Curryish Seafood Soup in a Dutch Oven

It was Mother’s Day, and I wanted to cook something both unique and exciting. It had to be low in Weight Watcher’s points (my wife and I are both on that program, now), and it had to be made with what we had on hand (I don’t like to go shopping on Sundays).

So, that’s all a pretty tall order. I looked through the fridge and freezer, and found some proteins (the seafood), a lot of seemingly random veggies in the fridge, and of course, our own pretty well stocked spice cabinet and pantry. I started to get an idea in my head. I would make a tomato-based soup, combining all of the seafood and veggies, and using curry spices. I don’t know that it’s really an “authentic” curry, but it ended up tasting GREAT!  Maybe you could call it “Indian Fusion”... Whatever that means.

Mark's Curryish Seafood Soup

12” shallow Dutch oven
20 + coals below to sautee
14-16 coals below to simmer

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Medium Onions, diced or sliced
3-4 Stalks Celery, diced
4 Cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 Peanuts, shelled, roasted or not
Salt

4 Cups Poultry stock
1 lb Shrimp, peeled, deveined
1-2 lbs of other seafood, like Salmon and/or tilapia filets
1 6oz Can Tomato paste
1 8oz Can Tomato sauce
1 14oz Can Coconut milk
1-2 8oz Cans Water chestnuts, drained
Cauliflower

Curry powder
Chili powder
Lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Parsley
Tomato powder (optional)

Start out by thawing everything. I keep my homemade stock frozen in old drinking water bottles, so I have to let it melt. The seafood was also frozen.

Once those were thawed, I got some coals on. While they were getting hot, I diced the veggies.  I put the Dutch oven on the coals listed for the saute, and drizzled in the oil. Once that was nice and hot, I tossed in the veggies, stirring them frequently.  The salt helps with the flavor, and it also draws out the moisture. I had read that indian spices are more flavorful if you “activate” them in hot oil for a few minutes first. Next time I do this, I’ll shake in the curry powder as the oil is heating. I’ll see if that makes any difference.

Once the onions are translucent, and the celery is getting a little softer, I added in the the second set of ingredients. I adjusted the coals for the simmering phase. Really, I just let the coals keep burning down, and I don’t replenish them quite as much. If it gets boiling too vigorously, I’ll pull some coals out, or just wait a while before adding any fresh coals.

Also, when I start the simmering phase, I keep the lid on. This traps the heat and helps it get up to boiling a little quicker. After it’s simmering, I take the lid off. I stirred it every 15 minutes or so, breaking up the fish filets, and making sure that the bottom isn’t burning.

After about 45 minutes or so, I added in the flavorings in the final set of ingredients. I went pretty liberal with the spices, etc.  I added a little of each one, then after 10 minutes or so, tasted it, and added any that I thought were lacking. Go easy on the hot pepper/chili powder at first, because you can always add more heat, but you can’t take it out.

I want to explain the tomato powder! About a year ago, I wanted to make some dried tomatoes, like the ones that get packaged in small jars of olive oil. They’re almost fully dried, but not quite. So, I cut up some tomatoes and put them on bread cooling racks in my oven. I set the oven to the lowest possible setting, propped the door slightly open, and went on about my business. Well, I let it go too long, and the poor tomatoes ended up almost burned. But a moment of inspiration hit me, and I ground them up in my blender, and made it into a powder. It has a delicious, smoky tomato flavor!  I like using it a lot, and, in fact, I’m almost out, so I think it’s time to make more!

When the cauliflower is soft, and the flavors are all well-stewed together, you can call it done! Serve it up with some fresh-baked bread!



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Molecular Gastronomy: Rice Pudding With Apple Caviar, Part 2

Continued from yesterday's post on Molecular Gastronomy

So, once again, we’re talking about molecular gastronomy, or, as it’s sometimes called, modernist cooking.  When I hear that term, I wonder what will come next, maybe post-modernist cooking?  Will we be debating the existence of food?

But I digress...

As I said last time, the first attempt My son and I made at Basic Spherification failed miserably, and we chalked it up to a learning experience. We made some adjustments the second time and it all turned out.  I’m sure that as we do it more and more, we’ll get better and better and understand it more as well.

As I begin to list the ingredients, you’ll notice that the amounts are in grams, not in cups or tablespoons.  That’s because this is chemistry, and chemists don’t measure in teaspoons. Accurate measurements are very important in this process.

Here’s what you need:

Ingredients:

At least 1000 grams Apple Juice
5 grams sodium citrate
5 grams sodium alginate
About a liter of clean water
5 grams calcium chloride

Tools:

,
Ph test strips
a scale that measures with an accuracy of 0.1 grams
small cups for measuring and dispensing the chemicals
a blender or a whisk
4 clean bowls, preferably clear glass
a large plastic medical syringe
a small strainer or spoon with small holes.

I started out with a lot of the apple juice, and to intensify the flavor, I boiled it and reduced it down to about half. To do the spherification, you’ll need exactly 500 grams, so I started with more than double that. Confession: I did this step with a saucepan on my stove. I know I should have done it on coals in my Dutch oven. I hang my head in shame.

Then, I let it cool in the fridge. When it was at about room temperature, I pulled it out and tested the Ph with the test strips. There were two possible reasons why the first one failed. One was that the juice might have been too acidic. The best results happen when your Ph is more than 3.6. The first batch tested at 4, so it should have been OK, but it was really close. Also, many fruit juices have added calcium which can begin the spherification reaction too soon. In either case, sodium citrate is the answer. So, the second time, I added some to the juice. This measurement is not so critical, I’d read.

Once that was dissolved, it was time to make the sphere base solution. I measured exactly 500 grams of the reduced juice. For the spherification to work, you have to have accurate measurements. My scale wasn’t so accurate, and that also caused problems the first time. I was much more careful, but I think I also got lucky the second time.  I also measured out 5 grams of the sodium alginate

Then I got the blender (the instructions say you can use a whisk, but I was a bit nervous, so I did the blender). While blending the juice, I gradually tipped in the sodium alginate. The first time, it got very thick. I think we had added too much, and I think it also reacted with the juice. The second time, it did get a little thicker, but it was still very runny.

Even though the sodium alginate looks dissolved, it needs some time to fully hydrate and to be fully absorbed into the juice. Also, the air bubbles have to dissipate.  I set it in the fridge for about an hour, or longer.

After a time in the fridge, the liquid looked clear, but there was still some bubbles on top. I scooped these away with a spoon.

While I let the sphere base solution get a bit warmer, I made the setting bath. I set up three bowls.  In the first, I put 500 grams of water. I used tap water, but the instructions also recommend using distilled water. I think next time, I’ll do that. While whisking, I gradually added the calcium chloride, and stirred until it was fully dissolved. I filled each of the other bowls about 3/4 of the way with water.

I had bought a molecular gastronomy chemical kit to do this and it came with a big plastic syringe. I have a son with special health care needs, so we actually have these things all over the house, anyway. I sucked up the sphere base solution into the syringe and, from a height of about 2-3 inches, began dribbling it into the setting bath.  It’s important to not press too fast, or you’ll get a worm, not a sphere. I like having a clear glass bowl, because it was easier to see the resulting caviar spheres from the side of the bowl than it was from above. The fact that the apple juice was a light color didn’t help much either.

Once I’d squeezed out about a full syringe of juice, I gently stirred up the water to see what we had. I stirred over the spheres, rather than through them, and let the water motion move them around. I let them set in the bath for about a minute or two, and then lifted them out with the strainer. I poured them immediately into the first water bath, rinsed them, and then into the second water bath.

I got a small bowl and put a heaping spoonful of rice pudding into the center, and then placed the apple caviar beads around and on top of it. It was a really elegant presentation, and the flavor was wonderful. It was a lot of fun to try and a great learning experience!

