Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details

[Troble]

Pork tenderloin marinated in Peruvian salt, rosemary & aji panca. Reverse seared in cast iron pan with butter and rosemary

asparagus finished in cast iron pan with pork juices, butter and rosemary 

yellow potatoes tossed in duck fat with garlic, rosemary, lemon thyme and truffle salt 

[MacKenzie]

@Troble, looks lovely. 

[Troble]

@MacKenzie throw enough Irish butter in the pan and it’s gotta taste good right?

[C6Bill]

Decided to have a little birthday feast today  I forgot to take a pic of the marinated 3 bean salad but between the tomato salad au gratin potatoes and 4 and a half pounds of steak there was hardly room for the ice cream cake !!! I've been using the top grate upside down right on the firebox and have been really happy with the searing 👍

 

 

 

 

 

[MacKenzie]

Put together some leftover cooks today, took my chances and it all worked out fine. Previously cooked chicken thighs, summer squash, garlic and tomatoe sauce using tomatoes from the garden, pasta shells, ricotta, Monterey Jack, and diced Jalapeño from the garden, a few spices and when done sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and chives. It turned out to be a winner. 

 

 

 

[Aussie Ora]

Done some beef ribs love my ribs

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[David Chang]

@Troble

may i offer you some advice when making neopolitan pizza?

the dough does not look properly fermented. if the dough ball is the size of a baseball, it should almost be double the size when its time to stretch. it may be the dough recipe you are using, or perhaps not enough time fermenting. but there needs to be a puff (cornicione) on the crust for neopolitan. this crust is airy and open crumb. it will totally expand once the dough hits the stone. 

this is a single i pie i made today. i also used caputo blue and some bread flour. 

i noticed you have trouble with the shape. fret not. you don't need to do any slap stretching or toss dough up in the air like they do on TV. what you can do is heavily dust the dough ball and  press down on the ball with your fingers and slowly work the circle while maintaining an even base and even crust thickness. take your time with this. if the shape is poor, it will come out like an amoeba. if things start to be sticky, throw some flour on and keep shaping. if the bottom sticks, through some flour on a pastry card and lift the sticky spot out. the only time i lift the dough off the marble is to put it on the pizza peel for toppings and launching into the oven. i use both my fists to lift it and gently place it on the peel. 

and lastly, the temperature. i'm cooking on gas in the alfa with floor temp at around 850F. i have done it on the kk at around 650F. I would say 650F is the absolute minimum for neopolitan. but regardless which oven is used, when the dough is properly made it will give you better results. the bottom should have some browning, but not so much there are burnt spots that give you bitter taste. 

but all of this is made possible if your dough is properly made. i use this recipe a lot (usually scaled to 3 balls). notice the fermentation times. it is usually days long and worth it. hope this was helpful. 

 

 

[Troble]

@David Chang thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed response I will certainly take some of your pointers in mind for the next time. As it stands with this attempt I am not too concerned about the dough not being perfect. It's my first attempt and letting my 7 year old and 5 year old drive does not really produce chef quality results at this point but my 7 year old in particular has been talking alot the past few weeks about how she wants to be a chef and she was and her sister were very invested in these dough balls.

If you go back on this thread 3 years or so you will see that I documented my attempts at NY pizza dough and my first attempt there was pretty rough but after getting some sage advise from @MacKenziei made NY style pizza every week for about 4 months and i got to a point where I feel I pretty much perfected that style of pizza. I know how to form dough balls and let them rest.

