CountryWoodSmoke Video

I wanted to show a little more about the equipment I cook on out in the garden, so made this video back at the end of the summer.

Just thought I’d share it with you guys who may not have seen it yet.

Turn your volume up!!

Cheers

Marcus

First Pizza in Wood Fired Oven of the Alfresco season

It’s been a lovely start to the spring season, the weather has been unseasonably warm, so it was about time I fired the wood fired oven up for a quick couple of pizzas for my family.

It’s always difficult after you haven’t fired an oven in anger for a while as it builds up moisture over the winter and everything takes a while longer to heat up.

Still it was a good start to the year with a couple of pepperoni pizzas, but the light fades so quickly, so caught the first pizza in near dark conditions.

I’m looking forward to a great season of eating outdoors, hope you are too.

A beautiful day to cook

Pizza for brunch....mmm

Had friends over for lunch so fired the wood fired oven up early to get it good and hot, i had a little dough left from bread making, so knocked up a quick pizza for brunch….chefs perks! It was delicious best pizza, yet, I feel i’m getting the hang of building a good fire and getting the heat right up there. As you can see from the pics the temperature for cooking the pizza was over 300 deg C, and the pizza cooked under 2 minutes. I also cooked beer can chicken, a honey roast ham, some fougasse breads and a herb foccacia. All went down well, but I didn’t get any finished pictures before the lot was demolished!

Pizza for brunch….mmm

Best Bread Recipe

Here is the recipe for my overnight sponge bread, for which I am eternally grateful to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Everyday for getting me started with.

My bread

In a bowl add

250g Strong white bread flour

325g Lukewarm water

5g Fast Action Yeast

Mix with a wooden spoon and leave covered overnight.

The next morning add

250g Strong white bread flour, or replace with an equal quantity of alternative (wholemeal/barleycorn/5seed)

10g Fine Sea Salt

Mix until it comes together and knead for 10 mins on a worktop until silky and soft

Oil the bowl lightly with olive/rapeseed oil but the dough in and let rise until doubled (approx. 1 hour)

Fold the dough over on itself again and again to form a tight ball, coat lightly with a tiny amount of oil and then some polenta and leave to rise for another hour

Place a baking stone or heavy duty baking sheet in the oven and turn the oven to maximum, or alternatively in a wood fired oven which has cooled and is giving a steady heat, make sure the oven is well up to temperature before placing the bread in the oven, a quick squirt of water from a plant mister.

Cook at maximum temperature for 15minutes, before turning down to 200deg C for half an hour until the base sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool before slicing and enjoying with lashings of butter or dipped into olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar….delicious.

Grillstock 2011

I’m away with work at the moment, but really looking forward to going to Grillstock on the Harbourside in  Bristol when i get back next week. It’s the weekend 2nd/3rd July.

http://grillstock.co.uk/

I butchered a whole pig from the smallholder Pitmans Farm over the road from me last week, and so am looking to garnering some new ideas for cooking meat at the festival, and enjoying eating some serious meat while there. 

Was quite an experience learning the butchery, how far i’ve come from my vegetarian days. It gives a real understanding of the differing cuts of meat, and best ideas on cooking them, i’d reccomend it for any serious carnivores out there.

Pizza!

I have now finished my oven and painted it, all looking good, fired up for the first pizza this afternoon, it wasn’t white hot but did a pizza in about 3 mins, I had the fire going for 2 1/2 hours, and did 5 pizzas on it, the first couple had a disaster with them sticking to the peel, I used more flour on the peel and was all good.

 I was really pleased with my home made tools, shovel, brush and mop, and it all went rather well, everyone loved the pizza, think next time i’ll keep the fire raging a bit more as it had died down a bit just before cooking, but the pizzas were lovely and had a nice distinctive taste from the wood fire and slow ferment dough.
I even did a bit of bread which was great, and i’ve popped some mushrooms and tomatoes with a bit of olive oil and basil for supper.

I’ve got to have a look at my doors to get a snugger fit, as lost a lot of heat out the door and chimney I think, I had only popped a brick on top of chimney and that didn’t seal very well, so a few learnings and improvements, but it feels great to cook on my wfo finally.

First meal cooked in the oven

I fired her up again tonight, a little bit more, and thought i’d cook a meal, I got some nice mackerel and samphire and cooked the fish on my tuscan grill over some fennel shoots from my herb bed, and we enjoyed it with a nice zingy salad from the garden.
I put the first scratch coat of render over the block work, and my wife said how nice it looked and the food was lovely, so i’m very happy.

First firing

I’m really happy today, I had a small curing fire this morning and went out later this afternoon and was amazed by how warm it all still was, hopefully a good sign, the chimney seems to draw well so happy with that too, and I got the first layer of render on, here’s a couple more pics.

Day 4

Day 4 has been wicked, I finished off the chimney, and then started the vermicrete, this was easy to mix, but difficult to get stick, so I used some chicken wire mesh to lock it in and slapped it on with my hands, I reckon I got a generous 4-5″ on especially over the top, it’s all looking really great, was chuffed my front brick arch stood up by itself, though not the best brickwork in the land, using the outer rim of the barrel which locked it in place so it’s very sturdy (i hope)
I’m really pleased that as planned my tuscan grill fits through perfectly 14″ and a few mm spare

Here’s some more pics, planning on taking the rest of the weekend off to leave it to all set (covered with tarp to keep the rain off)
Then tuesday Iwill render over the top and the base, and start warming her up slowly

Day 2 & 3

I got loads done yesterday, but struggled today as had torrential rain most of the day, have got the barrel cut and in place now and have covered with the first heat retaining layer of concrete about 3″ so far, I have put up the brick arch, but really struggled with it, hope it holds up ok, everything covered with tarpaulin now to keep the rain off, I am really pleased with it all so far, and I have been able to use a lot of recycled materials which is great.