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I stared at the barbecue contraption and felt a stab of déjà vu. There it was again – that big boxy fire bed topped with a grill the size of a full sheet of plywood and crowned with a funky metal roof. This one was plonked down on the tarmac of the Mount Shasta Supermarket, a good 500 miles north of the one I’d seen only this morning.
In my hazy condition, brought on by too many hours behind the wheel, I wondered: Had all of California gone barbecue crazy?
 Scott's barbecue contraption If you asked big friendly Scott, down in Big Oak Flat out by Groveland, the answer would likely be yes. Throwing a last log of black oak onto his raging fire, Scott described for me competitions in Sacramento, Mariposa, Fresno (Clovis to be exact) and Long Beach. Lines of tents, hundreds of pounds of beef, pork and chicken, too many recipes and concoctions and techniques to count. He told me that his output of 70 pounds of tri-tip beef was so small as to be negligible. And then he laughed.
Supermarket owner Keith in Mount Shasta City was more practical about the whole thing. When I stopped back to see him, his barbecue was full of chicken and ribs, the things his customers wanted for a quick dinner, with a few pieces of beef off to one side. Keith did an amazing balancing act of stoking, turning, basting, and testing, all the while fielding questions from friends and passersby. ‘We’re cooking ‘till 9,’ he told more than a dozen people in the few minutes I watched him in action. The smoke of his grill brought hungry people all the way from I-5.
Now, I’m not even going to pretend to know barbecue from the inside out, but that’s not the point. The 25 or 30 times I’ve done ribs would just about get me out of the starting gate in a competition, I reckon.
However, I do know what I like. Moist, tender, slow-cooked ribs, with a certain amount of smokiness and a flavorful sauce that reaches all the way down to the bone. Since I don’t have a smoker, I use my Weber, which does a fine job of getting them going, and then I finish them off for a couple of hours in the oven.
Can you say ‘tasty’?
Beautiful Barbecued Baby Back Ribs 
Makes a 3½ pound rack of pork loin or back ribs
For the sauce and marinade:
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
¼ cup white or cider vinegar
¼ cup water
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cloves pressed garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic granules)
2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Make the barbecue sauce and marinade: In a non-aluminum 1 quart pan with a lid, bring the brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar and water to a simmer over medium heat. Stir to keep the sugar off the bottom and add the spices, garlic and thyme. Lower the heat and let the sauce simmer for 10 minutes. Put lid in place loosely if the mixture wants to blurt out splotches of sauce. Remove from heat and let cool, uncovered, for 5 minutes or more.
Marinate the ribs: Cut the rack of ribs in half to make it easier to grill. Wash lightly in cold tap water and pat dry with paper towels. Lay ribs meat side up in a glass or ceramic pan large enough to hold both pieces with some overlap.
Pour half of the sauce over the meat, reserving the other half for finishing the meat after grilling. Cover the ribs with plastic and marinate for 1 hour at room temperature or for 2 hours or longer in the fridge.
 Ribs just ready for smoking Soak chips for smoking or cut a fresh branch: For good smoked flavor, you need apple, maple or hickory chips. Soak them in water for an hour before using. If you have fruit trees, you can also cut a branch that is as thick as your thumb into 6” lengths to use in place of the smoking chips. A branch of an almond tree that needed pruning was used in this recipe with excellent results.
Fire up the grill: To partially grill and partially smoke the ribs for this recipe (see note below), use only about half the charcoal that the grill can hold. For my little Smokey Joe Weber, this means about 24 briquettes; for a full-sized kettle grill, it’s about 50. Form a stack in the middle of the charcoal grate, light the coals and let burn for 20 minutes.
Once briquettes are glowing, divide the coals in two and place piles at opposite edges against the side of the kettle. Add a few fresh coals to each pile and let burn for another 10 minutes.
Brush the grill to clean, and rub some olive oil onto the middle where the meat will cook.
Smoke the meat: Put a handful of chips or fruit branch cuttings onto each fire, set the grill surface in place, put the ribs meat side down in the middle and clap the top on the kettle. Turn the vents so that they’re open only ¼”. Leave the lid on for 40 minutes without peeking.
After 40 minutes, you will have to get the coals going again. Take the lid off and open the vents. Move the meat off the grill for this. When the coals are hot again, put more chips on, set the grill, turn the ribs meat side up in the center of the grill and clap on the lid again. Mostly close the vents and let ribs smoke for a further half hour.
Grill the meat: Take off the lid, open the vents again and bring the coals back up to heat. Add about 10 briquettes, spreading them evenly when hot. Now grill the meat for 10 minutes on each side, until nicely grilled.
Finish in the oven: By this time, the meat will be cooked through, but for maximum tenderness should be finished in an oven. Put the ribs meat side up in the pan, coat with the rest of the barbecue sauce, and bake for 1½ hours or more at 325º.
Once you bite into these ribs, you’ll know the meaning of true happiness. All that waiting? I think you’ll agree it was worth every minute!
Final Note: In the barbecuing world, the process is broken out into marinate or dry rub, cold or hot smoking, grilling and finishing. Scott uses a dry rub; Keith uses a wet marinade that incorporates smoke flavoring injected in a vacuum chamber. In both cases the final product is grilled, not smoked. Confused? Yes, but it’s all barbecue.
If you happen to be out near Groveland on a Friday, check out the Kwik Mart at the western edge of town, and follow the crowd to the best tri-tip sandwich around. And if you’re near Mt. Shasta, out on I-5 and you smell smoke, do go and check out Keith’s barbecue set-up. It’s the best chicken in town bar none (if there’s any left), and he does pretty darn good ribs as well.
