That page seems to have been removed [edit: for me in the UK, I didn’t check with other geoIPs], but this is still there.
Now I miss goatburgers. In normal times I make them for the barbecues I host a few times a year.
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The link is still working for me, weird. Our go-to home-made burgers are kangaroo with blueberry relish and beetrot.
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Last night I cooked a couple of ribeye steaks for my wife and I.
I followed Alton Brown’s recipe. (Noticing a trend, see below). I didn’t have any canola oil and i don’t have a pepper grinder, so I substituted peanut oils regular pepper but I thought it turned out great. Wife said it was my best steak yet.
I hope the link works. It does in the US.
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Been a while since I posted (and really, even cooked. But summer, a lack of properly-functioning AC and depression do that) but made The Stew again.
Third time making it, and also my least favorite. Haha. But that’s because I used kale this time. Used chard the first, and spinach the second. I don’t like kale, and feel it dominated the flavors this time.
But after three times following the recipe, it’s time to play with it. Thinking of making some garlic basmati next time and pouring it over that. Or maybe pan frying up some paneer, cubing it and adding it in.
Or both. Or adding smoked paprika and white pepper. Or all of the above.
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Som Tam for lunch. Lacto-fermented blue berries, an experiment I will taste in about 5 to 6 days. Mango Vinegar which will be ready in 6 to 10 weeks depending on stuff like temperature and how often I stir it to add oxygen for the bacteria. and lastly I made Cantucci because I can 
Buying them is prohibitively expensive and anyway I like my own version better which is an amalgam of several recipes refined since at least 2005.
I’m probably not quite done as there is more stuff in the fridge that needs “treatment” of some kind or other like 5 red bell peppers I’ll put in the oven with dinner.
Usually I’d also be making sourdough tonight but as we have around 31 degrees here I have to adapt all the times and that means the starter needs to be made in the morning… I really messed up a Ciabatta last week before remembering…
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New gazebo got a decent test run. Been a while since I’ve needed waterproofs and an umbrella for cooking a BBQ. 
Making summer happen one way or another, dammit! 
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You’re welcome to ours. 35°C today in the home counties, same again tomorrow.
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My initial thought is “oh no the tent!” but I guess 80 mph winds aren’t normative everywhere 
Here, even if it didn’t blow away, the rain would just go sideways under it anyway 
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My partner and I have consumed this much flour since late-March:
Only 20kg, which I suppose isn’t that much… most of that went into freshly baked bread, a lot into weekly pancake breakfasts, and fresh pizza twice a month… and of course the crepe cakes I made a while back.
It’s incredible how much less of it I use now that I have returned to my 9-to-5. Depressing, really. But what can ya do?
Anyway. Off to eat pancakes!
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A few miscellaenous board game treats from the last couple of weeks.
A couple of entries for the Gen Can’t photo contest because I was desperate to win the Too Many Bones prize. I got honorable mentions at least 
Pizza and Toys from Fort
Chili con can’t
Found this recipe in a horror magazine and thought they’d make good game-day snacks
Finally, my offering for a new monthly meetup focused on creating ‘edible games’
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What did you make the animals out of?
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Just shortbread with food colouring. I needed a cookie that could be made thick and still keep relatively flat edges without leavening. It worked surprisingly well, though shortbread doesn’t have great structural integrity for the bases etc.
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I have been making buckets of pizza recently (using the recipe Matt linked to oh-so-long-ago in his Skull review… here)
I have to admit I remain unhappy with homemade pizza. I don’t know why, but it never seems quite… right. The crust is too thin, or too thick. The sauce is too bland or too wet. The cheese is usually fine (No Name brand “pizza mozarella”), but the toppings are really hit-or-miss (most recently thinly sliced zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, green peppers, and pre-cooked ham).
I think part of the problem is that home pizzas are smaller than purchased pizzas… I have a nice pizza steel for the oven (I had a cheap pizza stone for a while, but it cracked in half so we splurged on a nice steel), but the pizzas tend to be 20-30cm diameter and I think it would be better if I could make them 40-50cm. But maybe it’s a question of pre-cooking some of the toppings (I tried once with bacon, peppers, and mushrooms that I fried together, but the results didn’t taste like pizza so much as a breakfast scramble then put on a weird pita).
Anyway. I’m going to try again tomorrow. Any suggestions or advice to get a better home pizza?
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I am mostly happy making pizza at home, I think mine is better than any I can order or buy at the store. The last time I took a picture was back in May:
Dough: So one of the dough recipes I use is an overnight yeast recipe, the other is from a book by the same author and uses sourdough. Let me know if you want translation or try the sourdough one–I’ll look it up.
