FLOWER POT KITCHEN: WOOD FRIED PIZZA OVEN CHRISTNING PARTY

26 Jun 2013

WOOD FRIED PIZZA OVEN CHRISTNING PARTY

FANTASTIC PIZZA COOKING PARTY

WAHOOO this is my first official full firing up of my wood fired clay oven and in true Kristi style why not invite all my friends to enjoy my fabulous wood fired oven! (eek) 80 pizzas to cook for all of them!

Watched a few videos on you tube on how long it takes to cook a pizza in an oven at 500 degrees. I wanted to be able to let my friends and family order their own toppings and did not want people waiting too long for their pizza's as I was going to have around 80 pizza's to cook. On average each pizza took 2-3minutes to cook and I was able to cook 2 pizza's at a time, the oven could take 3 but I found that a little hard to manage, burnt a couple of crusts here and there lol, but with practise I will master that.

Brilliant run with the oven which was kept fired up for 10hrs as once we had finished cooking over 4hrs we then enjoyed the fire and warmth. Learnt a lot from this pizza party all great.

Order up !!!

For fun me and my son Oscar made a menu for the party.

Keeping the wood fired oven up to heat was easy once the oven had been going for a couple of hours, it was just a case of throwing on another log, this did whack the temperature up for half an hour or so, past 700 degrees, each time I did this I burnt the edge of the first pizza back in as it cooked in under two minutes and I was not paying full attention!

Such a magnificent sight and so pleased with myself for keeping the fire going all day long.

2 minutes to cook!

My west Indian habanero hot sauce buffalo chicken with gorgonzola pizza, beautiful!

The best pizza's ever, once you have cooked a pizza in a wood oven there is no going back, the thin crust dough takes on a whole new level of flavour from the stone floor and wood smoke and is a super crispy with a hint of chewy in the centre of the base.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.