With just a little more time, take Keith’s ribs and slow cook them in foil over a camp fire. They’ll take on a complexity and tenderness you never thought possible.
Now we’re talking barbecue!
 Grilled Ribs before finishing
Let me tell you about these blueberries that followed me home from California. There they were the other day, in a hunking great display the size of a small garden shed, right at the front of my local organic megastore: clamshell packages bursting with plump ripe fruit. Okay, these particular blueberries were not organic, but they sure were fresh.
Even before blueberries hit the scene as one of the latest and greatest megafoods, we had a passion for them here at Chez Bullhog. Forget the fact they contain a whole complement of nutrients that have been shown to reduce cholesterol, brain disease, depression and blood pressure – we thought they were just so darned good that we’d gobble them right up. Oprah’s doctor might now tout the virtues of resveratrol as an antidote to cancer, but we always liked the big burst of not-too-sweet flavor that blueberries released on our taste buds. Can you say ‘Yum’?
So how can you tell fresh blueberries from ones that have been hanging around in cold storage? For best results, look for small to medium berries with just a smattering of large ones. We find that big berries look good, but tend to be mushy. The blueberry skin should be taut with no wrinkles. And the little stems hanging on to some of the berries should be green, not brown. Lastly, if the packaging is clear, hold it up in the air. There should be few if any blueberries smashed on the bottom.
Here’s a recipe my Scottish grandmother would have approved of whole-heartedly. It’s a great way to showcase the finest berries of the season. The trick is to make a scone dough that’s not worked too much; overworking makes the dough tough. Mix just well enough to get the components moist, but keep it crumbly. A light touch, as my Scots grandma would say, is the right touch.
The best scones come from quality ingredients. Use organic flour to impart freshness and spring to the scones, European-style butter for full-flavored authenticity, and large-grained sugar for a crunchy top. But no worries, here. You will get fine results with non-organic flour, regular butter and a topping of table sugar.
Let’s make scones!
Fresh Blueberry Scones
Makes 12 medium-sized scones
2 cups blueberries
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice
3¼ cups organic unbleached all-purpose flour
4 level teaspoons baking powder
1 scant teaspoon salt (accurate amount is more like 7/8 teaspoon)
4 ounces (1/2 cup) salted Kerrygold Irish butter
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
¾ cup milk (I use 2% Lactaid)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg white
½ teaspoon water
3 Tablespoons large-grained baker’s sugar (I use ‘Sugar in the raw’)
Preheat the oven: Fix oven rack to one notch above center, and turn the oven to 475º.
Prepare the blueberries: Measure blueberries, wash them in cold water, drain and then spread the berries out onto a cloth or paper towel. Pick out any small leaves, stems, flower bits and shriveled berries. Put the blueberries back into the measuring cup or bowl and sprinkle with sugar and lemon juice.
Make the dough: In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the softened butter until the clumps are the size of a pea. Squeeze the mixture with your fingers until the butter is incorporated and flour mix is crumbly. Beat egg and yolk and reserve 2nd white for a glaze. Toss egg and then milk into the flour mixture, working lightly with a fork. Add sugar and knead for 15 or 20 seconds in the bowl, just until the dough holds together. Scrape bowl if necessary.
 Brushing with egg wash Make the scones: Grease a heavy 12” x 17” cookie sheet with butter and set within reach. Divide the dough into two equal parts. Working on a well-floured surface, stretch each piece of dough to make two 8” x 11” rectangles. You could use a rolling pin if you’d like, but I prefer the irregular surface you get by working at it with your fingers. In any case, you’ll need to turn the pieces a few time to keep from sticking.
Spread the blueberries out onto one of the rectangles of dough. Carefully top with the second dough rectangle, aligning edges. Gently press the top onto the berries.
Using a floured knife or dough cutter, slice the rectangle into six squares, and then cut each square into two triangles, so that you have 12 triangular scones. Carefully move these onto the baking sheet. If any berries pop out, stick them back in as best you can.
Whisk together the egg white and a little water, and brush scones twice with this to coat the surface well. Sprinkle evenly with baker’s sugar.
Bake the scones: Bake scones for 14 minutes at 475º. When lightly browned on top, remove scones to a rack to cool for several hours to develop that true scone texture; cover with a clean cloth after the first hour.
Store the scones: To retain the scone’s texture, you can store them for as long as 3 days in a cookie tin or plastic box covered with a cloth. If any are left after that time, these scones also freeze well; reheat for 8 minutes at 350º to revive.
Here’s a blessing that hung on my grandmother’s wall, one that I wondered about as a boy. All those funny words! My grandmother wasn’t particularly religious, but I think this gave her a sense of connection to Scotland, which she left at a young age.
The Selkirk Grace by Robert Burns
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.
Ancient stands of redwood trees loom majestically, lords of the forest. Clinging to great swaths of land along California’s northern coast, they foster an astonishing density of life – birds, animals, mosses, shrubs, and wildflowers. On entering the forest, you feel exhilarated and at the same time very small. Once you have been to the Redwoods, you never lose that humble feeling.
 Sous chef 'Chipatouille' checking the burners Beneath one giant tree, long dangling branches whickered softly as I set my tent. Low evening sun threw dappled light that played on moss-covered picnic tables, tree duff, railings, sign-posts. Everything at ground level was covered in bits of tree debris or damp with the moist atmosphere.
Out of the rains of Seattle, I had driven through sun-drenched Oregon to take the Redwood Highway south. Del Norte Coastal Redwoods State Park was an ideal stopping point for the night, as far as I could make it in a long day’s drive. And it put me within range of my fellow woodfired fanatic Bill down in Arcata.
