Oh Wildwood, Oh Wildwood, how does your garden grow?

At Wildwood, we believe that vegetables taste better when they are homegrown! Therefore we are working on our green thumb and growing a variety of flowers and veggies here at our Eagle Rock test kitchen/showroom!

Check out some of our photos from our very own garden!  We love Summertime, and we love that our plants are growing!  We are currently growing: Roma tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, yellow squash, Persian cucumber, Thai peppers, habaneros, French thyme, Italian basil, Kentucky peas, and so much more.

We can't wait until we can start cooking with our produce.  Any suggestions for any favorite veggies that we are missing?

Winning Wildwood Design!

Hello all,

We are so happy to announce the winners of our Wildwood Blog Contest: Karen and Tom Lane of Ocean View, Hawaii!  Tom designed and finished their Wildwood Milano with an adobe style finish.  Karen thought that he may have been "channeling some Atlantean temple architecture."















We also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who submitted their Wildwood creations!  We love keeping in touch with our customers, and seeing their vision come to life through Wildwood.  Don't worry if you didn't win- we will be running another blog contest in a few months. :)

A huge congratulations goes out to Karen and Tom from the Wildwood team.  Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful images- and we hope that you enjoy your BBQ kit!

Thanks again guys!

Love, WW

Pizza Pie Process!

Hey guys,

We have received several emails asking about the wood fired pizza process. So I figured this would be a perfect blogging opportunity to take our readers from start to finish through the perfect pizza process. Whewww, that's a lot of P's!

Firstly, the dough is rolled out into a circular shape. We like a really thin crispy crust. Toppings of your choice are then applied. This is the creative and fun part- go crazy!
 

 Next the pizza is slid into the wood fired oven using a pizza peel, either an aluminum or wood peel works best for this process!

The pizza is then cooked to perfection!  This doesn't take long...probably 2-3 mins. per pizza.  
 We like a little brown around the crust and crispy!

Voila!! Now is the time to enjoy your wood fired creation!  Place the pizza on a serving tray or screen and cut into slices!

Mobile Trailer Unit- from Whole Foods in Maryland

Hey guys!

We just received photos from our Whole Foods friends in Maryland. They have put our Toscano oven on a trailer, for delicious mobile pizza! Very cool- we were so inspired!

Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!

La Estrada For Sale!

Yes, it's true, Wildwood is officially selling our beautiful, one of a kind, handcrafted Copper Oven. We have named this beauty, La Estrada.

It is a Milano oven, clad in copper- designed by Chef Michael Gerard. The oven sits atop a metal stand, with cabinet doors- perfect for wood or accessory storage.

This is a wonderful chance for someone to purchase a unique wood fired oven, that is cured and ready to cook with now! No further work needs to be done, oven and stand are completely finished.

The oven is valued at over $10K- however we are selling it for the extremely reasonable price of $6800.00. The La Estrada is located in our main showroom and test kitchen in Los Angeles, CA, you can either pick it up or we can ship it to you.

Have an interest or questions? You are welcome to make an appointment to view the oven.
Please email: Megan@wildwoodovens.com or call: 1-800-579-2797 or 323-255-6578.

Happy Shopping!

We Want to Feature You!

Hey everyone,

It's that time of year when outdoor and live-fire cooking is geared up and going!

We would love to feature some of our Wildwood customers, and other live-fire cookers on this Blog! We are looking for your cooking experiences, cooking photos and recipes. To encourage participation, we are offering a Wildwood prize, a Portable Deluxe BBQ Set, to the winner. The winner is determined by the Wildwood staff based on creativity, ingenuity and tastiness!

Please email all submissions to: Megan@wildwoodovens.com We will be accepting stories, photos and recipes until Thursday, May 27th, 2010. The winner will be announced Thursday, June 3rd, 2010. Although there can only be one winner, we would love to feature more than one person/family on our Blog.

Let me know if you have any questions. We can't wait to see your live-fire cooking creations!