By the way, the spheres keep gelling even though they’ve been rinsed off, so It’s important to serve them as quickly as possible.  A great video instruction series can be found at http://chefsteps.com/mp


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch oven Rice Pudding With Apple Caviar, Part I

Part I of a two-part story. Here's the link to part II, about the molecular gastronomy

A long time ago, in fact back when John over at mormonfoodie.com first encouraged me to start here at Mark’s Black Pot, there was a forming movement called “molecular gastronomy”.  It was kinda weird, kinda exciting, kinda new. It involved using science, particularly chemistry, to make some new and unusual sorts of taste experiences.

Recently, my son encountered some examples on youtube and we started looking into being able to do it ourselves.  It’s both simple and complex, so it took a bit of research. One of the simplest processes is one called Basic Spherification.  Here’s how it goes:

1 - You pick a juice or a puree
2 - You mix it with one chemical
3 - You drizzle drops of it into a bath of water and another chemical
4 - The chemicals instantly react to form a coating, a membrane, around the sphere of juice.
5 - You rinse it off and serve it, and it looks like juice caviar.  When you pop them in your mouth, they pop with the flavor of the juice.

So, we got a kit of the chemicals, and gave it a try.  Actually, it took two tries. So, I’m going to share the process here, because it was a lot of fun, and we learned a lot doing it.

But first, a bit of tradition to go with our modernist dessert.

I wanted to make something to go with it. I mean, you don’t just eat caviar straight from the bottle, do you?  I started thinking about things to put it on, a proverbial canvas to carry the paint. I wanted the base flavors to be subtle, not strong, but complementary to the caviar’s own.  I decided on a rice pudding and an apple juice caviar.

So, today’s entry is not so much about molecular gastronomy as it is the prep for it.  Then, in the next spot, I’ll tell you how to do the caviar.

Dutch Oven Rice Pudding

8” Dutch oven
12-13 coals below

3/4 cup uncooked white rice
1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk

2/3 cup golden raisins
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon
Nutmeg

First of all, I got some coals going, and I cooked the rice.  Over time, I’ve developed a way to do rice that works for me almost every time, without burning.  I put one part rice and two parts water into either my 8” or 10” Dutch oven and set it on coals to boil.  I watch closely to notice when the steam starts venting out from under the lid.  At that point, it’s been boiling for several minutes already.  I’ll mark that time, and let it go for an additional ten minutes more.  Then, I pull it off the coals and let it sit for another 15-20 minutes.  At no time in this process do I lift the lid! Only after it’s all done.

In this case, however, instead of bringing it in and serving it, I put it back on the coals, and stirred in the milk, sugar, and salt.  I put the lid back on and let it come back up to a simmer, and cook for another 15-20 minutes.

I whisked the milk and the egg together. I’m not sure if I needed to or not, but I decided to temper the egg, so that it wouldn’t cook and congeal when it suddenly hit the hot rice and milk.  I got the egg and milk mixture in a bowl next to the Dutch oven, and, while whisking the egg mixture, gradually added big spoonfuls of hot rice and milk. The idea is to gradually bring the temperature of the egg up so that it blends in without scrambling.  When it was all hot, then I poured it all into the Dutch oven.  I added the final flavorings and let it cook for another 4-5 minutes.

A note about the seasonings, go easy. The idea is to create a platform for the apple juice caviar, so you want flavor, but not too much. Of course, if you are making the pudding just for a dessert and you’re not going to put anything on top, then season all you want!

Finally, I let it cool. Actually, because our first attempt at spherification bombed, I ended up refrigerating the pudding and bringing it out the next day.  It was delicious, even the next day!


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Chicken Artichoke Soup

There are a few ingredients that you can use in a dish that will immediately class it up.  It almost doesn’t matter how you use them, just the fact that it’s in there (and in the title) will immediately make foodies like me sit up and take notice.  Without it, the dish is pleasant, but with it, the plate becomes a gourmet delight!  A well-seasoned and grilled chicken breast is nice, for example, but if you put steamed asparagus next to it on the plate, it gets an extra start in the rating, right away!

Artichoke is another one of these.

About two weeks ago, I had this germ of an idea for a dish with a chicken soup and a fresh half artichoke.  I started looking at various artichoke soups online, and most of them involved canned or bottled pickled artichoke hearts, veggies, and broth, then simmered and pureed.  So, what you got was a thicker, creamier sort of soup.

That sounds great, but it wasn’t what I was imagining.  In fact, I couldn’t find anyone who had done what I had in mind. That was encouraging, but it also made me nervous.

Dutch Oven Chicken Artichoke Soup

12” Dutch oven

20-24 coals below

1 Tbsp Oil
1 can mushrooms or 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
3 cups cooked chicken, shredded or cubed
2 medium onions, sliced
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 sweet peppers. diced
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
Salt

2 Tbsp Oil
4 tbsp flour

1 cup milk
4 cups chicken stock
Juice and zest of 2 lemons
Parsley
Oregano
Salt
Pepper

3 artichokes

This soup is built up in steps, or layers.  First, I browned and sauteed the veggies to get the maximum amount of flavors.  I did that in the best order, so that those that cook longer start first.  Then, I made a roux to help thicken it, and created the soup.  Finally, I added the artichoke halves to cook while the soup simmered.

To get started, I put the 12” Dutch oven on some hot coals, with a little puddle of oil in the bottom.  I let that heat up for about 10-15 minutes.  While that’s happening I prepared the chicken and the veggies.

A word about the chicken.  I had some pulled chicken from when I made some stock a bit ago.  After eating a roast chicken or turkey, I boil the remainder (the bones and the rest of the meat), and the liquid becomes stock for soups (see below).  I also pull the remaining meat off the bones, and shred it for things like this, or for enchiladas, or sandwiches.  For this meal, you could also used canned chicken chunks (well drained and dried), or even cubed fresh chicken.  If you use the fresh chicken, you’ll cook it a bit longer in the first step, of course.

When the Dutch oven was hot, I tossed in the chicken and let that sear.  I added in the mushrooms, and let them cook down.  I really like the mushrooms when they’re quite browned.  Finally, I added in the other veggies.  All the while, I tossed and stirred everything frequently.

Once the veggies were getting a bit soft and the onions were translucent, I pushed everything aside and made a space in the middle of the Dutch oven.  In that, I added more oil, and the flour.  Immediately I stirred that into a roux and let it cook, stirring, until it started to smell a bit nutty. It was still quite light, a blonde roux.  I mixed everything together.

Then, I stirred in the next set of ingredients, the milk, the stock, the flavorings.  As always, you can use the flavors and amounts that you like.  I put the lid on, refreshed the coals, and brought it up to a simmer, for about 15 minutes.  I tasted and adjusted.  Artichoke has some bitter tones, so the acid in the lemon juice goes a long way toward lessening that and livening it up.  Make sure you have enough.  Vinegar could also be used.

While it was simmering, I prepared the artichokes.  I cut them in half, across the stem, so that each half was like a floral bowl.  I trimmed off a few of the lower leaves.  I got a paring knife and cut and scraped out the “choke” which is the fuzzy stuff in the heart.  I also cut out the first couple of layers of innermost leaves, just to make sure that I got everything.  Then, I put those into the soup.  I pushed them down in, and ladled some soup over them, so that the soup would get down, in between the leaves.  I set the timer for 45 minutes, and put the lid back on.  During the 45 minutes, I just adjusted the coals, and occasionally checked and stirred.

When it was finally done (a leaf of the artichoke came off freely), I brought it in to cool.  I served it up by lifting an artichoke half into a bowl, then ladling the soup around it.  I served it with some Pita wedges to dip into the soup.  We ate it by pulling off the leaves and scraping the flesh at the bottom of the leaf with our teeth, and then sipping the soup with a spoon.  It was delicious!

