Another Minneapolis WFO

[Sixto]

Look at a thread by Karangi Dude out of Aussie land. He does all kinds of WFO foods and use to teach WFO cooking to mates in Queensland or Victoria.

Got it, thanks! Lots to look through. https://community.fornobravo.com/for...i-dude-cooking

[MarkJerling]

Your first pizzas look great Sixto! Well done!

[Sixto]

Your first pizzas look great Sixto! Well done!

Thanks Mark! - still lots of testing and learning to do, and enjoying every step.

[Mr. Slowhand]

Roasted Garden Tomatoes, Salami and Burrata on the left - Chicken Italian Sausage with Pesto and Sauteed Purple Onions on the right.

Looks excellent Sixto, will try something similar for the weekend!

[Sixto]

Success!!!
The wedding rehearsal party worked like a charm!
Everyone praised the Pizzas, and the real evidence was that as soon as two were pulled from the oven and cut, they were gone!

All in all, our little team of up to 6 "amateur volunteers" cranked out 20 pizzas for the night. It was only the 4th time the oven had been fired up, and I had made less than 25 pizzas using the WFO before yesterday. Three people rotated stretching the dough and assembling the toppings, two more helped carry the pies from the house to the oven, retrieve them after they were baked, and cut them into 8 slices each. I managed the fire and the baking process.

We had settled on Lidia Bastianich' s pizza dough recipe a couple of weekends ago. Google it! it's easy to make, super crisp and delicious! Let the 300 gram pizza balls age (wrapped separately in plastic with a little olive oil to make it easy to peel) in the refrigerator for at least a day, two is better, and then I knead each ball again to de-gass, flour and flatten them into a 5" disk, wrap them again with plastic and bring them up to temperature about 4-5 hrs before stretching into the final pizza shape at about 10"-12" diameter.

We had two tasting events prior, which helped us fine tune the menu into the 5 pizzas described below.

• Focaccia with Olive Oil, Fresh Rosemary and flake Sea Salt.
• Margherita with roasted home grown Cherry Tomatoes, home grown Basil and Buffala Mozzarella. (basil added after baking)
• Cuban pizza (our Interpretation) with Roast pork marinated in Mojo sauce, on top of black beans and sprinkled with crushed plantain chips after baking
• Homemade Black Garlic (mashed one head (or about 8 cloves) per pizza, and spread above a thin layer of olive oil) topped with Pepperoni, goat cheese and lemon peel sprinkles.
• Home Grown Basil Pesto with red peppers and Feta cheese.

Everyone had a different favorite, which just goes to show - different strokes for different folks!



My hearffelt thanks to the Forno Bravo community for all the guidance, support, encouragement and advice!
After all my complaining, it's been a worthwhile effort and undertaking (obsession?) for the past 16 months.

P.S.: I make the black garlic in batches of 7 heads by double wrapping each whole garlic head with aluminum foil (wrapping it only once lets too much moisture escape, you want to keep the moisture in!) I place the 7 wrapped heads in an old used rice cooker ($10) with a Keep Warm setting (very very low heat,) and forget about it for two weeks. I keep the rice cooker outside the house, on our deck because the aroma is too strong for me! This process turns the original white cloves into a black color with a sweet. layered and unique umami taste that hints at its original garlicky flavor. (the only thing black garlic has in common with roasted garlic other than the source, is the soft, tender melts-in-your-mouth texture.)

[MarkJerling]

Looking great Sixto!

[Sixto]

Thanks Mark! - I am continuing to enjoy the journey. More pizza planned for tomorrow. I think I’ll start posting in the cooking threads just to share and make it easy to find. Today is a week after the Wedding Rehearsal party, and this is what we woke up to… Minnesota is always good for a weather surprise!

[UtahBeehiver]

Congrats, now the real fun starts. Yes, I received a pic from step son showing snow in MN this AM

[MarkJerling]

Thanks Mark! - I am continuing to enjoy the journey. More pizza planned for tomorrow. I think I’ll start posting in the cooking threads just to share and make it easy to find. Today is a week after the Wedding Rehearsal party, and this is what we woke up to… Minnesota is always good for a weather surprise!

Lucky you! We had (very late) snow a week ago. Now, spring seems to finally have arrived.

[Sixto]

Returned home from almost a month abroad. Wanted to share photos of this monster oven I saw in Madrid - at the Posada de la Villa restaurant right by the front door. I have some doubts about whether they actually use it to roast, I have a feeling its more of a warming oven, since the oven is SOO BIG!!! (about 8' across at the base), and it looked like they had about 7 chunks of lamb in it when we came in at 8:00 pm. In any case, the 1/4 Roast Leg of Lamb was delicious, and it sure gave the place an atmosphere of authenticity! I did try Pizza at a couple of restaurants in Madrid and Paris that I won't mention, and was both disappointed at their offerings (ready-made crust, soggy centers), and encouraged by what I had been able to achieve in the first few attempts at making my own dough, and cooking pizza in my own little WFO.

[Sixto]

Sometning to consider when locating your next Pizza Oven: The prevailing winds and impact of adjacent structures. As you can see in the photo, when the wind blows from the West (most of the time here) the garage roof creates a downward pressure on the flue... I don't know if adding another flue segment would make much of a difference (maybe another 4'? but that's getting up there quite a bit.

I don't think I would have chosen a different location, either (my backyard is not that big) I just wish some days the wind was a little calmer, and I had read more about how people deal with a wind that smokes up the entire backyard and the house too, if I left the windows open!

[RandyJ]

Hey Sixto how is the oven going. Did you end up adding any pipe to the chimney. I hope you are still enjoying the oven.

Randy

[Sixto]

Hey Sixto how is the oven going. Did you end up adding any pipe to the chimney. I hope you are still enjoying the oven.

Randy

Hi Randy, sorry for the late response, I’ve been off the forum for a while. No, I did not add tho the flue height, but I removed the raincap, which improved the draft by a ton, even being next to the garage on windy days.

On a separate topic, we decided to use the pizza oven for cooking our Thanksgiving Turkey this year. It turned out fantastic!

I had made pizza the night before, and closed it up tight at peak temp, so I had a great bed of coals the next day (400f on the floor) even so, I added a few small pieces of wood to wake up the oven, and that brought it to about 800f by 10:a.m. (would not do that again, I think the initial bed would have been perfect knowing what I know now.

22# bird, brined for 24 hrs in our fridge, then cut up 5 lemons and stuffed slices between skin and meat, and quartered lemon pieces along with 2 big heads of garlic (separated into cloves and skinned) in the cavity. Also sprinkled McCormicks Black Garlic Powder all along the exposed skin. Browned skin foe 10 minutes, then tented the bird with foil and closed up the oven at 550f for 3 hrs. No basting, rotated pan 180d annd checked temps every hour. After 3 hrs the breast meat was at 173f and legs were at 190f. Oven floor was still at 450f after 3 hrs. Pulled bird and rested it for 1 hr in an unheated gas indoor oven prior to carving it. Made gravy with the drippings.

next time, I will wait til oven is a bit cooler 475-500f and let it cook slower (4 hrs?) at lower temp. Looking for even more juicy meat. Still, that slight smoke taste was worth all the pain, and the lemons gave the meat a delicious tang! Will try to post pics later!

[RandyJ]

No worries on the late response. I am glad you have been using the oven. I almost finished everything on my oven just a few small details let to finish up. I will take care of those in the spring.

Any chance you took pictures of the turkey. Be fun to see how it turned out.

Randy