Pizza

Some photos from last night's pizza. Tasty, but there are still many areas for improvement. There are still many things that I am learning.  

Pizza Margherita.

 Italian sausage (somehow got it for free, along with another sausage, from the butcher at Whole Foods).

Assortment of toppings.

Dairy free/vegan pizza.

Peach, caramelized onion, goat and mozzarella cheeses.

Pizza crust bottom-view. 

Caprese Salad

This is salad in its simplest form. Caprese salad is quite easy to make. It is also a summer salad - don't even try making it anytime but the summer (unless you live somewhere very warm) because the tomatoes will not be great out of season, and great tomatoes are essential for a good caprese salad. Good mozzarella helps too. A balsamic reduction raises this caprese salad to the next level. 

Caprese Salad:

2 large, ripe tomatoes, sliced about 1/4 inch thick

10 slices fresh mozzarella (about one mozzarella ball)

20 leaves fresh basil

1/4 cup balsamic reduction (see below)

freshly ground black pepper

kosher salt

To make this salad, simply assemble thinly sliced ripe tomatoes (about 1/4 inch thick), fresh mozzarella slices of about the same size, and several basil leaves. To make each stack, begin with a tomato slice. Place several basil leaves on top of tomato slice, followed by a slice of mozzarella. Then drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil and a liberal amount of balsamic reduction (see below) on top. Add some extra smaller basil leaves to the top as well. Season with freshly ground pepper and kosher salt (this depends on the salt content of your mozzarella. I barely added any salt this time because the mozzarella I used was very salty to begin with). Enjoy!

Balsamic Reduction:

3/4 cup good balsamic vinegar

Simply bring the vinegar to a slight simmer in a saucepan for 10-20 minutes allowing the liquid to reduce to a syrupy consistency. Any extra can be stored in the refrigerator. 

Chinese Steamed Goat Dumplings (Jiaozi)

Homemade wrappers in back, store-bought in front.

Chinese dumplings are one of my favorite foods. They are simply amazing. The combination of texture, sweetness, saltiness, and juiciness make my mouth water. While I am usually somewhat picky when it comes to a food's quality, I am not at all around chinese dumplings, even when they come from a mediocre chinese restaurant. I love 'em all. It only makes sense, then, that homemade dumplings go above and beyond making me happy.
In these dumplings I used ground goat meat (with a little ground pork to add some fat) from a friend's goat that I helped butcher last week.

Ground goat meat with rib cage.

I also got to use my new bamboo steamer that I bought earlier today (for the main purpose of steaming dumplings). After soaking it in water for several hours it was ready to use and worked great. Rather than settling on just one type of dumpling wrapper, I decided to use a combination of store bought dumplings wrappers (Twin Marquis brand from my local asian market) and homemade wrappers. The homemade wrappers (flour and water) are thicker and have a better texture than the thin store bought wrappers, however both worked well and tasted good. I made a simple dipping sauce from soy sauce, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, sugar, scallions, and hot chili oil.

Bamboo steamer 

Wood-fired Pizza in the Virginia Backcountry

Front-view

My friends and I tend to cook well when backpacking in the mountains. I don't understand buying all that expensive freeze-dried stuff anyways. This weekend we drove out to the Mount Rogers Wilderness/Grayson Highlands State Park to do some backpacking. We set up camp at an incredible campsite in a grassy open area at about 5000 feet above sea level.

We constructed a "stone-hearth oven" prior to building the fire. After building up a good pile of coals and "pre-heating" the oven, we cooked out first pizza. We used pita that we cut in half as the pizza crust. Due to the way the oven was assembled, we were able to achieve high heat from below and above the pizza which was ideal.
I highly recommend trying this next time y'all are in the backcountry as there is nothing better than freshly cooked pies on the mountain top.

Improvised peel.

View from the back of the oven with sliding rock "doors" open.

Roasted Tomato Risotto

Risotto can be somewhat time consuming (and daunting) the first couple times you make it, but once you become comfortable, it does not require any more effort than rice rice (slight exaggeration...), and risotto is absolutely incredible tasting. Risotto takes rice to a completely new level. Better yet, it is very adaptable and can therefore be made using many different ingredients. For this recipe, I simply used the Parmesan Risotto recipe from the New Best Recipe and added about a cup of roasted tomatoes and garlic about 15 minutes before the risotto was fully cooked. Next time I will definitely begin with more tomatoes as they cooked down tremendously. I also need ideas for a proper garnish for this dish. Any suggestions?

Grilled Bruschetta with Tomatoes and Basil

Bruschetta is a great example of a dish that depends entirely on the quality of the individual components. Bruschetta looks and tastes wonderful when each component receives the necessary attention. The bread should be crispy (I usually grill it for the great grill marks, although putting it under the broiler for a minute or two also works.). It should also be "garlic-y". If using tomatoes, they should be perfectly ripe (different colored tomatoes add to the apperance). The combination of tomatoes and basil is incredible. While mozzarella cheese is another good addition to this bruschetta, I believe the simplicity of this version allows the bread and tomatoes to stand out.

Grilled Bruschetta with Tomatoes and Basil:

10 slices of a baguette, cut at an angle 3/4 inch thick (other crispy white breads can be used, however the french baguette looks the prettiest)
2 large ripe tomatoes
5 cloves garlic, minced
10-20 large basil leaves, chiffonade
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Cut the tomatoes into 1/4-1/2 inch cubes (be careful not to mush the tomatoes when cutting the tomatoes as they are fragile. I recommend using a sharp serrated bread knife). Combine the tomatoes with 3 cloves minced garlic, chiffonade basil, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, and all of the vinegar. Carefully fold together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Marinate the tomatoes in this mixture for about 15 minutes.
Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Combine 2 cloves minced garlic with 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and paint a light coating of this mixture onto both sides of the bread slices using a kitchen paint brush. Grill the bread t for a couple minutes per side until they develop light grill marks.
Put a generous spoonful of tomato mixture onto grilled bread and serve.

Smoked Whole Chicken

Now that I am home I can now use the Big Green Egg again. I decided to smoke chicken this time. I have had plenty of chicken recently, so I think I might take a rest before I cook it again. As I usually do when cooking chicken on the grill, I butterflied it and seasoned it well with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. In order to impart the most flavor, I rubbed the salt and pepper underneath and on the outside of the skin. I then put the chickens on the grate which was sitting on top of the ceramic plate setter (feet-up) with a fire box filled about 1/3 full with BGE Lump Charcoal (much better than charcoal briquettes). I also threw on a generous handful of hickory chunks that had been soaking in water for an hour or so for a extra smokey flavor. I cooked the chickens at about 260-290 F for two or three hours until the internal temperature in the thickest part of the thighs reached about 170.
The chickens turned out real good, although grilled barbecue chicken with homemade barbecue sauce is hard to beat.

There is no need to flip the chicken.

Hickory chunks on left and BGE lump charcoal on right.