David Chang

bored saturday afternoon bake

that looks a lot better than mine. i made this on the anova apo. i took it too far and didn't get that skin i want..

so from observation of videos on youtube, the spanish way, as opposed to philippino lechon, or any other way i've seen, is roasted skin side down with aromatics in the cavity. the piglet is lifted on a rack in a casserole dish so not to braise the skin, but water added inside the bottom of the casserole dish. half way through, its flipped and finished skin side up. i've seen some pricking of the skin, but not so much that its completely perforated. and the skin is painted with lard. the wfo is running on embers (so no live flame), and its cooked with no door on, so the temp is not so blazing hot. i tried the phillipino way on a small leg, and it didn't turn out the way i liked, so i'm gonna try the spanish way this time. i think if the heat is too much, i can use one of my spare floor bricks as a heat shield but we will see what happens.. ever since ate at el sorbrino, i've always wanted to get that glass skin, but it constantly eludes me..

@tekobo next week, i'm planing to do a little segovian cochinillo, probably a third of the size of what you made. but roasted the ALFA with wood embers. kind of like how they make it in El Sobrino de Botín, but it's hard to find any solid recipes, but we will try anyway..aiming for glass skin that can cut with a dinner plate. http://www.signaturetastes.com/recipes/botin-suckling-pig this is the only method i found, and it's still kind of just winging it..

morning pizza in the effeuno. 90 second cook. 450C/840F 7835cd333f594852804900d79cffce14.mov

hi franck, you can cook them on hangers but it's harder to baste them like this.

i'm still wearing shorts outside! 🌴

hey tony, this is not cocochar, but some sort of extruded bamboo charcoal i buy from china. this is the only charcoal available to me with no flavour profile. everything else we have here is lump charcoal from indonesia, which is quite nice on meats, but not for breads.

my wife has a ladies night out and i'm left alone with my bincho grill. made some skewers of: iberian secreto (a very, very fatty part of the pork armpit) yellow croaker (fish) japanese eggplant cuttlefish balls corn i think if anyone here is on the fence about getting one of these, or any konro grill, just go for it. i stood on my balcony over an hour grilling and eating and it felt like i ate $200 worth of skewers for a few bucks. you don't need expensive cuts of meat. you do need to prep them properly. you really want to make your own tare and reuse it as long as possible IMG_0456.mov . and this is not the kind of cooking to walk away from. but man this is so good...

pizza and chestnuts used the rotisserie and drum to roast the chestnuts but the meat stuck to the shells. anyone know why? pizza was ok but too fuel intensive to run on the kk.

this reminds me to try to make biltong. i've only made jerky in a excalibur dehydrator but never on the kk.

hello dj drip pan: yes, because nothing you can buy outside of kk will be in the shape of your 32. rotisserie: yes rotisserie motor: i bought mine on amazon uk rotisserie cradle: i have it, but haven't really used it. smoke generator?: yes, but note its lots of tubes and cables, but you can cold smoke salmon, cheese, etc.. basket reducer: yes, but i modded mine to burn the back half of the basket of my 19. i have seen other 32 owners do the same. pizza stone: i have one just because it's not that much $, but i rarely bake on my kk. teak grate tools: i have them but i never use them. ss top side tables: yes, because the ss will protect the teak from burning if placing hot items on top. kk charocoals/woods: i have never used. i find pizzas are best cooked on dedicated pizza ovens. i personally use the fireboard 2 pro and bbq guru pit viper fan. people generally use fb or thermoworks. but learn to use top/bottom vents manually. you should to get the outdoor cover for it. even if you have shelter over the kk, you want to keep moisture out. and if no shelter, spray waterproof coating on the fabric. maybe a cabinet to store your charcoal/woods, kk grates and tools, but thats really up to you. if not, a tool box or tool bag to hold all the accessories, spare parts, repair tools, rot. motors, cold smoker accs. ask dennis about production times.

hi bunji, i made this on an electric effeuno oven. the ice cubes (a small amount) during the mixing process is to reduce the heat generated by the mixer. in this case, the thermomix is basically a blender, and the friction produced needs to be reduced to avoid mixing a hot dough. if your mixer doesn't get hot, you can just use water.

