Full Day of Wood Oven Cooking

Started the oven up at 3pm and eventually got it as high as 965F! That's HOT folks! I think the cherry wood was nice and dry since I put it in the oven at the last burn when it was still warm. Started hot and just got hotter. In fact too hot to bake the chickens I planned. Put the first (beer can) chicken and flattened chickens in at around 700 deg. Pushed all the fire/coals to the back of the stove. It was still too hot but we had time constraints.... So in they went with foil tenting.

2 full chickens, cooked and cut into juicy pieces

LOTS OF SIZZLE RIGHT AWAY! Went in at 4:15pm. Turned them every 15 min. Still got pretty "crusty" but sure smelled good. By 5pm both hit internal temps of 140 deg. At 5pm put in 5 soaked ears of corn. They got hot fast and by 5:15 they were ready....too ready. Even though I turned them the sides toward the fire burned.

Smokey, caramelized corn

Hmmmm what to do? Cut the good side off into a bowl and add butter. Mmmm, perfect! Nice and smokey flavor, caramelized sugars with butter!
Add a green salad.
I cut the chicken up to a platter, opened a bottle of white wine and we sat down to eat.
Dessert: S'mores! Took SECONDS for the marshmallows! Oven still around 500 deg.

Marshmallow perfect

Holy Cow! What can I do with all this heat???
Cook more!

Roasted garlic bulb perfection

Left over swordfish steak... Just waiting in the refrigerator, more garlic bulbs, added vegetables to the chicken giblets and onions to roast for stock, left over dough from last weekend for flat bread, and finally... As those temps hit 400 deg....made some buttermilk biscuits. Seriously.... At 9pm. (at Wayne's request)

Giblets and vegis roasting

Residual cooking temp!

Now... Finally... Done for the day. It's 10 pm. Oven is still warm and the coals are dying down. The plan: put in not-quite-dry- wood to dry for a great fire next time.

Smore assembly

Now, Sunday morning: checked the oven. It's STILL warm. AMAZING! oven is full of VERY dry wood just waiting for the next burn.

Finished Smore

Biscuits!

Pasta with grilled swordfish and corn sauce

Whoa... It's been a while since I made some scratch pasta. I had some basil that need to be used...... Flour.. Check. Egg.... Check. Basil.... Check. Salt and pepper... Check. Food processor....CHECK! LET'S GO! (see pics and earlier posts on how to do it)
Swordfish in the freezer, one piece of corn, peas from the garden. Don't forget the cream and white wine. Swordfish grilled, pasta rolled cut and cooked. Sauce cooked....Pasta dressed and then played.
Time to EAT!

(Even enough for lunch tomorrow. PLUS enough ready-to-cook pasta just waiting for the next meal.)

Why wouldn't you make your own pasta?


marinating swordfish

ahhhh, the pasta...waiting to be cooked

perfect grill marks on the fish, pasta, more colorful than the pic,
very tasty too!

Popsicles!

My Zoku Popsicle maker arrived Friday. It was on the porch when I got home. Hmmmmm, what can I make? Last night i used it! I put it in the freezer Friday night I had 1/2 a small watermelon and a mango in the refrigerator. PERFECT!
Cut both into bits, put in my food processor. Added juice of one lemon, and couple tablespoons of cane syrup. (this keeps ice crystals from forming. I use it in sorbet too).
It turned into a very fragrant slurry of fruit pulpyness. I then poured this into the three slots for Popsicles and fitted the handles. The first batch of 3 pops took about 5 min. The second took a little more than 10. They popped out nicely and I wrapped them in plastic wrap. We each had one for dessert and there are 4 left!
Yummy! Can't wait to try more.

First Loaves Of Sourdough From the Oven

Started this sourdough LAST Sunday. It proofed over night on the counter and then I put it in plastic proof containers in the refrigerator. Here we are 6 days later.

Took the dough out of the frig and formed it into individual loaves. (company tonight).

Fired up the oven and got a temp reading of 600 deg F on the floor.

Pushed the hot coals to the back of the oven and put in the first two loaves. Sprayed with water and closed the door.

About 10 min later peeked in and sprayed again with water. This INSTANTLY turns to steam, so I had to stay back. Closed the "door" again. Mmmm, sure smells good!

