What did you cook today?

[ronnie_suburban]

Those are some fine looking fungi! I recently found a place here cultivating lion's mane and shitakes. A fresh mushroom makes you wonder why people buy them at the store.

Thanks. Yeah, the forager really came through this time. I don't mind cultivated mushrooms either but I don't give them quite the same priority when I'm cooking with them as I do with these beauties.

Tonight, this one I call 'Wang' Dang Doodle!


Ready For Grilling
Split up these whole wings with the honesuki (tips in the freezer for a future stock), then marinated them overnight in buttermilk and hot sauce. After that, dried them off, then seasoned them with salt, coarse black pepper, granulated garlic & onion and some sweet paprika.


Grilling
Went with the 'party' method -- center fire and wings placed around it. Mixed light made the shot a bit wonky but you get the idea. Cooked these covered for about 30 minutes, flipping the bird halfway through.


Grilled Chicken Wings
On the platter.


Plated Up
With steamed/buttered broccoli, a loaded baked potato and some spicy-sweet cucumber salad.

[ChefKnivesToGo]

Here's my morning meal. I rotate the fruit:

[trancher]

Here's my morning meal. I rotate the fruit:

I'll take a couple of full bowls of that, Mark! It looks great and quick, too!

[ChefKnivesToGo]

Thanks! This and a cup of coffee get me to lunch with ease.

[ronnie_suburban]

SausageFest!

First, condiment prep . . .


Veg Mise En Place & Sukenari HAP40 Gyuto, 210mm
Yellow bell pepper, assorted onions, black pepper, smashed garlic, evoo and salt.


Grilling
Beef & Lamb Cevaps and 'Grill' sausages.


Plated Up
With some spicy-sweet cucumber salad and assorted condiments, including some 2024-batch homemade sambal.

Happy Monday!

[billk1002]

Rib night with little red potatoes...

Happy pork Tuesday!

[ex1580]

Rib night with little red potatoes...

Happy pork Tuesday!


IMG_9369.jpg

That's a happy looking skillet!

[ronnie_suburban]

The asparagus has landed! . . .


Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki Sasame Petty, 120mm
Evoo, hand-grated pecorino romano, foraged morels, fusilli, black pepper, salt and asparagus.

Seemed a shame to cut up the last of my beautiful, foraged morels before I snapped the pic, so I held off until after. Basically, riffing on cacio e pepe here, using the cheese and some of the pasta water to form an emulsion and "be" the sauce. At the last minute before cooking, I decided to swap out the evoo for unsalted butter. I also added a finely chopped clove of garlic to the morels when I sauteed them. Asparagus was blanched in what eventually became the pasta water.


Plated Up
With an arugula & mini tomato salad, homemade shallot vinaigrette.

[ex1580]

Arepas! Today was a busy day in the kitchen. I made some slaw, balled up a melon, then determined there was no room in the fridge for any of that so I needed a good tool to make leftovers disappear. These little South American sandwiches made from PAN flour did the trick!

Salmon, Oaxaca cheese, and micro arugula greens on the left. A more traditional slaw filled version on the right. Spring onions everywhere because I had them, haha.

This is also a good way to tune up the seasoning on your skillet.

[ronnie_suburban]

Arepas! Today was a busy day in the kitchen. I made some slaw, balled up a melon, then determined there was no room in the fridge for any of that so I needed a good tool to make leftovers disappear. These little South American sandwiches made from PAN flour did the trick!

Salmon, Oaxaca cheese, and micro arugula greens on the left. A more traditional slaw filled version on the right. Spring onions everywhere because I had them, haha.

Nice! Those look great!

Over here, unsurprisingly, Pizza Time!

It being so hot out (~85F), I planned for pizza, cooked outside. But the rain came sooner than I expected, so I had to improvise and cook inside . . .


Sausage, Pepperoni & Onion Pizza
Dough: 100% King Arthur 00 flour, 66% hydration, 3% salt, 3% evoo, 1.5% diastatic malt powder, 0.75% sugar
Fermentation: Instant yeast, 72-hour fridge ferment
Toppings: Hot Italian sausage, hand-sliced pepperoni, mandoline-sliced red onion tossed in evoo
Cheeses: Hand-grated whole milk mozzarella, hand-grated parmano blend
Sauce: Drained/seasoned crushed tomatoes, Rao's pizza sauce (both leftover and now finished!)
Other Stats: 612g of dough, 16-inch diameter, ~14-minute bake @ 550F (6 minutes in the pan, 8 minutes directly on the stone)


Angle View


Side View
Nothing to complain about here . . . other than the weather, which prevented me from getting another outdoor rep under my belt. But in spite that, a crispy crust, a nice rise and zero flop on the wedge slices.

[ex1580]

Over here, unsurprisingly, Pizza Time!

