Clay Oven Revisited - 2015

Last year I completed building a clay woodfired oven. Here is a link to the post - Building and Enjoying a Wood-fired Clay Oven

I've enjoyed cooking a wide variety of things in it - pizzas, bread, pies, pork roasts, chicken, root vegetables, lasagna and much more, with very good success.  I've learned a lot and want to share with you here because so many people have said they would like to have one of these ovens and have asked for advice on how to build one and how to cook in them. I'll be adding more to this post over the next few weeks and months so check back regularly.

Cooking tomato sauce for the pizza that will soon be baked in the oven

June 28 - Made:

Roasted whole chicken stuffed with lemon slices, garlic and rosemary

Flatbread with rosemary and sea salt

Grilled Eggplant with mint

Roasted stuffed cherry peppers

Roasted tomatoes to spread on the flatbread

June 22 - Made:

Garlic Flatbread
Roasted eggplant and sausage
Goat Cheese with tomatoes, shallots, capers and basil
Cannellini Beans with pancetta and sage cooked in a "Beever Bean Pot"

Goat Cheese with tomatoes, shallots, capers and basil to spread on the flatbread -  

Roasted eggplant, sausage and onions - 

Cannellini Beans with pancetta and sage cooked in a "Beever Bean Pot"

May 30 - Made:

Mediterranean Pork Spare Ribs
Roasted corn on the cob
Lentils with herbs - in the clay pot - a "pignata"

Grilled Japanese Eggplant

2 - 4 Japanese eggplants

Kosher salt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 heaping tablespoon crushed garlic
Fresh flat leaf parsley
Fresh mint

Juice from 1 lemon

Trim the ends from the eggplants and slice in half the long way. Carefully score the flesh with short diagonal cuts then generously sprinkle with sea salt. Allow the eggplant to sit for 20 minutes, until some liquid is drawn out.

Use a paper towel to wipe the moisture from the eggplants. Line the eggplant on a baking sheet, flesh side up.

In a small cup combine the remaining ingredients.

Generously coat the tops of the eggplant with the garlic mixture.

Grill in a grill pan for 5-8 minutes per side, starting with the skin side down. Let the eggplants get soft and creamy on the inside while the skins crisp slightly.

Remove to a plate and squeeze a little lemon juice on them.

Enjoy!

Michael Pollan's Book - "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation"

Michael Pollan on his book "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation"

How to Build Super Garden Soil

Proper soil preparation is the key to a good vegetable garden success. Here are a few articles that tell you what you need to do to have nutrient rich soil for your veggies.

How to Build Super Garden Soil

Sicilian Orange Cake

I love this cake! It is a real treat. Lisa made this for me as my birthday cake a couple weeks ago. Very moist (thanks to the cup of olive oil), orangey, not too sweet and it has a nice crunchy edge. All you need is a good cup of coffee to go with it.  Make this!  You won't regret it. And you will make someone very happy!

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/4 cup unsweetened, unflavored almond milk

3 large eggs

1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice - from the navel oranges used for zest

1/4 cup Grand Marnier or Gran Gala liqueur

Powdered sugar

Candied orange zest

For the candied orange zest - 

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
Shredded zest from 2 navel oranges

Stir the sugar and water together in a sauce pan. Heat on med high until it comes to a boil.
Add the orange zest and lower heat to med low and cook until the sugar water reduces and thickens.
Remove the pieces of zest with a fork and spread out on parchment paper to cool.

For the cake - 

Preheat the oven to 350º F. 

Oil a 9 or 10 inch by 2 inch cake pan and line the bottom with a disc of parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a bowl, taking care that everything is evenly combined. 

In a second larger bowl, whisk the extra virgin olive oil, almond milk, eggs, orange zest, orange juice and orange liqueur.

Add the dry ingredients and whisk until free of any lumps and combined; but do not over mix.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, tap pan lightly on the counter to remove any air bubbles and bake for 1 hour or until the top is golden and a tester comes out clean. 

Transfer the cake in the pan to a rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake, invert and then flip back over and place on the rack and cool completely.

Once cool, place the cake on a serving plate, dust with powdered sugar and garnish with the candied orange zest.

