I recently had a wonderful opportunity for a phone interview with Scott, of Outdoorcookingmagic.com. He's a great interviewer, and our conversation was lots of fun!
Here is the interview in mp3 and transcribed. Go check it out!
Young Chefs: Cooking Skills and Recipes for Kids By Christina Dymock
As a part of the Utah Book Month, I get to Spotlight another Utah author and her book, and I’m very excited about it. The author is Christina Dymock and the book is called, “Young Chefs: Cooking Skills and Recipes for Kids”. As I was perusing her site and the sample pages of her book, it really took me back to helping my own kids learn how to cook.
Those of you who’ve been following the Black Pot here for any length of time know that I haven’t been cooking very long. Only about 7-8 years. Which means that when I started, Brendon, my oldest, was only about 9.
Right from the beginning, he was wanting to help me, and he and I cooked together a lot. My other son, Jacob, has Cerebral Palsy, and so he is often there with me as I cook, but his direct, hands-on involvement isn’t so much as Brendon’s.
Unfortunately, Brendon’s culinary education has been pretty haphazard, as has been my own. We didn’t really have a well-outlined “curriculum” to help us learn. This book would have really come in handy that way. Brendon turned to the world of “Chopped” and “Iron Chef” to learn his techniques. He and his friends would randomly pull “secret ingredients” from the pantry, give them to each other and challenge them to see who could make the tastiest dish from them. I was, sadly, often the judge.
But then, there were other hits, like his Dutch oven Creme Brulee, complete with the torch, and the time I came home from a hard day of work to a fully scratch-made apple pie.
I guess, in the kitchen, as in life, there will always be hits and misses. I just think that with a well-ordered book like this one, with chapters nicely spelled out for main dishes, sides, desserts, breakfasts, and others, with many ideas and pages that teach real skills, there would probably be a lot more hits than misses.
My son loved to experiment with smoothies. His banana grape mint smoothie is legendary at our house. Here’s one of Christina’s:
Sunshine Juice
Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 Cup milk
1 Cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 Cup frozen orange juice concentrate
1/4 Cup sugar
1 Cup ice
What You Do:
1 - Put the milk, water, vanilla, orange juice concentrate, sugar and ice in the blender.
2 - Put the lid on tight.
3 - Blend on Low for 1 minute or until the ice is chopped up.
4 - Pour into cups and serve.
Now, seriously, what kid wouldn’t love drinking this and saying, “I made it!”
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
I know this might surprise you, but in spite of that, I don’t agree with everything that other religious people say.
Recently, I’ve been participating in a discussion of the roles of women in Christian churches. Some say that young women should be trained and raised up to be wives, mothers, and homemakers. Others say that they should pursue careers and seek fulfillment beyond the home. Some say that husbands and wives can balance their home, family, and career roles.
...And somehow food gets caught in the middle. “Girls should be taught to cook and clean and care for her husband and children!” “I’m not going to sit at home baking pies and breads!” “Make me dinner!” “Make it yourself!”
Which to me is sad. Because I think of food and cooking as an enjoyable part of my life, not a symbol of my oppression or of my enlightenment. I LIKE to cook. My son LIKES to cook. My wife is a great cook. My sister is an excellent chef, and she married another one. She and he have both taught me much of what I know about food. My mother was a great cook, and a devout feminist. Now, as her health fails, my father cooks for her daily.
Why should baking a pie represent anything more or less than having a great time making something delicious? Baking bread is cathartic and wonderful. Why is that symbolic of oppression?
C’mon. It’s just food, people...
Next, we're back to recipes. I promise. Really.
