Baking Bread on the Big Green Egg (and Ribeyes)

Steaks and Bread with a Beer...do we REALLY need anything else?  Tonight it was finally nice enough to blow the dust off the Egg and do a couple of cooks.  First up, a Italian Herb Fleischmann's mix prepared in my Emile Henry Bread Cloche...I FORGOT to put in my platesetter so the bottom was overcooked but the bread was amazing regardless.  

  

Followed that with two Bone In, but Bone Removed Rib Eyes (Sustainably raised by Missouri Legacy Beef).  Finished it was some creamy rice and the EVER present Green Onions and a beer.  Nothing left but dirty dishes...lol.

Shown here after one side seared...a little Dizzy Pig Steak Seasoning...no magic recipes tonight.  Here's my Rig...dirt and all for those of you that have never laid eyes on my baby... LOL.

 

 KEEP ON EGGIN'

Simple Salmon

FINALLY a free Sunday evening and a long overdue return to my favorite, something simple and fast on the Egg; Simple Salmon.  Tonight's dinner was an experiment with 'frozen packaged'  salmon and prepared with nothing but with Paul Prudhomme's Salmon Seasoning. No lemon juice, no butter, just PP's seasoning.
 

Shown here about 5 minutes from plating, I have to admit, it was very good.  While there is nothing like a fresh cut, for the price we paid, it was very good we would do it again.

Ingredients and Directions

• 2 Salmon slabs, thawed and skin removed.
• Fire Up the Egg to 350 and stabilize
• Sprinkle Seasoning generously on Salmon

• Spray Emile Henry Griddle with Canola oil
• Place Salmon on Griddle and place in egg, shut lid.
• Allow to cook for 6-8 minutes and flip once
• Close lid for 5 minutes and check for flakiness.
• Remove, plate and serve. 

The Salmon was served with Field Peas with and home canned Relish, Baked Potatoes and of course, Organic Green Onions on the side.  Items used during this cook included, of course, the Big Green Egg, the Emile Henry Grilling cookware and the stainless steel  Rösle Fish Turner, a WONDERFUL device for flipping a full fillet.

Betty Crocker Pizza Dough is the BEST!

I've been following food blogs for 5-6 years now and I watch people spend hours on dough preparation; I take five minutes.  I tried it all, the Kitchenaide dough hooks variety, fresh dough from the store, or a local pizza parlor, Boboli, even Pillsbury roll out dough (my second favorite).  Sorry, for my taste, indoor oven or on the Grill, Betty Crocker mix suits our tastes just fine and tonight was one of those prep it, cook it, clean it and get off my feet nights.  No awards are going to be won with this pizza tonight...it IS all gone however.

SAUSAGE WITH BELL PEPPERS AND A SPRINKLING OF PEPPERONI

PEPPERONI AND A SPRINKLING OF SAUSAGE

Served up on our Emile Henry Flame Cookware stones...we were in mass production tonight so I used them as cutting boards instead of cooking on them.  It's as much about the ingredients as anything. And tonight we even went less than full organic, lol. 

Used precooked sausage and pepperoni and about 1 Cup of grated fresh Parmesan, A half cup of shredded Mozzarella, and 2 cups of a Mozzarella/Provolone combo. 

MY FAVORITE...CANNOT BE CONVINCED OTHERWISE...

Add Uncle Jon's Summer Kitchen Pizza Sauce and Aunt Sue's Pickled Banana peppers and some EVOO on the dough and you are READY TO BAKE.  On the Egg, it would be 500+ for ten minutes, in the oven it is 450 for about 15-16 minutes.

And for my Muncie Friends...I cut it in squares but this AIN'T no Pizza King Royal Feast...no way; even with the Red Peppers sprinkled on thick.

Tagine Chicken Moroccan Style Stew

NEW RECIPE TONIGHT !!!

Moroccan style tagine chicken (Apricot and Cilantro flavored) stew using Alfez sauce and the Emile Henry Flametop Tagine.  Another ONE DISH wonder tonight...and I love simple and single pot cooking for sure.  The tagine is a great vessel for this purpose and we just don't use it enough.  Served up in a EH Roaster.

Ingredients

• 3.5 LARGE Chicken Breasts (free range if available)
• 1 1/2-2 Cups Chicken Broth (low sodium)
• 1 Jar (11.5 Oz.) Alfez Tagine Sauce (available at World Market)
• 3-4 Stalks Celery
• 1 Medium Red Bell Pepper
• 10-12 Small Yellow Potatoes
• 1 Medium Vidalia Onion
• 12-20 Baby Carrots

Directions

1. Fire Up the Big Green Egg (for this recipe I partially par-boiled the veggies because we were in a hurry) and insert plate setter legs up; bring up to 350 degrees F.
2. EVOO in bottom of Tagine
3. Chop Veggies and Chicken into approximately 1" cubes
4. Dump Veggies into Tagine
5. Add Chicken Broth
6. Cover with Chicken chunks and cover Tagine
7. Place on Egg for 30 minutes.  Check chicken, do not add sauce until chicken is 80-90% cooked.
8. When Chicken is to temperature, dump in Sauce and Stir.
9. Return lid on tagine and cook another 15 minutes.
10. Remove and serve from Tagine to plates.