Friend and Fan Appreciation!

Hey everyone,

We would like to hear what YOU have to say.

Does anyone have any tips for wood fired cooking? Any questions regarding live-fire cooking?

Have you prepared something similar to any of our recipes? Would you like to see any certain type of food produced in the Wildwood test kitchen?

Let us know- this blog is fun for us, but is also meant to be informative for you!

Thanks so much, our friends, customers and fans are the best!

Love,
Wildwood

Salt Crust Cooking

Ok- now for the fun stuff. :) One of our favorite tried and true techniques, Salt Crust Cooking. We use this technique a lot in the wood fired oven, and especially at parties.

This is a wonderful old technique that yields excellent results when cooking seafood. The concept is simple and easy, especially with a Wildwood wood fired oven. If you don't have our Soapstone Cookware yet this is your cue. We use the soapstone lasagna pan for this technique because of it's ability to retain heat. You'll only need a few items for this recipe: your chosen seafood, a box of Kosher salt, olive oil, herbs (thyme or oregano are both great); and a lemon. Head-on prawns, trout and lobster are all excellent seafood choices.

First, heat your oven to between 450-700 degrees. Meanwhile, place herbs and lemon slices inside your fish. The fish skin should be scaled and the gills an fins removed. Rub fish liberally with olive oil. Next you'll create the salt crust: first pour a thick layer of salt on the bottom of the cookware, then place the seafood inside, and lastly cover with a final layer of salt. Now that everything is ready, throw it in the oven!

Different seafoods will cook at different times. As a rule of thumb- wait until the seafood has stopped steaming profusely. Prawns don't take very long to cook- about 9 minutes. A 1.5 lb. lobster takes about 1-14 minutes, and the fish will take about 14-20 minutes. After your fish is finished cooking, crack the salt layer and take your fish out. Carefully dust all remnants of salt off, and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. The end result is seafood in its truest form, the taste is fresh from the ocean.
If you're looking for some carbs to go with your fish, we've had success pairing this rice dish with red snapper. Check it out, let us know what you think.

Lemon Basmati Rice

What is Foodista?

Hello Everyone!

I know that it has been almost 3 weeks since we have posted, which is very unusual for us!
However, we want to get back into the groove of our Wild Times!

I want to answer an important question. I have received a few emails asking what the small "Foodista" photos are at the bottom of most of our recipes. They are links to a recipe website that we love- named Foodista. We have tried to pair our recipes with recipes from Foodista that we believe would be delicious together. Good idea huh?

Wildwood Oven Roasted Salsa

A Simple Summertime Favorite...

Preheat Oven to 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients:

12 Whole ripe Roma Tomatoes
2 Medium white onions quartered
4 Whole cloves of garlic (skin on)
5 Whole Jalapenos
1/4 Cup Olive Oil

Directions:

Place vegetables in a large bowl. Toss with olive oil. Put vegetables in a large cast-iron skillet. Place the skillet in the wood oven (or conventional oven) and roast till vegetables are blistered and modestly charred. This is approximately 15-25 minutes.

Set aside and let cool. Place the roasted vegetables in an 11 Quart food processor, reserving the olive oil. Pulse to desired consistency.





Tortilla Chips

TGIF! Breakfast in the Oven!

Breakfast in the oven...any time of day, it's a favorite!

Eggs, potatoes and apple-smoked bacon....delicious smokey flavor. Yummm! Enjoy the weekend!

Italian Omelet

Two of our favorites: Braised Short Ribs on Fried Polenta

Ingredients:

Short Ribs (prepare with your favorite recipe or contact Wildwood for our favorite recipe.)

