What to cook in the RoccBox

[DanM]

I am looking for new ideas for our RoccBox pizza oven. It is a bench top propane or wood fired oven with a stone floor. They claim it can get as hot as 500°c. We have used it a few times to make pizza, pita bread, roasted mushrooms, and padron peppers. Tonight I will be using it to make flammemkuchen. 

 

What else can I use it for? Any brilliant ideas out there? Maybe an apple crumble?

 

Dan

[&roid]

my brother in law has made a really good steak in his.  get a cast iron sizzler plate screaming hot in the pizza oven then toss on a decent ribeye, turn it halfway through cooking to even out the heat from the flames vs. the cast iron. some sliced mushrooms and onions while it rests. 

[tazerowe]

A couple of things I've tried:

 

Mortadella Salad:  slice mortadella into batons, maybe 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inches.  Preheat a cast iron skillet in the Roccbox.  When hot, toss in the mortadella and give a stir.  Return to the oven and stir occasionally until there is some char on the sides and edges - just a minute or two.  Remove from the pan and toss in a bowl with thinly sliced red onion, cherry tomatoes and basil.  Drizzle with a little balsamic.  

 

This is stolen from Motorino in NYC.   I tried to make it pre-Roccbox days but at reasonable oven temperatures, the mortadella just renders and doesn't brown.  This was a fairly professional upgrade.

 

 

Socca:  I'm still working on this one.  Mix chickpea flour and water with a little oil, salt and pepper (I googled a David Lebovitz recipe for proportions) and let it hydrate. Preheat a cast iron skillet.  Once hot, pour in batter and swirl to cover the pan.  Return to heat until it sets / puffs and starts to brown.  Remove from the Roccbox and scrape the socca onto a platter. Serve with olive oil and lots of black pepper.  This needs some work on the amount of batter, but it tastes better and has a better texture than an oven version.

 

I do note the heat of the Roccbox seems to be hard on the surface of my cast iron.  The non-handle side is now very different from the handle side that stays at the mouth of the oven.  I have also partially melted a pair of welding gloves on the pan, so be careful!

[tazerowe]

One more idea:  eggplant roasted for babaganoush gets the super-smokey flavor I've not gotten on a grill or in an oven.  I had to cut the eggplant in half and put in cut side down on a quarter sheet pan, but it cooked nicely.  Similar to the cast iron skillet above, the quarter sheet pan took a beating and warped severely.  I actually got concerned at one point during the cook and Googled the melting point of an aluminum pan.  I need to figure out what to use in the box.