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
-or- Xenofoodia There have been a couple of circumstances lately where people have gotten into personal and political troubles, with food in the middle of it. I feel a need to share my thoughts about them both. The first is, of course, the fury over the Food Network not renewing Paula Deen’s contract, over alleged racist comments. In addition, some of her sponsors are also now dropping Paula like a hot baked potato. Let me get some things out of the way, first: It’s a free country. Paula Deen can say whatever she wants, for whatever reason she has, and the Food Network can hire or fire whoever they want, for whatever reason they have. Neither impacts my life in any direct way. I’m not writing about whether or not they’re allowed to do either one. Whether or not they SHOULD do what they’ve done is also an interesting question, but not one that I am going to deal with. Each decision will have consequences. In fact, I suspect that Paula Deen’s TV demise has much less to do with outrage over racism, and more to do with the trends and directions of the Food Network. For quite a long time, they’ve been moving away from traditional cooking instruction shows, and more toward competitions and restaurant reality shows. That Paula Deen happened to come across in a bad light simply gave them a good excuse to cut her off. And if that isn’t enough, there’s this, just in: Nabisco’s new watermelon Oreos are “racist”. That is, of course, if you didn’t already make all kinds of race-related jokes and metaphors out of the original chocolate and cream flavor. One thing that came up in my mind, however, was a part of the bigger food culture picture. Racism, in all it’s forms, occurs when two cultures meet, and one or both is unaccepting of the other. America has a longstanding tradition of welcoming people of different heritages. That’s why we’ve been called the melting pot. We’ve historically had lots of problems with that, too, as worlds and cultures clashed. It seems, however, that in the culinary world, we like getting along. American food culture is a delicious blend of many many cultures. I’d like to think of us more as a stew pot. A good stew is made of lots of ingredients. As it cooks, each gives its own flavor to the whole, while receiving flavors from around it, and retaining its own tastes and characteristics. There is a homogenous overall taste, but the individuality of each ingredient also shines through. We need to develop that stew mentality. Each culture can retain and celebrate their own uniqueness, while all becoming American. Don’t you wish it were all that easy?
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
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?
This week has been a fun and busy Dutch oven week!
Last Tuesday, I had a remarkable opportunity! I was able to do a cooking demo live on TV! As a part of Channel 2's noontime news show, I got to show how to make Chicken Wrapped Bacon! Here's a link to the video of the event!
It was lots of fun to do. I was pretty nervous. I have done TV interviews before, but never when I was cooking. Still, I think it came off ok! You be the judge.
Then, on the weekend, I got to go to the West Jordan Stampede and help the Storm Mountain Chapter of IDOS do demos for the passers-by. I did Chicken and Potatoes, and Pizza, both from the book. I also got to judge the cookoff, doing the breads. My friend Andy from backporchgourmet.com was there, also, judging for his first time. Then, later that evening, his wonderful wife gave birth to his wonderful baby! Congrats to Andy!
Then, today, I made my version of the Deconstructed Hamburger. It turned out great, and I'll include that recipe as a separate posting.
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
I’ve been hearing a lot more about “Deconstruction” of late. I know that, as a foodie buzzword, it’s been around for a long time. I want to explore it a bit, here at the black pot.
I’m going to set out some food deconstruction challenges. Andy and I have already chatted a bit about this, but we want to make it open to everyone! I've got ideas for three or four specific challenges, and I’d encourage any suggestions (just post a comment). For me, it’s going to be a chance to stretch myself as a chef, and really explore art and the nature of self-discovery and self-expression. Here are the rules of the challenge:
Start by planning well. Contemplate the ingredients of the original dish. Contemplate new ways of treating them, preparing them, combining them.
Create a new dish using those ingredients. You may choose to add ingredients. You may choose to only use the original set. It’s up to you. Explore. See how far you can get from the original dish, or see how you can remain true to its basic character. Learn.
Blog about it. Explain your approach and your thoughts. Remember to interlink.
These last few blog entries have all been about culinary victories. Dishes that defeated me, at first, but which I later conquered.
Today’s blog entry is one for my son, Brendon. Several times, now, he’s tried to do a creme brulee, each time it didn’t turn out quite the way we wanted. Once it was a bit bland and strangely grey in color, another time it didn’t set and was almost completely liquid. Finally, we took a little time and did it together. Actually, he did it, and with only minimal observation and input from me. And it worked!
This recipe is based on one from America’s Test Kitchen. It’s a little bit different, simplified in process from so many others we looked up, and adapted a little, of course, for the Dutch oven.