Making the dough is easier than making a good pizza from it however. I find it important to pull the dough into shape by hand as that is the only way you get a thin center and a nice crust and leave enough air in the dough.
I bake at around 220-250°C (I vary that for some reason) for 10-20 minutes (depending on temperature) with a pre-heated stone. Sometimes I pre-bake the dough without sauce, cheese and toppings so it has time to become crispy. But the best results are not achieved that way–it just makes a soggy center more unlikely.
Sauce: For this I add some olive oil (the type that can be heated) to a pot, throw in some fresh or dried rosemary, a bit of garlic and a dried chilli (ancho works really nicely with the smokey flavor, chipotle is also quite good) and fry that for a bit. Then I add the 1 can of tomatoes and some port wine. A bit of salt and let it cook for at least half an hour.
So then pull the dough after it has warmed up to room temperature (if doing it overnight it was in the fridge before). Put on some tomato sauce, it doesn’t need to be spread evenly but it shouldn’t pool anywhere or you get soggy spots. Put some dried oregano on the tomato sauce.
Cheese: I use two types, one soft cheese: either Taleggio or Mozzarella, but Taleggio is way better and has more flavor. The other has to be a hard cheese: Provolone or Parmigiano, I prefer Provolone as it is cheaper to get a good one and it’s what is being used in Italy as far as I know. And don’t use too much, or it ends like most delivery service pizzas I know: with an ocean of fat on top. edit: if you like blue cheese Gorgonzola is a really great choice for the soft cheese but someone in this household doesn’t like “moldy” cheese and it’s not me…
Toppings: After that I add some salami or what Americans would call peperoni, spicy Italian salami in slices that have to be just the right thickness–too thin and they melt away, too thick and they don’t cook through. I also like to add some sliced mushrooms and red onion. But those are optional. Basil or arugula can be added after baking.
edit more: on toppings…
- try anchovies if you don’t like salami and combine them with capers and sliced olives (whole olives don’t make a good topping IMO) → this is my favorite
- red peppers are good especially combined with red onion and some mushrooms
- just cheese and some fresh green stuff on top
- if you have some good quality prosciutto you can add that after baking with some arugula (don’t cook the proscioutto)
- some slices of fresh tomatoes are good but they heat up and I usually burn my mouth
- never use too many different toppings, more than three feels wrong to me.
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I was going to post some of our recent cooking here…
From left to right:
- Home made “Apfelmuss”–just cooked apples with a few spices that we like to put on waffles.
- The middle is “Käs’ Spätzle” probably the German equivalent of Mac-and-Cheese. Spätzle are a type of egg noodle typical for my region, I’ve only recently learned to make them myself which makes this a Sunday treat instead of fast food
- Fig season is upon us (well Turkish figs anyway, though they do grow here in some private gardens that are protected enough) and this is a “salad” made from figs, Spanish prosciutto (Serrano) and Mozzarella–one of the few leftover recipes of my Jamie phase (~15 years ago).
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I think during lockdown we have nailed pizza.
We have an Uuni oven in the garden, which uses wood chips and heats up to 450C.
My wife makes our dough.
600g plain flour
6g dried yeast
5 tbsp olive oil
Pinch salt
Pinch sugar
Enough water to make a workable dough.
The makes 3 good sized pizzas and a garlic bread. She played around with some recipes because they either rose too much or were too wet to work.
For sauce we use a Loyd Grossman tomato and basil pasta sauce. Cook it with some garlic, tomato puree, tomato ketchup and Worcester sauce. Blitz it with a baby food Blitzer. It’s a bit of a cheat, but we try to play around to make things like our boys have enjoyed in restaurants.
Cheese is supermarket grated mozzarella.
The outside oven cooks these in just under a minute.
The main thing we’ve learned though is not to mess with toppings. We cook a pizza, slice it and eat it stood up in the garden while we wait for the oven to heat back up again.
Mozarella balls seem to be too wet for the outside oven.
Ooni oven. This is our oven. It’s not cheap (or crazy expensive), but prior to lockdown we never would have had the time to build a real one. We figured if we use ours enough until it breaks then we’ll build one. I think we’ve used it 20+ times this year
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This! If you look at what good restaurants put on pizzas: it’s never too much. There are a few classic toppings that are classics for reasons and then there are places that make BBQ themed pizzas…
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Alternatively, I think this is the best oven cooked pizza recipe we’ve used
This works with lots of different toppings
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There’s a place in the UK that does a Chinese duck pizza with hoi sin sauce instead of tomato
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