Calabrese Pasta with Sardines and Fennel

Pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines) is a classic southern Italian dish. The ingredients typically include sardines, fennel, raisins and pine nuts. The pasta of choice is bucatini, a thick spaghetti-like pasta with a hole running through the center. The whole thing is topped with toasted bread crumbs and fennel fronds - yeah, tha's right!

Instead of bucatini, our version uses fileja, a pasta home to the region of Calabria, Italy where many of my ancestors were from. Fileja is made by rolling a marble sized piece of pasta dough around a steel or wood rod as in the photo below. It is a wonderful thick chewy pasta that goes with all kinds of sauces. It's our favorite go-to homemade pasta. So easy to make by hand, and you don't need a pasta rolling machine. See this link on how to make it at home - How to make fileja pasta

In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil (add more if needed) over medium heat. Add fennel and onion and cook, stirring, for about 15 minutes or until softened and slightly caramelized.

Add garlic and stir for 2 minutes.

Add saffron with soaking liquid and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Stir in the raisins.

Add the canned sardines. 

Add ½ cup warm water and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
When the pasta is al dente, drain and add to the sardine fennel sauce. Stir together.

Make bread crumbs from good crusty country bread in a food processor to a coarse texture. Then toast in a frying pan with olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Make about two cups.

Here is a video by chef John that we based our version on - 

ENJOY!!!

Braised Lacinato Kale and Linguine

We grow lacinato kale in our garden and there is enough now to harvest some of the leaves. Lacinato is a variety of kale with a long tradition in Italian cuisine. It's also called dinosaur kale or black kale. The plant has large dark blue-green leaves with a bumpy embossed texture. Like most greens the flavor is slightly bitter but lacinato kale is sweeter with a delicate earthy taste. It is commonly used in soups or braised with garlic and served as a side dish. We decided to mix it in with linguine and have homemade hot Italian sausage on the side. This along with a bowl of cubed melon makes a really nice spring dinner.

Ingredients

About 1 pound lacinato kale, large center ribs and stems removed, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/2 pound linguine

Zest of one lemon

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Freshly grated pecorino cheese

Directions

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add chopped onion and cook until soft and translucent, stirring occasionally for about 6 minutes. 

Add the garlic and sprinkle with salt; cook until onion is golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. 

Add kale and remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and toss until wilted, about 3 minutes. Cover pot and reduce heat to medium-low. Continue cooking until kale is very tender, stirring occasionally and adding water by teaspoonfuls if dry, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the linguine in a pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid. 

Add cooked linguine to the kale mixture in the skillet. 

Add lemon juice, lemon zest and 2 tablespoons reserved pasta water, toss to combine, adding more liquid by tablespoonfuls if dry. 

Serve in pasta bowls with a side of Italian sausage, dress with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle with grated pecorino cheese.

Artichokes Part II - Pan Grilled 3 Ways

This is a photo of two beautiful purple artichokes from Renew Farms in Newnan, Georgia. Yes, they are growing artichokes here in Georgia! We are lucky to live close.

Below are three easy pan grilled/pan seared fresh artichokes dishes we made. The herbs and seasonings I like to use with artichokes include thyme, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, dry white wine, sea salt & coarse black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes and sometimes shallots. Keep it simple.

Grilled Renew Farms Artichokes with linguine

Clean and prep the artichokes and cut in half lengthwise. Put in a steamer and steam for about 15 minutes. Take out and drain.

Drizzle with olive oil, add a little sea salt, coarse black pepper, thyme and lemon juice. Heat the grill and lay the artichoke halves on cut side down. I did this inside but you could easily grill them on a gas grill outside but be careful about the olive oil flaring up.

Grill until they develop some good char marks and turn over. 

Toss the linguine with garlic sautéed in olive oil (including the olive oil), sea salt, crushed black pepper, flat leaf parsley and pecorino cheese.  Add the grilled artichoke halves.

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Grilled Baby Artichokes

Unfortunately you won't find baby artichokes in a Kroger or Publix but if there is a good "for real" farmer's market near you, you might be able to find them this time of year. They are just the early versions of mature artichokes, usually about 2" - 3" long.  They are very tender and you can use just about the whole bud - no choke inside.  Just pull off a few outside leaves and trim a little.