I now have 6 perfectly crusty loaves of sourdough bread I'll be serving with dinner tonight.
Dinner will be a rolled/stuffed flat iron steak, roasted vegetables, green salad (made with herbs and lettuce from the garden, and the bread.
Totally awesome!

Here's the sequence of pics:

Just out of the oven

The dough as it came out of the frig

a peek as they bake

Strawberry and Blueberry Sorbet

It's going to be warm and sunny today! Let's make a sorbet for dessert!
How about strawberry and blueberry sorbet? I was going to make typical strawberry shortcake but.... I'm tired of the same old thing.

Time for something different for me. Plus I had strawberries, lemon, and blueberries and just a bit of cream in the house.

Here's the recipe:
1 clamshell of strawberries (hulled)
1 clamshell of blueberries
Juice of one lemon
1 cup simple sugar syrup
(this is equal parts sugar and water brought to a boil to dissolve and cooled)
1/4 cup cream (optional)
That's IT!

Put the berries in a food processor, process, then add the simple syrup. Process just a bit more and then add the cream.
Put all this in your ice cream/sorbet device. I have a very simple Donvier hand crank ice cream maker. You put the bowl in the freezer until the interior is frozen, put your concoction in the bowl, crank until frozen. Very simple. Takes about 30 min from start to finish.

This really only creates a "soft serve" sorbet. You can serve right away but it' pretty soft. Once it's done take it out of the device and put the sorbet in a container to put in your freezer to harden.
After about 2 hours it ready to serve by scooping out of the freezer dish.

YUM and very nice on a hot day! See my pics below.

The strawberry/blueberry mix

The Donvier Ice Cream maker

Served sorbet

Sorbet in containers for the freezer

Mojo de Ajo... aka...garlic sauce.... aka... SAUCE OF GOLD

Slow Roasted Garlic Mojo de Ajo
Makes about 3 cups (made with 2 cups of oil)

INGREDIENTS
4 large heads garlic (peeled cloves)
2 or 3 cups fruity olive oil- enough to cover
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
Red pepper flakes

DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Break the heads of garlic apart, then mash each clove (a fist against the side of a knife is what I do) to release the clove from its papery skin; if using already-peeled garlic, scoop the cloves into a heavy plastic bag and use a rolling pin to mash them slightly.

Stir together the garlic, oil and salt in an 8x8-inch baking pan (make sure all the garlic is submerged), slide it into the oven and bake until the garlic is soft and lightly brown, about 45 to 55 minutes.

Add the lime juice and and pepper flakes. Return to the oven for 20 minutes for the garlic to absorb the lime and turn golden brown. (If you’re using the larger quantity of oil, ladle off 1 cup—no garlic cloves—and store it in a cool dry place for use in salad dressing or sautéing.)

Using an old-fashioned potato masher or large fork, mash the garlic into a coarse puree. Pour the mixture into a wide-mouth storage container and refrigerate it until you’re ready to enjoy some deliciousness. The mojo will last for up to three months as long as the garlic stays submerged under the oil.

Use just the oil for salad dressings. Use just the garlic mix for marinades of meat or fish. It truly is a "Sauce of Gold" and turns everything delicious.

4th of July Dinner

This is my beer can chicken going into the wood oven. The floor temp was ONLY 550 degrees. I used the stand I bought many years ago. It holds a can...in this case an empty can of Pepsi that I drank and then filled with beer. Put the chicken and beer in on the stand in an disposable aluminum baking dish, added an onion and 4 bulbs of garlic all nicely rubbed down with olive oil.I pushed the burning wood to the back of the oven, place the dish in the oven, blocked the door with bricks (I don't have a door made yet) and set the timer on my iPhone for 30 min.Checked it at 30 min. OOO, a bit crispy at the top and a pice of wood had fallen into the dish. Bummer..... I wanted to eat the onions! I rescued the garlic though.Turned the dish and put it back in for 15 more min.Came out PERFECT! A bit too crispy at the top. Lesson learned: put a foil hat on the top. Also...move the wood so that it can't tumble into the food.It was soooo good! No time for pics....take my word for it.;-)

Final plaster layer and HOT fire!

Seriously...a VERY hot fire!

900+ degrees is BIG TIME HOT. Loving it and used it for dinner on Sunday.