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Chocolate Chicken

...What?

Chocolate what?

No. Stinking. Freaking. Way.  What are you thinking?  Chocolate chi--  What?

See, it all started when my wife was preparing a lesson for church on Sunday about God’s love.  She found this funny quote that says, “Chocolate is proof that God loves us all!”  While we talked about ways to work that into the lesson (involving a handout with Hershey’s Kisses), I got an idea in my head for a day of cooking with chocolate.

I did some research, and I found a great brownie recipe (which will follow another day), but I wondered what to do for the main dish.  I thought about a mole of some kind, and I started looking for recipes.  I found, instead, a recipe for a chocolate-based barbecue sauce.  Immediately, I thought of the cashew chicken I had done in the previous post.  I would do a dredged, crispy fried chicken, and then dry-bake on the sauce!

Though many of the processes are the same as that last dish, there are a few differences, so I’ll write it out again.

Dutch Oven Chocolate Chicken

12” Dutch oven

20+ coals below for frying

10 coals below for baking
30+ coals above


8” Dutch oven

12+ coals below


2 lbs boneless & skinless chicken breast tenders
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp paprika

4 tbsp. unsalted butter
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, minced
1 1.5 oz. chocolate bar, broken into chunks
1 8ox can tomato sauce
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp molasses
2 tbsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp coffee grounds or powdered coffee substitute, like Pero
2 tbsp  Dijon mustard
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper


First of all, make sure that the chicken is fully thawed before you even start.

I started out, as I usually do, by firing up some coals.  Once I had a few that were getting a bit white, I spread about 20 or more out on the table and put the 12” Dutch oven on it to preheat, with a few tbsp of olive oil in the bottom.

While the coals and the Dutch oven were getting ready, I prepared the chicken.  I mixed the flour and spices in a bowl first of all.  I was working with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, so I sliced them into 1” strips and dredged them into the flour mix.  I set them aside on a plate.

When the Dutch oven and the oil was hot, I put in the chicken to fry.  I covered the bottom and still had only placed about half the chicken, so I did it in batches.  I cooked the chicken about ten minutes or so and then turned each piece over using tongs.  While the first batch was cooking I chopped up the onion and minced the garlic. When both sides were nice and crispy, and I could see that the insides were cooked through, I pulled them off, and put in the second batch.  Somewhere in here, I also added in some fresh coals to the fire to get hot and ready.

While the second batch was cooking, I put my 8” on the coals and melted the butter.  The onions and garlic went in with a little salt to sweat.  Once those were translucent, the remaining ingredients went in to simmer and melt.

When the second batch of chicken strips were done, I pulled it off the coals and added in the first batch, with the lid on, to keep warm with the residual cast iron heat.

When the sauce was looking nice and smooth, I tasted it and adjusted it.  I found my mix to be a little chocolate-heavy so I added in more mustard and vinegar.  You can adjust it how you like.  In the ingredients list above, I backed off on the cocoa a bit to compensate.  I poured about half of the sauce over the chicken in the Dutch open and stirred it up to coat it over all of the pieces.

Then, I set up the dry-bake.  I put the 12” Dutch oven on about 10-12 coals, and put a LOT of good, fresh coals on the lid.  Then I lifted the lid and put an old circular grill on the Dutch oven as a spacer for the lid.  You can see it in the picture.  I put the lid back on.  Now, there’s a thin space where moisture can escape.  In the past I’ve done that by hooking bent nails over the rim of the Dutch oven.  This time, I had this grill that worked very nice.  When you do that, however, you need to put a LOT more coals on top, as shown in the instructions, because the lid doesn’t trap the heat and moisture.  In this case, the chicken is already cooked, it’s just a matter of dry-baking the sauce on like a glaze.  I let it bake for about another fifteen minutes, stirring it once.

Finally, it was ready.  I served it with a side of steamed veggies, and did the brownies for dessert.  A chocolate day!

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Dandelion Delicacies part 2

Flower Fritters


It might be interesting to know that the name “Dandelion” actually comes from an aglicization of the french “dent-de-lion”, meaning "lion's tooth".

Or not...
In my last blog entry, I talked about making the greens.  Here, I’ll instruct on another fascinating dish, the Dandelion Flower Fritters.  I made them alongside the greens, and served them together.  They don’t have to be done together, obviously.  And, in a blog, it’s easier to break them into two separate recipes, separate entries.

I’ll refer you back to that entry to learn about how to harvest the dandelions.


Dandelion Fritters

10” Dutch oven
14-16 coals below


4 tablespoons veggie oil
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 cup flour + extra to get the right consistency

20-30 dandelion flower heads

Pancake Syrup or powdered sugar


So, to do the fritters, I put the oil in the 10” Dutch oven, and put it on the hot coals.  While that was heating up, I mixed the batter. I just put all of that set of ingredients in a bowl and whisked it up.  I mixed it to be a little thicker than my typical pancake batter, which is usually pretty runny.

Once the batter was mixed and the Dutch oven and oil hot, I was ready.  I picked up a flower by the green bud underneath, turned it over, and dunked it into the batter.  Then I dropped it, sizzling, onto the oven bottom.  There was a lot of room, so I just did a lot of them.  I just let them cook until the batter was done, then pulled them off, replacing them with more battered buds.  It’s really pretty simple.

When it was all done, I plated them alongside the greens, and drizzled them with some pancake syrup.  Another suggestion that I’d read about was to sprinkle them with powdered sugar, or even to dip them into ketchup or mustard.

The gentle sweet of the batter, and the syrup helped temper some of that bitter tang that came from the bud.  The petals had a real lightness to them.  It was a very unique taste overall.  If it’s an acquired taste, I acquired it pretty quickly!


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Dandelion Delicacies, part 1

Late last summer, I had read online where people actually cook and eat dandelions.  I was both repulsed and intrigued.  I had actually heard of it in the past, but this time I saw some recipes and processes that caught my eye, and I determined to try it.

Unfortunately, at the time, It was kinda difficult to find the cute yellow flowers in bloom.  Most in my neighborhood were well into seed at that point.

So, today, I was driving home and I happened to notice that the dandelion flowers were really budding out in force.  It was also a bright, warm, sunny day (and we’ve had precious few of those lately), so I decided to jump on the opportunity and take a chance.

Of course, I had never cooked them before, nor had I ever eaten them.  So, it was kind of a wild shot that it would even work, that it would even taste good.  I tried two different dishes, one with the greens and one with the flower.  They were not only edible, but even palatable.  It was an odd taste.  It had tones of sweet and savory, depending on the dish, and also an underlying tone of bitter.  But the bitter was really just an edge, rather than the whole flavor.  Like I said, it was odd.  I don’t think it’s for everyone.  In the end, I liked it.

I also need to explain.  Since this was the first time I’d tried it, there were things in the process that I think I did wrong.  Well, not so much “wrong”, per se, but “not in the best order”.  So, I’m writing this from the point of view of how I would do it next time.


Dandelion Greens

8” Dutch Oven

10-12 coals below


10” Dutch Oven

14-16 coals below


1 12” collander filled to heaping with rinsed and trimmed dandelion greens.
~2  cups  water
2 tbsp salt

1 lb bacon
1 med onion
3 cloves garlic

salt
pepper
crushed red pepper
lemon or lime juice

The first step is to gather the dandelion plants.  I went foraging in our neighborhood.  I’ll bet I looked like quite a sight, with my box of flowers and my hand shovel.  I looked for plants that had lots of bushy leaves, and plenty of large round flowers.  I also tried to look in places where I didn’t think people would have sprayed with herbicides.  I didn’t want to be eating toxic chemicals.  I got a few from my own yard, but not many because I had just mowed, so the leaves on most plants were chopped short already.  When I found a plant I wanted, I just dug it until the root snapped and tossed the whole thing  in my box.

