Oven under snow

This is that time of year ... Again:-)

No pizza party today !

Cold weather pizza

As you can see, pie turns almost all right, but it was not bubling,
like in better weather: I was not able to crank my oven up.

Starting wood burning oven in cold and wet weather

Yes, season is over, but when there is no rain over week end , public
demand pizza.

To start the fire more efforts is needed: use driest wood you got to
start and split it thin. I even use light fluid when wood is realy wet.

To keep fire, paradoxsicaly you need to open more than in warm
weather: even so heat will escape, but wet wood needs more air to
realease smoke. If you close the door even half way , oven may chock.

Take more time and work hard: it is still posiable !

I did it last week end: next post will show some pizza and smoked fish
I made!

Pizza enthusiasts on YouTube

Ever wondered how much people share your love for real pizza?

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

ooppps.... Have to fix the search query :)

Japanese squids guts pizza

This pizza has Mayonese base and preserved squids guts from Uwajimaya.
Some onions and shoped scalions. It taste a bit like pizza with
anchovy : nice Japanese invention.

Pizza oven X-files

The truth is out there ...

More staff pizza

This pizza comes with more staff: more things to entertain your taste
buds. Enjoy!

A Truly Japanese tasting pizza by chef Miuki-san

Japanese people like international food a lot, but they are famous for national customizations. Japanese rendition of Italian food is kind of OK (safe to eat when you are in Japan), but Japanese pizza is not what you may think ( will break when you lift a slice). I can not duplicate Japanese crust (or do not want to) - it made from frozen pastry disks stacked one on top of another, but visiting Japanese chef : Miuki-san ( you may see her on Iron chef competitions on TV) agreed to use DOC crust to create a Italian-Japanese hybrid of pizza :-)

What makes pizza taste "Japanese" is of course "special ingredients" :-) : you need to use potatoes, corn and mayonnaise as well as teriyaki sauce :-) All that combined has a lots of calories, but tastes just right to the average Japanese person. :-)

Watch this video if you dare to duplicate our culinary experiment :

Japanese Salad pizza

This is not a vegetarian pizza , but you can make it so: just bake pie
with souce only and then dress it up. Do not forget to top with good
olive oil ( trufel infused been used here) and sprinkle with aged
Parmesan . Bon Apetito!

Here is a video if you want to try

My tomatoes are red

Finaly, my green tomatos rippened and are ready to go! We eat a few and it is so sweet and fresh: much better than ones we get in store! Next year I should plant more and try to make a pizza souce from fresh tomatoes!

Working on the new fire proof chimney

I liked my red brick design a lot, but fire bricks may be a better
idea for a long term. Here is a new design I am testing with oven. I
think it is not open enough. I may need add extra holes.

My oven stamps

Now I stamp my gift pizzas : ones I wrap for guests in aluminium foil
and paper;-) such pizzas are still OK to eat next day or can be
frozen. It is nothing like fresh hot pie, but a nice kind of bread
anyway. Thank to my dear wife I have a personal cool stamps and red
ink pad;-) Cool!

Pizza hot from oven

90 or so seconds latter : yammy hot DOC pizza! Cut!!!!!

Pizza before going to the oven

It is almost DOC : all Italian, but caned tomatos , that is local ,
but good too.

Hot summer and hot pizza oven

It was realy hot yerstaday, but I fired oven regardless.

Going Glad Kosher or DOC in Italian : Antimo Caputo from Napoli

As you know we are going DOC pizza this summer : as a good start we
switch to Real flour for pizza. Mario just brought in this huge sack
of it! Wow! The only other change I have to make is get Italian
Tomatos and we are 100% D.O.C. Yezzzzz!!!!!

Pizza! Pizza! Mozarela, olives and blue

Oven was not very hot : it was late and I was in hurry to make pizza:
Mario came. It tasted good so despite longer cooking time.

Ready for pizza party

See my new condiment tray ready and filled with most important staff. I did not use second one today: it is a small party.

How to split a free fire wood for pizza oven

As you already know I grabed some free fire wood. You also know that even a big splitting axe will not work. While you can get a hydraulic splitter for 200$ or so you can just get a 'wood greande' wedgy and a very big hummer :-) Use safety tools;-) It works and help you to burn these calories you loaded during pizza party and help you became a real man! Do not bother with simple flat wedgy so: get conical or diamond shaped with spike. You need to split each log in at least four and let it dry for about few month before you can split it futher using axe this time and burn in oven to make pizza .

