Meanwhile Back at the Wood Fired Oven

Meanwhile Back at the Wood Fired Oven

Okay the Arizona winter, if you can call it that, has ended. With my health problems cold is quite difficult for me, so I tend to stay inside when it’s cold out (ie; under 50°f). Anyway I’m back to the wood fired oven. I baked today and as usual it was a learning experience. This is what I learned today. If you are using a wood fired oven start with any soft wood that you have and move the fire around on the hearth. I start a fire at least 4 hours before I start baking. Next; in the last hour before you are going to start baking change your fuel to hardwood. For me, that means Mesquite, in other parts of the country that might mean oak, or pecan. I’ve been burning my hardwood down to coals about the size of pool balls and then shoveling them out and cleaning the oven and baking.

Today I discovered that I should burn the coals, which I spread over the entire hearth to keep the heat constant, down to ash. Then I should wait about 20 minutes and check the oven for heat. I do this by tossing a handful of corn meal onto the clean hearth.

If it burns after a few minutes the oven is too hot. I wait about 20 minutes and check again. When the cornmeal turns brown after a few minutes the oven is ready. I set a soaking wet kitchen towel over the door hanging on the inside of the door and slide my bread in. I’ve sliced the tops of my dough with a razor and I set a pan inside filled with water. Right before I close the door I spray the inside with a water bottle to raise the steam level inside. This insures a crisp crust.

I’m baking the loaves about 18 minutes or until they are caramel brown and have reached an internal temperature of 212°f. This is an ongoing process and I look forward to your thoughts, comments and questions.

Warmly

Mad Coyote Joe

Open Mic a Poem by Daigneault

Open Mic

By Daigneault

Every Tuesday night they show

Like Vikings gathering for a battle

A battle void of spoils

Except the next chance to fight

Pulling at their guitars

The music is a longboat

Moving

through frozen waters

Straining on the oar

A pick keeps time

The left hand

Clearing the shallows

The voice calls out

Their ancient tune

As the villagers

sit watching

Knowing these Vikings

Are a breed apart

With their own view

Of heaven!

A Note to Our Readers

A Note to our Readers

For those of you that are new to this blog or not familiar with my history, it may seem a little confusing. One day we are discussing southwestern cooking, the next a cowboys funereal, or chapters out of a crime novel and then it’s barbecue cleaning videos or a discussion on how to make a building out of a shipping container, all of this is followed up with a few days of my poetry.

Let me explain. My personal history starts out with me being an Iron Worker, living and working here in the Arizona desert. Next I started a spice company, which led me into a television, cooking career. That took me into a series of cookbooks; from there it was live cooking demonstrations and playing music at least one night a week. After my show went off the air in 03 I had a baraitric procedure and over the next few years I had nine additional surgeries. While I was convalescing I went back to school and studied both, Creative and News writing. All of this shows up on my blog along with my love of green building and the plants of the Sonoran desert.

What drives me to write on a particular subject is either I just happen to be working on something, or a situation like the recent death of Micha McGurrea occurs and moves me to write, or my statistics page tells me that I’m gaining readers on a subject. In the last month most of my readers are American, over 70%, next is Hungary and here’s the odd thing. The Hungarians are reading my poetry and nothing but my poetry. There are about 15 other countries that have someone that is following my blog and they read everything both old and new, but when I launch a poem I can go to the Stats page and within a few minutes Hungary pops up. If you are in Hungary and following this blog Please leave a comment and let me know what is drawing you to these pages. That goes for all of you nice people, leave a comment and let me know what you like and what doesn’t quite do it for you.

Thanks

Mad Coyote Joe

If Heroes be Illusion A Poem by Daigneault

If Heroes be Illusion

A Poem by Daigneault

If heroes be illusion

The heroes as we say

Can true men then be heroes

In deeds of everyday

In stories facing giants

without a flinch or fear

Standing straight and solid

with will so true so clear

If men like that be fiction

and yet great deeds are done

The myth is calling fearless

The men that fail to run

For heroes are not different

from ordinary men

With fear and hearts a pounding

They stay to fight to win

Quiet... in three! A Poem by Daigneault

Quiet… in three!

A Poem by Daigneault

Hands that feel

Heart that speaks

Standing alone

To give

To please

No one

No plan

No staff

toward distant shore

Bleeding

calloused

Against a tide

Alone

to self

to all

climbing

silence speaks

Stomped

living

only the ride

never knowing

With words of steel

Grilling Vegetables MCTV

Grilling Vegetables is easy. The problem is, the moister content of vegetables is too low so they burn before they can become fully cooked. The answer is, to make a basic vinaigrette and to toss the vegetables in the vinaigrette before grilling.