We also had to shop around some to find ramekins. It was tricky to buy them, wondering how many we would be able to fit into the Dutch oven. The small, but deep round ones would easily fit 7, but the larger, shallower, ovals would only fit 4. Your mileage may vary.
You’ll also need a blowtorch. Yes, I said that right. We borrowed a small plumber’s torch from a neighbor. You can go out and spend about $30 for a small kitchen torch. That’s a bit too much to spend on a unitasker for me..
Brendon’s Dutch Oven Creme Brulee
12” Dutch oven
Part 1: 20 + coals below
Part 2: 13-14 coals below, 13-14 coals above
You’ll also need several 4-5 oz ceramic ramekins.
6 large egg yolks
2 Cups heavy cream
⅓ Cup sugar
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A shake of cinnamon
A shake of nutmeg
Brown sugar to sprinkle and melt on top
mint leaves to garnish, if desired
To start, we got some coals lit. While those were catching on, we put the ramekins in the Dutch oven and poured water in to about ¾ of the way up the sides of the ramekins. Then we removed them and set them aside. When the coals were ready, we spread them around and set the Dutch oven on top, with the lid on, to let the water boil.
Then we turned our attention to the custard itself. Brendon began by separating the egg yolks from the whites. While Jacob, his assistant whisked the yolks, Brendon mixed the other (second set) ingredients in a bowl. Finally, while whisking, Brendon slowly combined the yolks and the cream mix. A few final whisks, and it was done.
Then, the mix was poured into the ramekins, and evened out.
Soon after, the water was at a nice even boil, and Brendon gently set the ramekins into the water. It was kinda tricky, but wearing leather gloves helped. We put the lid back on and adjusted the coals to be on the bottom and the top, as above.
We let it cook for about 35 to 40 minutes. Occasionally we’d check the set of the custard and the current temperature. You want to cook it to 170-175 degrees F, and until the centers are jiggly, but not sloshy.
We pulled it off the coals, and pulled out the ramekins, letting them cool on a rack. Once they’d cooled a bit, Brendon put them in the fridge to chill. They continued to set a bit as they cooled, and even more as they chilled.
After our dinner, brimming with excitement, Brendon fetched the ramekins and the torch. This final step isn’t correctly done unless it’s performed in front of the diners. He sprinkled a little bit of sugar atop each one, and fired it up (what is it about young boys and fire?). Keeping the torch moving, he melted the sugar into a crust. Then he sprinkled on some mint and handed it to our guest and family, proud as can be.
It was delicious. And, we chalked up another victory!
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
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.
These last few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of heavy cooking. By “heavy cooking” I mean, “a lot of dishes being prepared and cooked all at once, that need to all turn out really really well”. High-pressure stuff.
Two weeks ago, some good folks from Cedar Fort came out to take some pictures for the cover of the first book. I had to prepare some wonderful dishes for them to take pictures of, dishes drawn directly from the recipes in the first book.
The night before, I toasted up a sweet pumpkin and made some puree. That morning, I started the day out mixing and kneading the dough for some butter rolls. Then, I did a couple of chicken roasts, side-by-side in my 14”-er, using the basic herbal poultry recipe and the spicy paste turkey rub. While that was cooking, I made the pumpkin pie and got that on to bake. Brendon came to my aid and made his world-renowned Dutch oven baked ziti, and my old standard chicken and potatoes rounded out the collection.
They were wonderful folks, and after quite a while of primping and photographing the food, we all sat down and feasted.
A few days later, I got to see a preliminary layout of the cover, and I’m very excited. Since it’s not a final, they won’t let me post it here, yet, but as soon as they do, it’ll be on the blog!
Then, this last weekend, our family went up to Bear Lake to spend some time with other families with children with special medical needs. The group we went up with is called Hope Kids, and they sponsor family activities, mostly donated. Once a year, at the very end of the season, they get a bunch of cabins at the Bear Lake KOA campground for a weekend. It’s amazing fun. Even Brendon had a blast being able to connect with other siblings of special needs kids in a completely non-contrived way.