It being so hot out (~85F), I planned for pizza, cooked outside. But the rain came sooner than I expected, so I had to improvise and cook inside . . .


Sausage, Pepperoni & Onion Pizza
Dough: 100% King Arthur 00 flour, 66% hydration, 3% salt, 3% evoo, 1.5% diastatic malt powder, 0.75% sugar
Fermentation: Instant yeast, 72-hour fridge ferment
Toppings: Hot Italian sausage, hand-sliced pepperoni, mandoline-sliced red onion tossed in evoo
Cheeses: Hand-grated whole milk mozzarella, hand-grated parmano blend
Sauce: Drained/seasoned crushed tomatoes, Rao's pizza sauce (both leftover and now finished!)
Other Stats: 612g of dough, 16-inch diameter, ~14-minute bake @ 550F (6 minutes in the pan, 8 minutes directly on the stone)


Angle View


Side View
Nothing to complain about here . . . other than the weather, which prevented me from getting another outdoor rep under my belt. But in spite that, a crispy crust, a nice rise and zero flop on the wedge slices.

Thanks!

That pizza is strikingly round! Looks like it came out great.

[ronnie_suburban]

Over here, unsurprisingly, Pizza Time!

It being so hot out (~85F), I planned for pizza, cooked outside. But the rain came sooner than I expected, so I had to improvise and cook inside . . .


Sausage, Pepperoni & Onion Pizza
Dough: 100% King Arthur 00 flour, 66% hydration, 3% salt, 3% evoo, 1.5% diastatic malt powder, 0.75% sugar
Fermentation: Instant yeast, 72-hour fridge ferment
Toppings: Hot Italian sausage, hand-sliced pepperoni, mandoline-sliced red onion tossed in evoo
Cheeses: Hand-grated whole milk mozzarella, hand-grated parmano blend
Sauce: Drained/seasoned crushed tomatoes, Rao's pizza sauce (both leftover and now finished!)
Other Stats: 612g of dough, 16-inch diameter, ~14-minute bake @ 550F (6 minutes in the pan, 8 minutes directly on the stone)


Angle View


Side View
Nothing to complain about here . . . other than the weather, which prevented me from getting another outdoor rep under my belt. But in spite that, a crispy crust, a nice rise and zero flop on the wedge slices.

Thanks!

That pizza is strikingly round! Looks like it came out great.

Lol, yeah. Forming it in the pan and baking in the pan for a few minutes are like training wheels for me. This dough is so sticky, I'm not sure I could successfully construct a pizza on the peel. I hope to eventually outgrow this interim method.

[ex1580]

Lol, yeah. Forming it in the pan and baking in the pan for a few minutes are like training wheels for me. This dough is so sticky, I'm not sure I could successfully construct a pizza on the peel. I hope to eventually outgrow this interim method.

To be fair I do something similar. I get it mostly formed on a board and finish forming it on a hot skillet. We've talked about that before but the whole reason I ended up doing it that way was after many fails trying to use a peel. The dough can be quite sticky and I believe you need to use a lot of dusting flour, and a coarse flour on the bottom allows it to slide off easier. I got it to work once or twice but my peel is just a decoration now, unless I someday build an outdoor pizza oven.

[ronnie_suburban]

Lol, yeah. Forming it in the pan and baking in the pan for a few minutes are like training wheels for me. This dough is so sticky, I'm not sure I could successfully construct a pizza on the peel. I hope to eventually outgrow this interim method.

To be fair I do something similar. I get it mostly formed on a board and finish forming it on a hot skillet. We've talked about that before but the whole reason I ended up doing it that way was after many fails trying to use a peel. The dough can be quite sticky and I believe you need to use a lot of dusting flour, and a coarse flour on the bottom allows it to slide off easier. I got it to work once or twice but my peel is just a decoration now, unless I someday build an outdoor pizza oven.

Yes. I like using coarse semolina to roll the pizzas off the peel. I lay some down and transfer the par-cooked pizzas from the pan to the peel after a few minutes of baking. From there, they easily slide into the oven and onto the stone. That part I have solved.

As for the formation on the peel, that's a tougher task. If I were totally unconcerned about how much flour I was adding to the dough -- and spreading all over my kitchen -- I think I could flatten out the learning curve a bit. I've seen plenty of videos and I think I have a pretty good idea how to do it but when I watch them, I can't help but notice how much flour is going all over the place. I just can't deal with that in my home kitchen. I may start practicing this outside, where I wouldn't have the same concerns. But that requires moving a lot of ingredients, etc. outside, so I haven't fully committed to it just yet.

[ChefKnivesToGo]

We stretch the dough and then assemble the pizza on our wooden peel. We use cornmeal to keep it from sticking. I also get flour all over the kitchen. The trick is not too much sauce and getting right to it. If you wait too long, it will stick to the peel, and then there's a problem.