@Poochie some sourdough pizza for you. yellow zucchini and pepperonicino. poolish: 300g pizza flour, 300g water, 12g starter, tablespoon honey. mix until all wet. leave out for an hour then place in fridge for up to 24 hours. dough: mix poolish, 200g pizza flour, 30g ice cubes. add 15g salt when almost windowpane. recipe will make 280-290g dough balls. place into containers oiled with oiive oil. proof outside covered until dough doubles in size or keep in fridge for a few days to develop more flavour. note sourdough proofs much longer than dry or fresh yeast. might take 4+ hours to proof.

thanks, it's choi sum. steamed with oyster sauce and some fried garlic.

I usually don’t go to the trouble of making char siu. it's available everywhere in hk and you simply buy it from the shop. but my pork shoulder came in two small pieces. too small to do low and slow, so this is what i ended up with. The secret to char siu is maltose. It makes better glazing overall than honey. If you ever need to do any "sticky" type of bbq, use maltose. You can do this in the KK, but it was raining and I cooked it in the oven. The way I cut the pieces sort of made them into burnt ends char siu. recipe here:

i feel you. there are so many japanese appliances i want that run on 120v only that i either buy giant transformers for them all or just move to japan entirely. 😄

my alfa runs on wood or propane gas, but i don't taste a huge difference between wood, gas, or electric. i'm with the group that says once you cook at such high temps, you don't really taste a big difference.. the effeuno is the better pizza oven in several aspects. it is basically a dream to operate an oven like this indoors. * push button operation (just turn on and wait for it to warmup). and keeps temp all day long with no intervention just like a home oven. * regarding browning and bottom scorch resistance, the Saputo stone (mined clay) is superior to the refractory brick on the alfa, or any other surface i've used (including steels, cordierite, and the kk baking stone). it's just a fat piece of mass to heat up that is very forgiving when browning bottoms. * less fuss to manage heat. no need to measure floor temp once the temps are dialed in. no gas bottles to replace. wood can maintain pizza heat for about 12-15 min, so no need to manage fire with electric. * almost no cleanup. just brush dusting semolina/flour after a cook. * in terms of speed, the effeuno can go hotter in less time (smaller oven to heat up). to get the alfa to pizza temps, it takes longer (bigger over/more thermal mass) and more wood. * excellent view of the food with 3 sheets of glass on the door and a very bright oven light. * parts are user replaceable and quality is restaurant level. however, the effeuno is not an outdoor oven. i probably wouldn't cook a steak or non-bread foods (too messy). pizza size is limited to 12-13". probably more expensive to run electricity, and as far as i know only runs on 220v grids.

Hi, sorry for the late response. I sold this thing a few months ago. Why? I was thinking of getting the larger model because the smaller model was a little too small to make homemade viennoiserie worth while. Then as time passed, i decided to not get it at all because it's just too much work for something I don't eat that often. I would just hand roll these on chilled marble if I were to make more. I dunno what you plan to roll but 1mm is not realistic. Plan on 3mm as a minimum.

Effeuno makes high powered commercial level single phase pizza ovens that go up to 509C/948F. I have never seen anything that runs off a regular household plug (UK 220v) that can go this hot.. This model, with the higher roof arrived last week but today was my first run at it. Bakes on a thick saputo stone (italian clay). Top element around 450c. Bottom around 425c. Worked pretty well. wasn't counting the time but i reckon this was less than 2 min to cook. Bottom cooked very nicely. Kind of makes my ALFA obsolete.

if this is a new part, is the placement correct? because the L bend is obstructing the lower vent.

homemade cured salmon and bagels. i would have smoked it on the kk with the cold smoker, but life got in the way and there's a typhoon outside so i couldn't do it. still tastes wonderful. if you want to cure/smoke your own salmon, there is almost no $ saved because a half salmon is just as expensive as one already smoked.. homemade bagels of course..

roasted about 2kg of Ethiopian beans this afternoon. at 450-475f, 250g per roast takes about 11-13 min to hear cracks for medium dark roast. it took me around 1,5 hours to finish the lot then the charcoal burned down just in time. used half a basket which is like 1.5 kg of compressed bamboo. not bad i guess. did not use fan assistence. i think it slows things down too much..

grilled hamchi for lunch i remember the first time i grilled fish i didn’t brush any oil on the skin. never made that mistake again..

i like the results of a good bake, but i don't even eat that much bread. out of the 6 i baked, i gave away 4. ate 1 for dinner, and the last one will probably turn into croutons..