So what’s not to love about camping in the Redwoods? I was self-contained, with tent, sleeping bag, Coleman stove, a few pots and pans, and enough food for a small army stashed in the cooler and in the nooks and crannies of my car’s trunk. It felt so good to be out in the woods that I even came to overlook the steep price that California’s state parks were charging for camping. It was all part of paying down the state deficit, I decided.
Now just because you’re camping, that doesn’t mean you can’t eat well. With a small amount of forward thinking, you can bring along all of the ingredients for one of my favorite camping dinners: Clam Spaghetti, with garlic, carrot, celery and onion sautéed in olive oil. So good, and so easy to make, even on a Coleman stove. Here’s how to do it.
Camping Clam Spaghetti
Makes two servings
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
½ onion, chopped
½ teaspoon of dried thyme
A 6-ounce can whole clams with broth
½ pound thin spaghetti
Water to boil
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Cook the pasta: When boiling water on a Coleman stove, use the burner closest to the gas supply for best results, and make sure all fittings are turned tightly.
In a small pot with a tightly fitted lid, bring one quart of water to a boil over highest heat. When the water is boiling, add the pasta and, stirring every minute or two, cook the pasta for 1 minute less than package directions.
(When camping, we often use much less water than the pasta directions require. If you’re not going to use the cooked pasta right away, drain it and put it back in the pot with cold water to cover. You can reheat the pasta in the sauce.)
 Tools of the trade Sauté the veggies: Chop the veggies. When camping, we carry a small cutting board, but friends swear by the roll-up plastic cutting boards. For a knife, we use a folding Opinel knife, which is ideal.
Put the oil into an 8” frying pan and bring to medium heat, about 2 minutes. Add the veggies and sauté for 5-7 minutes, until they soften in color and texture but are still crunchy. Sprinkle on the thyme and toss to distribute.
Finish the dish: When noodles are nearly cooked, drain the water from them. Add the noodles, the clams and the clam broth to the veggies and sauté together for a further 3 or 4 minutes until heated thoroughly. Divide into two and serve piping hot with crusty bread for dipping.
Note: This recipe is based on cooking for two people, so you need only a small pot for water and an 8” frying pan. If you’re cooking for a larger crowd, you will need larger pots and pans or more than one Coleman stove. In the case of larger pots and pans, it will take considerably more time to boil water, so be forewarned. At higher altitudes the time becomes even longer.
In the morning, I penetrated the thick brush of the Charles W. and Mamie A. Knights Memorial Grove, to stand in awe as the sunshine revived the forest. With a half dozen centuries old trees holding court around me, my senses were on overload and my neck hurt from looking up. With regret, I walked away from those magnificent trees.
But I’ll be back.
My Italian was not at all up to this. ‘Lo sportello automatico non pagare il denaro,’ I said to the beautifully tailored man across the desk from me – as close as I could get with my tourist phrase books to ‘the bank machine ate my money.’ I felt perspiration rise on the back of my neck.
 Specialties displayed in a Tuscan shop window The bank manager listened carefully and looked at the receipt. Rapping his fingers down at the piece of paper as if he were swatting a fly, he came to a decision. ‘This Bankomat,’ he said in almost perfect English as he rose from his chair ‘has been naughty. We know about this.’ He tossed the receipt to one side, wrote out a chit for the sum and steered me toward a teller.
There are few moments so golden as when you move suddenly from acute anxiety to total freedom and this was one of them. I emerged from the bank into the morning of a glorious Italian day, with time to kill and money in my pocket. The Italians were hard at work discussing Italy’s World Cup scores with catcalls and grand gestures. At open-fronted cafes and bars, the clink of cups lent music to the languid bustle on the street. In a light mood I strolled the few blocks to the beach.
On the Via Roma I found a perfect Italian deli. In the shade of orange trees lining the seafront, a modest doorway led to a polished brass and wood interior – not pretentious, but just a little upscale. Beneath gleaming glass stood pastries and little sandwiches, sliced meats and pickles, seafood salads and prepared vegetables. And on the shelves all around were peppers: jars and jars, each filled with the same perfect little stuffed peppers.
‘Peperone con tonnato,’ the woman told me; there was an approving gleam in her eye as she held up a jar. ‘Molto bene,’ she added, and her round face glowed.
Peppers stuffed with tuna, and very good indeed. Here’s an easy take on them, without all the oil.
Antipasto Peppers filled with Italian Tuna
Makes 16 – 18 bite-sized stuffed peppers
One jar piquillo peppers
2 5-ounce cans Tonno Genova
1 ounce finely chopped shallot
2 ounces cream cheese
2 rounded dessert spoons of mayonnaise
½ teaspoon salt
- After carefully removing them from the jar, drain and rinse the peppers. Cut the ragged top off each pepper, leaving a cup that is about 1½ inches long.
- Open the cans and drain the tuna.
- Put the minced shallot into a food processor fitted with the steel blade, and pulse for a few seconds until the pieces of shallot stick to the sides. Scrape down and add the tuna, cream cheese, mayonnaise and salt. Pulse 6 or 8 times, scraping sides as necessary, until you have a smooth paste.
- Put the tuna paste into a pastry bag fitted with a wide nozzle. Pipe the paste into the peppers one at a time to barely fill them.
- Chill before serving.
Now if you really want to make these in the Italian style, you can drizzle generously with good olive oil. I’m sure the woman at the wonderful Italian deli would approve. But here at Chez Bullhog, we serve these tasty morsels without. Happy eating!
 The harbor and castle, south of Lerici's beaches
My daughter the Cake Princess looked quizzically at the dough laid out on a wooden peel in the kitchen. “Do you make pizza every day?” she asked, striking a pose. “Just this week,” I assured her. “Yeah, right,” she said, and flopped off to check her facebook page.