It’s good to get a whopping lot of dandelion plants for this project, because after you trim the leaves from the root structure, and then after those leaves cook down, there really isn’t much there.  So, start with lots and you’ll end up with plenty.

Were I doing this again, I would prepare the greens first, and take my sweet time doing it.  After lighting up some coals on my porch, I would work at my sink.  I would grab a dandelion plant and first snap off any usable flowers, then rinse the remaining plant many times over.  I’d separate the leaves from the longer flower stems and tear the leaves off just above where the green leaf starts to grow from the stem.  Then, I’d rinse those leaves again and toss them into the collander.  I’d repeat this process for all of the plants I’d harvested.

At this point, the coals would probably be ready and I’d put them under the 8” Dutch oven with the water and the salt.  I’d let that come to a boil.  I’d also put more fresh coals in my side fire to light for the flower fritters.

While that was getting to boil, I’d put more coals underneath my 10” Dutch oven, and put in the bacon, cut into short 1” bits.  Then, I’d dice or slice the onion and mince the garlic.

Once the bacon was getting crispy, I’d use a spoon and pull out most of the drippings.  I’d toss in the onion and the garlic to saute.

By now, the water would be boiling, so I’d add in the greens, a bit at a time.  I’d let that boil again, cooking for about 10-15 minutes more.

While the greens are boiling and the onions and bacon are still sauteing, I’d make the flower fritters (see below).  Once the greens are done and tender, I would lift them out with tongs and put them back in the collader over the Dutch oven to drain a bit.  Finally, I’d toss them into the 10” Dutch oven and stir it all up, sizzling it for a few minutes more.  I would add in the seasonings here, too, with particular emphasis on the lemon or lime juice.  That goes a long way in tempering the bitter. I had also thought that balsamic vinegar would taste great instead.

At that point, things really don’t need to “cook” any more.  It’s all done, you’re just combining it and merging the flavors.  Just serve it up.  This really is a veggie side dish.  In this case, since I was just trying it out, I served it up on plate by with the flower fritters.

My son had been very skeptical, but even he was impressed in the end.



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Creating Original Dutch Oven Breads

This Dutch oven recipe is included in my Dutch oven cookbook, "Dutch Oven Breads"

Last week, I was working on my final book, “Dutch Oven Breads”, and I got to the chapter on “Getting Creative”.  After all of my instructing and pontificating on bread making, I finally offered some suggestions on making your own bread recipes.

It turns out that almost all bread is the same at it’s core, and that you take the same basic ingredients, you can simply add a variety of enrichments to create an entirely new loaf!  Then you can name it and call it your own.

So, to test that theory, I took a core recipe and made two completely different variations.  From the same base, each finished loaf was a unique texture and taste.

First, the core recipe:

Core Bread Recipe

1 Tbsp Yeast
2 Cup water (110 degrees)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
~5 Cups fresh bread flour

To read about all of my ideas and suggestions for enrichments, you’ll have to get the book!



Tomato Bread


12” Dutch Oven
14-15 coals below
18-22 coals above

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp basil
2 tsp oregano

1 Tbsp Yeast
2 Cup water (110 degrees)
2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt
~5 Cups fresh bread flour
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 egg

More oil, basil, and oregano for the topping.


The first thing I did, about an hour before making this recipe, was to mix the oil and the herbs in a small bowl.  Actually, I used a ramekin.  It was the right size, and it was handy.  I let it sit so that it would release the flavors of the herbs into the oil.

Then, a while later, I mixed the yeast, water, and sugar, and let that set for a while to get all frothy and yeasty. While that was proofing, I prepared the other ingredients.  I sifted in the flour, added the salt.  Finaly, I added all of the ingredients together, the oil/herb mixture, the yeast mixture, the dry ingredients, the tomato paste and the egg, and stirred it up.

I turned it out onto the floured board and started kneading.  Right away, I could tell that the texture would be different.  It was much more moist than I thought it would be.  I didn't anticipage the extra liquid from the tomato paste.  But, as I kneaded and added more flour, it turned into a nice dough ball.  After a while, it gave me a good windowpane, and I set it aside to rise.

It actually rose up very nicely, and I let it go a bit bigger than I usually do.  When I decidd it was done, it had a rich smell, just like a great tomato sauce.  Finally, I punched it down and re-rolled it into a boule.  I sprinkled about a teaspoon of additional basic and oregano onto a plate and spread it around.  Then, I brushed the top of my new boule with olive oil.  Finally, I turned it over onto the herbs and pressed the dough onto the plate.  When I rolled it off, there was a nice coating of shredded herbs stuck to the ball.  I put it, bottom-down, into a well-oiled bowl, and let it sit to proof.

Right away after that, I went outside and lit up some coals.  When those were nicely white, I placed an oiled 12" Dutch oven on and under the coals as enumerated above.  I let that sit to pre-heat for about another 15 minutes.

When the bread had fully proofed, and the Dutch oven was hot, I took the bowl with the boule out to the oven.  I lifted up the lid, and then, with my hands, carefully lifted the doughball out of the bowl and into the oven, herb-side-up.  I sliced it with an "X", and closed up the lid.

About 15 to 20 minutes later, I turned the Dutch oven, and lifted the lid just quick enough to insert the thermometer.  I was hit with this wafted wave of delicious tomato smell.  It was amazing!  I knew this one was going to be good.

After another 20 minutes or so, I checked and it was done.  The thermometer read about 200. I brought it in, and turned it out onto a cooling rack.  The smell was wonderful.  Later that evening, as we tasted it with marinara pasta and meatballs, the meal was complete!

Garlic and Black Pepper Bread

Here's another bread I did, actually, on the same day, and at the same time as the Tomato Bread.  This was inspired by my good friend Omar Alvarez.  He's an amazing Dutch oven chef in his own right, having won the World Championship Cookoff a few years ago.

He emailed me his recipe after posting pictures on his facebook page, and I really wanted to try it.  I saw that it was really close to my core recipe!  So, I just adapted it!


12” Dutch Oven
14-15 coals below
18-22 coals above

2 Tbsp olive oil
3-4 cloves freshly minced garlic
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 Tbsp Yeast
2 Cup water (110 degrees)
2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt
~5 Cups fresh bread flour

More oil and black pepper for the topping

The process is essentially the same as the recipe above.  I baked them that day side-by-side!  Start by letting the oil steep the garlic and the black pepper (what an aroma THAT is!).  Then, proof the yeast, and mix in the other ingredients all together.  Knead it until it stretches into the windowpane, then let it rise.

In this case, I also coated the top of the loaf with more ground black pepper, just like I did the herbs in the tomato bread.

The coals were heated as the bread proofed, and the loaves baked side-by-side.

I actually liked the subtleties of the garlic even more than the tomato.  But they were both delicious and so unique and different.  The whole experience just showed how easy it is to make a loaf of bread that's brand new!

Here's another great, but strange, example of Dutch Oven Cooking, with Dandelions, and more about what to cook in a dutch oven.

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.  

Dutching on the Web: Dutch Oven Solar Cooking?

I'm always looking for a new way to cook in a Dutch oven. I was cruising around YouTube tonight and I found this video. I was immediately intrigued by it. He's using a big, square lens to focus the sunlight onto a dutch oven, to cook food in it.

When I saw the video, I was immediately skeptical, but also interested. I'm still not convinced just how effective it really is in cooking, but I can see that it can work for some dishes.