Dressed simply with olive oil, salt & pepper and pecorino cheese. Serve as a side to roast chicken or pork.

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Pan Roasted Renew Farms Purple Artichokes

Clean and prep the artichokes, then cut in half.
Steam for about 15 minutes and drain.
Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with thyme and salt and pepper.
Put a little olive oil in a non stick pan and set on medium heat.
Add the artichokes cut side down with a sliced shallot and a couple minced cloves of garlic.
Squeeze some lemon juice, add a little white wine, more olive oil if it looks like it needs it.
Turn over when it looks like the artichokes are browning well.
When the other side is browned, turned the artichokes back over and let the juices get into and around the leaves. 
Toss in some red pepper flakes and chopped flat leaf parsley. 
Keep cooking and turning the artichokes until tender and look like the pic below.
Serve with some crusty bread

And, here is a link from Oceanmist that will fill your day with all kinds of information on Artichokes -  Oceanmist Artichokes

How to Correctly Plant and Grow Tomatoes

Cherokee Purple tomatoes from our garden last year - 2014

These are very interesting articles!  After digesting the information, I decided to try at least some of these recommendations this this spring. If you are open to new ideas, don't mind a little extra planting work and love tomatoes why not?

Here are links - 

Grow better tomatoes!

Rodale's Organic Life Guide to Planting Tomatoes

Pasta Primavera

Like fettuccine Alfredo, (and a number of other popular pasta dishes), Pasta Primavera is not a traditional Italian pasta dish. It is an American restaurant invention just slightly older than my daughter! The original recipe was "born" in 1977 at the New York restaurant Le Cirque, where it first appeared as an unlisted special before it was made famous through an article in the New York Times that included a recipe for it. That said though, the heart of many regional Italian pasta dishes include a variety of seasonal vegetables with no particular name. 

What is called Pasta Primavera, typically uses vegetables that are available fresh and in season in the springtime - Primavera, meaning Spring, in Italian. This is our version and it makes a nice light, very tasty, pasta dish. Experiment and play around with this. Include other seasonal vegetables and herbs. It's all good.

Ingredients

1/2 lb thin asparagus, cut in 2" pieces, (use just the tender top half of the spear)

1/2 medium sweet onion chopped

1 gold or red bell pepper, cut in 2" x1/2" pieces

2 medium zucchini, cut in 2" x 1/2" pieces

1 can or 1 package frozen artichoke hearts cut in quarters 

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped fine and divided

1 tablespoon fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped fine

1/4 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 cup pecorino cheese

3 tablespoons + olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Salt and Pepper

1 box fettuccine or better, fresh homemade fettuccine. It's not difficult.

Instructions

Add some olive oil to a non-stick skillet and lightly saute each vegetable separately, seasoning with a little salt and pepper. Then remove to a bowl. Use the same pan. You don't want to overcook the vegetables, they should have some snap to them.

Saute them in this order -

1 - Onion and garlic

2 - Artichoke hearts - season with 1 teaspoon of the thyme

2 - Peppers

3 - Zucchini

4 - Asparagus (adding about 1/4 cup of water and letting them seam until tender, plus the lemon juice) 

Meanwhile, start the pasta water to boil and add the pasta to the water as soon as all the vegetables are done. Take out about a half cup of the pasta water and set aside.

Drain the pasta and add to the bowl that has the cooked vegetables. Stir in the ricotta. Add some of the pasta water to thin the ricotta out. Stir everything together adding more ricotta and pasta water if needed to make a creamier sauce. Taste for seasoning.

Add the pecorino cheese and the fresh parsley and stir again.

Serve in pasta bowls and enjoy!

We had some of the Norton wine from the experimental second pressing of last Fall's grapes. It made a pretty decent dry rosé.

Pan Seared Spiced Okra with Cashews

Here is a wonderful way to prepare okra using some very aromatic spices.

   1/4 teaspoon ground cumin seeds

   1/4 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

   1/4 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

   1/4 teaspoon turmeric

   Pinch of cinnamon

   1/4 cup cashews roughly chopped

   2 tablespoons vegetable oil

   1 pound small okra, halved lengthwise

   Salt

   2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

In a small bowl, blend together the cumin, coriander, fennel, turmeric, cinnamon.