 Thin to thick: Last week's selection We’re all fired up on pizza crust just now at Chez Bullhog. After test-driving the new pizza crust yeast, I got caught up in a creative frenzy – thin crust pizza, thick yeasty pizza, with red sauce or an oil base, meat or veg, long rising or quick dough; you name it, I’ve made it. I also got caught up in several conversations that left me with an undeniable conclusion: everybody has an opinion out there about what is ‘best’.
In my book, the ‘best’ pizza is the one that’s in the oven right now. (Truth be told, I love them all, but the fresher the better!) Therefore, the ‘best’ crust is the one available when you need it. If you’ve got a slow-rising dough in your fridge, well then more power to you. Otherwise, pizza crust yeast can cut the time and give you a pretty good crust in a hurry.
Here’s a pizza made with a fast-rising dough that’s easy to make and stretches well in just 90 minutes. With this dough, you can make a thin(ish) crust if you like, or use all 17 ounces for a thicker crust. The combination of sweet tomato slices and savory mushrooms, tinged with the delicate overtone of truffle oil ensures this pizza will be devoured instantly. Careful – it might not make it to the table!
All Fired Up: Fresh Tomato and Mushroom Pizza with Truffle Oil
Makes one 14” pizza
For the crust:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour + 1 cup Type 00 Caputo flour
(or 2 cups unbleached flour if Caputo flour is not available)
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 package (1¼ teaspoon) Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast
¾ cup water at 125º
For the toppings:
4 teaspoons olive oil, divided
6 ounces thinly sliced ripe tomato
4 ounces of sliced fresh mushrooms
4 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
2 teaspoons white or black truffle oil
For baking in a woodfired oven: Start the fire 2 hours before you plan on baking the pizza, and build up a mature fire with a nice bed of coals in the center of the oven. Half an hour before baking, put several 2-inch thick sticks on the fire and, once they’re flaming, split the fire. Put one fire to each side and feed small pieces of wood when necessary. You don’t want a superhot fire for this pizza; the oven is ready when ash on the side walls and top is tinged with white and you can maintain a low flame on the fires.
 Pretty good dough! Make the dough: In a small mixing bowl or 2-cup measure, mix the two flours. Put 1 cup of the flour mixture into a large mixing bowl and combine with the salt, sugar and yeast. Add the water and, using the handle of a wooden spoon, mix until smooth. Mix in ¾ cup more of the flour, scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary and form a ball. Let the dough ball sit for 15 minutes, covered, before kneading.
Knead the dough for 5-7 minutes on a counter sprinkled with the last ¼ cup of flour. Return to the large bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour at room temperature.
For baking in a conventional oven: Put a pizza stone or quarry tiles on the center rack of your oven and preheat to 450º for at least 30 minutes. (Note: if your stone is smaller across than 14”, you will have to amend the diameter of your pizza to fit.)
Cook the mushrooms: Sautee mushroom slices in a bit of olive oil and a teaspoon of water over medium heat for two minutes. Toss the mushrooms with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Turn the heat to low, clap on the lid and let simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool before using.
Make the crust: This recipe makes 17 ounces of dough. For a thinner crust, use only 13.5 ounces (weigh this out or discard about 20 percent of the dough).
Punch down the dough, removing much but not all of the air. Spread the dough into a pancake shape, let rest under a cloth for a few minutes, and then work at it again. Gradually stretch the pancake of dough with your fingers, turning and flouring lightly as necessary to keep dough from sticking to the counter. Flop it over the back of your hands to stretch it out.
The best results will follow from spreading the dough and allowing it to rest for a few minutes. Spread a little more and then a rest. If one spot gets too thin, avoid working there. Stretch and press by steps until you have a 14” pizza blank.
Carefully move the pizza blank onto a wooden peel which has been dusted with flour.
 Pizza Blank ready for topping Top the pizza: Coat the pizza blank with a tablespoon of olive oil, leaving an inch uncoated at the rim. Distribute tomato slices and mushrooms on the oil layer and give them 10 or 12 shakes of salt. Top with cheese and finish with a sprinkle of oregano.
Bake the pizza in a woodfired oven: Spread the coals along the side walls of the oven and brush the center floor clean of ashes. If possible, use a bellows to clean up the floor and to make the coals glow. It’s okay if there’s a bit of flame on the fires, but not too much. If there is no flame at all, put two thin sticks on each fire and wait until they have burned partway before putting in the pizza.
Slip the pizza onto the floor between the fires, and bake for 8 minutes, turning the pizza around with a metal peel halfway through baking.
Bake the pizza in a conventional oven: Lower the oven temperature to 425º. Slip the pizza onto the pizza stone or quarry tiles, and bake for 12 minutes, turning the pizza around halfway through baking. Pizza is ready when the crust is slightly browned and the cheese is bubbling.
Top with truffle oil: Drizzle with truffle oil (just a little!) and serve piping hot.
The Cake Princess and 4 or 5 of her friends converged on the kitchen as this pizza came out of the oven the other day. Her protest – “Ew, mushrooms!” – was dulled by the clattering of plates as her friends helped themselves to great huge slices. In minutes, the pizza was gone.
My daughter turned her quizzical look on me again as her friends trundled past licking their lips. After all, maybe it’s not so bad having a father who makes pizza every day. I didn’t say anything, but inside I was grinning. Ear to ear and loudly.
 Ever seen a dough do this after 90 minutes? Pretty cool, I'd say!
My son the meatatarian can eat pepperoni pizza every day. It’s that good. But can you make a pepperoni pizza that rivals the freshness of pizza parlor pizza, and have it on the table in under an hour? Yes. And it’s easy, if you know how.