[ronnie_suburban]

We stretch the dough and then assemble the pizza on our wooden peel. We use cornmeal to keep it from sticking. I also get flour all over the kitchen. The trick is not too much sauce and getting right to it. If you wait too long, it will stick to the peel, and then there's a problem.

For sure you have to have everything ready to go because once that dough is formed, it's go time. Like you said, if not, you get stickage, as well as other issues. Maybe I should offer to make pizzas at my friends' houses. This could be the perfect solution to getting more practice without annihilating my kitchen!

[ex1580]

We stretch the dough and then assemble the pizza on our wooden peel. We use cornmeal to keep it from sticking. I also get flour all over the kitchen. The trick is not too much sauce and getting right to it. If you wait too long, it will stick to the peel, and then there's a problem.

I've run into that problem before, it was not good. We call them calzones.

My testing years ago determined that I could do it if I used only a little sauce and moved fast. The problem was that isn't always possible in my kitchen and the flour went everywhere. I still have my stones just in case I change my mind, or my kitchen. I never got one of the pizza steels, which I hear are supposed to be good, because I have so much iron and it works too.

[ex1580]

This is a follow-up to my previous post. We were out at a local Neapolitan pizza place (for research purposes of course) and sat near the kitchen for the kids entertainment. They had a couple of guys shaping and stretching the dough then putting it on a generously floured peel, which they had many of. The peel with the dough then went on a rack until the next person was ready to assemble (which might be several minutes later), then to another person or two operating the oven. It was a pretty efficient kitchen and the pizza was great. I was amazed that the pizza didn't stick to the peel. Judging from the color of the walls and the flour everywhere I am guessing excess is the answer.

EDIT: There is probably a kid that works in a pizza joint laughing at us for trying to reverse engineer this.

[ronnie_suburban]

We stretch the dough and then assemble the pizza on our wooden peel. We use cornmeal to keep it from sticking. I also get flour all over the kitchen. The trick is not too much sauce and getting right to it. If you wait too long, it will stick to the peel, and then there's a problem.

I've run into that problem before, it was not good. We call them calzones.

My testing years ago determined that I could do it if I used only a little sauce and moved fast. The problem was that isn't always possible in my kitchen and the flour went everywhere. I still have my stones just in case I change my mind, or my kitchen. I never got one of the pizza steels, which I hear are supposed to be good, because I have so much iron and it works too.

Haha, yes. Calzones -- I meant to do that!

Fwiw, I have steels and stones and even though the steels win in a few categories, I still prefer the stones. Their porousness, and the fact that they absorb some moisture, make for superior, crispier crusts. The downside is that they're not as durable, are harder to clean (if not impossible) and end up absorbing so much foreign matter over time that they eventually begin to smell rancid after some period of time, and need to be replaced. But, in spite of all that, they produce better crusts.

This is a follow-up to my previous post. We were out at a local Neapolitan pizza place (for research purposes of course) and sat near the kitchen for the kids entertainment. They had a couple of guys shaping and stretching the dough then putting it on a generously floured peel, which they had many of. The peel with the dough then went on a rack until the next person was ready to assemble (which might be several minutes later), then to another person or two operating the oven. It was a pretty efficient kitchen and the pizza was great. I was amazed that the pizza didn't stick to the peel. Judging from the color of the walls and the flour everywhere I am guessing excess is the answer.

EDIT: There is probably a kid that works in a pizza joint laughing at us for trying to reverse engineer this.

LOL, absolutely.

Tonight, grilled up some teriyaki salmon but first, some side-dishery . . .


Quinoa Mise En Place & Sukenari HAP40 Gyuto, 210mm
Evoo, salt, orphaned red onion & shallot, Sazón, black pepper, scallions, yellow bell pepper, jalapeno, mini tomatoes, white quinoa and chopped garlic.

Sauteed all of this and added it to the quinoa once it was cooked. The Sazón, I added to the water when cooking the quinoa.


Grilling
Marinated overnight, then patted dry, lightly oiled and seasoned with a couple of homemade rubs. From there, cooked indirect/covered for about 15 minutes, until internal temp was about 130F. Fwiw, I oiled the heck out of the grates and the whole piece of fish came off intact, with the skin. I could have cut it into pieces but cooking it whole makes it easier to maintain a moist interior while also getting a decent crust on the exterior. Smaller pieces tend to cook too fast for that.


Plated Up
With the Sazón & Veg quinoa and some sauteed broccolini (evoo, garlic, lemon, red pepper flakes). There's really no elegant way to portion out an already-cooked piece of fish with crispy skin underneath it. I did my best.

[Jeff B]

What we really need is a "drooling" emoji, beautiful plate Ronnie!