Kill time in quarantine with DeadHungry’s kimchi pizza recipe

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You’ve had three weeks to polish your cooking skills with Dazed and chef Alex Paganelli’s Instagram series, ‘Dine In With @DeadHungry’, so it’s time to flex those kitchen muscles. This week, as Paganelli says, you’ve got two “labours of love” on your hands: a kimchi pizza.

Expanding your skills from previous recipes – a mushroom karaage sandwich, la socca, and a crab omelette – this week requires you to do a few days prep (good job you have the time, eh?). As well as providing a step-by-step pizza method – which you can technically top with whatever you like – @DeadHungry has detailed his recipe for kimchi, which will undoubtedly be better than trying to follow an *expert* guide on your pal’s Instagram Stories.

Catch the latest episode of ‘Dine In With @DeadHungry’ below.

KIMCHI PIZZA

It’s pizza time, but with a twist. This week’s recipe is more of a project, with pizza dough and kimchi made from scratch. Both are labours of love with a few days of fermentation involved – but if you’re looking to kill some time, why not? Kimchi gives the pizza a spicy, savoury kick, and has added health benefits of probiotics that can help regulate your immune system. As it takes a while to make, it’s usually made in big batches that keep for a few months, so don’t be alarmed by the quantities in the extra kimchi recipe below. If you can’t be bothered to make your own though, you can also buy it premade from Asian supermarkets – and, if you’re really not into the funky, fermented taste of kimchi, feel free to top the basic pizza dough with whatever you like. Even ham and pineapple – no one’s judging you at home. 

YOU WILL NEED

FOR THE DOUGH:

Strong white bread flour

Water

Dry yeast

Salt 

Olive oil

FOR THE KIMCHI:

Spring onions 

Salt

Kombu

Garlic

Ginger 

Glutinous rice flour

Soy sauce 

Korean chilli powder

METHOD

FOR THE STARTER:

250g strong white bread flour

250ml tepid water

2g of dry yeast (½ tsp)

1. Mix water, flour, and yeast until you have a smooth paste. Cover with cling film and a clean cloth. Go to bed and let this ferment for 8 hours

FOR THE DOUGH:

500g strong white bread flour (I use half strong bread, half type 00)

200ml tepid water

6g of dry yeast

20g fine salt

Splash of olive oil

1. After 8 hours of starter fermentation, pour all ingredients except salt in the same bowl that holds the starter, and combine together until you have a rough dough 
2. Then add the salt, and place on a clean work surface. A stone or steel works best
3. Knead by hand for 20 minutes until the dough is super smooth and elastic. Don’t add too much flour on the work surface, you will change the texture of the dough. If it’s sticky, it’s okay, just scrape it off the work surface when you are done kneading. If you have a stand mixer, use a low speed setting for 10 minutes maximum. Although it is very difficult to over knead the dough by hand, stand mixers are much more likely to over knead it. Keep an eye on it. If it becomes tough, you’ve killed it
4. Place the soft dough in a clean, large container or bowl, and cover it with a lid or cling film. Wait for it to rise, at least double in volume. Time is irrelevant, it can take 1 to 4 hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is 
5. Then knock it back – and by that I mean punch the air out, and bring it back to a tight ball. Best to knock back before it touches the lid or clingfilm and starts to deflate. (In the video I knocked it back just when it reached the lid – if I had let it rise a little longer it would have pushed the lid off, and might have started deflating)
6. Let it rise and knock back a second time. By then it should feel extra smooth and soft
7. At this point it is ready for cold fermentation. Place in the fridge, in an airtight container. Minimum cold fermentation for a decent dough is 12 to 18 hours, but you can leave it in the fridge for up to 72 hours. It will improve over time, and become softer, tastier, and overall just insanely good. If you are to leave it in the fridge that long, just take it out every 24 hours and knock it back

FOR THE PIZZA:

