Getting Ready... One, Two, Three, Testing

Thanksgiving is around the corner and if you are planning to bake your holiday turkey in the wood fired oven for the first time ever, you may increase your confidence by baking a chicken as a test... and here's a quick recipe that Chris, our neighbor and friend, has shared with us many times when we fire up our oven.
Chicken a la Chris
Rinse and pat dry the chicken. Sprinkle the inside with 1/2 tablespoon sea salt and rub the outside with the same amount.  Place the chicken in a dutch oven casserole and let it reach room temperature.  Chop some rosemary, squeeze 1 lemon, mix in a bowl together with 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  Use 1/2 of this mixture on the inside of the chicken and pour the rest on the outside.  Put the cover on the casserole and slide it in the wood fired oven at about 450 to 500 degrees F and bake it for about 45 minutes.  (Check after 30 minutes.)
Check the internal temperature of the chicken, when it has reached 150 degrees F. take the casserole top off to let the chicken brown nicely.  Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes.  Serve with your favorite side dish... and lick your fingers!

Ginger-Apple Upside Down Cake

Once you have tried your hand with the chicken, check out our recipe for Holiday Turkey and invite friends and family over for a memorable meal.
The New York Times featured a story about the Philo apple farm in northern California run by the folks who founded French Laundry, and I was feeling the pangs of nostalgia for farm life again.  One day we will take a road trip up to Anderson Valley, but in the meantime I tried theirGinger-Apple Upside Down Cake and absolutely loved it!  I had gone by a friend's house that has a fabulous apple tree and harvested a basket full, so it was a timely find.  Isn't the color just yummy?
Buon appetito!

Apples from Anniko's tree

Building a good fire

Even in California the fall is showing off its first chill and some rain.  It pays off to have a good stack of dry wood saved, especially as the holidays are approaching and there’s a lot of baking to do.  And that’s the key to heating up the oven properly:  a nice stack of dry hardwood.  What is hardwood?  See the list here for the most common kinds of hardwood.

A great fire in the oven

Place the wood pieces crosswise, with the smaller pieces on the bottom, in the middle of the oven floor.  You will need about 10 or so, smaller pieces of split wood and one or two larger ones.  Place a non-toxic fire starter cube on the bottom of the stack and light it.
Keep the fire burning, adding about another 5 split logs as it burns.  After about one hour the fire is down to mostly ashes and coals. Now is the time to push the fire, or what is left of it, to the left or right side of the oven.
Wait about 10 minutes, and then brush (with a natural bristle brush) the remaining ashes off the floor to the side.  Take a temperature read with your infrared laser thermometer and you can start cooking.  You can bake your pizza right on the oven floor or you can roast meats, fish, vegetables in pans, sliding them into the oven.

This beautiful oven has plenty of wood stored...

If you are planning to roast a turkey for the holidays, you will need to make sure you have given the oven an opportunity to accumulate an extra amount of indirect heat inside the walls and floor.  So let that fire burn for an extra 15 to 20 minutes beyond the hour.
You can then scoop out the embers from the oven and place the meat inside to slowly roast with the oven door closed.
Buon appetito!

Early morning cactus bliss

There's a large cactus outside my office door that is blooming.  The flowers only open early in the morning and close as soon as the sun travels to mid-morning.  The bees line up and there's a frenzy of pollen bathing underlined by their happy humming.  It's a good way of starting the day...

After the fires... a good fire!

All our outdoor activity stopped for a long week as heat and forest fires raged and a huge smoke cloud enveloped our area.  It felt like living next to a vulcano in eruption, everything was covered in ashes. Eventually the smoke cleared and we welcomed the return of the ocean breezes,  visited our garden to harvest tomatoes and basil. With all that bounty Peter made lots of  tomato sauce and pesto.

Parmigiana di melanzane

We had been yearning for a parmigiana di melanzane (eggplant parmesan) so we slid the grill over the coals in the oven and decided to throw in some portobella mushroom al pesto while we waited for the parmigiana to fully bake.Our neighbors Jules and Ocean sniffed the aroma, dropped by and had a bite... Life was good in our neighborhood!  And the recipes easy as one, two, three... But then we had the advantage of home-made sauces, of course :)
Grilling the eggplant instead of deep frying it makes the parmigiana much lighter, while retaining all the flavor.  In a metal pan, spoon some tomato sauce on the bottom and then layer grilled eggplant, mozzarella cheese, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, and basil.  Spoon some more tomato sauce and repeat the layering, finishing off with a good sprinkle of parmesan cheese.  Slide in your wood fired oven that is about 450 to 400 degrees or so.  It will be baked to bubbly perfection in about 20 to 30 minutes.