Well, I brought up my two 14” deep dutch ovens, at the request of the organizer. Those were added to a larger collection of Dutch ovens in various sizes, and Brendon and I helped them cook up Mountain Man Breakfast for the entire gathering. We had them all stacked as many as three high, cooking along.
I mean, it feels good to cook all that food for all those people, and it feels really good to hear them enjoying it and telling me how great it tastes. And after it’s all done, it’s time to simplify...
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
As I've been busy preparing various recipes and bits of text for the books that are coming, and working with the publisher, I thought it would be cool to share some of the other dutch oven books that Cedar Fort (under various imprints) has published. There are a few of these that, as I'd mentioned before, I actually own, and have used, even long before I was found by the publishers.
I've seen a few of the others, too. The ones I own (the Matt Pelton books) are great books, and I'd encourage you to give them all a look-over!
Disclaimer and Disclosure of shameless self-promotion: These are affiliate links. If you click on any of these links and buy a book, not only do you make me money (a small bit), but you also show the publisher that my readers are a force to be reckoned with! In other words, you'll get a great book, I'll make a little coin, and my cred with the folks at Cedar Fort goes up. Win - Win!
I've got a couple more recipes waiting in the wings, and I'll get those posted up here within a day or so. Thanks for your patience!
This recipe and story is included in my Dutch oven cookbook, "Around the World in a Dutch Oven"
I love baklava.
Let me say that again, and make it more clear:
I LOVE BAKLAVA.
Truly it is the dessert of the gods.
And making it was a lot of fun. It’s simple, yet complex. It’s peasant, yet elegant. Few ingredients combine for amazing flavor. It’s labor-intensive, but every delicate bite is worth the effort. It’s... yeah... You get the point. Plus, I think that baklava’s calories don’t count, right?
Michelle, my wife’s cousin, told me that when I had asked her to help me make baklava, she had been surprised and wondered if that could be done in a dutch oven. I love to try and cook things in dutch ovens that aren’t supposed to be cooked in dutch ovens! I’m kinda twisted that way.
This one will be a little bit difficult to write up, because Michelle is much more of a free spirit in th kitchen. Be warned that many of the amounts that I’ve listed here are approximations and guesses. I remember the ingredients we used, but the measurements aren’t so critical. Also, I think that much of the success of baklava is in the process, not so much the exact amounts.
Dutch Oven Baklava
12” shallow dutch oven
12-14 coals below
24-28 coals above
2 Cups Walnuts, chopped
¼ cup brown sugar
Liberal shakes of cinnamon
Fillo Dough
Two sticks of butter, melted
About ½ cup Honey
About ¼ cup Sugar
Water to make a medium-thick syrup.
We started by mixing the first set of ingredients. It’s pretty straight-forward. Chop up the nuts, mix in the sugar and the cinnamon. It does work better if the brown sugar is fresh, otherwise, you’ll have hard chunks to break up. Not fun.
Then it came time to make the layers. We simply melted the butter in the microwave. It would be easy enough to simply put the 8” dutch oven on a few coals and melt it that way. In fact, you could keep a few coals on it during the layering process and it would keep it from cooling and solidifying. You don’t want to boil it.
Then, we unrolled the Fillo dough (store-bought) from the package. It was a wide rectangular stack, which we cut in half (to a little bigger than an 8.5x11 sheet of paper). The two halves were stacked on top of each other, then put on top of and underneath sheets of wax paper. That was all topped with a slightly damp towel, to keep the Fillo dough moist.
With a pastry brush, we spread a little butter in the bottom of the dutch oven, then spread one of the sheets of Fillo dough. With the brush, we brushed butter in the corners of the “paper” and gently over the dough’s surface. The next one we put in the same way, but at a 90-degree angle. We brushed butter onto that one as well. We went on stacking, layering Fillo, butter, Fillo, butter, each sheet at a ninety degree angle, crossways from the one below it. I wondered if it would work to do it at a 60-degree angle, and go around the circle in sixths instead. I doubt it would have made much difference.
After about a third of the total layers of fillo dough, we spread an even layer (not too thick) of the nut and sugar mixture, enough to cover the dough. You shouldn’t be able to see through the nuts to the dough, but no deeper than that. If you don’t already have coals burning, you should go out and light them at this point. We already had coals lit and cooking the dolmades.