Basic vinaigrette

½ cup Extra Virgin Olive oil

Juice of ½ fresh lemon

3-5 cloves garlic, smashed

Pinch of Italian Seasoning

Pinch of crushed red chile

1 tsp. dark brown sugar (optional)

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Whisk it all together and toss the vegetables well before grilling.

Just keep a few things in mind hard vegetables like winter squash, beets or carrots take about twenty minutes to become soft enough to eat so start them first and when they start to soften add the other vegetables. Secondly the oil in the vinaigrette will flare up so keep an eye on the vegetables while they are directly over the fire. Once they are browned or grill marked enough move them away from the direct heat. Please send any thoughts, comments or questions and I’ll answer ASAP. I hope you enjoy these videos and please share them with your family, friends and online social networks.

Warmly,

Mad Coyote Joe

Extreme Grill Lighting and Cleaning MCTV

Extreme Grill Cleaning and Lighting

Okay, you’re having a party in the backyard. You’ve marinated your famous Pollo Asado overnight and you’ve lit the grill. Everyone’s there and hungry. You go outside to toss the chicken on the grill and it happens… The grill’s not getting hot. The charcoal is lit but not really going… this happens to everyone. A clean charcoal grill is a grill that will perform well. In today’s video we see how to clean and light the grill… with blow torch!

Check your homeowners insurance before trying this as people have burnt their houses down!

Mad Coyote Joe

Choosing the Right Knife MCTV

They say you can tell a professional by their tools. This is especially true in the kitchen. There are so many cheap, new, poorly made and thought out and unnecessary kitchen gadgets and tools on the market promising that “You’ll cook like a pro,” that are just plain a waste of time. This is not to say that all of them are garbage. With the advent of new materials and designs, there are many that perform as promised. So how do we sort this out?

Start with the basics and remember anything that sounds too good to be true, most likely is! Never has this applied so much as in the case of kitchen knives. A good basic 10 inch kitchen knife starts at about$100.

Recently, Arch, a friend of mine stopped by our local coffee house. Upon seeing me he went back out to his car and came back in with a new set of knives from the local warehouse store. It had eight different kitchen knives and a set of eight more steak knives… all for $99! What a deal. I asked Arch why he was getting new knives, he said all of our knives are old and dull. I asked if he would bring them to coffee sometime so I could look at them and he said, I brought them to see if you knew someone that could use them (He’s like that). He pulls out a box that is full of the finest knives available.

I asked, “How long a go did you have these sharpened?”

He said, “We’ve never had them sharpened.”

Okay… this is how knives are meant to be used. Good knives come sharp and they have a long, round tool that comes with them. The tool is called steel; its purpose is to keep a sharp knife sharp for a longer period of time. In most residential kitchens the knives should be sharpened by a pro about once a year. Just look online for “Knife Sharpener” in your area.

Oh and my friend Arch had his wonderful knives sharpened. They are great and he took the “Deal” back.

Warmly

Mad Coyote Joe

Easy Hosin Salmon

Easy Hoisin Salmon

This is one of the most amazing dishes. The combination of Sesame oil and hoisin sauce is slightly sweet, with a deep nutlike flavor. If you’re adding more fish into your diet or just looking for an easy Asian twist on everyday oven roasted salmon, you’ll be amazed. The rule of thumb for grilling or oven baking (350 f°) fish is 10 minutes of baking for every minute of thickness. In the oven we add a few extra minutes to compensate for heating the baking dish. This cooking time provides a medium or lightly cooked piece of fish. If you like your fish well done add a few minutes. Also oven cooking times vary so give it a try and take a few notes. That way, you will find how to make this wonderful dish cooked to perfection, every time. Watch the video and please comment and share!

Warmly,

Mad Coyote Joe

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Just a thought!

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Just a thought!: "Okay; this is the new deal you run for an office in my country you can have 10 times the average salary (yes I fucking understand the aver..."

Just a thought!

Okay; this is the new deal you run for an office in my country you can have 10 times the average salary (yes I fucking understand the average) in each state you are running in. So Arizona that’s about $250,000 or for president that’s 52 times the national average times 10 or about $15,000,000, Give these fuckers an Americapass and they can hit the rails. We need to take the corporations out of the ballot box. They can raise money at a rate of $25 from citizens maximum… no corporate money… that’s right none. They are fucking the workingman beyond anything that Ian Rand could have ever dreamed of. It’s our government not corporate America’s. If they think that it’s worth 200 million dollars to get a $500,000 (or what ever it pays) per year job then you can ride around on trains and tell us why. We will provide city parks and public access TV for you to sell us on why you’re the one that I want to vote for! Just think about It, real candidates actually selling us on their ideas, without writers base on demographics. No… at these prices they’ll have to make it up themselves!

Just a thought!

Joe

MCTV TACO SAUCE

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Mad Coyote TV is Alive and Well!

