Last week we watched a programme on IPlayer about a cook visiting Argentina. All beef, beef, BEEF!
We're veggie. It wasn't great viewing, until they hit a tip top restaurant that cooked simple food in a trad way and served it to hi-rollers.
Pretty much everything was cooked directly on the hot fire wood - not on the fires' base/bottom/floor, but laid on top of HOT embers; the meat, the vegges, the bread.
We had to try it, and then show you the result.
We began with a good, thick layer of nice (Oak, Apple, Beech etc) burning wood, broken up into HOT embers: burn the wood and break it up and spread out the wood as it's finishing burning, repeat until you have an inch or three of embers. The more you have, the longer your 'oven' will stay HOT.
Instead of beef, we used Hallumi cheese seared in a small cast iron 'sizzler' tray placed straight onto the embers. Once cooked, it was popped on top of the woodburner to keep HOT.
Meanwhile the dough was rising, ready to make the flatbreads.
Hallumi out, vegges in! Dropped into the woodburner, turned over and cooked some more. Door shut, keep an eye on it. It cooks FAST.
Knock the dough into flatbreads. and leave to plump up whilst the veggies cook. We put in the mushrooms at this point too, squeezed into a small space between the other vegges...
We didn't turn the mushrooms, they steamed themselves successfully.
Whilst the flatbreads cooked on the embers, the cooked veges were also left on top of the woodburner to keep hot.
No shots of the breads on the embers, with their clinkers clinging to the dough and, at one stage, they burst into flames. We were so busy cooking them that we forgot to take any piccys.
Here's the meal. We ate it with the flatbreads, 2 types of homemade chutney, home grown and made sundried tomatoes and some green olives.
We'll work on this some more, but it was delicious and for a first attempt it worked amazingly well. Perhaps, another time, we'll cook the bread first, as the fire was cool by the time they went in. Or, we should buy a bigger woodburner and cook the bread alongside the vegges!
Why not give it a go.
No woodburner?
I'm pretty sure this would work very well on a BBQ with a lid to hold in the heat.
Which means we can all give it a go!
We're veggie. It wasn't great viewing, until they hit a tip top restaurant that cooked simple food in a trad way and served it to hi-rollers.
Pretty much everything was cooked directly on the hot fire wood - not on the fires' base/bottom/floor, but laid on top of HOT embers; the meat, the vegges, the bread.
We had to try it, and then show you the result.
We began with a good, thick layer of nice (Oak, Apple, Beech etc) burning wood, broken up into HOT embers: burn the wood and break it up and spread out the wood as it's finishing burning, repeat until you have an inch or three of embers. The more you have, the longer your 'oven' will stay HOT.
No shots of the breads on the embers, with their clinkers clinging to the dough and, at one stage, they burst into flames. We were so busy cooking them that we forgot to take any piccys.
We'll work on this some more, but it was delicious and for a first attempt it worked amazingly well. Perhaps, another time, we'll cook the bread first, as the fire was cool by the time they went in. Or, we should buy a bigger woodburner and cook the bread alongside the vegges!
Why not give it a go.
No woodburner?
I'm pretty sure this would work very well on a BBQ with a lid to hold in the heat.
Which means we can all give it a go!
: )