Then, we got back to the layering, for another third of the dough. We followed that with another spread of nuts and sugar. At this point, your coals should be nice and hot. We put a whole bunch on the dutch oven lid, and let it pre-heat. Finally, we layered the rest of the dough.
The next step was to get a knife and cut the slices. This is where you can make the characteristic diamond patter. I don’t know if this is anything other than tradition. It could be rooted in some esoteric cooking reasoning. I don’t know why it’s done. You do need to cut it, and it needs to be cut at this stage because it will be to crisp and crackly to cut later, and the syrup needs to be able to run down into the baklava. However, I don’t know why it should be done in diamonds.
While that was cooking, we made the syrup. Actually, we ate the dolmades and the soup. But had we been really on top of things, we would have made the syrup while the baklava was cooking. We did it on the stove top. If I had been going “purist-style”, we would have made the syrup in my 8” dutch oven. Simply combine the syrup set ingredients and simmer until it’s the right consistency. Not as thick as the honey, but not as runny as the water. Somewhere in between.
We put it on the coals and cooked it for about a half hour to 40 minutes. When the top layer was a nice golden brown, it was time to take it off.
With the baklava baked and brown, and the syrup ready, simply pour the syrup over the baklava. It will run into the cracks between the baklava pieces that you cut, and soak into the fillo dough layers. That will give it that sticky, gooey sweetness that you love so much about baklava.
Then, let it cool a little, and serve it up! Ours didn’t last long, so I have no idea how long it’ll keep!
When I first heard of dolmades (or “dolmas”, or just “rolled grape leaves”), I was kinda grossed out. It didn’t sound very good. But once I had tried them, I was hooked. I love these things! And when I started doing dutch ovens, I knew that at some point I was going to try to make them.
My wife’s cousin, Michelle, knows how to cook a lot of Middle-eastern and Mediterranean foods, so I asked her to come over and show me. So, she did! There was one major miscommunication, that I somehow missed, and I cooked the rice before hand. Shouldn’ta done that. But other than that, it all turned out.
The idea was to kind of do a whole greek/middle eastern meal: Dolmades, a chicken/rice/lemon soup, and baklava. It didn’t turn out quite as I had anticipated. I think I shoulda taken it a bit at a time. The soup was blah, but the dolmades and the baklava turned out great.
As I was preparing to write up the recipe, here, I did a little research, and confirmed some things I already kind knew. Like, that there are soooo many variations of this dish that you really can’t do it wrong. Even from family to family, the flavor and the recipes change so much. It all remains similar, but don’t be afraid to make it your own.
Dolmades in a Dutch Oven
12” dutch oven
20+ coals below for the meat filling
12-15 coals above and below for the final cooking.
* olive oil
* 1 medium to large onion, diced
* 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
* 1-1 ½ lbs of ground meat (pretty much any kind except pork, and not a sausage)
* 1-2 Tbsp Baharat
* Other spices or flavorings, as you choose, like:
o cinnamon
o Allspice
o minced fresh parsley
o minced fresh mint leaves
o pine nuts
o lemon zest
o salt
o pepper
* 1 ½ cups uncooked rice
* extra water, as needed
* Grape leaves, blanched
* 2-3 tomatoes, chopped
* 3 cups chicken stock or water
* More alternate flavorings:
o Lemon juice and lemon wedges
o 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
This adventure started by putting about 20 coals under a dutch oven with a little oil in the bottom. I diced up an onion and minced the garlic cloves and, when the oil was hot enough, tossed them in to saute. If they sizzle and jump right away, you know it was hot enough. I ground on a little salt, too.
Once the onions were browned a little, I added in the meat. This time, I used ground turkey. If I can acquire it next time, I’ll use lamb, but ordinary ground beef is ok, too. As that was browning, I added in the baharat. Baharat is a mix of spices commonly used in middle eastern cooking. You can buy it at a specialty market, or using the wikipedia as a guide, mix your own. Really, the seasonings and the flavorings are completely up to you. Again, there are so many regional and familial variations on this dish that you really can’t go wrong.