Condiment Tray

I picked two of these at World Market in Belevue , near Linkoln
square. They seems to be nice for pizza ingreadients: not too big, but
look nice and keep things organized. Nice! You can put some ice packs
inside, but I have to try how it works. The price is 15$

Pizza from Mario party

We hit Mario's place yerstaday and had fun with father of all ovens. I
made a few pizzas and this is the one my son liked most for some
reason. I call it Japanese flag- negative;-) it just pesto and tomato
souce some mozarela and shrooms: may be two flavour combination makes
it a hit or may be it is Yamaika like reggy color- you may call it
Reggey pizza or no wooman no cry pizza : be my guest!;-)

Mozarela and green olives pizza

This is a small diversion from all time classic: gives a nice pizasss
to pizza. Costco is short on muzarela buffala and this is just regular
fresh muzarela that is not melting as nice, but works too.

Fire and wine

Today we have a small pizza party for my family: we are back hungry
from lake and some French wine from 2000 is good starter: oven need
time to warm up.

Temporary chimney construction

After I melted aluminum cap, I made this temporary rain proof
contraption, that is still in place after all these weeks. I should
get fire bricks and build a nicer one: it is on my ta-da list:-)

Basilicum plantation

My wife say that Basilicum is like a weed... Well, may be it is, but
last year we forgot to get it for most of our parties. This year I
will plant one full square in my herbal garden. I planted seeds with
kids and we got these nice green sprouts: will put it out as soon as
they will be big enough;-) I will plant tomatos as well: I have two
plants now. Having your own spice garden is a great thing!

How to build a wood burning pizza oven

This guy did amazing job and produced a very cool oven using just a fire bricks. He made a very nice time-lapse video with commentaries about process.



See how talented he is: such a great result on the first try. You can do it , we will help!

The only thing I would change is a frozen dough :-). While it is convenient and we did it a few times too, I think it is much better prepare fresh batch few hours before party. I like all fresh and in terms of pizza dough it is ready when it is ready.

Video of starting fire in my oven

To start the fire you should put a scrambled paper and build kind of piramid or iglu out of smaller peaces. If you lazy you can sprinkle it with fire starter :) It may help if wood is very wet. Start fire and watch it till burning good. Watching is very important: it may stop.

Some times I even play bagpipe to my fire. I will post video of this soon:-)

I was considering to have a Live Pizza Oven Web Cam and even got h/w, but instead I will invest more time and make clips, with some stories. It should be more fun for visitors: condensed story and may be some tips or jokes :-)

Come back and see soon.

Oven burns

See what a quick touch to oven outside corner ( oven mouth) does: I was throwing wood in and wooops:-) be careful or wear protection...

Btw, it is safe to touch my oven almost anywhere: it has a very good insulation, like a space shuttle- it is actuality cold outside, unlike Russian Home Oven - Pechka, for example, even so mine looks very much like it :-), but there are few hot spaces where hit escapes and you should not touch these...

1) Chimney - very hot ( fire may got up and heat it)
2) Oven mouth - obviously, a lot of heat goes out of it and you have to interact with it, so execute care
4) Oven metal door : because it is metal it will get hot and will burn you, but it will also loose heat quick if you put it aside. But do wear some protection, will ya ?

Mario on Italian Grilling

Watch Mario making Grilled Zukini... Italian style

Mario do zukini

See what is a key in art of Italian grilling.

Hint: Italians love to taset food itself ( not corn syrup in American BBQ source) and they LOVE Virgin Olive Oil :-)

Here is a book, if video is not enough for you:



And of course ... do not forget to add your LOVE to food you cook :-)

Enjoy!

Tulips in a full blosome

It is time to plant some basilicum so we have it for pizza parties! I
will plant tomatos too! Hope use it for pizza this time!

Camembert pizza - French Style

This pizza got way too much of good French cheese on it, but taste excellent so! We had Japanese pizza party: with sea food and sushimi on top. I did few D.O.C. To start pizza party , than it went downhill:
hot marinated baby squids and red caviar with crab meat and Armenian Coniac ;-) it was too good and we all eat like pigs only to go back in the house and face 5 different cakes for tea. Diet now;-)

New table

Just got a new table for the party. Stones not perfect for pizza, so I
may swap with marble tiles I have...

Termeter

It finaly arived. How importat it is so ? You can see if temperature
right from way it bakes. It is more usefull for bread so.

Hail destroyed my party table

Well, bad weather took it's toll again... Last time it was QuickShade
and snow, this time it was heavy hail and my glass garden table. It is
messy, but not bad: I did not like this one and will be happy to get a
better one.;-)

Pizzeria outdoor

This is my last week end setup. This week end they promise snow. Wow!
I have to design and build kitchen and covered area around oven. Time
is to be back to design table and try things out in Google Scetch It!

Bread in pizza oven

This time I took all fire and coil out from the oven and wiped floor
with wet t-shirt(Marios trick) . We used last, unfinished dough batch
that intended for pizza : it was not realy enough time.

