Bone-In Ribeye Steaks Grilled Over Hardwood Charcoal

I walked down the street to the fish & chip shop to buy a couple of fresh fish fillets for dinner. They were sold out of fish, so I walked over to the butcher's shop to buy some pork schnitzel.

I glanced at the shop window from the outside and noticed they had pork schnitzel. I walk inside. I looked at the meat case inside. My eye caught sight of a standing rib roast. I forgot about the pork schnitzel.

Standing rib roast. Hmm... That's a primal cut, a bone-in ribeye. It just happens to be one of the best cuts of meat to grill... I had the butcher cut the standing ribeye into 2 2-inch bone-in ribeye steaks. These steaks cried out for grilling over hardwood charcoal.

I set up the mighty hibachi for direct grilling over hardwood charcoal (no other choice, really). These steaks were so good they called for nothing more than a bit of olive oil and a liberal sprinkling of salt & pepper. I grilled the steaks medium rare and served them with grilled asparagus, marinated cannellini beans, and a dinner salad. Absolutely delicious.

A Walk Along Piha Beach - Just Pictures

Chocolate Ganache Tartlet with Salted Pastry Shell

There was Belgian chocolate in the pantry. It looked lonely. There was only one thing to do: make it happy! How about chocolate pastry?

As it turns out, I just happened to have a measure of home made salted pastry in fridge. I used the salted pastry recipe from Richard Bertinet's new book Pastry. I do not have fluted tartlet molds. No drama, as I do have 100mm stainless steel egg rings. Perfect. I will use the egg rings as tart rings for today.

I rolled out the pastry and lined the rings. I filled the rings with baking beads and let the pastry rest in the fridge for 30 minutes, whilst the oven heated. I baked the shells for about 20 minutes at 190C in my oven, until the edges of the pastry started to brown.

I pulled the beans from the pastry. Oops! I forgot to put the pastry shells back in the oven to finish baking. Oh, well. The pastry still turned out nice and flaky. I let the pastry cool and got started on the filling.

For the filling, I made a chocolate ganache with equal weights of chocolate and cream. I was not sure just how much filling I would need. I suppose I could work out the volume for a cylinder...

Let's see... V = π * r^2 * h, so Volume = 3.14 * (100mm diameter - 8 mm for the pastry = 92mm. Radius = 46mm^2) * (20mm - 4mm for pastry = 16mm). Volume for each pastry case = ~106,000mm^3 = ~0.106 Litres * 6 shells = 0.636 Litres of ganache, ignoring irregularities in pastry thickness and shrinkage of the pastry...

I couldn't be bothered. I used 225g of chocolate and 225g of cream. I figured there would at least be enough to fill the pastry shells. I would not mind too much if I ended up with more ganache than was strictly required...

Once the ganache was thoroughly blended, I filled the shells. I had just enough ganache to completely fill all the cases. Bummer! I was hoping for a bit extra so I could fill a ramekin for the chef... I let the tartlets cool until the ganache is set.

Dessert is ready!

Mushroom Risotto

I picked up some rather large and beautiful white button mushrooms at the grocery store. I diced 3/4 of them and made a mushroom duxelles, which I added to the rice as it cooked. I sliced the remaining mushrooms and browned them in a bit of olive oil and butter.

Aubergine, Tomato, and Mozzarella Tart

I found some beautiful aubergine at the grocery store the other day (grown in Fiji!). I made a salted pastry dough and blind baked it in a 22cm tart pan. I sliced the aubergine into rounds and roasted them with good olive oil (Leccino, from Two Short Dogs), minced red pepper, garlic, and parsley. I thinly sliced a tomato and warmed the slices in a pan into which I heated good olive oil with fresh thyme. I layered aubergine in the tart and placed sliced tomatoes on top, along with the remaining olive oil. I then added fresh mozzarella and fresh thyme sprigs and fresh grated Grana Padano. This was baked for about 15 minutes in the oven at about 200C, until the cheese melted. Delicious!

Sourdough Crumpet with Raspberry Bonne Maman

I keep my sourdough starter on the kitchen counter and feed it at the same time every day, at 6:00 AM. I discard 80% of the ripe starter before feeding, just enough for two crumpets. Very convenient.

When I usually make crumpets, I mix a batter with my starter the night before and cook them off in the morning (12 hour ferment). However, since I have to discard some of my starter every day when I feed it, I like to use it when I can.

Heat a griddle and buttered egg ring over a low heat. Mix in a teaspoon of caster sugar, a pinch of salt and a bare 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. Fill the egg ring 1/2 full and let cook slowly for about 8 minutes, until only a 2-3cm circle uncooked batter is left in the centre. Remove the ring and turn over to cook the other side for a minute or two, until lightly browned. Best when served hot from the griddle.

A Warm Slice and a Cuppa

Yesterday I prepared two sourdough boules.

The boules were retarded in the fridge overnight and I baked them off this morning.