Once this is cooked, I pulled it off the heat and let it cool some. Then, I added in the rice. Don’t cook the rice. That was a mistake I made. With all this, the filling is ready.
I rinsed out the dutch oven, and wiped it down. I spread a little olive oil in the bottom, and we got ready to roll the dolmas. One suggestion that Michelle made was to spread a layer of chopped tomatoes over the bottom of the pan, to raise up the dolmas and make them not burn or stick to the pan. That sounded like a great idea, but we didn’t have any tomatoes. You try it and tell me how it works. Instead, we covered the bottom of the pan with one layer of flat grape leaves.
So, here’s how to roll the dolmas:
1. Separate out a grape leaf, and pinch off any of the stem that’s left.
2. Lay it flat, with the vein side up, and unfold it, if there are any folds.
3. Spread a finger-width spot of filling (about 2 finger joints long) on the leaf. Put it just above where the stem was. (see the picture).
4. Fold the lower part of the leaf up and over the filling.
5. Fold the sides over the filling
6. Roll it the rest of the way up
7. Place it on the leaves or the tomatoes in the bottom of the dutch oven, making a single layer of dolmas.
8. Keep going. You can add on a second layer if you have enough leaves and filling.
After we’d rolled up all of our filling, I added some of the garlic slices and lemon slices on top. Then we poured on the stock. The dolmas tended to float a little, and Michelle said you can put a plate on them to weigh them down.
This went on the coals. As I did some research afterward, some people cook them in a skillet, uncovered. I used the coals listed above, with the dutch oven lid on, half above, half below. You don’t need to cook it long, just to cook the rice and the leaves. Maybe about 10-15 minutes, once it’s boiling. I would watch for venting steam out of the lid of the dutch oven, and pull them off about 10 minutes or so later.
Now, at this point, we were pretty busy making the soup and the baklava, so I didn’t make any of the cucumber yogurt sauce (tzatziki) that I love so much with dolmades. But I added a link to the recipe.
So, on to the Baklava!
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
One of the highlights of my culinary life is the annual International Dutch Oven Spring Gathering (formerly known as the IDOS Spring Convention). This is an evening and day of food and friendship as dutch oven enthusiasts from all over gather to cook and share their love of the black pots. There are demos and classes, and there are vendors and auctions. There’s a camp over the night before with a dutch oven gathering where everyone just kicks back and cooks and shares.
But the part of the event that I love the most is the “Taste of Dutch”. This is where the main area of the pavilion is divided into booths, and each chef or team takes one space. They cook whatever they want, whatever they’ve brought. The doors are opened up to the public, who can browse from booth to booth sampling the fare and interacting with the chefs. Asking questions, swapping ideas, generally having a great time!
Here's what it was like the other years that I went: 2009, and 2008. I also attended in 2010, but (shame on me) I didn’t write it up. Brendon and Jacob were the partners in my booth last year.
It all started for me when Ranes asked me if I wanted to help him in his booth back in 08. We had a great time. I helped him with the Rhodes Rolls that had been donated, and I made biscuits and gravy and a lunch of Masaman curry.
In 2009, I brought a long a friend, Steven Owen, and Brendon made his now famous pizza.
So, I recently got this email from Ranes, about this year’s event:
All,
The Annual IDOS Spring Gathering and Open House (formerly known as the Spring Convention) is on April 8th and 9th at the Legacy Events Center (formerly the Davis County Fairgrounds) in Farmington, Utah.
So, you can participate in many different ways. If you’re a dutch oven enthusiast and chef like I am (I’m tagging you, Andy J, and Toni, as well as many others), and you live in, or can get to, northern UT in April, sign up to be a chef in the Taste of Dutch. The more chefs we’ll have, the more variety, and the bigger the event will be!
If you’re someone who loves outdoor cooking and wants to learn more about using dutch ovens, now is your chance to show up and taste a lot of great free food and learn from wonderful people.
Mark your calendars, ‘cause it’ll be a great time!