In a large non stick skillet (or two, if necessary) heat the oil. Add the okra, and cook over high heat for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to moderate and cook until browned, 4 minutes longer.

Stir and try to turn over as much of the okra as you can and cook over low heat until tender, about 2 minutes longer. Season with salt and sprinkle with the spice mixture.

Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds.

Drizzle the lemon juice over the okra and add the cashews. Stir together and serve. 

Pan Seared Sea Scallops - the Basics

You don't have to go out to a fine seafood restaurant for wonderful pan seared sea scallops. They are a real treat but a little tricky to get done just right at home. Here is an easily understandable technique that makes pan searing scallops very approachable. ENJOY! 

Pan-Seared Scallops with Arugula Pesto

Cooking scallops so they get a nice crusty sear requires a hot pan so that they sear rather than steam. But they also need to be dry when they hit the pan. Most scallops you buy at the store have been soaked in a liquid solution that keeps them looking white. So you'll need to drain and rinse them thoroughly, then pat them dry with paper towels before you season them. If you're lucky, your seafood purveyor carries "dry-packed" scallops, which haven't been treated with this liquid. If so, you don't need to rinse them, just season them with a little olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper and they're ready to cook. Scallops have an gristle like muscle,sometimes called a "foot" on the side. It's a tough little tab of meat that you should pull off before cooking because it can be kind of chewy. Once your scallops are dry and seasoned, heat a nonstick sauté pan - I like a well seasoned cast iron skillet, over medium high heat, and add a tablespoon of unsalted butter and a little vegetable oil. The oil/butter mixture needs to be very hot before you add the scallops. 

I have included a recipe for a base of roasted eggplant for extra flavor. Yes!

Serves 4

Ingredients

12 large sea scallops
1 tablespoon olive oil 
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Sea salt 

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Place the scallops on a plate, drizzle with just a little olive oil (so the salt and pepper will stick) and season with salt and pepper. 
Heat a 12" non-stick heavy frying pan over a medium high heat and cook the scallops for 2 minute each side. 
A 12" skillet is better for this many scallops, they need to be uncrowded so they don't steam.

Make ahead of time - 

Arugula pesto

Makes 1/3 cup

Ingredients

1 large bunch arugula (about 1 packed cup), trimmed and coarsely chopped 

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 

1 small garlic clove, minced 

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt 

Freshly ground pepper, to taste 

Directions 

Combine all of the ingredients together in a food processor fitted with a blade attachment and pulse until smooth. 

Eggplant spread

This silky dip gets its flavor from garlic and thyme, stuffed into slits in the eggplant before it's grilled. For a rustic look and feel, serve it on crispy grilled crostini.

Makes 3 cups 

Ingredients

3 medium eggplant (about 4 pounds), halved

4 cloves garlic, peeled and very thinly sliced lengthwise

12 1-inch pieces fresh thyme

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

3 tablespoons minced fresh herbs (a combination of parsley and basil)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Freshly ground pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
Arrange eggplant cut side up on a baking sheet. 
Make slits in eggplant and insert garlic and thyme. 
Drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil. 
Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt. 
Bake until tender, about 1 hour. 
Remove from oven; let stand until cool, about 20 minutes.

Scoop flesh into a food processor. 
Add herbs, 2 tablespoons oil, and lemon juice. 
Puree until smooth. 
Pulse the ingredients with 1 teaspoon salt and pepper to combine. 
This will keep refrigerated up to 3 days. 
Serve with crackers or crostini, or as in this case as a base for the seared scallops.

The Geometry of Pasta

I found this great resource web site for pasta, The Geometry of Pasta, and want to share it with you. This is their self description - 

"Geometry of Pasta shows you how to develop an instinct for matching the perfect pasta shape with the perfect sauce. 

Pasta is a simple thing but getting it just right can be tricky. We explain how to get the very best combination of taste and texture and to turn you from an average into a great pasta cook."

This website is a taste of what you will find in our book and our app (coming soon) also called The Geometry of Pasta."

There are plenty of on-line sites devoted to pasta, the history and background of the various shapes and sizes and how to sauce the different shapes the best way but I like how these folks put it all together. Clever and entertaining. 
  
Here is the link to their site - The Geometry of Pasta   Enjoy!