I put both lougphs in and sprinkled all inside with water using
spraer. I did it again after 5 minutes. Closing oven door compleatly .
I rotated after about 20 minutes( back of oven was hotter) and after
another 20 took bread out. It took like 40 minutes and bread was just
a but burned on side that faced hot oven back. Bread turns out be
very nice and with a very good fragrance. That remained in plastic bag
as we eat it up during week.

We should try again, but with proper dough : I think it will be even
more delitioce!

I have to get more of red caviar: goes well with fresh oven bread.

Botom line: baking bread in pizza oven is possble and it is worth it:
smell and crast simply deliciose!

Toward DOC Certification

You probably read about DOC pizza on this blog already.

DOC pizza

Now it is time to get certified!

How to Certify D.O.C.

There are a list of things on this web site, but most critical for me now is to get Italian flour and tomatoes, mozzarella I use is Italian buffala, but the rest is Costco brand ( that is very good so)

Well, but this is my goal for this summer! Get certified!

Japanese pizza V2

...with real wasaby and marinated Ginger . Yammy!

Korean kimchi pizza

It was coming : here is a pizza before baking: mayonnaise and kimchi
mixed with some marinated squids. It taste hot and nice if you are Korean or
some thing.

Pirojki

This is a new, improved type my wife made. They look very cool and
Russian. Kudos!

You already know the drill: Get "how to" here or ask me in comments and I will bother to post :-) He he he

Pagliaggi bought out my backyard pizzeria!!!

They are Italians, you know, they made me offer I cannot refuse:-)

Place will be reserved for privet pizza parties of elite society: high ranked managers of local software companies, that we have quite a few here in Redmond.

So this is a good news: I got extra cash for backyard pimp up and renovation.

Bad news is they ordered me to develop Oreo Cookie pizza to compete with Dominos Pizza new offering> :-(





OK... OK...OK.. It WAS a April 1st joke, all right ? :-)

Great Books About Food

It all started from this book:



I love it so much it was on my coffee table for months. It is great conversation book for your guests. It is great book for cooking inspirations. French book show you cheese and wines and all foods specific for regions. I love France and I love this book. It has how-to as well.

My wife got this to know my home cooking better. It is amazing as well: with a lot of real pictures of food, places and Russian people, that are in majority not even Russian anymore, but Georgians, Ukrainians e.t.c.



This book we got as a tribute to Mario. It is great and looks very Italian



There are material on pizza there and you should not miss this one!


Finaly... Ya ... ya.. Valdemar ! We have some German friends and we like some of the German cooking, especially cakes.



The funny thing this book looks more Russian to me than Culinaria Russia. Go figure.

All books are very nice and very big with lots of pictures and amazing information. It is like travel books about food.

I say: GET EM ALL!

Oven under snow

On our 8th pizza rain started. When we were done with desert ... Snow
started so despite the sun we had today forecast was right: snow

Don Mario teach you how to make a REAL ITALIAN PIZZA DOUGH!!

This is a great treat for you for this week end.

As usual, we are making ... PIZZZZZAAAA!

No snow or rain will stop us ( snow - I am no kidding - it is almost April here in Redmond)

Anyway, one more great posting of Super Mario on YouTube. Check it out : he keeps posting and he is a very busy man, mind you!

First one from "How to make a Real Italian Pizza by Real Italian" Series!

Watch!



I love music in this clip so much that I just let it play in the background some time just to cheer me up ( he he he !) Enjoy!!!! Great video Marioooooooooooo!!!!

You can also check ingredients here: approved by Natasha

Great pizza sauce

It takes only 2 ingredients and Mario discovered it here in USA- one need to find the best working local ingredients :-). Tomatoes come from Costco: it is organic = good for you . Also it is very cheap in packs they sold. It is not as good as making it from ripe fresh ones, but off season tomatoes and time make us use this excellent second best option. Note: you need ready cut, not paste or sauce - this one work best. All you do is open the can and add salt to your taste - less is more healthy, more is more tasty;-) I use sea salt and recommend you do the same. Quickly run it through the blender: almost any will do - just 5-10 seconds : you do not need Blendtec Total Blender (that will work too and if you have it you may not even bother opening the can and get some extra Iron in your diet )




for this task:-) caned tomatoes are soft and even pre-cut. So , put in some plastic container and you are ready to make pizza!!! Bon Apetito! If you need a receipt for great Italian pizza dough just click on left or here .

Gorgonzola Apple pizza by Natasha

This is a very nice pizza Natasha like to make. Use gorgonzola or mix
it with muzarela and apple slices like on the picture. It has a nice
picanty flavor. Try it: you may love it!

Million dollar pizza

We tried to make most expensive pizza in the world: replicating one
from Italy , mentioned in previose post :-) I used meat from lobster
tail and Armenian 5 star coniac. Red caviar and fresh basilicum
applied on pizza after it is baked and coniac sprinkled on the top.
Base is regular Margherita and you add raw lobster meat to cook or you
can brown it first if you like crispy. We made 3 of these and it was
huge sucess:-) : main pizza of the party. Pizza la grande oh mama MIA!!!

