Duvel

Thanks, @food mom. I understand the logic dismissing the no-knead approach from a timing perspective. The hydration however is fine from my view, and takes into account that you want to have a properly risen loaf and not the famously dense whole wheat / ancient grain type loaves of the olden days. The durch oven that @trfl employs certainly helps with the load structure and makes best use of the high hydration ... And yet you are looking at a pizza, something with a large surface area compared to volume, so higher hydration is even more your friend and will lead to a more expanded base (especially on the rim), instead of a cracker-type, dry crust. If you are looking at neoneapolitan (e.g. New York style) pizza, you want chewy, foldable base with a defined, expanded rim. One thing that you could try is to balance the moisture content by adding yoghurt, which will add structure and give some chewiness. I do add yoghurt to make whole wheat / rye flour crusts (e.g. for Kassler Speckkuchen), and it works pretty well. So would a poolish, that you could bring to the workshop. If you have more time to research (e.g. for your next workshop, not today’s) please have a look at the technique described for the complete wheat Neapolitan pizza dough (90% hydration, btw) ...

From my viewpoint the @trfl recipe would do make a nice pizza dough. At very high temperatures (and shorter fermenting times, if it’s a workshop), you might want to up the hydration a little bit. Please share what kind of pizza / baking set / temperatures up you are aiming for: the term “American pizza” seems a bit generic, especially if you are fine with thin or thick crust.

Working lunch at Kuerle, Xinjiang province. Kaobaozi (baked meat pies filled with braised fatty lamb with coriander & pepper) & Liang Pi (cold noodles in spicy & vinegary soup with cucumber & wheat gluten).

Soylent Green ... tastes a bit like beans, though.

Landed very late on Sunday night at Kuerle, Xinjiang province, in the very northwest of China. After spending the whole day in three consecutive flights I was just thirsty ... Found a small nondescript place with lamb skewers, braised egg plant and smacked cucumber. Peanuts and local wheat beer as well. The crisped up lamb fat with chili & cumin was fantastic ...

You monster 😱

Do you feel the same after one alcohol-free beer ..?

Yeah !

Dinner at a lucky find in Hangzhou, China: Crayfish ! Appetizers: Century quail eggs ... Edamame in Zhejiang vinegar Smacked cucumber Sichuan-style West Lake carp Garlic cray fish with tons of garlic ... Breath refreshener 😉

Pottery. Bought in a 100Yen store in Chiba some years ago, because I wanted to drink a bottle of convenience store sake in style in front of the train station ...

Got a bit more details to the courses you’ve intended ? Or just the meat, grilled/broiled ? I think pretty any cuisine has your kind of accompaniments to riff off, but if you have a bit more info it would be helpful.

Today’s dinner (bit of a Mother’s Day edition): Prep done for Yakitori ... Overview Okonomiyaki-dressed Tamagoyaki Sashimi Edamame Agedashi nasu (fried Aubergine in sashimi) with Yuzukosho (fermented peppers with Yuzu) Agedashidofu (fried tofu in a different dashi) Yakitori (including chicken skin-wrapped asparagus)... Sake (today only one variety). My wife had a Kirin 😉

I would have your dinner any time. But why does that baked potato look like a test subject from new Romulan disruptor prototype field trial ?

A bit delayed ... Thursday’s dinner at a Izakaya at Makuhari, Chiba prefecture: Mixed Sashimi Edamame Mixed Tsukemono Tamagoyaki with Mentaiko (spicy cod roe) Fried Kamaboko (fishcake) French fries (we had an Indian colleague with us, who required vegetarian options) Buta no kakuni (braised pork belly) Some local fish with white miso Chicken sashimi - the liver was fantastic Chicken “nanban” Chicken karaage Oshizushi with vinegared mackerel (Mock ?) Shark fin cartilage with miso Sardine sashimi Sake. A lot. Everyone on the table picked their favourite.

That’s the life 🤗

That’s a different species. The one in my post is saltwater eel (Anago), not freshwater eel (Unagi). Tastwise, Anago is a bit more delicate and less fatty ...

That Nasu Dengaku is picture perfect! Well done 🤗

Lunch at Nihonbashi, Tokyo: Anago (saltwater eel), boiled and grilled. Half enjoyed as rice bowl, the other half (with the rice) as soup in eel bone stock. Freshly grated Yuzu peel & sansho. Incredibly satisfying ...

I use my gas grill on the highest setting. After some preheating it shows 550-600 F for the hood,, and of course the grates are far hotter (at the end, you want to have something to resemble a tandoor). Takes less than a minute for the first side, and maybe 30 sec for the second ...

I don’t do any stretch & folds or kneading with this dough. The cold rise and both lactics do already a lot for gluten developement. Just divide after cold rise, ball then and when fully risen slab them on the hot grill ... Pictures, please !

Seems you can just use it simply substituting baking powder ... Click

Thanks, @Ann_T. The Naan is my standard recipe: 500 g strong bread flour, 350 g home-made yoghurt and about 100 g Milk, 10 g salt and half a teaspoon instant yeast. All just combined, 24h cold rise in the fridge, divided into 80-100g pieces, rolled into balls. Slow rise while warming up, quickly rolled out and grilled on a gas grill (full whack, about 1 min per side). Brushed with Ghee with grated garlic & a bit of salt, then sprinkled with cilantro.

Indian night at Casa Duvel (thanks to a dear Indian friend, who decided to teach some dishes): Palak paneer. Masoor dal with Tadka. Papadums. Naan, liberally brushednwith Ghee, garlic & sprinkled with cilantro. Tandoori chicken (thigh meat). So juicy... Samosas with potato filling. All accompanied by a fantastic Mango Lassi, made from overripe Alfonso Mangos and selfmade yoghurt.

It’s been raining cats and dogs today ... I have been far too lazy to go out to buy groceries so I had to entertain my family with what we had available: chilled somen with walnut tsuyu, shout-marinated avocado and shrimp. Worked out pretty nicely and the little one approved as well ...

My “go to” book for anything Catalan is this one on the left. It doesn’t feature pictures, but the recipes are spot on. A more condensed form is the right one, yet no pictures either. Both are in Catalan, but readable if you have any knowledge in a Latin language. For English books, Colman Andrews is ok, yet riddled with inaccuracies in the recipes. “New Tapas” has modernised recipes that work, including some great ones from Catalunya such as Chickpeas with blood sausage. For paella I can recommend Jenny Chandlers “The food of Northern Spain”, and while not purely Catalan a very worthwhile investment. The recipes do work well and have readable intros (excerpt included below). The book on right should be available in English as well and has the Arroç amb Crosta and some other Catalan staples in it, plus a really good introduction to Catalan cuisine & Barcelona ...