Layering the eggplant parmesan

The great thing about this dish is that it accumulates good taste if you leave it in the fridge overnight.  Keep this in mind if you are preparing ahead for a party.
While you wait... brush both sides of a portobella mushroom (use the cap only) with pesto sauce.  Grill both sides, top side last.  Lastly, add a slice of Provolone cheese and let it melt. Slice a good, rustic Italian bun and brush with olive oil.  Grill the bread.  Assemble mushroom in the bun  to taste as you would a burger (but please hold the mayo, ketchup, mustard!).  We were content using a slice of tomato and lettuce, to allow the burst of pesto flavor.
When grilling the mushrooms and the eggplant, go easy on the coals, as they only need medium heat to cook.  In other words, don't pile the coals high or too hot under the grill.

Grilling the portobella mushroom al pesto

Fun thing about being outdoors and it doesn't matter if your fingers get all sticky and things get out of hand... it's an easy clean-up.
Buon appetito!

Fresh

I love the following garden inspiration, since I am surrounded by the smoke of forest fires raging in California right now, and it is very hot...

By Anouska Hempel

By Easy Living Magazine

Water on a hot day

By Gaspard

A cool setting with large fountain and pond (left) for a wood fired oven. Photo by me.

Photo by N. Fabbrini

Sometimes we need a watery respite from the hot fire...

A Summer Birthday Party

A great grilled appetizer

Our friend Mike had his birthday party over the weekend and we brought one of our favorite appetizers. I like this recipe because it is fast and everyone just loves the wood fired flavor and look of this dish.

There will be times when you are not going to use your wood fired oven for a party in your house, because you just want to make something quick and delicious to bring to a friend's home or a family gathering somewhere else.

In this case you don't need to build up a lot of heat in the oven. I just wanted to quickly grill some vegetables, so Peter built a small fire while I prepared the marinating sauce and cut the vegies. In about 30 minutes, the fire was reduced to a nice bed of hot coals and I placed a grill over it.

Over the grill (with legs) I placed a metal tray with holes I got at William Sonoma (see photo below). It comes handy when you grill mushrooms, for example, because they all stay in one place and are easy to handle.

Preparing the grill

Making the coals

You can use any vegetables you like and/or have available. Onions and eggplants are particularly good.

Grilled Vegetables with Anna's Marinating Sauce

3 or 4 small onions

2 medium zucchini

3 small Italian eggplants

1 green or red bell pepper

15 white mushrooms

Marinating Sauce

2 tbs fresh thyme leaves

1 tbs fresh sage, chopped

1 tbs dry oregano

3 tbs red balsamic vinegar

8 tbs olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

Cut the vegetables lengthwise, so it is easier to grill them. Set them aside. Mix the salt and the vinegar in a bowl, adding all the chopped up herbs. Then add the olive oil.

Place the grill with legs inside the oven on top of the bed of coals. Slide the metal tray with the vegetables on top of the grill. Check at intervals of 4-5 minutes or so, turning when done. Keep the metal door of the oven up against the arch so that it keeps the heat inside the oven, but still leaves the air in.

When the vegetables are done, pour the marinating sauce over them while still hot. Place in a nice plate, garnish, and you are ready to party!

Buon appetito!

Diwali inspiration

Inspiration from the Diwali festival in India. A beautiful temple all decorated with candle light...

Photos by Sri Krishnaprem

Pomodori al Forno

It is so much fun to harvest in the garden early on a summer morning! Today I got lots of tomatoes and they look beautiful! Decided to combine my favorite comforting flavors: tomato-potato-bread crumbs. Try this in your wood fired oven or in your conventional oven (in this case just add 10-15 minutes to the cooking time).

tomato harvest

Pomodori al forno

6 medium tomatoes, ripe but firm

2 russet potatoes

1 cup of olive oil + 2 tablespoons

1/2 cup bread crumbs

2 teaspoons dry oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Cube the potatoes and boil them in salted water. When they are done, mashed the potatoes with a fork. Set aside.

With a sharp knife cut off the top of the tomato. Holding the tomato in the cup of one hand, gently scoop out the pulp, making sure not to tear the tomato. Keep the pulp and juice, you will use it later.

ready for the wood fired oven

Ok, so I am partial to making my own bread crumbs. This may be because I just can't trow away good bread, so I always keep some handy in the fridge drawer, stored in a paper bag. Baguettes are the best for this sort of thing. Break the hardened bread in pieces and process in a food processor. The crumbs will not be uniform size and some will be a bit larger, which is good.

Place the bread crumbs in a bowl and add about 8 tablespoons of the tomato juice and pulp you set aside. Mix in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the 2 teaspoons of dry oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Then add the mashed potatoes and mix. Scoop this mixture into each tomato.

Place the tomatoes snugly either in two loaf pans or other metal pan. Add the olive oil so that it comes up about 1/2 inch. Baste the tomatoes with some of the olive oil.

Bake in a 300 degrees F oven for 20 minutes. Take out and baste the tomatoes with the olive oil in the pan. Return to the oven for another 20 minutes.

pomodoro al forno!

Mmmmh... so good with some aged goat cheese or pecorino!

Buon appetito.

Find more recipes on www.losangelesovenworks.com.