How To Build An Outdoor Brick Pizza Oven For $50
Most outdoor brick ovens costs thousands of dollars to buy or hundreds to make. But you can easily build a simple pizza oven with store bought bricks. A combination of small and large bricks creates a fairly sealed firebox and separate cooking area for cooking pizza directly on the brick. You can even cook other foods in, say, a cast-iron pan. Building the oven requires 47 small red bricks and 2 large square bricks. Leveling your oven area is the important first step. You can even use a cup of water to eyeball level ground. Once you create a square foundation with the first layer of bricks, continue laying bricks four levels up, then lay on one of the large square bricks as the deck of the pizza oven. Add another three bricks in height, leaving a one-brick vent at the back for airflow, then lay down the second large brick over the top as the ceiling of the oven. With balanced construction and an air vent, the bricks will retain heat and move the heat over the pizza to cook both the top and bottom of the pie. You can adjust the amount of wood burned in the firebox to maintain a cooking temperature of about 750ºF. This homemade brick oven saves time and money and can even be disassembled and taken with you to reassemble elsewhere. Watch a video here and get full instructions here at Chef Steps.
Why Perilla Oil Is Key For Korean Cooking
Chef David Joo was making kimchi pancakes but couldn’t replicate the taste until he phoned his mother, who provided him with the missing ingredient that made the Korean dishes of his childhood come to life: perilla oil. Available toasted or untoasted, this unique oil is made by cold-pressing the seeds of the perilla plant (a.k.a. Japanese shiso). According to Joo, it tastes “nutty, earthy, with a licorice-anise finish.” Joo, the executive sous chef at the Peninsula New York, says his family drizzles it over bibimbap, over stir-fried fish cakes, and over sauteed spinach, among other things. He prefers richer-tasting toasted perilla oil for most cooking, marinating, and finishing. Just avoid extremely high heat to keep the toasted variety from burning and turning bitter. Joo especially likes to use toasted perilla oil in the hotter months, as it complements lighter vegetable dishes and the fat amplifies flavor, even in dishes that aren’t strictly Korean. Try it on grains such as freekeh or drizzled over fresh tomatoes, burrata, and basil.
Bakers Against Racism Raises $1.9 Million For Social Justice
What started as a doughnut sale to help furloughed immigrant restaurant employees has blossomed into the global fundraiser Bakers Against Racism. The organization was started by Willa Pelini, Paola Velez, and Rob Rubba, and word spread quickly in the culinary and social justice communities. Since late May, more than 2,500 bakery owners, pastry chefs, and home cooks around the world have participated in the decentralized online bake-sale fundraiser.
Part of the success of Bakers Against Racism is the universal appeal of baking. While chefs are well known for community activism, bakers and pastry chefs are not as widely known, even though bake sales for civil rights causes have a long history among African Americans. “Just being a minority in the kitchen and in life turns you into a natural activist,” said Thai-American Dianna Daohueng, the culinary director for Black Seed Bagels in New York City.
Through its online bake sales, Baker Against Racism has raised nearly $1.9 million so far, benefitting Black Lives Matter chapters and other social justice groups. “I don’t know policy, I am not a lawyer who can get people out of prison, but I can make cookies,” said co-founder and pastry chef Willa Pelini. “And maybe if I sell someone cookies, it can open a conversation about why we are making them.”
A Primer On World Barbecue From India to Russia
The appeal of outdoor cooking is shared around the world. Charcoal and wood are the most popular fuels worldwide, but cooking techniques vary widely. In the Philippines, chicken or pork are often “half-grilled, half-marinated” in a mix of lemonade (usually lemon-lime soda), soy sauce, and sugar cane vinegar (or watered-down cider vinegar), along with garlic, pepper, and sometimes banana ketchup. In the Caribbean, barbecue cooks spend years perfecting jerk chicken, usually served with callaloo and fried plantains. Indian and Pakistani barbecue is incredibly diverse, but here’s a taste: Punjabi-style chicken wings marinated in ginger, garlic, fresh turmeric, honey, green chilies and lime juice, then grilled over charcoal. Or try what food writer and chef Romy Gill suggests: simple skewers of cubed meats marinated in a paste of ginger, garlic, green chilies, and garam masala. In Russia, even brutally cold weather conditions don’t stop Russian traditions of cooking over fire. Baked potatoes may be tossed on the grill and loaded up with sour cream and dill, particularly to accompany a meal of shashlik pork kebabs marinated in beer or Georgian-style beef marinated in red wine, tomatoes, and onion. And in Peru, the submerged firepit known as the pachamanca cooks entire meals, including unique skewered kebabs known as anticuchos.