1. During the 72 hour cold fermentation period, when you want to bake some of it, just cut out a chunk and throw it onto a work surface dusted with a little flour
2. Preheat your oven for at least 30 mins at maximum temperature with a heavy-duty tray on the top shelf
3. Shape the dough into a ball, but don’t knock all of the air out. You only have to shape into a ball If you want a perfectly round pizza. If you are happy with an odd shape, don’t disturb the dough you’ve just cut. Simply cover it with a clean cloth, and let it come back to room temp for 30 to 45 mins until your oven heats up
4. Once the oven is hot, the dough is a little less cold, place it onto a generous handful of flour and start flattening it, work your way from the centre to the edges.
5. Place the flattened dough onto a sheet of baking paper. Garnish with whatever you want to use. Add a generous drizzle of olive oil (crucial!) and a good pinch of salt
6. Slide the pizza with the sheet of baking paper onto the top shelf (use a large chopping board as a pizza peel if you don’t have one) and bake for 3 minutes. Quickly remove the baking sheet (grab it with a pair of tongs, it will slide off easily) and carry on cooking for a further 3 to 4 minutes
7. Remove from the oven and give it a quick blow torch for optional added drama and charcoal finishing effect

*EXTRA KIMCHI RECIPE*

(This is a very brief explanation on how to make kimchi)

YOU WILL NEED

100 spring onions

Kosher salt

1 sheet of Kombu seaweed 

20 garlic cloves 

1 cup of Korean chilli powder

50g of ginger 

6 tbsp of glutinous rice flour

40g of soy sauce 

METHOD

1. Start by cleaning and trimming the ends of the spring onions. Discard any parts that may look old and damaged. The rule is – and this works for any preserved or fermented product – you only want to preserve the very best. Any rotten bits will ruin and contaminate your batch. So don’t be worried about losing a fair bit of the spring onion, especially the tops. I tend to also discard the first and sometimes second layer depending on the thickness, to keep the freshest part in the centre 
2. Slice the spring onion in two, lengthwise, starting about 1cm above the root. Don’t slice all the way, it’s nice when the spring onion is still attached at the base
3. Submerge the onions in cold water and let them bathe for about 20 minutes to remove as much dirt as possible. Place in a large colander to get rid of excess water and pat dry
4. Weigh the onions in a bowl and add roughly 10 per cent salt, making sure the salt is evenly distributed over the onions. Place the salted onions on a rack over a tray, and cover with cling film. Let them cure overnight at room temperature. The next day, they would have lost most of their water and have completely softened
5. Rinse off the excess salt and pat dry one more time 
6. For the chilli paste (best to do that the night before while the onions are curing, so it has time to rest in the fridge), start by heating 5 cups of water with a small sheet of Kombu, and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes minutes or until it has reduced to 3 cups. Discard the Kombu sheet and add the soy sauce. It should taste deliciously earthy, and lightly salty 
7. Once the broth has cooled down a little, add the glutinous rice flour and whisk well until smooth like a paste. Turn the heat back on to thicken it ever so slightly, for no more than a few minutes, and then turn the heat off again completely. Add crushed garlic cloves, finely chopped ginger, and chilli powder, and process with a blender to have a smooth fiery red paste
8. Cool the paste down overnight
9. In a large bowl, pour the chilli paste over the cured and dried spring onions. Mix well with your hands to ensure the paste is properly distributed all over the spring onions. Fold the spring onions into a clean kilner jar (best to pop in the dishwasher to make sure it’s completely free of bacterias)
10. Press the spring onions down with your hands until you fill the jar, leaving about an inch at the top for the kimchi to breathe
11. Close the kilner jars and let them ferment at room temperature for a couple of days. Make sure to release the gas from the jars every 12 hours or so. You should hear them ‘burp’. After a couple of days, you can transfer them to the fridge. They will continue to ferment slowly. You can keep for about 2 to 3 months, the flavour will develop over time, but you can also start eating them right away!