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Mad Coyote TV is Alive and Well!: "At 4:23 pm MS time we took one small step for mad kind and one giant leap for Mad Coyote. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWllhGd8KJE Check ..."

Mad Coyote TV is Alive and Well!

At 4:23 pm MS time we took one small step for mad kind and one giant leap for Mad Coyote.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWllhGd8KJE

Check it out Mad Coyote TV is on Youtube! Please tell your friends!

Warmly

Mad Coyote Joe

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Youtube A Twenty First Century Goldrush!

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Youtube A Twenty First Century Goldrush!: "We are standing at the doorway to the largest transfer of information in the history of mankind. Our access to the web provides an audien..."

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Youtube A Twenty First Century Goldrush!

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Youtube A Twenty First Century Goldrush!: "We are standing at the doorway to the largest transfer of information in the history of mankind. Our access to the web provides an audien..."

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Youtube A Twenty First Century Goldrush!

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: Youtube A Twenty First Century Goldrush!: "We are standing at the doorway to the largest transfer of information in the history of mankind. Our access to the web provides an audien..."

Youtube A Twenty First Century Goldrush!

We are standing at the doorway to the largest transfer of information in the history of mankind. Our access to the web provides an audience of several billion people. Who or what ever we decide to share, we can now share with the entire world. And more importantly the only filter is our willingness to deliver. Gone are the days of some executive deciding what is good or current or marketable. In true democratic fashion the audience it’s self will decide to share or forward. And unlike TV the work is on 24-7, not just this weeks episode, all of the work. For many years I wanted to be a part of the national discussion of cooking in the Southwest in the world of Television food. For me that has all changed, I’m now convinced that I need to focus on all the things that make up our life here in this beautiful Sonoran Desert, the food, the cactus, the tequila, mesquite grilling, our music, the town of Cave Creek, green building, wood fired ovens, adobe building, our cooking school, the list goes on and on!

We will be taping cooking demonstrations but we will also be doing videos on everything else that we are involved with. With the net there is no cost to add another video to the list. Before we had to buy film or tape, today’s cameras cost about 10% of what they cost when I was first on TV and basic editing can be done on a Mac. A friend recently said to me, “I feel like we are living at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and own a mechanic’s shop!” So start a blog, or start doing Youtube videos, twitter, facebook, my space, become someone or something that you’ve always wanted to be. Write a book or poetry or music and launch it. Trust me, sooner or later, someone will figure a way to be the gate keeper to this amazing internet, but for the next few years the doors are wide open… now is the time and this your chance. Don’t miss this centuries gold rush!

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: The best Sorbet I've Ever Had!

Mad coyote Joe's Blah Blah Blog: The best Sorbet i've Ever Had!: "My wife, Chef Kathy and I went shopping two days ago. It was her day off and we went to see a movie. The Kings Speech, a great movie for..."

The best Sorbet I've Ever Had!

My wife, Chef Kathy and I went shopping two days ago. It was her day off and we went to see a movie. The Kings Speech, a great movie for performers, it was definitely a girl movie… but I loved it!

Anyway after the movie we went to Whole Foods and bought a piece of fresh cod, $8.99 a pound, the Frozen cod was $6.99 a pound. This was a really well spent $2 fresh, full of flavor and delicious. While we were shopping Kathy went to get some sorbet, I was buying dark chocolate covered, roasted almonds. I interrupted Kathy while she was getting the sorbet and she thought she had purchased the Mango… but no! She only thought she had the Mango sorbet.

Upon arriving home I was putting the frozen items in the freezer while Kathy was putting the produce away in the big fridge in the Mad Coyote room. I noticed (to my horror) that we did not have our beloved Mango sorbet… no we had… are you ready for this… Basil Lime sorbet. Who on God’s green earth would fuck up sorbet by combining basil with lime? I was sure that it was some recent culinary school graduate that was dropping acid between convincing his or her uncle that owned a sorbet company, that this was a good idea.

10:45 pm the night of the erroneous sorbet purchase; Kathy in a desperate attempt to find some sweet satisfaction decides to try the Basil lime sorbet. I’m not buying it.

In order to understand the dynamic going on here, you need some history.

Kathy for the past forty years has been the one that will say, “Hey Joe, what do you think that light background flavor in the cream sauce is?” She is acting like this is a little question between a husband and wife. No my friend this is much more devious, this is her punking me, she is stomping the holy shit, out of any chance that I may ever have, to have a better palate than her… and she is always right! Kathy has the most amazing palate that I have ever encountered.

So when she tells me, that the basil lime sorbet has “A flavor that she could become addicted to!” I approach it with caution. Again my wife and childhood sweetheart is spot on.

This is one of the greatest flavor combinations, that I have encountered, hands down.

You need to try Sweet Republic, Basil lime Sorbet!

It has my mind reeling with cooking ideas! My advice... get some tonight!

Warmly,

Mad Coyote Joe