Firm Polenta:

3 Cups Water

1 Cup Cornmeal

2 Tbsp. Butter

To Taste Kosher Salt

To Taste Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

Directions:

To make firm polenta, boil water and gradually whisk in cornmeal. Reduce heat to medium low, add butter and seasoning. Continue to stir until mixture thickens. Once polenta has cooled, roll into a log using parchment paper and saran wrap, place in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, remove the polenta from the refrigerator and unwrap. The polenta should be firm enough to slice into 1/2 inch discs; season to taste with salt and pepper. Pan fry polenta discs in a medium high skilled with a small amount of olive oil until golden brown, flip and repeat.

To make short rib topping, remove short ribs from liquid and set aside. Strain remaining liquid through a fine mesh strainer and reduce over high heat until about 1/4 of the original volume is left (should be thick.) Chop short ribs into 1/2 inch cubes and add back to reduced liquid. Spoon a small amount of meat onto each of the pieces of fried polenta. Garnish with creme fraiche, pine nuts and slice scallions. Serve hot!


Fontina Polenta

Perfect Oven Roasted Marinara

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Virgin Olive Oil

2 Garlic cloves, minced

1 Tsp Dried oregano

28 oz (two 14 oz cans) Chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned), drained and juice reserved

To Taste Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper


Directions:

Begin by heating a large saute pain in the oven, add oil and heat almost to smoking point.

Using caution, add the garlic, oregano, and tomatoes (sauce may have the tendency to sputter.) Stir and place the pan back in the oven. Continue cooking, stirring every few minutes, until the sauce is thick and glossy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pass sauce through a food mill placed over a bowl. Place smooth sauce (without the skin and seeds) back in the pan and place in the oven until desired thickness is reached.
Note: you can add sugar if the tomatoes are too acidic.

Meatballs For Spaghetti

Wildwood Shredded Beef- Machaca Style

Ingredients:

2-3 Lbs. Flat cut beef brisket

1 Green bell pepper

1.5 Tbs. Adobo seasoning (From Penzy's)

1 Whole fresh jalapeno, sliced

1 Medium onion, julienne

1 Clove garlic, sliced

1 Cup Beef stock

Method:

Trim excess fat from brisket. Insert garlic slices into brisket. Rub Adobo seasoning over the entire piece of meat. Render some of the trimmed fat in a 6- Liter soapstone pot. Heat the soapstone in the oven and brown the brisket on all sides.

Place peppers and onions in the bottom of the same 6-Liter soapstone pot used to brown the brisket. Place the brisket on top. Add beef stock. Cover and place in a 300 degree F- 400 degree F oven with only coals remaining (for wood fired oven.) Close the oven door, allow to braise until the brisket breaks apart easily, a minimum of 3-4 hours (though some cook overnight.) When finished, the brisket will easily shred with just a fork, or your fingers.

Serve with hot corn tortillas, diced onions, cilantro and Monterey Jack cheese.

Enjoy!


Szechwan Shredded Beef

Grilled Vegetable Torte

This dish uses the ribbed cast iron grill pan. We like the enameled coated grill pans from Le Cruset.

1 large eggplant cut in ¼ inch slices

4 large tomatoes halved, seeded, and cut into ¼ inch slices

2 large onion cut into ¼ inch slices

2 red pepper seeded cut into ¼ rounds

1 large ball mozzarella cut into

2 cups grated ementhaller, gruyere, or fontina

1/3 cup of olive oil

2 large Portobello mushroom

1 pinch of salt

Place vegetables in a large bowl. Toss with the olive oil to coat. Grill vegetables on the grill pan with a pinch of salt till tender. 4- 8 minuets.

Slice the grilled Portobello in 1/8 slices and set aside.

Take a 9x13 ceramic casserole dish, lightly coat with olive oil. Assemble the tortes as individual towers, starting with the eggplant on the bottom, followed by alternating layers of tomato cheeses and onion and peppers, and mushrooms, ending with eggplant on top. Place a slice of the mozzarella on top of each vegetable torte tower.

Cover with foil and place in the oven for 10-15 minuets or until the cheese melts through.

Serves 6

Vegetable Tart With Goat Cheese