The secret is dough made with Fleishmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast, which proofs very quickly. The package claims you can have a pizza in 30 minutes, but I’ve found this to be a stretch. By the time you preheat the oven, make the dough, assemble ingredients, make the pizza and bake it, you’re looking at a more realistic 40 minute period – still remarkably fast for homemade.
The results are fantastic. The crust is puffy with a delicious yeasty aroma. And the pepperoni? Well, you know, it’s pepperoni, just the way it’s supposed to be. My kids love it, and so will you. (For more info on the yeast, see Test Driving the new Pizza Crust Yeast.)
Great Pepperoni Pizza in 40 Minutes 
Makes one 14” pizza
For the crust:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 package Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast
¾ cup water at 125º
For the toppings:
1 Tablespoon olive oil
¾ cup pizza sauce (I used Contadina)
6 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese
4 ounces of sliced pepperoni
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
Preheat oven: Place oven rack in the center of your oven. If you have a pizza stone or quarry tiles, put them on the rack. Preheat oven to 450º.
Make the crust: In a large bowl, mix 1 cup flour with the salt, sugar and yeast. Add the water and, using the handle of a wooden spoon, mix until smooth. Mix in ¾ cup more of the flour, scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary and form a ball. Let the dough ball sit for 5 minutes.
 After 15 minutes: stretching out the dough blank If you are using a pizza stone or quarry tiles, you will want a wooden peel or the back of a cookie sheet in order to ‘slip’ the pizza into the oven. Have this handy, and sprinkle with a light coating of flour or semolina.
If you don’t have a stone, coat the bottom of a 14” pizza pan with olive oil and have this handy.
Knead the dough for 5 minutes on a counter sprinkled with the last ¼ cup of flour. Toward the end of kneading, spread the dough into a pancake shape. Gradually stretch this pancake into a 14” pizza blank, being careful not to put any holes in it. Easy does it! Use a bit more flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking to the counter.
When the dough is stretched fully, move it carefully onto the peel or pan.
Top the pizza: Coat the pizza blank with a tablespoon of olive oil, leaving an inch uncoated at the rim. Spread the sauce over the oil, smoothing it with the back of a spoon. Top with cheese and then arrange a layer of pepperoni. Finish with a sprinkle of oregano.
Bake the pizza: Lower the oven temperature to 425º. Either slip the pizza onto the pizza stone or quarry tiles, or put the pan into the oven. Bake for 6 minutes, carefully turn the pizza around, and bake for a further 6 minutes until crust is slightly browned and the cheese is bubbling.
Bellissimo! You have made a fine pizza. And if you’d like to, you can keep it to yourself just how easy it was!
 After 27 minutes: Great Pepperoni Pizza in the oven. A note about quick-rising dough: In much the way that fine wine improves with age, the finest breads and pizzas come from dough that has risen for a long time. A transformation occurs at the molecular level to change the flavors of the sugars; in the same time the proteins mature. The quick rise solution that Pizza Crust Yeast offers is a compromise on that process. For a longer rising dough that develops a full and nutty flavor overnight, see Pizza Time Pizza with Long Rise Dough. Happy baking!
A newly minted yeast showed up on my grocer’s shelves last week. Made specifically for pizza crust by Fleischmann’s, a venerable yeast company now owned by Associated British Foods, Pizza Crust Yeast promises a fully risen crust in just 30 minutes. Turbo-charged in other words. I just had to give it a spin.
 Fleischmann's Pizza Crust Yeast Before I get too specific, let me tell you this: the yeast performed admirably. We made test runs with two different doughs using the specialized yeast, both in the conventional oven and in the woodfired oven, and every pizza came out beautifully. The crusts were puffy and mature despite the brief rise. My favorite was made with half caputo flour and had a longer rise time than the promised 30 minutes, while the meat-lovers in my family gave two thumbs up to the fast rising pepperoni pizza made with a crust recipe very similar to the one on the package (see Great Pepperoni Pizza in 40 Minutes for recipe).
What’s different about this yeast? Besides dry yeast granules, the package contains a cocktail of emulsifiers, antioxidants and enzymes that speed the growth of the yeast. You also add water that is 10 or 20 degrees warmer than normal – in the 125º range – that gets the process off to a very fast start. Turbo charged, indeed!
If you’re familiar with yeast doughs, you will notice a difference as soon as the hot water is mixed with the dry ingredients. Because of the boosted heat and the emulsifiers involved, the gluten in the dough forms quickly, adding a spring to the dough that you wouldn’t feel for 20 minutes or more if using conventional yeast. With the pizza crust yeast, the dough after a few minutes puts out an earthy smell, almost as if it is cooking. This smell alarmed me a little at first, but did not linger throughout the forming and baking processes, and was not apparent at all in the finished pizzas.
So here’s the skinny:
- If you want the fastest yeast crust pizza available, use the dough recipe in my 40 Minute Pepperoni Pizza. The 30-minute dough (plus about 10 minutes of baking) held together better than any quick dough I’ve ever made. For best results, bake the pizza directly on a pizza stone or quarry tiles on the center rack of your preheated oven.
- If you want a more mature crust that tastes like a high-quality pizzeria pizza, in the same recipe use caputo flour for half the flour and cut the amount of yeast in half. Knead well and let dough sit for an hour before forming your pizza. This 90-minute dough will rival an artisan crust, although it will lack the nutty flavor that comes with an overnight rise.
Meanwhile, before you rush to the store to get some of this whiz bang pizza crust yeast, you might want to know what the added ingredients are and what they do. As far as I can tell, these are well-accepted additives in the food world; you can google any one of them for more info.
Sorbitan Monostearate – a waxy derivative of sorbitol that aids yeast cells in their ability to absorb water. This one is found in active dry yeast as well.
