Dutch Oven Seafood Chowder - Without a Net

Today, I made Seafood Chowder. It would have been clam chowder, but we were out of those little cans of clams, and instead we had the little cans of crab and shrimp (about the size of tuna cans, you know. Same stuff).

What made it very interesting was that I made it without a recipe. With only my brainz as my guide. It was very exciting to fly without a net, so to speak, and to have it turn out so well.

I used the Roux base that Steven had shown me a few weeks ago, and just treated it a little bit differently, since I wasn't making a cheese sauce. I know, I know... Once I get a hold of something hot, I don't let up, do I?

Anyway, since I didn't have a recipe, I'm just going to talk you through it.

The first thing I did, after lighting up some coals, was get out one of my smaller dutch ovens and get it on top of about 15 coals or so, so it was getting good and hot. Into it, I put a half of a one-pound package of bacon, cut and separated into little squares. That started cooking.

Once that was going, I got out my 12" dutch oven, which was the one that I was going to do the actual chowder in, and got it on some coals, probably closer to 20. I had diced up some onions, and minced up some garlic (a couple of cloves) and I got that browning in that 12 dutch oven. At this point, there were no lids on, and, obviously, no coals on top.

While that was cooking, I was in the kitchen, quartering and slicing the potatoes, and slicing some celery. I did about four potatoes, and three or four stalks of celery.

Pretty soon, the bacon was nice and crisp, and the onions were starting to brown. It was a pretty cheap grade of bacon, so there was lots of grease left in the smaller dutch oven. I pulled the bacon out and put it in with the onions, and left the drippings. To that, I added some flour. You don't want to add it too quickly, because you could easily add too much. I added until it was a little runnier than cookie dough. I just let it cook.

I wanted to see what happened as you cook a roux longer and longer, so I let it go for a while. It gradually got more and more brown. Finally, I saw that it was getting nice and tanned, so I pulled that dutch oven off the coals.

In the meantime, the onions, garlic, and bacon were still browning nicely in the other dutch oven. I added a pint carton of cream, and about half that much of milk, maybe less. To help it to boil, I put the lid on.

Once it was boiling, I added the potatoes, the celery, and three little cans of seafood, with the liquid. I figured the seafood stock in the cans would enhance the flavor. Once it was boiling again, I added some of the roux, about a tablespoon at a time, stirring vigorously to break it up in the soup. I watched carefully after each tablespoonful of roux for a minute to check the thickness before adding more. If it goes too thick, I guess you can always just add more milk, but I don't want to catch myself adding and adding to catch up with myself over and over again.

Pretty soon, it's nice and thick, but still more of a soup than a sauce. You can make it how you like it.

At that point, I added some parsley, some salt and pepper (to taste on all three), and also some lemon juice. Then I pulled some of the coals out from under so that it would go from boil to simmer, and put the lid back on.

I would check it about every 15 minutes, just to check the taste and the done-ness of the potatoes. It didn't take long, maybe 45 minutes to be done.

While that was happening, I made some homemade bisquick and then some Red Lobster-style garlic cheese biscuits in another 12" dutch oven. I'll write about those tomorrow or Tuesday.

A Good Dutch Oven Sandwich Bread

OK, so I've done sourdoughs and ryes and all kinds of "hearth breads", whatever that means... But the crusts are tough (or should I say, "crusty"), and the crumb is heavy. Now that's not bad when you want a really hearty chunk of bread for a meat-based sandwich. But I also want to learn how to make something light. I want something I can make a PBJ on and have my kids eagerly eat it.

I've learned a lot baking breads these last few months (heck, the whole last year). So, I though I'd give an old recipe a try. It's the one that my wife usually makes.

Jodi's Bread in the Dutch Oven

12” Dutch Oven

17 coals above, 8 below for 350 degrees (in normal weather, more in cold)

• 1 cup hot water
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 3/4 cup honey

• 1 egg
• A pinch of salt
• 1 cups milk (mixed from powder)
• 2 Tblsp oil
• 4-5 cups flour, with probably about cup to be added during kneading
• An egg to coat the top
  

I started by activating the yeast. I mixed the hot water and the honey (that cooled the water significantly), then added the yeast.

While it was proving and frothing, I gathered up all the other ingredients.

Then I just mixed all the rest of the ingredients in. One of the big things I've learned about breadmaking is to make sure that I knead it enough. This recipe passed the windowpane test quickly, in only about 10 minutes of keading. I've notice that when I've kneaded enough the dough is stiffer, also.

Then I put it in the oiled bowl, and sprayed it with oil, and finally covered it with plastic wrap.

It rose up pretty nicely. I gave it a little over an hour.

When that was done, I punched it down and divided it into four doughballs, like loaves, and set them in the Dutch Oven to proof.

This is where it almost went south. After about a half hour of proofing, I went out to light up some coals. I don't know what was wrong. Maybe the coals were damp, but I could NOT get coals to light up and burn hot. After trying for literally an hour, I put what few coals I had lit onto the Dutch Oven lid to preheat it. That's another very important thing I've learned about dutch oven breadmaking.