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
I did a lot of dutch ovening this weekend, and it was all under kind of unusual circumstances. The best laid plans of mice and men, etc... Everything changed up.
On Saturday, our church men’s group (the Elder’s Quorum, for those of you who understand Mo’ Speak) hosted a dutch oven cookout activity in the park. I was in charge of planning it and pulling it off. The idea was to have us all gather in the early afternoon, and do some cooking. I’d be there to show how to do it, if the members were feeling unsure. Then, at about 5 or 6, we’d all eat what we’d all cooked.
The turnout was terrible. There were quite a few guys who had told me they were going to show up and cook along with us, but only one came (
That's Richard, in the picture). Later on, my wife joined us, as did one other guy and his kids.
I was pretty bummed, but I still had a good time cooking. I did a spicy turkey (a small one) and some no-knead bread. I added basil, oregano, and cilantro to the dough, and it made for a delicious flavor. The other Elder that came over and cooked made a chocolate and marshmallow pudding. Really, great food. Too bad so few were there to sample it.
Then, on Sunday, I had planned on cooking dinner for my father-in-law. I’d pretty much decided on doing a dinner-in-a-pumpkin, but he injured his back and was immobile, so he couldn’t come over. I decided to do it anyway, and it turned out great.
I’ve been working on an overall outline for a cookbook on yeast breads in a dutch oven, and I’m very excited about it. I’ve started writing some of the parts, and I’ll be posting them here as they come. Stay tuned for that!
My first encounter with combining fruit and poultry was at a sandwich shop that sold a turkey sandwich with raspberry jam. I was skeptical, but my wife raved about it, so I tried it. In a single bite, I was convinced. Yum!
So, then I saw this recipe for raspberry baked chicken over at Dutch Oven Madness, and it really intrigued me. She said she didn’t like her result, however, and I wasn’t sure why at first. The recipe drew me in, however, and made me want to experiment with it. I thought that one of the reasons why it might not have had a good flavor, as she said, was that all there was to it was chicken and sweet. I thought that there needed to be some savory flavors to add a bit to the chicken, then the sweet and tang of the berries would be another layer of flavor. I did some web research and got some ideas of how to expand it. A couple of recipes used some spices and the berries as a marinade. That sounded kinda interesting.
My results were good, but not great. I liked the taste, and so did my friends, but it didn’t look as great as I’d hoped. The berry marinade ended up as a purple/brown soupy sauce. I also wasn’t blown away by it. It wasn’t as “Wow!” as I’d hoped. They all had seconds, so that was a good sign.
Still, I think that had I done it differently, it would have tasted better. Instead of adding all the ingredients to the marinade, and cooking the chicken, I think I’d make the chicken separate from the berry sauce, and then serve them together. I think that would make the savory and the sweet more distinct. Another thing I think I’ll do differently is to make sure that the chicken is fully thawed and patted dry. There was a lot of liquid still in the chicken, and so the berry sauce ended up too runny, and I had to thicken it with some cornstarch. I was hoping it would be more of a glaze, and that didn’t work.
So, now I’m faced with the dilemma: Do I write it up as I did it, or as I would like to do it next time? Hmmm...
I think I’ll do the latter, this time.
Dutch Oven Berried Chicken
12” Dutch Oven
10 coals below
14 coals above
10” Dutch Oven
12-14 coals below
3-4 lbs chicken breast (I used frozen)
~1 Tbsp olive oil
~1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
~1 Tbsp Pepper
~1 Tbsp Paprika
~ 1 tsp dry mustard
~ 1 tsp chili powder
~ 2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup blueberries + some extra
1 cup raspberries + some extra
1 cup blackberries + some extra
1/2 can of pineapple juice concentrate
1/4 cup honey
Start off with the chicken meat. Since I used frozen chicken pieces, I’d recommend thawing them completely, draining them, and patting them dry in paper towels. Then, mix up the other ingredients. When I did this, I was guessing at amounts. I’m basically creating a rub, so you could even use a pre-packaged meat/grilling seasoning. I kept mixing at about these proportions, tasting with my finger along the way. If you want more of one thing or another, you can adjust it.