Here's the video:



I think that if I were doing it, I would focus the light mostly on the side of the dutch oven, and I would rotate the oven a quarter turn every ten or fifteen minutes. I also noticed that he used an 8" Dutch oven, which was nice and small. That means less food to heat, and less water to heat up as well. Each time the lid was lifted, it didn't seem like there was boiling going on. Still, it got hot enough to cook the game hen.

It would be very interesting to try. Does anyone else reading this have any experience with solar cooking?

Beef and Brussels in the Dutch Oven

One thing I’ve enjoyed a lot lately in my cooking is to challenge myself to take an ingredient or a dish that I hated as a kid and see if I can do it well enough to say, “I like it!”  This week, it’s brussels sprouts!

Like all the others (asparagus, broccoli, etc...) I didn’t dive in without some research. I got a lot of ideas.  This would be a momentous occasion.  I didn’t want it to just have it be a simple side dish.  I thought about various meats that would help make it a main dish, and In the end, I thought that the bitter tones of the sprouts would go best paired up with beef.  Many of the recipes I checked out included bacon as well, and I liked that combination.  So, I stuck with that as well.  Portobello mushrooms are very beefy, too, so that was an obvious one, too.

There was a lot of various ways of cooking them, too.  Most of my friends and my research warned against overcooking them.  In the end, I decided to do it like a stir fry.

Beef and Brussels in the Dutch Oven

12” Dutch oven
24-28 coals underneath


1/2 lb bacon, chopped

1 lb fresh brussels sprouts
1 lb of beef, in steak or cubed/sliced as stir fry
1 medium onion
1 green pepper
1 large portobello mushroom
2-3 cloves garlic
salt
pepper
paprika
oregano

Gorgonzola cheese

This was actually a pretty easy one to do.  I started by lighting up the coals.  When they were hot, I put about 22 underneath the Dutch oven, and put the bacon pieces into it.

While that was cooking, I prepared the meat and the veggies.  I sliced the meat up first, and sprinkled it with salt, pepper, and paprika.  I let that sit while I sliced, chopped and minced everything else.  Finally, it all went into the same bowl, with a few shakes.

I let that bacon cook pretty crisp, then pulled it out.  I amped up the coals and let the drippings get really, really hot. I tossed in the meat and veggies.  I gave it a stir right away, and then would alternate stirring with letting the beef and the veggies sear.  I cooked it all until the meat was medium and the veggies were just a little soft.  Then, I pulled it off the coals.

I served it all served up with some sprinkles of the gorgonzola on top, alongside some roasted potato chunks I’d done in a 10”.  Wow.  It was all delicious!  Another childhood terror conquered!

Next?  Probably squash...



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

...Tastes Like Chicken, Part II

In the previous post, I talked a bit about the thoughts and experiences that led me to want to be able to study, analyze, and, ultimately, talk about the flavors I am tasting in a dish.  I did a bit of research and reading as well.  A great book that I strongly recommend to anyone that wants to truly explore cooking is “Culinary Artistry” by  Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page.  This book has described a lot about creativity in the world of food, on lots of levels.  Great book!

It turns out that scientists say that the human tongue can taste four things: Sweet, bitter, sour, and salty.  There is some debate over a fifth flavor, vaguely named “Umammi”.  It’s supposed to be a sort of savory flavor.

As I was reading, researching, and tasting, I thought I would add a few.  Not scientifically, so much, as practically. These are things that I sense are elements of dishes I eat.  I’m not sure why, but drawing on the analogies I made in the last post, I think I’d like to call these “Tones”.


Here they are, with some descriptions:

Mark’s Flavor Tones

Sweet

This is the obvious first thing to me, since I tend to eat a lot of sweets.  I probably shouldn’t, or at least, I should make the sweets I eat more healthy, but that’s a discussion for another day.  This one is at the top of my list because it’s one everyone will recognize.  Here are some examples of sweet things:

• Sugar
• Honey
• Fruits
• Chocolate
• Spices that go with sweet, like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger (These might not be sweet themselves, but they tend to bring out the sweet tones in a dish).

Savory/Salty

As I was starting to learn to cook, the term “savory” often confused me.  I learned to describe it as “things that were not bitter, sour, or sweet”!  In most cases, this flavor comes from meats, although many meats also bring some sweet or other tones to the song as well.  As I’ve been formulating this system, I’m learning that the tones work together, and are not always in isolation.

• Meats
• Salts
• Spices that go with meats, like paprika, pepper, garlic

Tangy/Sour

Things that are “tangy” or “sour” usually contain acids.  These tones can really liven up a dish!  Some ingredients that carry these tones could be:

• Tomatoes
• Citrus, especially lemons, though oranges have sweet tones, and grapefruit have bitter tones as well.
• Vinegar

Bitter

The funny thing about bitter tones is that we don’t like them.  In theory, we developed the ability to taste bitter as a defence mechanism to steer us away from eating poisons and other harmful things.  So, why would we intentionally cook with these tones?  When you combine them with other tones, they add depth and the whole becomes delicious!

• Some herbs, like parsley
• Some spices, like nutmeg, or cardamom
• medicines

Spicy (hot) piquance, picante

There are some foods that, evolutionarily speaking, surprise me.  Take, for example, an habanero chili pepper.  At some point, some prehistoric ancestor of ours took a bite of it.  Heat like that would have lit his tongue on fire.  It would have felt like it was biting back!  So, what thought went through that neanderthal brain that made him want to take a second bite?  Or a third?  At what point in the epochs did we decide that this was a good thing?

I don’t know, but I’m glad we did!

• Black pepper
• Chili peppers
• Cinnamon
• Ginger

Cool 

There are very few foods that create the sensation of cool in your mouth, but it is such a distinct sensation that I think it deserves to be labeled as its own tone.  Plus, I love it!

• Mint
• Mentol
• Wintergreen

Undertone

This is one that I added to the list on my own, not at the suggestion of a book or science.  The undertone is like the canvas the painting is painted on, or the quiet background noise that the music plays over.  It’s the bread of a great sandwich.  It’s not a strong flavor, and it can be difficult to identify, but you would miss it if it wasn’t there.

• Bread
• Rice
• Potatoes
• Cooked beans

As I’ve started to think of the dishes I taste in terms of these flavor tones, I’ve found that even mundane eating sometimes becomes an exploration. When I’m paying attention, I start to notice things that were always there, but not identified, not in my awareness.  Food tastes more interesting!

My Dr Pepper, for example, has a strong sour tone, with just enough sweet to make it palatable.  There’s a hint of bitter there as well, and it fades off into a lingering salty/sour.

I don’t know if me blathering on about this is helping, but it has been fascinating to me, and thanks for letting me share it.  Now back to the recipes!





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Deconstructed PBJ

The challenge before us, as put forth in the last post, is to deconstruct a classic Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.  The idea is to take the ingredients of that well-known comfort dish, and recreate something new with them.

When I first approached this challenge, I was a bit at a loss.  I did have some ideas, but they weren’t really coming together.  I talked with my wife about a few of them, and none of them seemed to impress, either.

Part of my dilemma was to decide what part of the meal it would be.  My ideas didn’t seem to be substantial enough to make it a main dish, and it was too weird to be a side dish.  I mean, what sort of main dish would a PBJ go with?  It’s not like picking a good wine for your meal.  There are no rules, here.

I finally settled on the idea of it being a dessert.  That felt right.  It would work.  But then, how to do it?  Nothing I thought of really worked in my head, and nothing seemed to appeal to my wife, either.  Then she mentioned something about peanut butter cookies.  I ran through those ingredients in my head (like peanut butter, of course, and flour and egg for the bread), and it started to snap into place.  A dessert, based on the cookie, with a glaze of the jelly on top!

Then I started thinking about chocolate.  I don’t usually add chocolate to my PBJ’s.  But, I thought, it’s my dish, I can add to it as I please.  I decided to do some sort of chocolate crumb crust below the cookie.  Jodi suggested a chocolate sauce on top, which I, initially, resisted.  But, who can resist a chocolate sauce for long?  I mean, get real!  It really turned out to be the perfect topper.

