Category: Cooking

55 Days of Grilling: March 25

We made two stuffed crust pizzas the other night and only cooked one. We modified the second one and grilled it for lunch today. There was way too much dough around the edge of the pizza (and almost no crust in the center). First, I tried to massage some of the dough from the edge into the center. Then we un-rolled the crust. The cheese, sauce, and pepperoni were spread out over the bottom of the dish. The excess dough was pulled toward the center and topped with sauce, cheese, and pepperoni — essentially making a pizza on top of another pizza. Or a pizza-topped calzone. Some butter was placed between the crust and the cast iron pan. We grilled it for 15 minutes. Unlike the pizza from the 23rd, this was actually pretty good.

55 Days of Grilling: March 23

Tonight, I tried to make a stuffed crust pizza. The dough was 4c all-purpose flour, 1 Tbsp yeast, 1/2c wheat gluten, 1 tsp salt, 1/4c olive oil, and enough water to make dough.

I tried to stuff shredded cheese into the crust — not such a good plan. Rolling the edge so there were three layers was a really bad idea — we had a circle of bread (with a bit of cheese in it) and a puddle of toppings in the middle.

55 Days of Grilling: March 22

Tonight, we made chicken parmigiana — two chicken breasts pounded to be flat. Looking at recipes online, it’s meant to be fried in oil. We were going to cook it on the grill, so I used the same technique that I use to make crispy fish in the oven — add a little oil to the eggs used to bread the meat.

In one bowl, I mixed two eggs with a quarter cup of olive oil and a bit of salt. In a second bowl, I mixed 1 cup of all-purpose flour with 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/2 tsp garlic. In a third bowl, I mixed together 1 cup of panko bread crumbs, 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. The chicken was dipped in egg, dipped in the flour mixture, dipped in egg again, and coated with panko. Scott grilled the chicken and topped with parmesan and mozzarella. Served with spaghetti and a spicy tomato sauce.

55 Days of Grilling — 17 March

Tonight, I made a brisket with carrots and potatoes. Carrots and potatoes were placed in the bottom of a cast iron dutch oven and sprinkled with salt, paprika, chipotle pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, thyme, garlic. Brisket was rubbed with the same combination mixed with a little brown sugar. Very heavy lid added to cook. 

 

It was cooked at 200F for an hour. Since it didn’t seem to have cooked at all, I bumped the temp up to 250F and cooked for another hour — until the internal temp reached 205F.

Socca Recipe

Writing this down because I have too many tabs opened.

 

Ingredients

  • 1 cup chickpea flour (4 1/2 ounces)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the pan and drizzling
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon za’atar (optional)

Instructions

  1. Prepare the chickpea batter. Whisk the chickpea flour, water, olive oil, and salt together in a medium bowl until smooth. Let rest for 30 minutes to give the flour time to absorb the water.

  2. Preheat the oven and then the pan. Arrange an oven rack 6 inches below the broiler element and heat to 450°F. About 5 minutes before the batter is done resting, place a 10-inch cast iron skillet in the oven and turn the oven to broil.

  3. Add the batter to the prepared pan. Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven. Add about 1 teaspoon of oil, enough to coat the bottom of the pan when the pan is swirled. Pour the batter into the center of the pan. Tilt the pan so the batter coats the entire surface of the pan, if needed.

  4. Broil the socca for 5 to 8 minutes. Broil until you see the top of the socca begin to blister and brown, 5 to 8 minutes. The socca should be fairly flexible in the middle but crispy on the edges. If the top is browning too quickly before the batter is fully set, move the skillet to a lower oven rack until done.

  5. Slice and serve. Use a flat spatula to work your way under the socca and ease it from the pan onto a cutting board. Slice it into wedges or squares, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle with more olive oil and sprinkle with the za’atar if using.

55 Days of Grilling: Day 12 – Breakfast

I made grilled french toast this morning — 4 eggs, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1 tbsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/2 cup milk. Dipped the bread in the mix, heated in a pan until the egg solidified, then moved to the grill to toast. This crisped up the bread quite nicely, and we got a custard-like inner bread with a slight crunch on the outside.

Served with fresh maple syrup. Very tasty!

55 Days of Grilling: Day 11

Tonight, we made cubano sandwiches using the pork roast from last night. Pork, ham, swiss cheese, and pickle on Cuban bread. Butter outsides of bread before … well, normally pressing in a panini press. But, in this case, before grilling for a few minutes to get the bread toast and melt the cheese.

Cuban bread uses a poolish — 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup water, and 1/2 tsp yeast. That sits overnight (12+ hours). Add 1 cup water, 1.5 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp sugar, 1 Tbsp oil (traditionally lard), 1.5 tsp yeast, and 3 cups flour. Mix and kneed — add up to an additional 1/2 cup flour to form a dough ball. Let sit in a warm place for 1-2 hrs to raise. Deflate the dough and let raise for another hour. Form into two logs and embed a metal skewer in the top. Cover with a clean towel and let raise for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, preheat oven to 400F. Bake for 25 minutes.

Remove skewers

55 Days of Grilling: Day 10

I made a braised pork today — cooked at ~300 degrees for about six hours. A few days ago, I mixed up a marinade for the bone-in pork roast.

  • 2 Tbsp kosher salt
  • 4 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp ground mustard
  • 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
  • 2 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp smoked sweet paprika
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil

I coated the roast in the marinade then vacuum packaged it. Six hours was too long — a more marbled roast might have been fine, but the one we had got dry. Drizzling it with maple syrup helped!