Then, coat the meat in in the rub (I used a plastic ziplock baggie to shake it all up), then put it all in the fridge for a few hours.
Get the coals ready, and give your dutch oven a quick spritz of spray oil. Then spread the chicken pieces over the bottom of the oven. Put those on the coals to bake.
Toni, over at Dutch Oven Madness, just used raspberries, I used a mix of berries because the first store I visited didn’t have any raspberries. I did finally find some, though, so I just decided to mix it all in. I added all of the berries and the juice concentrate into a bowl and mashed it all up together. After tasting it, I felt like it needed a bit more sweet in with the sour, so I added some honey. Another thought I had, however, later on, was to use apple juice concentrate instead of pineapple.
At this point, I would do it differently than what I actually did. Instead of blending the berries with the chicken and baking, I’d put the berry mix alone into my 10” dutch oven and put it on the coals to simmer and reduce.
As the chicken nears done, and the sauce is good and thick, I’d stir some full, raw berries into the sauce, so they’d just have enough time to come up to temperature (but not really “cook”) before serving over the baked and seasoned chicken. I wonder how some chopped fresh mint leaves would taste in that sauce.... Hmmmm...
Now, in my mind, that sounds like it would look and taste much yummier than what I got (notice I didn’t take any pictures this time... I will next time!). Like I said, it was good, but not as good as it should or could have been.
So, many thanks to Toni for the inspiration and the motivation to try something new! To experiment! That’s what helps me to learn.
Note from Mark: I tried this one again a few weeks later. Here's the result!
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
There are a lot of really good websites out on the ‘net to help out Dutch Oven Chefs, both for beginners and the more experienced. I really enjoy going out and finding new sites, and especially reading more and more posts and recipes. I’ve met some really cool people, both face-to-face, and out on the web.
Here are just some of the other wonderful Dutch Oven recipes and resource websites. Visit them!
Do you remember the Dutch Oven Challenges issued a few months ago by my friend Andy? If not, you can check them out here, here, and here.
Well, over at the Back Porch Gourmet, he's started up a podcast where he interviews those who love cooking outdoors, and he invited me to be his first guest! So, go listen to the podcast!
Here are a couple of bits of exciting Dutch Oven News:
First of all: Andy, over at Back Porch Gourmet, did his Beef/Leek/Cinnamon challenge dish! It sure looks great! It's a cinnamon glazed roast. Check it out.
Second: This weekend is the Spring Convention of the International Dutch Oven Society (IDOS). Here's the details. I'll be at Taste of Dutch again this year, but I haven't decided yet what I'm going to cook. I'll probably do some kind of bread, and maybe a pasta dish. I haven't made up my mind yet. But come on out and taste some great dutch oven cooking!
Here's what it was like the other years that I went: 2009, and 2008
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
Last month, my pal Andy challenged me to a cookin' duel, cast iron chef style. The rules were simple, We each chose three ingredients and the other person had to make a one-pot meal that included those ingredients. It was a lot of fun, and generated a lot of interest.
So, I'm doing it again. Here are the rules for this round. Most of them are the same, but I'm going to change them up a little bit, however.
It doesn't have to be a one-pot dish. As long as all of the ingredients end up on the same plate, I don't care how simple or complex the process is.
Once again, the players can add any other ingredients they choose, but the final dish must include all three preset ingredients.
The recipe must be your own original creation. Search the web and the cookbooks for inspiration, but do your own thang. Here and here are some good posts on making up recipes.
Rather than require Andy, or anyone else, to come back with a challenge for me, I'm going to also do these same three ingredients.
I'm going to open this one up to everyone that reads this blog. Check out the list, and if you're in on the challenge, cook it up. Then, email me with either your recipe (and pics, if you take any) or a link to where you wrote it up on your blog or website.
So, here are the new challenge ingredients
Meat: Beef (any cut or form of it you want)
Veggie/fruit: Leek, scallion, or green onion, etc...
Spice/flavoring: Cinnamon
I'm also going to post this to the IDOS forums, and see what excitement we can stir up there.
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