In the end, it really did taste great, and evoked the flavors of the original, while taking it to a new place.  That’s the goal of deconstruction, isn’t it?  A success!

Plus, I learned to pay more attention to my wife!

Here it all is:

Mark and Jodi’s Dutch Oven PBJ Deconstruction Dessert

10” Dutch Oven
8-10 coals below, 12-14 coals above

8” Dutch Oven
8-10 coals below


Crust:

• 1 wrapped package Graham Crackers
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 small brick bakers chocolate
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 6 Tbsp melted butter

Cookie center:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup Peanut Butter (Crunchy or Smooth)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Jelly Topping:

• 1 cup grape jelly
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp mint leaves
• 1/2 tsp ground fennel seeds

Drizzle:

• 8 oz Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

I started out by lighting up the coals.  Once they were getting a little white, I put some on the Dutch oven lid to begin preheating it.  Actually, I did that part somewhere in between working on the ingredients.

The next step is to chop up the graham crackers.  I actually used a blender.  Jodi mocked me, because I usually try not to use electrical appliances when I dutch oven.  She thinks that’s silly, but since they are not allowed in cookoffs, I try not to use them at home as much as possible.  But this time, I was going to be using a table mixer for the cookie anyway, so I figured I use a blender for the crackers, too.  I mixed in the other ingredients and pressed the resulting mud into the bottom of the 10” Dutch oven.

Then, I mixed all of the other ingredients in the table mixer, whipping it up nicely.  I spread that over the crumbs, being careful not to disturb that level as I did.

Finally, I mixed the topping ingredients, and spread that in a thin layer over the top.  By this time, the lid was pretty hot, so I went out and adjusted the coals, top and bottom, and began baking it.

I didn’t know what to expect, so I checked it about every 10 to 15 minutes.  It ended up baking for about a half hour to 45 minutes.  The center was the last part to cook, and it was pretty jiggly right up to the end.  When that was pretty solid, I took it off the coals and brought it inside.  Then I went on cooking the rest of the meal, which was a basic chicken and potatoes pot with biscuits on the side.

When it became close to time to serve the dessert part of the meal, I still hadn’t decided on the chocolate sauce.  Jodi made the choice for me and cooked it up.  If I had done it in the Dutch ovens, I would have used pretty much the same process she did, but simply done it in my 8” Dutch oven.  I would have added the two ingredients and stirred them until the chips melted and it all blended with the cream.  Easy, quick, and delicious.

As I said, it turned out to be the perfect topping!  Really, the dessert was great.  It really was a perfect combination of the flavors of the traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich, while adding the chocolate and the other flavors to take it in a new direction.

So-- That's my entry in the challenge!  I hope some others are up to it as well, and I'm eager to see what comes out of it all!  A new challenge will be coming soon!



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

The Seafood Feast Part II- Dutch Oven Mussels

For a long time, now, my family have frequented a certain Chinese/Asian buffet house.  They have great food, and the people who run it are wonderful.  We love their more traditional Chinese dishes, and we also love their sushi. Brendon particularly likes their unagi.

They have one dish that I love, that I had vowed to attempt. I don’t know just how authentically Chinese it is, but I love the taste!  I also vowed that when I attempted it, I would not duplicate it, but would rather explore it on my own!

It is a mussel, cooked in its own half-shell, with a layering of cream cheese and a sprinkling of cheddar on top.  I did some research, and found out a lot about cooking and working with mussels.  I cooked this the same day as the smoked salmon of the previous blog entry. It was a bit tricky working both dishes at the same time, but in the end they really complemented each other. Here is my experience:

Dutch Oven Three-Cheese Baked Mussels

12” Dutch oven

Steaming: 22+ coals below
Baking: 8-10 coals below, 18-20 coals above

• 2x 8 oz bricks cream cheese 
• 2-3 Tablespoons sun dried tomato 
• Parmesan cheese 
• herbs (I used thyme and rosemary)
• chives
• salt 
• lemon zest 
• chili powder 
• grated cheddar cheese

• 3-4 lb live mussels
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup apple cider vinegar

The Rice

8” Dutch oven

10-12 coals below

• 1 cup long-grain rice
• 2 cups liquid (from the mussels - add water as needed)
• Juice of 1 lemon

Because there would be relatively little time once the cooking got started, the first step was to prepare the cheese topping. I just added all the items on the list together and mixed it upwith a fork.  Because of the ingredients I chose, it really ended up being much more Mediterranean in flavor, rather than Chinese.  Still, I think it tasted great!

I don’t really remember the exact amounts of each flavoring item.  I added things at the top of the list in slightly greater quantities than the things at the bottom (chili powder being the least of all), but really, I just mixed it all and tasted it as I went.  While I did add some Cheddar to the overall mix, I didn’t add much, as I knew that more would be sprinkled on top later.

The coals were already started for the salmon, so I didn’t have to get anything set aside special for this dish.  I just had to make sure that there were enough getting white to accommodate.  While that was happening, I started to clean the mussels. I got them into my sink, and scrubbed each one down, on both sides of the shell, with a plastic brush.  Many of them had a little stringy substance dangling out between the two shell halves.  This is called the “beard”, and I scraped that off with a knife.

I’d read to remove those that were opened. The instructions said that those were dead already.  That’s a little tricky to say, because there were quite a few that were slightly opened, that would close up again after we had separated them out.  I guess those ones weren’t so dead.  There were many, however, that were quite clearly open, and quite clearly dead.  I removed those.

There were a lot of them to clean.  About half-way through the process, I got the water and the cider in the bottom of the 12” Dutch oven, and I got that started on the coals, covered.  I wanted to get it boiling.

By the time I was completely finished cleaning all the mussels, it was boiling.  I just unceremoniously dumped them all in, stirred them up a bit, and closed the lid.  It didn’t take long, maybe ten minutes, to steam them open.  I’d read that you shouldn’t overcook them, especially at this stage.

I brought them in, off the coals, and drained them in a colander, retaining all the liquid for the rice.

I began the process of assembling the final half shells.  Here’s how it went:

• First, I pulled the shells open.  Usually, one of the shells (the “top”) was free of meat, and the other (the “bottom”) held the mussel.  I broke them apart, and discarded the top.
• Then, I took an knife and ran it under the meat, cutting the attachment between it and the shell.  There’s one spot where it clings pretty tight, and it makes it much easier to eat if that’s severed. Still, I kept the meat in the shell bottom.
• Next, I spread a bit of the cheese mix onto the shell and over the meat.  Not too much, it’s not there to smother, but to complement the meat.
• Finally, I placed the shell into the bottom of the 12” Dutch oven. I kept repeating this whole process until they were all done. There were a lot of shells, so I had to pack them in pretty tight.
• Finally, finally, I sprinkled on a layer of grated cheddar.

I put on the lid, and set it on some coals to bake.

Now, keep in mind that while I’m doing all of this, I’m constantly checking on the coals and the chips for the smoking salmon, and making sure that there are plenty of coals in the replenishing fire for the mussels.

I also took some time during the prep time to set the rice.  I measured the liquid I had drained off the mussels after the steaming.  I had read that the mussels would release a lot of their own liquid as they cooked, and that would be a good flavoring broth.  That, combined with the water, and the cider, and I had just under 2 cups. A little more water topped it right off.  This, along with 1 cup of rice, went onto the coals to cook.

A little bit after I had set the mussels on to bake, I could see the steam venting from under the lid of the 8” Dutch oven.  I let it go for about 5 more minutes, and then pulled it off the coals to finish steaming in its own residual heat.  Don’t take off the lid to check it!