Ascorbic acid – an antioxidant food additive group that contains as one of its members vitamin C. This is an accepted dough enhancer which I have used in small quantities to nourish and freshen the flavor of breads. Fruit Fresh is one brand, available as an additive to preserve color in canned fruits and vegetables.
L-cysteine – a nonessential amino acid that has antioxidant properties.
Enzymes – proteins that speed the rate of chemical reactions.
Conclusion: If you’re in a hurry for a good homemade crust, this yeast will do the job of speeding things up. And since it does that in about the time it would take to bake a frozen pizza, I say the decision is a no-brainer. After all, the best pizza is the one you make yourself!
So go on. Give it your own test drive. I think you’ll agree at the finish line that pizza crust yeast is a real winner!
 Dough after 2 minutes: you can already tell that this yeast is different!
I’ve never been to Bolivia, but I’ve been many times to the Copacabana Café in the Pike Place Market. A South American beer tastes fine there on one of those perfect Seattle afternoons, when mountains come out to stand boldly against a wondrously blue sky. Okay, they’re not the Andes. But perched there on the Copacabana’s deck, with the sun streaming down and a view over the great colorful pageantry of the market, I’m the happiest man in the whole wide world!
 Buskers at Copacabana's Post Alley doorway The Salad Queen and I went for lunch at the Copacabana on our wedding day many summers ago, back when the market was not so well known and was, well, kind of hippy dippy. We sat out in the sun, with beer and Huminta, and forgot for the moment the cake, the minister, the family. We donned cheap sunglasses and let out exaggerated sighs. We clutched each other’s hands and squeezed. On a rooftop across the way, a one-armed man watered flowers.
Over the years, while the market has become world famous, the Copacabana has changed hardly at all. Starbucks may be global, but there is still only one Bolivian restaurant in Seattle. In the same time that Sur la Table has branched out into all the best shopping districts and the guys who chuck the fish have gone viral, the restaurant has retained its humble feel, with plastic tables on its skinny deck, basic Bolivian offerings, sliced baguettes in paper-napkined baskets and a down-to-earth wait staff. If cruise ship passengers have overtaken the hippies on the street below, nobody seems to notice.
When we go, we stay away from the meatier entrees on the menu and gravitate to the soups and salads on the page with the a la carta offerings. I’m a fan of the Sopa de Camerones, a spicy soup laden with tiny shrimp. The Salad Queen (go figure!) likes the Ensalada Copacabana with avocadoes and shredded radish, but has also been known to sample the black bean salad and the humps of potato with peanut sauce, or Papas a la Huancaina. It’s all very fresh and healthy.
Our downfall is always Huminta, described on the menu as corn pie topped with cheese, which we order every time. It’s just that good. Think: corn bread meets soufflé, with a lovely cheesy topping. Here’s my take on it.
Huminta: A Bolivian Treat
Makes 6 servings
½ cup yellow corn meal
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 – 15 ounce can whole kernel sweet corn
½ cup milk
¼ cup canola oil
2 eggs
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese
½ teaspoon mild chili powder
An 8×8 square glass baking pan, buttered
- Preheat oven to 375º. Dry mix the corn meal, flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
 Dry mix with corn folded in
- In a food processor, pulse the kernels of corn with 3 Tablespoons of the packing liquid for 15 seconds. Fold into the dry mixture.
- Stir in the milk and oil until just moistened.
- Whisk two eggs until frothy and add them to the batter, stirring until incorporated but not beating. As with biscuits, the batter should be slightly lumpy to create a crumby texture.
- Pour batter into buttered 8×8 glass baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, top with sliced cheese, sprinkle on chili powder and return to the oven to bake a further 10 minutes until cheese is lightly browned.
- Let cool for 10 minutes, slice into 6 pieces and serve hot.
Huminta goes extremely well with a fresh green salad, preferably one with avocado. Oh, and some South American beer would be great, too, if you have some. And if you happen to be down at the Pike Place Market in Seattle on a sunny day, you can sample the original. Just be sure to bring sunglasses!
 The deck at the Copacabana. Tables available!
Our waiter was clearly worried. He guided us to a table with a view out onto the Campo, jabbed menus into our hands and headed back to confer with the indoor waiter. Standing nervously at the arched doorway, he leveled a severe look on a group of Italian tourists drinking from paper cups at one of his tables nearby. Tonight, free wine was flowing, doled out from a barrel set on a rough cart some 50 feet away. The waiter’s thin mustache twitched.
 A cafe and gelateria in the Campo dei Fiori in Rome A hundred lights teased the contours on the buildings around the square: windowsills, awnings, crags and crenellations that had stood here since the 1500’s. Above the shimmering pavement humanity loomed and swirled, pushing up to the statue of Giordano Bruno, where sound equipment was being tested – Uno, due, tres – in odd counterpoint to the medieval setting. The same crisp October air that made the Italians huddle into their jackets and sweaters was a tonic to our jetlag, and we breathed it in deeply.
Our waiter brought us tall flutes of prosecco on the house, setting them before us with a flourish as the first poet took her place. While the poet carefully described in English a window (in England? In Italy? I never could tell), my wife and I looked over glasses of pale bubbly and toasted our escape.
By turns meek and mild – and then emotional and angry – the poets came and went, and with them went the free wine. The waiter relaxed and we did too, sinking ever more deeply into the Italian moment. We lingered over dinner, taking it all in.
The crowning glory was the pizza. ‘Il megliore,’ the waiter said, putting it before me. ‘Prosciutto con funghi porcini,’ he announced. ‘The best!’ He gazed down on it with affection, and bore himself up to full, white-shirted Roman stiffness.
