What's for Dinner?
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jswordy
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That's the way! Pretty simple job, and ya get to trim as much fat as you want. Nice job! Heck, hamburger is $4.95/lb here. Great score!
No pictures, but we figured out how to make soft pretzels over spring break!
Here's the pretzel recipe: Classic Soft Pretzels
We had them with stone ground mustard and made a cheese sauce, too.
Here's the pretzel recipe: Classic Soft Pretzels
We had them with stone ground mustard and made a cheese sauce, too.
Cosciotto di agnello ubraico - 'Drunken' leg of lamb, marinated in the fridge for 3 days in pinot noir (homemade of course), with onion, garlic, carrot, celery, bay leaf, rosemary, peppercorns, clove and juniper. This is about an hour into cooking on the rotisserie...
Marinating in wine never occurred to me. This I gotta try.
This technique is often used for venison, etc, as the wine helps soften some of that 'gaminess'. As I posted in another thread, I ended up with 5 gal of 'hard press' wine form my 2021 Pinot noir. It's definitely a step or two below the main batch, so i don't feel too guilty using a bottle of it for a marinade (or coq au vin, or beef bourgignone or....)
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I do a lot of cooking with wine and beer, just never thought to marinate. I've never felt a moment of guilt dumping in a bottle, especially now that I make it for much less than retail bottles.
I'm struggling to imagine the results. I doubt I will get through the week without trying this, and I am thinking lamb is the perfect meat to experiment with as it has enough flavor to shine through the marinade.
I will post my thoughts.
Not a lot comes up in a web search. Did you saute the onion, garlic, etc. or are they added raw?
Really nice day out, low 60's, perfect sweatshirt weather. Also nice day to attempt some outdoor pizza cooking. Haven't used the KettlePizza for a while (usually hang it up during the colder weather). Got it set up and had the stone at 875*F in the back, 720* in the front. With the huge chunk of hickory I put in the back, it held up for about 5 pizzas. So not to bore people to pizza death, pictured pizza #1 which was definitely charred both top and bottom, but tasted really good!
Vegetables added raw. I can try to come up with a recipe if you like, though we sort of improvised...
For a ~5lb boneless leg of lamb, I think 1/2 large onion, 2 carrots and 2 celery sticks cut into chunks, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, 10-12 crushed juniper berres, a tablespoon of black peppercorns, a couple of sprigs of rosemary, a couple of bay leaves and some salt. (I use california bay (Umbellularia californica) from my property; the stuff you get in stores (Laurus nobilis) is somewhat milder, so maybe need a bit more?) Wine to cover (OK it it's not totally submerged, but turn it daily if this is the case). Refrigerate for 3 days.
Rotisserie grill 325-375F for up to 2 hrs; take it off and rest it 15 min when internal temp gets to ~140F for medium.
Just finished eating, no pictures I'm afraid but it was delicious. 10/10 recommend
Nothing better than Easter Pizza I say! 
Did not want any leftovers so no ham or huge dinners today. We are sorta hooked on greek pizza so have been making them as of late. This one had a sourdough crust which is really quite amazing as far as the taste/chew. I have the GE Cafe' oven dialed in like a laser these days with time and temp. Very happy with the outcome!
Did not want any leftovers so no ham or huge dinners today. We are sorta hooked on greek pizza so have been making them as of late. This one had a sourdough crust which is really quite amazing as far as the taste/chew. I have the GE Cafe' oven dialed in like a laser these days with time and temp. Very happy with the outcome!
jswordy
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Red Wine Marinade for Beef and Venison
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
½ cup dry red wine (or red wine vinegar)
1 tablespoon chunky garlic stir-in paste
2 teaspoons beef bouillon base
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup olive oil
Seal in bag and let stand 1 hour, or refrigerate overnight (which I prefer)
@winemaker81
Kebabs!
Very good!
I have limited recipes with allspice. Split pea and ham soup, sweet pickled carrots, last night's ham... it is not something I am used to as the prominent flavor. I thought it was good, but tzatziki made the whole meal. It blended the flavors and brought it all together! Served with leftover bean salad from last nights ham feast. \
My phone died... Imagination required.
Kebabs!
Very good!
I have limited recipes with allspice. Split pea and ham soup, sweet pickled carrots, last night's ham... it is not something I am used to as the prominent flavor. I thought it was good, but tzatziki made the whole meal. It blended the flavors and brought it all together! Served with leftover bean salad from last nights ham feast. \
My phone died... Imagination required.
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Allspice was a surprise to me as well -- a co-worker shared this recipe many moons ago. The Tzatziki makes a huge difference, I agree.
We had torrential downpours off-n-on Friday and Saturday. No drought here ... but flash flooding is a concern. Our creek overflowed the banks.
I buy whole allspice at a local Mediterranean market/restaurant and grind as needed in a rotary coffee grinder. It's far better than pre-ground. I'm in the habit of adding a bit to other things, such as 1/4 tsp in a rice mix (my mix, not a commercial one).
Easter dinner was ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and carrots, washed down with McGregor Riesling. Nice, simple meal. It was an 8 lb ham for 3 of us, so we "forced" our son to take some home.
This afternoon I'm making bean soup using the ham bone.
I had to look up 'KettlePizza'... That is some serious heat! We have (homemade) pizza fairly often, but it's always cooked in our indooor oven at 500F. The key (IMO) is (a) using a pizza stone and(b) leaving the stone to heat up after the oven is at temp before putting the pizza in. I assume each pizza doesn't take long? - Ours are routinely done after 7 minutes...