The mussels in the 12” Dutch oven didn’t bake long.  You don’t want to overcook the meat.  You just want to heat up the cheese mixture, and melt the cheddar on top. I let it go about 10-20 minutes from the time I put it on.

I served it up with a few mussels on the plate, next to a bed of the rice, with a big cut of smoked salmon atop the bed.  It looked and tasted delicious, and I felt like I had really accomplished something.  I had done two dishes, one with a new technique, and another with a new main ingredient, neither of which I had ever tried before, and they were both successes.  That’s a good, good feeling!





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Seafood Feast, Part 1 - Smoking Salmon

A long time ago, I was surfin’ the ‘net, looking for some Dutch oven ideas, and I came across one called outdoorcooking.com.  One of the blog postings was all about smoking salmon in a Dutch oven.  When I first saw that I had one of those Sit-Back-And-Slap-Your-Forehead moments.  I knew that someday, I would try it.

This last weekend, I did.  In fact, I tried a couple of seafood dishes that had been stacking up in my queue.  Even though I cooked them simultaneously, I’ll write about them separately.

Now, not only was I trying out two dishes that I had never before tried, I was also trying a technique I had never even seen before.  Add to that the other dish was mussels, which I had no experience with, either, and my confusion and stress levels were high enough.

Then, to make matters worse, I invited my neighbors over!  What was I thinking? Didn’t I say, “Never cook a first time dish for friends”?  Yeah, well, I don’t take my advice, either.

So, I liked this guy’s idea for putting the chips under aluminum foil and a grill. But what if, I thought, you need to add more chips?  This was my idea:  Inside a larger Dutch oven, put a smaller Dutch oven lid, inverted, on a lid stand.  Chips go below, salmon on the lid, larger lid on top, propped open...   Boom.  Dutch oven smoker.

...But I had no idea if it would work.  Would it get hot enough to smolder the chips?  Would it be too hot so as to fast cook the salmon? I had no idea.


Dutch Oven Smoked Salmon

14” Deep Dutch oven
10” Dutch oven lid, with a lid stand

40 + coals below

• 1 Salmon piece (~8 oz) per serving (I did about 7)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Any herbs you like (I used Thyme)
• 1 Lemon

• Smoking chips

I started by lighting up some coals.  I wanted to try out the setup, before I actually put the salmon on, to see if it would smoke.  I put the 14” on a monster boatload of coals.  I gave a rough count, and it was about 45.  I scattered a layer of dry smoking chips  (I used applewood) on the bottom.  On top of that, I put an oven thermometer.  I wanted to be able to monitor things.

I have a bent piece of wire, about ⅛ of an inch in diameter. I hooked that over the edge, and put the lid on. That raised the lid enough to vent.  I set that aside, and checked the temperature from time to time.

In the meantime, I prepared the salmon.  I trimmed off the skin, and shook some salt, pepper and herbs on each piece, both sides.  I left that to sit.

It took a while to heat up the Dutch oven, but once it did, I was very pleased to see smoke pouring out when I went to check it. The interior temperature was about 250, so that was also perfect for smoking. I put the lid stand in the middle of the Dutch oven, and put the lid on the stand, inverted.  I put the salmon on the resultant platform, and set the lid back on. Just to be sure I did it right, I put a short-stemmed meat thermometer in one of the thicker parts of salmon. I also left the oven thermometer in.

From that point on, I just checked the smoke, the temperatures, and the salmon every 30-40 minutes. It fluctuated as high as 350 and as low as 200. I tried to keep it lower. I did add coals, but after a while, I found it wasn’t as necessary to keep as many on to maintain good temperatures or smoke.  I did add some chips at one point because I saw it not smoking as much.  I just sprinkled them in through the gap between the lid and the wall of the 14”.

Finally, after about 2 hours, the meat temperature read about 170.  It was done!  And I served it up on the rice in part 2 of this writeup.

It was really, really, really delicious.






Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Marks Own Dutch Oven Calzone

I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to cook today, until yesterday.  I was running some errands for Jodi, and was at a grocery store.  I saw some pre-made, bake-them-yourself calzones, and they looked really appetizing, even in their uncooked state.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to try a pizza with a crust on the bottom and on the top, and so, for today, I thought I’d do it with the calzones.  It ended up being a pretty involved two-day affair, because I decided I wanted to try an overnight rise on the crust.

I also did the preheating of the dutch oven on the sauce.  I found it did wonders for the patina (which was getting a bit thin on that oven), even just in one use.  I’m becoming more and more convinced.  Of course, when I baked the calzones, I had to assemble them in the 12”, so I couldn’t pre-heat it.  But with breads, you’re baking drier ingredients, so it’s going to strengthen your patina, anyway.

The Crust

• 1 ½ c. warm water
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp oil
• 4 c.  bread Flour

The Filling/Sauce

10” Dutch oven
15-18 coals below

• ½ lb mild italian sausage
• ¼ lb bacon, cut into short strips
• 1 link of pepperoni, quartered and chopped
• 1 full Tablespoon flour

• ½ medium onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• ½ jalapeno, seeded, cored, chopped

• 6-7 roma tomatoes, diced
• ½ cup or so water

The Calzones

12” Dutch oven
10-12 coals below
16-18 coals above

• A beaten egg
• About 2 cups shredded mozarella

• Freshly grated parmesan and/or myzithra chesses
• Fresh chopped italian parsley

Like I said, it all started last night.  I have read a lot about how the longer overnight rises are better for pizza, and I thought I’d try it that way.  Spoiler alert: I’m definitely sold on that, now.

I proofed the yeast in water that was hot, but not scalding, to the touch.  I say it’s “shower” hot.  That’s right around 110-115 degrees, and it’s great for waking up yeast.  While that’s getting foamy and frothy, I added the other ingredients to a bowl.  The last bit was to add the yeast/water mix.

I stirred it all up, and found that it was just the right hydration, this time.  I started kneading it on the countertop, and I found I didn’t need to add any more flour in the process.  I say, “this time”, because different flours and different humidities can mean that the flour will absorb more or less water.  You just never know.

I set it in a greased bowl, covered with cellophane, in the fridge.   I knew I wasn’t going to use it until today, and I wanted it to have a long, slow, flavor-developing rise overnight in the fridge.

Then I went and played cards with some friends.

Today, after church, I pulled the bread dough out of the fridge and set it aside in the kitchen, to come up to room temperature.  I also lit up some coals, and put the lightly oiled 10” dutch oven on some coals to season and heat up.  Once it was smoking a little bit, I put in the sausage, the bacon, and the pepperoni pieces.  I used link pepperoni and cut it into small chunks, but you could use sliced pepperoni. I’d still probably cut the slices in half or into wedges.  The sausage cooked, the bacon crisped, and the pepperoni browned.

Once the meat is all done, pull it out, but leave the drippings.  Sprinkle in the flour and stir while it cooks into a roux.  Pull it out as best you can, and then toss in the first set of veggies to sweat and sautee.  Keep the oven hot all along the way with fresh coals, if you need to.

Finally, add the tomatoes and the water, then bring the meat and the roux back in as well.  Let it boil, at first, then simmer, covered.  Give the tomatoes time to dissolve as much as possible.  Maybe as much as an hour.  It should be nice and “sauce” thick.  If it’s still to runny at that point, let it cook a bit longer with the lid off.

Taste it all along the way.  I’ll bet that with all of the sausages and bacon, it won’t need much salt, if any, and probably not many other seasonings.  Some lemon juice might have been great, in retrospect.

Once the sauce was done simmering, I poured it out of the Dutch oven, into a bowl right away, so that the tomatoes wouldn’t eat away at the patina.