 

This attempt never got off on the right foot.....my wife and I are headed to Bora Bora tomorrow for our 10 year anniversary so I spent the end of last week (Friday) cooking up a storm so that my mother in law had food in the freezer for my kids for 8 days. I grilled chicken breast, made blogonese pasta, made chicken/quinoia/black beans/corn, mac & cheese with peas and chicken breast and chicken soup. All in the same day, while drinking beers all day. In the evening that night I decided to make this Neopolitan pizza dough and try the recipe from that other thread from Stadlermade. I made the dough balls and put them in the fridge overnight with the intent to make the pizza on Sunday. Saturday morning I checked the dough and it didn't seem right, i looked at the recipe again and it called for .4g of yeast, which I knew couldn't be right so threw those dough balls out looked up a new recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/basic-neapolitan-pizza-dough-recipe  and started over. At this point my kids were up as it's Saturday morning and they really wanted to help so i let them help mix the dough and form the dough balls. One of my daughters was putting way too much flour on one dough ball but i figured i'd let her be and we'd sort it out. We put all 3 of our dough balls in the fridge and labeled them with our initials so we could watch them grow. We let the dough sit in the fridge for 3 days and watched it rise every day. I then put the  dough out yesterday at 12pm to let it rise and come to room temperature which they did fine and they doubled in size to nice perfect little circle balls.

However, I am not a fan of weekday pizza cooks while the kids are in school because I have to have the timing right. I also had a haircut appt at 3pm yesterday and needed to be cooking pizza at 5pm. so what did I do? i put the KK on at 2:30pm, put the stone in, went and got my haircut then tried bringing it up to temp when I got home. I had it around 550 for the first pizza and when my kids got home they were excited to help form the dough and put the toppings on. THey also asked to use the roller which I allowed them to do.

On my dough ball I was going to make that one "perfect" however my youngest daughter decided to smash my poofy dough ball with her hand when I was outside and then my oldest daughter decided to start rolling it again like we did saturday into a ball when I was outside so that one got all messed up and deformed. I had run out of fuel and the last 2 pizzas were cooked closer to 500 which i know is too low for Neopolitan but I had no more fuel to add

 

Takeaway for me is to make pizza on the weekend, not use the roller, make sure that i got good fuel and keep temp over 600. But i will try your recipe and pointers and I am sure I will get better at it. it was nice to have a different sytle of pizza crust, we like thin and crunchy so everyone enjoyed it

[David Chang]

@Troble i would have an anxiety attack if left the oven on for a haircut. 😅 happy anniversary and enjoy your trip. 

[tony b]

@C6Bill - Happy Belated Birthday! 🥂 I'm shocked that the pooch didn't just snag that steak and run!! Ha, ha! 

[Bunji]

16 hours ago, David Chang said:

i have done it on the kk at around 650F. I would say 650F is the absolute minimum for neopolitan.

I’m not (yet) a KK owner, but since the topic came up in here today I figured I would ask about this. I’m assuming the 650 in the KK you mentioned is on the baking stone, right? What about on a steel? I imagine you could get away with a lower temp since it would transfer heat to the bottom faster, but I guess what i’m not sure of is whether the top would cook better at the higher temp used for the stone, the lower temp of the steel, or if it’s basically a wash in that regard. Have you by any chance tried on a steel?

 

Yes, these questions are absolutely motivated by the fact that I already own a steel and am wondering if I should get the stone when I purchase my KK lol

[David Chang]

@Bunji hi welcome. i'm referring to 650f on the stone.but i have made pizzas on this temp as suggested by Mugniani, the custom pizza oven maker out in Healdsburg, CA. it is to my surprise they suggest this low temp for neopolitan, but it's workable. however, i find 800+ on the floor to be much better. 

sure you can use steel. i personally haven't tried. please note that pizzas in any kamado, the rolling radiant heat from direct flames is missing. and it is very fuel intensive. and if considering any baking stone for the kk, i would also look into saputo biscotto, the double baked mined clay from naples. i always wondered if that would be the ultimate baking stone for pizzas in the kk..

 

[Wobster]

1 hour ago, David Chang said:

@Bunji hi welcome. i'm referring to 650f on the stone.but i have made pizzas on this temp as suggested by Mugniani, the custom pizza oven maker out in Healdsburg, CA. it is to my surprise they suggest this low temp for neopolitan, but it's workable. however, i find 800+ on the floor to be much better. 

sure you can use steel. i personally haven't tried. please note that pizzas in any kamado, the rolling radiant heat from direct flames is missing. and it is very fuel intensive. and if considering any baking stone for the kk, i would also look into saputo biscotto, the double baked mined clay from naples. i always wondered if that would be the ultimate baking stone for pizzas in the kk..