I got banned from making pizza in the house. No fan over the wall oven and I made a mess of the stone, which smoked us out. A couple weeks in a new home... it was a never again moment.
It did give me the excuse to buy an outdoor oven. I have to say it is a game changer. The learning curve is steep. Mine will hit 900 degrees. Depending on toppings it can be a 1-2 minute cook, and 900 can be WAY too high. Just cause it can doesn't mean you should.
Mine is an Ooni, and I got it because it is propane, charcoal or wood. Haven't gotten to the wood yet, but spring is near. That should be fun, and make for some good smoke flavor. The only thing I wonder is if heat under the stone would be better, if I don't preheat enough, back to back cooks get slower as the heat is from the top.
Either way, I would suggest trying something. It's a whole new level of pizza.
My indoor oven hits 525, but actually drifts a bit higher. I have both a stone and a baking steel, found I got the best temperature at the bottom of the oven with the steel (can hit 565 at times). So I put the steel on the bottom, the stone up top (same one I use in the KettlePizza, its cordierite).
The outdoor rig only uses the cordierite stone, but I place a foiled grate and a thin steel on the top to direct the radiant heat down on the top. I got a good hour of cooking time yesterday because of the hunk of hickory I added to the back of the grill just before cooking. The average cooking time with an 800+ degrees stone (and 1000*+ air temp) is about 90 seconds, with 3 turns.
Indoors I take a good 7 minutes like you do if I am doing NY style crust. I use 62% hydration and high gluten flour with a 2-3 day cold ferment. If I'm attempting a Neopolitan crust, it's 00 flour and almost 70% hydration with an all day or overnight room temperature ferment. I finish the Neopolitan under the broiler for the last few minutes up top, but then have to let my oven door open afterwards for a few minutes or the oven will register an error for high temps when I start the oven back up for the next pizza. I do add sourdough discard to most of my doughs, except my son's gluten free dough.
The big thing to remember is that hydration level in the dough is normally the inverse of the stone temperature and cook time. A quicker cook evaporates less moisture from the crust, thus less water needs to be in the dough to keep it edible. I read that in Naples Italy the average hydration of their dough is 55 to 60%. But they cook at 905*F for a couple of minutes tops. If you use that hydration and cook indoors at 500*F, you will make a cracker crust, since it remains on the stone/steel so long.
Edit: The more I think about it, I'm gonna cook some pizzas up at our cabin this weekend with my brothers. I'll take the steel up, but the temp of the oven only hits 500*F. I will need to up my NY style dough hydration by a couple of percent since the cook time will more likely be 10-12 minutes. I'll probably do one at 64% and one at 66% just to see the outcome. If one doesn't turn out, no biggie, it's only my brothers, I'm sure we will have some burger around just in case.
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A neighbor/work friend of mine got an Ooni Karu 16 for an xmas gift. He tends to use the propane fuel source and runs it way lower than the 900* "regular" cooking temp.I got banned from making pizza in the house. No fan over the wall oven and I made a mess of the stone, which smoked us out. A couple weeks in a new home... it was a never again moment.
It did give me the excuse to buy an outdoor oven. I have to say it is a game changer. The learning curve is steep. Mine will hit 900 degrees. Depending on toppings it can be a 1-2 minute cook, and 900 can be WAY too high. Just cause it can doesn't mean you should.
Mine is an Ooni, and I got it because it is propane, charcoal or wood. Haven't gotten to the wood yet, but spring is near. That should be fun, and make for some good smoke flavor. The only thing I wonder is if heat under the stone would be better, if I don't preheat enough, back to back cooks get slower as the heat is from the top.
Either way, I would suggest trying something. It's a whole new level of pizza.
My only comment on the heat under the stone is this...if you can have an air temp above the stone a couple of hundred degrees F higher, go for it. Otherwise you will not finish the toppings before the crust is toast, literally toast. The "art" of cooking on any high temp rig is getting the crust and the toppings to finish at the same time. But it is a dance worth signing up for, food cooking experiments are what keep me somewhat sane (just don't ask my family if I'm sane, their input doesn't count, lol).
Ya, that's the one I have. I am getting good results with a good preheat, then I cook on low. I can literally blacken the top in seconds if I turn it right up, It's definitely a dance if you are playing in the high temps. It has gone from a mosh pit to more of a mambo. Still moving fast, but looking pretty good doing it.
My simple pizzas turn out great, but I am still working on getting the loaded ones sorted. It is probably dough hydration. I get soggy centers when the meat lovers are requested.
I will have to play with some ratios. I couldn't even tell you what my current hydration is. I need to find a calculator.
Like wine, an endless journey towards perfection. Still happy to hit pretty damn good in either category.
Ya, that's the one I have. I am getting good results with a good preheat, then I cook on low. I can literally blacken the top in seconds if I turn it right up, It's definitely a dance if you are playing in the high temps. It has gone from a mosh pit to more of a mambo. Still moving fast, but looking pretty good doing it.
My simple pizzas turn out great, but I am still working on getting the loaded ones sorted. It is probably dough hydration. I get soggy centers when the meat lovers are requested.
I will have to play with some ratios. I couldn't even tell you what my current hydration is. I need to find a calculator.
Like wine, an endless journey towards perfection. Still happy to hit pretty damn good in either category.
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