I dumped the bread out onto my floured countertop, and cut it into halves.  In retrospect, I’d suggest quartering it.  Each piece should be stretched out wide and thin.  I put a generous amount of sauce over one half of the dough circle.  I piled it on, but left at least a half inch or so to the edge of the dough.  I put a generous amount of shredded mozarella on top of the mound of filling. I brushed some freshly beaten egg onto that edge of the dough, as a sealer.  I folded the dough over, and began pinching and curling the dough halves together.  Finally, I gently lifted the finished calzone into the oiled 12” Dutch oven.

I did that for the other calzone (or the other three, if you take my earlier advice).  Hopefully, there should be a good amount of sauce left over.  Then, I brushed all the calzones with the beaten egg, giving a good coating.  I let that dutch oven sit, to let the dough continue rising a bit.

In the meantime, I’d been starting up some additional coals, and I put those on the 12” lid to heat it up.  After the lid was really good and hot, and the dough had proofed just a little bit, I set a ring of coals below the Dutch oven, and set the lid with the coals on top.

I watched, and maintained the heat with fresh coals, as needed.  I took the bread temperature by sticking the thermometer down in between the calzones, where the crusts grew together.  Taking the temperature of the filling was kinda pointless, as it was all completely cooked already.  I let it get overly done, because I wasn’t sure how it would react to the filling.  That turned out to be a good thing.  It was done perfectly.

Serving was easy.  I cut the two calzones apart, and cut each one in half (that’s why I thought it would be better to make four of them instead of two larger ones).  I served one half, with more sauce drizzled over the top, and with a garnish of chopped parsley, and the grated cheeses.

It was big, filling, and an incredible taste!





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Just When You Think You’ve Got it Figured Out...

I’ve been Dutch Ovening for a while, now.  I’ve gotten into my ways, my style, my groove.  It’s been working, pretty much, for a few years.

But the other day, I read a Dutch oven beginners book that suggested a way of doing things that shook me up, off my comfy chair, and made me rethink some things about managing the patina, the black coating, of my Dutch ovens.  It’s making me re-assess and rethink my whole processes, which will, in turn, change everything I’ve done to date.

...If it works.

Let me back up and explain...

The Patina

What makes cast iron such a great cooking tool is that thin black coating of carbonized oil that’s all over it.  It does so many wonderful things.  It coats and protects the raw iron, so that it doesn’t rust on contact with air and water.  It becomes a non-stick cooking surface to make cleanup smoother and easier.  It makes for better transfer of heat to the food.  It’s really amazing just how great this is.

It has to be maintained, though, and by continuous use and care, it can build up over time to be even better at the jobs it’s made for.

How I Did it Before

So, for all of my Dutch ovening life, I’ve done what I first read in the little pamphlet that lodge included with my first oven.  I seasoned it first, then after each use, I scraped out the food with plastic, rinsed it with hot water and scrubbed it with a plastic brush, then dried it off.  Finally, I’d recoat it with a very thin film of oil and put it away.

Then, when I got it out again the next week, I’d do the same thing.  Cook, scrub, rinse, coat, repeat.

Over the years, I’ve heard many different methods for cleaning and storing Dutch ovens, and many different opinions about those methods.  Most folks were pretty convinced that their method was the right way.  I was, too, but not really.  Sometimes, the patina on my ovens didn’t get better.  Sometimes, if I didn’t use a particular oven for a really long time, it would get a little smelly.

Pre-Heating the Ovens

So, this book suggested that the process shift.  First, light up the coals.  Then, after selecting which Dutch oven to use, coat it, inside and out, with a thin layer of oil.  Put the coals on it and under it and give it 15-20 minutes of preheating.  Let it bake on the layer of oil to help build up the patina, and heat up the cooking surface, ready for the food.

Then add the food and get cooking.

When you’re all done, you’ll still scrape and rinse, but you won’t need to coat it.

This has several advantages.  One, it will reduce cooking time, since the oven is already hot. That’s not that much of an advantage, because it increases the heatup time, so it all evens out.  Still, I can be chopping veggies while the oven heats.

Two, it will build up the patina.

Three, it will sterilize the oven before cooking in it.

Why I’m Not Sure

OK, so I’m going to try this.  I’ve done it once already, and I wasn’t displeased with the results.  I’ll have to do it over time to really be convinced.  Like I said, it will completely mess with my way of doing things.

For some dishes, like those that need assembly or preparation directly in the dutch oven first, that’s not going to work.  You can’t be assembling a pie, or letting bread proof in a super-hot dutch oven.  There are some dishes that you want to build up the heat gradually, rather than dump all of the items into a heated pan.  But for the most part, I’m thinking I like the idea.

I will definitely keep you informed and up-to-date as I discover more.





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Sweet and Savory Pork Chops

I’m kind on this kick lately.  I’m thinking a lot about how I love the combination of fruits and meats.  The mix of sweet and savory really fires me up.  it’s what got me thinking and helped me to come up with the latest challenge (in the last post).

I did this dish a while ago, and I enjoyed not only cooking it, but coming up with the ingredients and the process.  In the end, it was kind of a rethink of my berried chicken idea (inspired by Toni of dutchovenmadness).

I got a lot of raves from my family on this one.


Dutch Oven Sweet and Savory Pork Chops

12” dutch oven
12 coals underneath
12 coals on top

8” or 10” Dutch oven
10-12 coals underneath

• 6-8 Pork Chops (I used boneless)

• Salt
• Pepper
• Paprika
• chili powder (not as much)
• garlic powder (a little extra)

• 1-2 lbs bacon

• 4 medium to large potatoes

The Sauce

• 2 Peaches, sliced thin
• 2 handfuls Grapes, chopped (I used white grapes)
• 1 cup water
• ¼ cup sugar
• nutmeg
• Cinnamon
• Juice of ½ Lemon
• Lemon Zest

The first thing I did was to thaw the meat.  I actually had it in the fridge for several days, so that wasn’t a problem.  I took them out and patted them dry.  Then I mix up the spices.  You can use any spice rub that you like.  I just started with equal amounts of the salt, pepper, and the paprika, then added the chili powder and the garlic powder.

A note:  I don’t really like garlic salt.  I find that I can’t really count on the balance between the garlic and the salt, so if I want more of one, I end up with too much of the other.  Usually, that means that I want more garlic and have too much salt.  I’m jus’ sayin’...

I mixed up the spices in a zip-top baggie, shook it up, and added the meat.  I shook those up and then pulled them out and shook off the excess.  These, I let sit for a while in the fridge.

While my coals were heating up, I chopped up the potatoes.  I quartered them, and the sliced them kinda thin. These went into the bottom of the Dutch oven.

I pulled out the seasoned pork chops, and wrapped each one tightly in two strips of bacon.  Then, I laid that on top of the potatoes.  With all of the pork chops wrapped and in place, I took the Dutch oven out and got it on the coals.

Then, I turned my attention to the sauce.  I sliced up the peaches and chopped up the grapes and put those in the smaller dutch oven.  I added some water, and then the sugar and the seasonings.  That went out on the coals, too.  At first, I covered it with the lid, so it would heat up to a boil faster.  Then I removed the lid so it would start to simmer and reduce.

About half-way through, I realized that I had mismanaged my coals, and I was going to burn out.  I hurriedly lit up some more, but the coals were almost completely burned out before the new ones were ready.  Still, I managed to get some fresh coals on and keep it cooking in time.  It’s frustrating when I catch myself not paying attention!

As it was ending, I took some of the extra coals, and heated up another small dutch oven.  I threw in a can of corn and a can of green beans, to make it a complete meal.

The end result was absolutely delicious.  The potatoes were both soft and crisp, and seasoned slightly from the drippings of the bacon and pork chops.  The chops themselves were amazing.  I served them, still wrapped, with the fruit sauce on top.








Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.