I bit into the pizza’s tender depths and had to agree. The salt of the meat, the sweet zing of the tomato, the earthy goodness that only rich mushrooms can evoke, and the splash of good olive oil blended in perfection with the near-crispiness of the oven-fresh crust. And just a little cheese – not so much to mask the flavors. Behind it, the smoky aroma from the woodfired oven cast its spell.
The Salad Queen grinned catlike over her own pizza with half-closed eyes. She raised her glass and we clinked across the table. To us, we said, as the rhythm of the Campo dei Fiori pulsed around us. We nestled in to enjoy it. This is the life, we said – indeed!
Rome’s Best Pizza: Prosciutto with Porcini Mushroom
Makes 2 – 12” pizzas
For the dough:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour + 1 cup caputo flour
(or 2 cups all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon dry yeast
7/8 cup water at 100º
For the toppings:
3 ½ ounces thinly sliced prosciutto
2/3 ounce (18 grams) dried porcini mushroom (see note)
½ cup boiling water
6 ounces thinly sliced cremini or button mushrooms
2 Tablespoons good olive oil, divided
1 cup good tomato sauce, preferably made with San Marzano tomatoes
3 or 4 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Make the dough: In a large ceramic bowl dry mix flour, salt and yeast. With the handle of a wooden spoon, stir in the warm water and make a soft dough. Gather and scrape the dough together into a ball, put onto a lightly flour surface, cover with the bowl, and let sit for 20 minutes. Now knead vigorously for 10 minutes, using as little additional flour as possible to keep dough from sticking. Let rest, covered, for 4 hours at room temperature before shaping pizza rounds.
For baking in a woodfired oven: To make this in true Roman style, the base of the oven has to be very hot in order to get a nice crispy crust on your pizza. Start the fire 2 ½ hours before hand, and build up a mature fire and a nice bed of coals in the center of the oven. Half an hour before baking, put several 2-inch thick sticks on the fire and, when they’re flaming, create a horseshoe of fire and coals at the back and sides. Feed additional pieces of wood in at the sides when necessary. The oven is ready when all the ash on the inside walls is white.
For baking in a conventional oven: Place rack in the center of the oven, and either line it with quarry tiles or use a pizza stone (See ‘Baking on Quarry Tiles’). Preheat oven to 475º for at least 30 minutes.
 Cremini mushrooms with Porcini soaking in ramekin Make the mushroom medley: Put the dried mushrooms into a ramekin or small bowl, and pour ½ cup boiling water over them. Use a bit more water if the top pieces aren’t swimming; let sit 20 minutes, stirring several times.
Coat the bottom of a 1 quart saucepan with a teaspoon of olive oil, add the sliced cremini mushroom, top with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and let sauté for 5 minutes over low heat, stirring once. Add the reconstituted porcini and the liquid to the cremini mushrooms, and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Remove the mushrooms to a bowl, leaving the liquid in the pan. Reduce the liquid down to a quarter cup or less to yield a rich, condensed mushroom broth.
Make the pizzas:
• Form 2 balls of dough, 9 ounces each, into flat pancakes on a lightly floured counter. Gradually spread out to 12” pizza blanks, letting rest as necessary under a cloth to let the gluten relax during the process. Put the pizza blanks onto wooden peels dusted with flour and make sure they can ‘slip’. For best results, let rest for 10 minutes before topping.
• Add 1 tablespoon of the mushroom broth to the tomato sauce and set aside.
• Tear or cut prosciutto into 2-inch pieces, separating the slices as you go.
• Drizzle olive oil on the pizza blanks and swirl with the back of a spoon, leaving an inch uncovered around the edge.
• Top each pizza with tomato sauce, prosciutto, the mushrooms (not the broth) and the cheese. Sprinkle on oregano before baking.
To bake in a woodfired oven: The pizzas will bake in 4 or 5 minutes. Brush ash from the oven and slip pizzas (one at a time) onto the center. Turn pizzas around once during baking and remove to pans.
To bake in a conventional oven: Turn your preheated oven down to 450º. Bake one at a time directly on the quarry tiles. The pizzas will bake in 7 or 8 minutes. Turn pizzas around halfway through with a metal peel or two spatulas and, when baked, remove to pans. Do not use the convection fan or your pizza will dry out.
To finish, drizzle pizzas with two teaspoons each of mushroom broth and olive oil. Serve with a green salad and some nice red wine. (Personally, I’d recommend the house wine. The wine flowing from that cask may be free, but it’s very fresh wine, and surely comes with a complimentary hangover as well!) Buon appetito!
Mushroom note: In a perfect world, we’d all be making these pizzas with top-quality porcini mushrooms (also called cepes, king bolete and boletus edulis). If you have a source or can afford them, use fancy dried mushrooms and double the quantity; for a real treat use fresh porcini. For reasons of economy, I’ve used second quality porcini (which means smaller bits and broken pieces) and infused their flavor into cremini mushrooms. The result is every bit as flavorful, at a fraction of the cost. Enjoy!
 Via Pellegrino (Pilgrim's Road), leading to the Campo dei Fiori
The temperature hit 70 the other day here at Chez Bullhog. That hasn’t happened since September, according to the weather guys, but I really wouldn’t know. When you live in a city where people put on sunglasses for light rain, you learn to optimize conditions; around here, one really nice weekend can instantly wipe out months of bleary weather.
So – sunshine in Seattle, the University street fair in full swing, the smell of freshly mown grass, everybody out in shorts and flip-flops and flowers blooming all over the place. What could possibly make it any better? An outdoor barbecue, of course!
Here’s how to make succulent and always-tender chicken the way we just love it. The recipe uses an easy-to-make teriyaki sauce that includes ingredients we always have on hand. Make the sauce in the afternoon, marinate the chicken for a few hours, fire up the grill, and before you know it you’ll have smiles all around the table. Flame on!