My second oven outside dimensions

It is roughly 74 by 49 inch and 36 inch tall without chimney , that is
now unfinished and is 14 inch tall. Pizza oven mouth is 17 inch wide
and 10 inch tall. Chamber depth is about 40 inch and internal height
is about 13 , but both chamber and mouth has half round pizza oven
shape that outside of the oven outlines. Also chimney goes through ,
so it is longer then it outside part, obviously. The front table depth
is 25 inch - probably bigger than any pizza oven you see, so you can
make it much smaller, but I like this design and use it to rest pizza
and other cooking utensils before and after baking: it is handy for
me. Btw: it is elevated from the ground by 40 inch: height I find
convenient for myself, but your miles may vary.

The most expensive pizza in the world

I do not know if this is true or not. It sounds crazy :-) Even with premium ingredients. :-)




The most expensive pizza in the world, valued at 8300 Eur can be tasted in Italy. With generous toppings of caviar and lobster, the pizza has a diameter of 20cm and Louis XIII Remy Martin cognac poured all over it.

Read more about other cool foods in the source :

http://www.wackyarchives.com/featured/worlds-most-expensive-foods.html

Well... anybody for regular good Margherita ?

I will not charge your more than ... let say ... 20 $?! :-)

Sundry tomato pizza

This is a low cholesterol veriety re-invented by my health concerned
friend Serg. Just put these sundried tomatos marinated in oil from
can: I use Costco variety and you are ready to go. It is a healthy
pizza , but I think fresh mozarela bufala can only make life better:-)
enjoy! Note : you actualy bake it: be carifull when you slide and
rotate pizza: tomatos with oil not nearly as sticky as melted cheese !

Pesto and mozarela pizza

This is nice variation for basil lovers: use pesto instead tomato
souce. I also put some mozarela bufala. You do not need extra olive
oil: pesto have plenty. Pay atantion on nice bubble: indicator of high
temperature and good dough.

Note: if you do not like bubbles for some reason you can use special
roll that will perforate your pizza: that what restatant do to make
pizza more uniform, but I LOVE the way REAL pizza look.

Mario's work in progress

I visited Mario and snapped his work site. He did just great with his new cement
mixer. Looking forward to his pizza party.

Now we both have IR 'laser' termometers so Mario have to provide
temperature profiles for his pizzas and for oven preparation.

This aluminum cap have to go: as you know from my previose post it
will melt if used.

New chimney

After I finished my roof ... Rain started and I have to use atachment
I got in Home Deport. Few minutes latter I saw some thing strange
happened. When I came close I saw it melted :-) it is like aliens
blusted with power beam. Well... Aluminium is no match for that amount
of heat: big mistake: do not use any aluminium crap. I had to come
with improvised chimney to guard oven from rain: water on hot stone
can crack it. It worked realy well and with bursts of fire looked like
a dragon. I used 6 solid bricks and 2 so called standards with holes.
Regular red bricks even of the good quality I used can not be used :
they will flake with time. I will have to get fire bricks and
refractory concreat to finish a rain proof chimney.

Half roof is done!

It is a pity that super Mario can not make it in today, but we have pizza party anyway. Forecast turned wrong and we did not have that much rain ( correction - the moment I started the fire so the rain began!!!!), so I am outside now finishing oven roof : it is not a perfect arch, but you know what ? Hell with that! ;-) most important is what inside and outside it just have to look cool in my eyes;-) and it does look cool ;-) I like it . I will finish my beer and go back to finish second half ( dark side of the moon that you do not see):-) and than we will make fire and pizza: dough is in process of making : kudos to my wife!

Nobel Prize for pizza in space

Pizza: NASA can put a man on the moon but there is no way to get pizza on a space station or space shuttle mission. It just doesn't hold up. You can't freeze-dry pizza or dehydrate it very successfully and regular pizza delivery is probably a few decades off from becoming reality.

Astronaut Mike Massimino, a native New Yorker, misses good pizza. "It is hard to get good pizza in Texas. It is impossible in space we don't have it. Someone would get a Nobel Prize if they can figure out how to get pizza in space." There is also no ice cream in space. No freezer.

You can read a full story here but it made me laugh hard: may be me and Mario should figure out how to deliver pizza to space station from our back yards?

It look like a very profitable business: astronauts are hungry for pizza !

Btw, good pizza is hard to get not only in Texas,but in Washington as well. Till this time nothing beats our backyard pizzerias.

Pizza Margherita

This picture from this weekend party is posted here to course Mario some saliva;-) it
WAS VERY yammy! Note how nice mozzarella buffalo melts: you can even bake it for a bit longer if you like it slightly burned.

P.S. Don Mario read this blog. Bullet hit the target and salt was spread over his open wound :-)