The Surprising History of Biscuits and Gravy
Biscuits and gravy now seems to be a ubiquitous dish in diners, cafes, restaurants, and food trucks. But it has humble and difficult beginnings born out of circumstance and necessity. In the late 1800s in Appalachia, biscuits were referred to as “beaten biscuits” because the batter was repeatedly beaten and folded. The work of making biscuits often fell to enslaved cooks or domestic servants, according to food historian John Egerton in Southern Food: At Home, On the Road, In History. Biscuits back then were sturdier and less flaky, so gravy added sustenance and made the biscuits more palatable. As for sausage gravy? “Biscuits with ‘country’ or ‘white’ gravy scratched together from sausage, pan drippings, flour, and milk were affordably made from the foodstuffs that were in low supply after the American Revolutionary War,” writes Heather Arndt Anderson in Breakfast: A History. Gravy ingredients changed over the years depending on what was affordable. During lean times, gravy was often made without meat or cream, or it was made with pan-fried ham drippings and brewed coffee for “redeye gravy.” But biscuits have always been staples. While they have historical origins in the American South, biscuits eventually became something you could pop out of a can to bake anywhere in the country.
Canned Tuna Sales Soar As Pandemic Continues
As Americans load up their pantries with canned goods, sales of Bumble Bee canned tuna have jumped 100% from mid-March to April. Tuna producers say that sales have remained higher throughout 2020 compared to 2019. Dwindling tuna supplies have left companies and suppliers searching for solutions. Andrew Choe, president and chief executive of tuna brand StarKist, says they’ve wanted to ramp up production, but they have been unable to buy tuna from regular suppliers due to border restrictions and fishing-port closures in the Pacific Islands. Bumble Bee Foods’ facility in Santa Fe Springs, California has also added Saturday shifts to help meet the increased demand for canned tuna.
Trader Joe’s to Eliminate Racist Packaging
The popular grocery chain Trader Joe’s uses other names on its in-house brands, such as Trader Ming’s for Chinese food products and Trader José’s for Mexican foods. After a recent Change.org petition requested revisions to that “racist packaging,” Trader Joe’s has agreed to make changes. The petition, started by 17-year-old Briones Bedell, garnered more than 2,000 signatures and came on the heels of similar changes made by other food brands such as Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s, and Eskimo Pie. Kenya Friend-Daniel, Trader Joe’s national director of public relations said that the California-based grocer had already started to phase out some of these product names before the petition was created and realized that although its quirky approach to naming “may have been rooted in a lighthearted attempt at inclusiveness, we recognize that it may now have the opposite effect.” Friend-Daniel added, “With this in mind, we made the decision several years ago to use only the Trader Joe’s name on our products moving forward.” The products in question will simply be renamed as Trader Joe’s.
Here’s What Food Prices Are Going Up And Down In Grocery Stores
Stay-at-home orders and restaurant closures have caused the demand for groceries to surge significantly, and prices are rising as a result. The overall cost of food has risen 0.7% in June, and rose 1% in May, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While these increases are slight, certain food items have had significant inflations in the month of June. Once again, meat prices are up. Beef and veal prices went up 4.8%, pork prices increased 3.3%, bacon prices increased 8.1%, hot dog prices grew 4.9%, and the cost of frozen fish and seafood prices climbed by 1%. Dessert prices have gone up, too. The cost of cakes, cupcakes, and cookies has gone up 1.8%, fresh cakes and cupcake prices went up 3.5%, and fresh doughnut prices rose 1.8%. Snack prices have soared 2.1%, and carbonated drink prices rose 2.2%. Though prices for many foods have increased, some food prices have remained stable or gone down. Poultry prices haven’t changed much, and the cost of eggs and dairy declined. Egg prices decreased by 2.7%, butter by 1.7%, and milk by 0.6%.
Sur La Table Files For Bankruptcy, Closes Nearly Half Its Gourmet Stores
Sur La Table, the luxury kitchen retailer that offers extensive in-store cooking classes, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. The Seattle-based retailer announced that it will close 53 of its 121 stores around the country over the next few months. The company also aims to sell up to 70 stores to Fortress Investment Group to shore up its finances. Sur La Table emphasized in a statement that it is not going out of business but was forced to close stores as “a result of the financial impact of the COVID-19 crisis.” Two capital investment groups have been hired to conduct liquidation sales, which are expected to take eight to 12 weeks.
Goya Foods Faces Backlash From Core Hispanic Market
Last Friday, Robert Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods, attended the announcement of the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, newly created to advance education and career opportunities for Hispanic Americans. During a speech at the White House Rose Garden in support of the initiative, Unanue said, “We are all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder.” Unanue’s praise came at a time in the President’s re-election campaign when a national poll by Reuters shows that only about 25% of registered Hispanic voters would vote to re-elect him. Despite the White House initiative, Hispanic community leaders were quick to denounce Unanue’s comments, calling for a boycott of Goya Foods. The boycott gained steam on social media with support from prominent Hispanic voices, including Julian Castro and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two prominent politicians in the Democratic party. A few days later, a “buy-cott” movement gained steam in support of Goya, and a GoFundMe campaign created by Casey Harper, a producer for conservative political commentator Eric Bolling, raised more than $100,000 to donate Goya products to food pantries in the Washington D.C. area. Goya claims to be the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, offering more than 2,500 products, and often fills entire aisles of grocery store shelves across the U.S. .