POST DINNER HINT:  Reduce chicken broth to 1 cup and you could go as much as double on the sauce for total perfection...

Cheddar-Beer Fondue

(or real men eat foudue too!)

 

HEAT INGREDIENTS
Heat 12 oz. Light Beer and 1/2 Tsp. Dijon Mustard, 1 Tsp. Minced Garlic in a medium to large saucepan on low, whisk in 4 Cups of Sharp Cheedar Cheese tossed with 2 Tsp. Cornstarch until melted and smooth. 

SERVE
We used the Emile Henry FlameTop Cheese Foudue Set to serve Missouri Legacy Free Range Franks (I refer to them as Beef Sausages - fully cooked and always free range), French Bread cubes, and Baby Dutch Yellow Potatoes (pre-boiled and slice the larger ones into two pieces).  Other ideas for this cheese sauce are apple slices and uncooked broccoli. 

Pizza on the Egg...simple and amazing!

Two pizzas tonight, one pepperoni (turkey); and one Italian Sausage with onions and heirloom tomatoes.  The tomato sauce was a family secret canned recipe...still fighting the inlaws to get the ingredients.  The finished pizza's are shown here on two Emile Henry Pizza stones.  Great for cooking and/or for serving.

Ingredients:

• 2- Pillsbury Pizza Dough mix
• 1/2 Cup Hot Water  (for each mix)
• 1 Lb. Italian Pork Sausage
• 1/3 Red Onion
• Turkey Pepperoni
• 4 Cups of Mozzarella (finely shredded cheese)
• EVOO
• Pizza Sauce (about 1/2 Qt)

Directions:

1. Mix Dough with 1/2 cup hot water (20 stirs) and let set for 5 minutes.
2. Spread on parchment paper (about 12 inch circles)
3. Spread thin layer of EVOO on dough
4. Add a layer of pizza sauce; two cups of Mozzarella
5. Pizza one: Add a layer of pepperoni and top with more cheese (total 2 1/4 Cups)
6. Pizza two: Pre-cook the sausage and repeat steps 1-4, a layer ot paper thin tomato and cover the pizza (half in this case) with red onion.
7. Top with sausage and a 1/4 cup of cheese
8. Cook in BGE on Plate Setter, Legs Down at about 535-550 degrees for about 10 minutes maximum, lid down. Remove and let set, cut and serve.

Apricot Blueberry Cobbler

Cobbler is probably not really summer fare but I couldn’t resist making it in 90 degree weather after seeing the original recipe in a magazine. 

I refer to this recipe as the ‘final death blow’ to my Cast Iron cooking.  With the limited exception of some camp outings, my CI is totally retired.  This cobbler was originally designed for a CI skillet but I changed up the ingredients for a quick and delicious variation and substituted my Emile HenryPie Dish and cooked in indirect on my Big Green Egg.   

Ingredients – The ingredients listed below will fill up your EH pie pan.  You can however determine the size of the cobbler batch you want to create and mix and match ingredients as they are available (seasonally).  This variation used fresh blueberries and canned apricots as an example.

€        12-15 Apricots (substitute 3 (15 Oz.) cans, rinsed halves)
        2 Cups Blueberries
€        1 Tbls. Cornstarch
€        ½ Cup Sugar (granulated) plus 2 Tsp. for Topping
€        1 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour
€        1 Stick Unsalted Butter
€        ½ - ¾ Cup Heavy Crème (same some for brushing the topping)
€        2 Tsp. Baking Powder
€        Pinch Coarse Sea Salt

 

Directions

1.    Preheat BGE to 375 degrees with plate setter legs up with grid.  Use a drip pan to keep drippings off of plate setter.
2.    Clean and slice apricots (if using fresh) into wedges no larger than ½”.  If using canned, leave the halves and mush that accompanies but drain them in a strainer and rinse off any syrup well.
3.    Whisk cornstarch and ½ cup of sugar in a large mixing bowl then gently mix in the fruit.  Place in your EH pie dish and set aside.
4.    In a large mixing bowl (or a food processor if you prefer) mix 2 Tbls. Sugar, the flower, baking powder and a pinch of salt.  Cut the butter into small pieces and mix into the bowl until you only see small flecks of butter.  Add the heavy crème and stir until you have a dough like consistency.
5.    Spoon out 6-8 equal portions and smash them into cakes and cover the fruit in the pie pan.  Press them down slightly and brush them with a little heavy crème.  If you wish you can sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar on top of this mixture.
6.    Place in Egg and cook Lid Down until topping is golden brown.  Fresh fruit will take slightly longer.  You can also prepare this earlier in the day and refrigerate until cooking time if you wish.