“Moon-yah-eeni” Magic PART III: Not Much this Oven Can’t Do!

(As I get ready to reignite FoodByDoug, I have found a few blogs that I wrote years ago and never published.  These are unedited, and not polished.  I am also sad to report that Andrea Mugnaini August 2021after a courageous battle with cancer.  This post was originally written in 2016)

“Moon-yah-eeni” Magic

PART III:

Not Much this Oven Can’t Do!
(the last of a three part series)

While the Mugnaini is not a “Pizza Oven”, it does make awesome pizzas!

Jacque's first pizza --ever!!!

Our first hands-on dish was pizza.  Louis and Andrea demonstrated how to make the dough, and then turned us loose with balls of dough to toss/stretch and build our own pizzas.  I was once again thrilled to see Jacque get right into it, tossing and building her own pizza.  It was then off to the oven for cooking.  I was returning to the kitchen with my masterpiece when Andrea looked at my crust and suggested that it was “edible”, but we might want to make another one and bake it a little longer.  (Note to self: when I think it is done, give it another thirty to sixty seconds; after all no one likes a limp floppy pizza!)

Rule Number 1 about Pizza: “You can make bad dough out of good flour, but you cannot make good dough out of bad flour.”  You want to use a 00 flour, and hence I returned with another case of the Giusto’s High Performance Pizza Flour from the Mugniani store.  You can buy this High Gluten, unbleached flour online from www.mugaini.com.  It is 13% protein, and 100% dark northern spring wheat.  It is the only flour I have been using since Gay and Marci bought me a case for Christmas, and I am now sworn to it. It is AWESOME!

While enjoying our pizzas, we learned another important aspect of the class: food is to be enjoyed with wine.  We learned this when Ed came out and started serving us one of his wines from his vineyard and winery.  Ed produces his own wine as well as sells some of his grapes to larger wineries. 

Unlike other cooking classes, at the Mugnaini Cooking School it is hands on.  You don’t have someone sitting over you telling you how to cut or julliene a pepper.  Andrea and her staff circulate to offer assistance where needed, and are close by when using the ovens, but they don’t micromanage you which was refreshing.

After our pizza lunch it was back into the kitchens for the real hands on cooking part of the class.  Chef Louis and Andrea turned the students loose at several stations with ingredients.  Again I was thrilled when Jacque decided to venture off on her own to work with other students at the sea food station.  Jacque’s team worked on Caramelized Scallops, Cherries and Fennel with Summer Savory and Pancetta Vinaigrette. 

As for me, I was excited to try my hand at the Tuscan Grill for the Wood Oven so I went to work on the Cumin and Chili Spiced Loin of Beef with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Charred Peppers and Toasted Bread.

Below taken from Mugnaini Cooking School Student Pamphlet:

            Ingredients

·      4 cups cherry tomatoes

·      1 tablespoon olive oil

·      1 teaspoon kosher salt

·      6 cups mixed sweet peppers, deseeded and halved

·      1 cup thinly sliced red onion

·      4 cups large diced sourdough

·      1 tablespoon ground cumin

·      1 tablespoon Aleppo Pepper (can substitute smoked paparika)

·      1 tablespoon kosher salt

·      2 pounds Ribeye, flank, strip, skirt, flat iron steak

·      ¼ cup sherry vinegar

·      ¼  cup olive oil

Toss the cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and kosher salt together and put on half sheet pan*.  Slide into the oven and roast for 5 minutes, remove and let cool.

Lay the sweet peppers cut side down and slide into the oven close to the fire and cook to a medium char on the skin.  Remove and toss in a bowl with the roasted tomatoes.  Add the sliced red onions.

Lay the diced sourdough out onto a sheet pan and toast in the oven; make sure you are rotating the pan to evenly toast the bread.  Remove and cool.

Combine the cumin, Aleppo pepper and kosher salt, lightly season both sides of steak and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour**.  Set up the Tuscan grill over a bed of coals at the mouth of the oven and grill the steaks to desired temperature.  Remove and let stand for 15 minutes*** before serving. 

Push the embers used for the grill back into the oven.  Combine the sourdough croutons, peppers, tomatoes, and onions in a large roasting pan and slide into oven to warm.  Remove and toss with the olive oil and sherry vinegar.  Slice the beef and lay on top of bread salad.

* We returned home with four commercial half cookie sheets.  This was another valuable take-away on how versatile these inexpensive items are for both wood oven cooking and normal cooking in your home kitchen.

** You never want to cook meat right out of the fridge.  You always want to try to let meat get to room temp before cooking.

*** Meat really does need to rest after it has been cooked.  This allows it to absorb the juices.  In this dish we were laying it over croutons and salad, so letting it rest in this case was very important.

With the addition of my Tuscan Grill for my wood oven, Jacque is now questioning the “need” for the plethora of other devices I have in our backyard, (i.e. Big Green Egg, Treager, and an Argentinean Grill in addition to the Mugnaini Wood Oven).  I continue to remind her that it is not a need, but rather a want.

Other dishes prepared that afternoon included a Baked Humbolt Fog Goat cheese with Honey and Toasted Sourdough, Rock Shrimp Rolls, Slow Cooked Salmon and Vegetable Spring Rolls.

Before departing on Friday afternoon for our Hotel Healdsburg, we were told to not have breakfast before class the next day…glad we did not.  (Truth is we barely had dinner after an afternoon of cooking, sampling, oh and drinking wine that Ed kept appearing with.)

Saturday morning upon our arrival back to class, we were greeted with warm Cinnamon Rolls with Toffee Sauce, Baked Steel Cut Oats with dried Cherries and Maple Syrup, Baked Eggs with Cream, Slow Braised Spiced Tomato Sauce, and Bacon.  I personally can’t wait to have company over and treat them to a wood oven breakfast!