With incredible restraint, I pulled a boule from the oven and let it rest for one hour.

There is nothing quite like a slice of fresh baked bread, still warm from the oven. It needs no adornment. Well, perhaps a hot cuppa...

Sourdough Pizza: Two Day Fermentation

Testing sourdough pizza with 2 day bulk fermentation...

Pizza al Finocchio, Funghi e Formaggio Erborinatio (Pizza with Fennel, Mushroom, and Blue Cheese)

Pizza alle Melanzana (Pizza with Roasted Eggplant)

Pizza: Salami e Olive

I mixed up a double batch of sourdough on Sunday, one batch for boules and one for pizza. Bulk fermentation at room temperature (17C) for both bread and pizza dough. Both pizza dough and bread dough were turned every 30 minutes for 2 hours. After two hours I put the pizza dough in the fridge for long cold ferment.

On Monday I divided the dough into 6 portions of 325g. Monday evening I made three pizzas and reserved three portions for additional cold fermentation.

Pizza dough was pulled from the fridge, folded, shaped, bench rested for 15 minutes. The oven was pre-heated on high for one hour and switched to broil just before I put in the pizza.

The crust was browning before the dough cooked through, so I modified the cooking. I let the pizza bake under the broiler for about 4 minutes, then switched the oven back to bake until the pizza was finished. This allows for a longer cooking time of about 7 to 7.5 minutes to give enough time to bake off the crust.

The bread dough was turned two more times, at 1h15m intervals, then divided, bench rested, and shaped. After shaping, dough was placed in banneton and retarded in the fridge until I baked it Monday morning.

36 Hour Sourdough Pizza

I pulled out the sourdough retarding in the refrigerator and divided it into three 260g portions. I folded and shaped the dough balls and let them rest while the oven warmed and I prepped the toppings.

When the oven came to temperature I switched the oven from bake to broil and made the first pie.

One portion was a bit smaller than the others, so I made a bambino pizza with Kalamata olives, red onion, fresh thyme, and freshly grated Grana Padano.

The next pie was topped with a bit of fior di latte, roasted melanzana, and freshly grated Grana Panano.

The last pie was topped with fior di latte, Kalamata olives, red onion, fresh thyme, freshly grated Grana Padano, and basil.

These pies cooked in about 6-7 minutes. I had some of the best oven spring I've ever had out of this dough. Next time I'll mix the dough and probably give it four turns over two hours at room temperature, then bung it in the refrigerator for two to three days before using.

Eggs with Mushroom Duxelles and Toasted Sourdough

The other day I picked up some enormous white button mushrooms, about 5 cm in diameter. They called to me from the refrigerator...

I sautéed diced mushrooms in olive oil and butter until browned. I added sliced shallots and let them get happy with the mushrooms, then added diced garlic. I deglazed the pan with a shot of Lighthouse Gin and finished with crème fraîche, a knob of butter, salt, and pepper. I plated the duxelles.

I added a knob of butter in the same pan (do not rinse the pan!) and gently fried two eggs, sunny side up. I finished the eggs with salt and pepper and placed the eggs on top of the duxelles.

I cut a thick slice of home made sourdough bread and toasted it in the butter and drippings left in the pan.

Sourdough Adventures: Sourdough Pizza

I have pizza withdrawal. I have not made pizza since I started making sourdough bread.

I drove to the farmer's market at La Cigale and picked up fresh basil and some fantastic fior di latte and scamorza made locally by Italian Cheeses.

My first try making sourdough pizza dough...

I made a 2kg batch of sourdough, same as I do for my Tartine Basic Country Bread. After bulk fermentation was complete, I shaped 400g portions of dough into balls and let them bench rest for 40 minutes, whilst the oven came to temperature and I prepared the toppings.

I reserved enough dough to make two more pizzas and stored it in the fridge for a longer, cold ferment. I would normally have let the whole batch ferment for two or three days, but I really wanted to make some pizza the same day, purely for testing purposes...

The cornicione had good flavour. I may have to play around a bit to get the bulk fermentation timing right. The dough balls had good extensibility, but lacked some elasticity, perhaps due to too short a bulk fermentation or too long a bench rest. The dough may have benefited from a second shaping and bench rest to make up for a short bulk fermentation.

The cornicione showed decent oven spring, but I need to work out proper temps and timing with my oven, cooking on a terracotta paving stone. The electric home oven I currently use does not hold a high temperature very well. I may need to move the stones to a lower position in the oven. It is also difficult to get the stone to a high enough temperature to get much colour on the bottom of the crust.

The oven is set at the highest temperature setting and allowed to warm up for 1 hour. Just before I start to stretch a dough ball, I switch the oven to broil. These pizzas were in the oven for between 6-8 minutes.

I may make a couple more pizzas tonight to see how the dough handles after a 36 hour fermentation.

For my next batch, I may turn the dough every 1/2 hour for the first two hours, then store the dough in the fridge for 1-5 days.