smoked sausage chubs called “fatties,” spam candy. The competitors fed thousands of people , and they in turn voted for their favorite teams.

People’s Choice voting is a relatively new feature for BBQ contests in California that started last fall. I say humbly as a point of fact that my team has won the People’s Choice vote at every contest since.

In keeping with that string of victories, Four Q walked away with two People’s Choice awards for this Saturday’s and Sunday’s contests. With my teammate Neil on the mic talking up the crowd, his stepfather in law Glen and my pal Janette working the crowd, the other teams didn’t stand a chance, no matter how good their food was.

Of the four cooks on our team, Neil is the only one that caters. If you’re in the Long Beach area and want to buy what thousands other people have deemed the best of the best, head on over to Bigmista’s BBQ.

Want to see more photos from the event? Head on over to my Flickr archive.