Tender Tasty Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs
 Tender Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs on the grill
Makes 6 good-sized skewers
For the Teriyaki sauce:
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup white wine
¼ cup water
3 Tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of white vinegar
2 teaspoons shaved fresh ginger (see note below)
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped
For the kebabs:
2 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (meat from 10 – 12 thighs)
Teriyaki sauce for marinade
½ of a medium-sized yellow onion
Freshly ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
4 6-inch sprigs of fresh rosemary (optional)
Make the Teriyaki sauce: Put first 7 ingredients into a small saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes to allow flavors to mingle.
Marinate the chicken: Cut the meat from each thigh into 4 pieces, removing and discarding any large blobs of chicken fat as you go. Put the meat into a stainless steel or ceramic bowl. Pour on the Teriyaki sauce, cover and let sit for at least 3 hours in the fridge. You can let the chicken sit overnight if need be, with excellent results.
Get the coals hot: I have a little Smokey Joe grill, made by Weber; your grill may vary. Light about 30 briquettes, bring them to the red-hot stage, and spread them away from the center of the grill to make a circle of heat out by the perimeter. This will take 30-40 minutes from the time they are lit. If your grill is larger, use more briquettes – you want a hot fire.
 Tender Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs under the broiler Assemble the Kebabs: If you’re using bamboo skewers, soak them in water for 15 minutes. Peel, top and tail the onion half and cut it into 3 wedges, and then cut each wedge crosswise in half. Separate the onion segments.
Put 6 or 7 pieces of chicken on each skewer, separating each chunk with a piece or two of onion.
Arrange the skewers on a plate. Pour half of the remaining Teriyaki sauce over the chicken and grind black pepper over the kebabs. Drizzle with olive oil.
Grill the Kebabs: Put the stainless steel grill over the coals, and clean with a steel brush or metal spatula. After a few minutes, brush a little olive oil over the metal so that the chicken won’t stick. I do this using a few sprigs of rosemary as the brush and, just before I put on the chicken, I put the rosemary on the coals to let its flavor flame-infuse the meat.
Grill the kebabs for 3 minutes on one side. Turn over to grill for another 3 minutes and at the same time pour a few tablespoons of the marinade over the kebabs. Now turn ¼ turn, grill for a further 2 minutes and turn all the way over to finish.
Alternate method: If it starts to rain, as it sometimes does around here just at the time you thought you’d be settling in outside, you can also make these in your indoor oven under the broiler. Follow all the steps above, and put the kebabs 4 or 5 inches from the broiler for 2 minutes on each of 4 sides.
Don’t worry – they’ll still taste great; they just won’t be smoky!
Serve Tender Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs with rice and fresh veggies or a spring salad. After all, once it turns 70, it must be spring!
A note about ginger: I keep a 4-ounce piece of ginger in my freezer, wrapped tightly in a small plastic bag. For a recipe like this, I peel it and slice it frozen with a santuko knife. In Teriyaki sauce, I use a piece the thickness of my thumb about 1” long, and slice it as thinly as the iciness will allow. Perfect!
 Clematis in full springtime bloom at Chez Bullhog
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Welcome Aboard At Woodfiredkitchen.com, Sortachef takes you on adventures in the kitchen and beyond, with tales to suit. Many of his offerings are woodfired - a flaming good recipe for pizza, bread, or something different. All recipes are original and tasty. Enjoy!
Sortachef Adventures Earlier this summer, Sortachef took his trusty steed down to California for two weeks, camping and cooking with fire along the way. In Arcata, Lodi and Mt. Shasta City, he visited with owners and operators of woodfired ovens.
The trip opened new avenues for woodfired ideas. See ‘Camping Clam Spaghetti in the Redwoods’ and ‘Beautifully Barbecued Baby Back Ribs’ for two of his stories, and stay tuned for more to come.
Sortachef is currently off collecting material in the U.K. While he has several leads on bakers using specialty ovens, his real aim on this trip is to answer the question: Has English pizza gotten better with age? With reports of a woodfired pizza craze in London, the answer will soon be told.
Meanwhile, don’t expect a new recipe until early August.
Flame On!
Got a good campfire cooking story? In his quest for the perfect camping food, Sortachef talked to many folk from Grants Pass, Oregon to Yosemite. Almost everybody had a tale to tell. If you’ve got a good one, send it to Sortachef@gmail.com, and he’ll try to use it in an upcoming entry.
Kudos “Do you know those days when it feels like a hot chocolate day? That’s what Don’s site makes me feel like.”
“Sortachef on Woodfiredkitchen.com includes an eclectic mix of travel, food memories and photographs to accompany his recipes. Since we believe food, wine and travel are the best geography lesson you can have to understand and appreciate various cultures, his style of sharing his message is what we enjoy.
"(Don) may not be a chef, but he is a great cook and a good writer which shines through on his blog.”
“You have two very special gifts, one your love of cooking and the other, one with words.”
"Sortachef's woodfired chicken is not just a recipe to try, but his writing is just as savory. Part travelogue and part rambling joke, you'll enjoy the introductory anecdote just as much as the cooking."
“Reading your post nearly brought me to happy tears remembering how (my mother) prepared this masterpiece with such loving care. I didn’t have a copy of her method so I think I will bridge the gap with yours. Thank you so much for jogging a jovial food memory for me.”
“Really nice site! Your style is so refreshing compared to most other bloggers. Thanks for writing when you get the chance to, I will be sure to read more!”
“The bread is as beautiful as your writing.”
“One of my favorite things is when people blog for themselves and the people they connect with, not to make money or to get a book deal. That being said, I think Don should make money and get a book deal”
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