That Saturday we also sampled three mouthwatering dishes that were cooked overnight in the wood ovens:  Overnight Chickpea Hummus with Feta, Oregano, and Marinated Cucumbers, Slow Roasted Chinese Eggplant with Jalapeno, Mint and Cilantro, and Moroccan Spiced Summer Squash with Dill Yogurt and Roasted Peppers.

Fresh from Ed's garden

Chef Maldonado spent time partnering with Mourand Lahlou, the author of Mourand New Moroccan – the Cookbook. As a result, a lot of the dishes we worked on had a Moroccan influence.  So many people think of just Italian for wood ovens, but again, that would be like simply calling it a “Pizza Oven”.

After breakfast, - which included an offer of Bloody Marys compliments of Ed! - it was back to our stations for cooking.  I headed off to work on the Seafood Paella, while Jacque worked on Mustardy Glazed Short Ribs, (which turned out like beef candy!!!), and Creamed Hen of the Wood Mushrooms with Parmesan Breadcrumbs.  Not surprisingly, Jacque has now been on a quest to find Hen of the Wood Mushrooms.

I have never made Paella before so this was a totally new venture for me.  I was not only excited about the new dish I was preparing, but was also excited to just use a Paella pan in the wood oven,

again demonstrating its versatility.

Below taken from Mugnaini Cooking School Student Pamphlet:

            Ingredients

·      Saffron and Clam Broth

o   3 cups White Wine

o   2 pinches saffron

o   Zest of 2 lemons

o   4 cloves of garlic – smashed

o   1 teaspoon kosher salt

o   1 tablespoon Smoked paprika

o   8 cups chicken stock

o   2 cups clam juice

·      Paella

o   4 whole chicken legs

o   ¼ cup olive oil

o   ½ cup piquillo peppers

o   1 cup small diced onion

o   1 cup small diced carrots

o   2 cloves garlic, crushed

o   1 cup thinly sliced leeks

o   1 tablespoon kosher salt

o   4 ounces sliced squid rings

o   2 cups Bomba rice

·      Seafood to Finish

o   1 pound rock cod, cut into 2 ounce portions

o   4 ounces rock shrimp

o   8 large head on prawns

o   16 manila clams

·      Optional Garnishes

o   Garlic aioli

o   Grilled lemons

o   Calabrian chili oil

o   Charred filet beans

o   Grilled Spring Onion

In a medium saucepot combine the white wine, saffron, lemon zest, garlic, kosher salt, and smoked paprika.  Reduce the wine by half.  Add the chicken stock and clam juice to the pot and simmer for 30 minutes.  Strain and reserve the cooking liquid.

Paella:  When the oven is in a pizza environment, stop adding wood and develop a large bed of embers.  Remove the log grate and arrange the embers into a 4” high and 18” wide pile in the front ¼ part of the oven.  Place the Tuscan grill base and grill in the center of the ember pile, making sure you are able to grab the handle of the pan when needed.

In large paella pan add olive oil, chicken, skin side down, the vegetables and salt.  Place the pan on top of the Tuscan grill and cook for 25 minutes stirring every 5-7 minutes to evenly roast the vegetables.  Remove the pan carefully from the oven and add sliced squid and rice.  Stir to incorporate into the mixture and place back onto the base and bake for 5 minutes.

Remove the pan and add 8 cups of the saffron stock.  Make a lid out of aluminum foil and set on top of the pan.  Place back onto the Tuscan grill and cook for 25 minutes.  Carefully remove pan, take off aluminum foil and lay rockfish along the outside perimeter of paella pan, follow with ring of prawns, place the clams into the rice throughout the pan and the sprinkle rock shrimp over the entire surface.  Put the aluminum lid back on and place onto the Tuscan grill for 12 minutes to finish cooking.  Remove and serve. 

The entire process is cooked and elevated over the embers and never is cooked on the oven floor, adhering to the traditional way of cooking paella which develops a deep socorrat-meaning the rice that gets crunchy and forms a crust at the bottom of the pan.

While Paella was cooking and Jacque’s braised ribs were “braising away”, Andrea pulled all of us outside for a bread lesson.  I had several takeaways from the bread lesson: 

·      Bread is complicated.

o   It requires a special environment for proofing.

o   There is actual chemistry involved.

·      No fire in the oven.

o   Get it to temp and clean it out immediately.

·      To get the hard crunchy crust you need steam.

·      Last but not least…

o   There is nothing like nice fresh warm bread right out of a wood oven.

It was also while the Paella was cooking and the ribs were braising that Ed took the class on a little field trip though his vineyard to his herb garden and on to his winery.  His wine operation is not very large, and was actually very encouraging to Jacque and me with our own small vineyard now planted at home.  Ed puts out an amazing amount of quality wine out of a pretty small operation.  Jacque and I are looking forward to our UPS shipment of Mugnaini wine that we purchased during our little tour.  However the highlight of the tour was when Louis showed up with the Paella for everyone to share while tasting wine in the winery. 

So if you have not got it yet – this three day adventure was just one cool experience after another.  It would not have been so if it weren’t for Andrea’s combination of intensity, passion, and grace, and Louis Maldonado’s easy to get along with personality, talent, and creativity. And of course we can’t forget Ed, the driver’s, humor, who knew how to keep the class from getting too serious by either cracking a joke, or by plying us with wine just when it was needed.

Jacque and I are anxious to attend more Mugnaini classes in Healdsburg, and have already decided to attend one of her week long courses which she offers in Tuscany in 2018…anybody want to join us?

If you already own a wood oven, or are considering purchasing or building a wood oven, I highly recommend signing up from one the Mugnaini classes.  check out the listing of classes at www.mugnaini.com.