In the meantime, I lit up another batch of coals. That was slow lighting, too. Finally, I got some coals lit, and I put them under the Dutch Oven and a few more on the lid, but I could tell it wasn't hot enough. By that time the bread had risen to above the lid line. I kinda punched it down a little with a fork before putting on the hot lid.

I kept working on the coals, and after lighting more and a lot of fanning, I got some glow goin' on. It finally did cook, but the top was really brown. Not quite black, but really close. I brought it in to cool. I don't know if it's a good idea or not, but I let it cool in the Dutch Oven. I think the oven cooks it a little bit more while it's all cooling down.

When it was all done, and I pulled it out, the crumb inside was cooked all the way through, and it was nice and soft, not doughy at all. The crust was dark, but still soft to my bite. In spite of all the troubles, I had baked my first truly successful sandwich loaf!

Now, where's the butter and honey?

Dutch Oven Tortellini with Alfredo Sauce

I tried making this a long time ago, but I didn't blog about it because the sauce was absolutely horrible. It "broke". That means that the cheese ended up in a coagulated mass, and runny milk. Yuk. It was one of my worst tanks.

So, today, I thought I'd try it again, now that I've learned how to do sauces better.

I'll have to warn you, the way I did this, it was a very complex process. It's not for beginners. I started in the morning, and it all ended at about 5:00. Of course, there was a lot of down time in the middle. Still, there are a lot of steps.

The Filling

8" Dutch Oven

12-15 coals below

• 1-2 Cups fresh spinach, chopped
• 4 green onions, chopped
• A handful of fresh chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup water

• 1 small tub of Ricotta Cheese
• Salt
• Juice of 1 lemon

I started early in the day by putting some coals under my 8" dutch oven, with all of the ingredients in the first set. I put the lid on, and let it boil down until the spinach greens were soft.

Actually, I did that using the coals on top of my 12" as it was cooking the cinnamon buns that I'll be writing about soon.

Once that was boiled down and all the greens were soft, I took them out and put them in a collander to drain, and cool. Once they were cool, I put them in a bowl and added all the other ingredients, and stirred it all up. I put that in the fridge, covered by plastic wrap.

The Tortellini

• 2 cups flour
• 6 eggs
• a handful of chopped parsley
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• a pinch of salt

The tortellini I made using the method I used for the pasta fresca a long time ago. It was a little different this time, though. I didn't use any water, and I kneaded it a long time. Probably about 12 minutes. I was surprised that, once I was actually making the tortellini, it was much easier to work with the dough. It was more flexible. Are you noticing a trend, here?

I used a small kids cup (with a diameter of about 2") to cut the discs for the tortellinis. This made them pretty big, but that's OK. They were easier to work that way.

One thing I'd recommend, is that once you've used the cup to cut the discs, gather up the extra pasta and ball it up. Put the discs aside, and roll out the extra. Cut more discs, and carry on that way until all the dough is used up or you have enough discs. Plan on about 10 tortellinis per serving.

Then I held a disc in my fingers, and put about a half teaspoon of filling into it. I wet the edge of one side with my finger (dipped in water), and folded it in half. I closed it up, pinching as I went. I had seen a TV show about making potstickers, and it said to press the edges together, starting where the filling is, so there's no air pockets.

Once it's all sealed in a half-circle pouch, I bent each corner inward, and made the little "hat" that's tortellini. Once I got going, it went pretty fast. I just set them aside and let them dry a little bit.

The Sauce

8" Dutch Oven

12-15 coals below

• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup mushrooms, chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp oil
  

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2-3 tablespoons roux
• A big pinch of grated romano cheese, to taste
  
• A big pinch of grated mozarella cheese, to taste
• A big shake of grated parmesan cheese, to taste
• salt
• Pepper

I started by sauteeing the first set of ingredients until they were quite browned. This actually took quite a long time. Then I pulled them out of the oven, and poured in the cream and the milk. I put the lid on and let it start boiling.

Then, as my Brother-in-Law had shown me , I started adding in the roux I had left over (stored in the fridge) from last week. I stirred it in with a whisk, and just kept adding it until it was thick enough. I'm estimating the amount in the ingredients above.

Once it was thick, I added the onions and the mushrooms back in, and added in the remaining ingredients. I kept whisking, and stirring, just to keep it going. It was great, and it didn't "break", just like last week.

In the meantime, I had another 12" dutch oven with about 18-20 coals underneath cooking some links of mild italian sausage.

I also had my 10" dutch oven, with 15-18 coals under it. That one was boiling water for the tortellini. Once it was boiling, I put in the tortellini and let it come back to a boil. Once it was boiling, it cooked pretty quick, in about 10 minutes.

After making all these elements, it was fun to finally plate it up and serve it. I dished up some tortellinis, poured on some sauce. Then I sliced up a sausage link, and put it on the side. Finally, I scraped some mizithra cheese on top. Yum!