 

David, 

That prior post was a great illustration and I think Vito’s single pizza dough is indeed a good example. Much like you I tend to cook Neapolitan pizza (in my Forno Bravo) at about 850°F floor temp but have done 650 ish. It certainly slows down the cook time! As you point out true Neapolitan pizza, by VPN standards is cooked under a rolling flame which can’t be done in a KK. However, to the KKs credit I have seen some truly great looking pizzas come out of it. 
Thanks again, that’s an excellent reference post for the future (do we have pinned references or files somewhere? Your post would be great for that.) 
Dave

Edited September 22, 2022 by Wobster

[Bunji]

@David Chang Thanks for the welcome and the response! Interesting that the lower temp was suggested by the ovenmaker!

 

I have definitely heard of those saputo biscotti stones in my pizza oven research. I have seen people on other boards replacing stones in various portable/home pizza ovens with them. I wonder how they would be in the lower pizza making temps a KK would run compared to one of those gas/wood fired dedicated pizza ovens.

 

Then again, because of the lack of top-heat you mentioned I have to wonder if the results from the stone on a KK would be much better than the results from an indoor gas oven with a steel, using the broiler during part of the cook to get the top.

[David Chang]

@Wobster yes, i would like to see a definitive sticky thread for pizzas made strictly on the kk with comprehensive methods and process and operating temperatures for different style pizzas. accurate dough recipes for each style and predictable and repeatable results. love your forno bravo oven btw.. 👌

@Bunji i think biscotto stones in normal temps may not make any difference, but can't say for sure as i have no  experience using them. i also run an anova precision oven to make pizza, but the lack of bottom browning has been a challenge.

[Troble]

@David Chang post a thread in this section for your pizzas 

https://komodokamadoforum.com/forum/56-bread-pizza-pastries-or-desserts/

everytime I’ve had unique takes on recipes I’ve posted them in the appropriate section (beef, pork etc) that way it’s easy to find and reference for others and when I need it. You should post all your pizza knowledge in that link above and we can test it out 

[tekobo]

I remember having to dig through different threads to find out about how to cook pizza on a KK when I first started.  At the time Charles' posts were the reference set that everyone pointed me to.  It's been so long since he last posted that I have temporarily forgotten his forum name.  Will go searching in my bookmarks... Ah!  @ckreef, how could I forget you?  Well, there are some good pizza posts by him, lots of great pizza pics from @MacKenzie and a delightful Chicago Thin thread, amongst many others about pizza, from @Pequod.  People like @David Chang are bringing new things to the party and it would be good to have a way to better mine the rich resources on this forum.  The search function is OK but you have to sift through a lot of dross to find what you need.  Are better ways to use this forum's tools or are there other forum formats that make searching and surfacing information, possibly ranked by popularity, easy and transparent?

 

[MacKenzie]

Knowing that hurricane Fiona was likely to hit Nova Scotia I did some meal preps, one thing I made a chicken stew and had that for breakfast  and  lunch the first day without power, had the same thing on the second day. It was a case of quick open the fridge grab what you need and shut that door. I wasn't going to touch the freezers. I did have a down comforter to put over the basement freezers. Late Sun. afternoon the power came on then Mon. my internet. I still had pasta and sauce in the fridge from the pre Fiona day prep so that's what I had today for lunch. Picked a lot from the garden before the storm, tomatoes and made sauce, my peppers and cukes. I also made a loaf of bread to use for cucumber sandwiches. I have friends who do not expect to have things restored until Thurs. so I was lucky.

Here is Fiona pasta- 

I went into town to checkout generators and saw this on the way- 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Troble]

@MacKenzie glad to hear you are ok 

[MacKenzie]

Thanks, Troble.  I was lucky as far as property damage, next to none just a tree on the side lawn and no where near the house.