Recipes
Don't just think pizzas when buying an Alfresco Wood Fired Pizza Oven™, you can cook just about anything in our ovens. To give you some ideas we have included some guides and recipes below.
Creating the perfect wood fired pizza
To help you out with your new Alfresco Wood Fired Pizza Oven™, we have some suggested recipes for the perfect pizza.
Basic Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 3kg bakers' flour
- 1 Tbsp dried yeast
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1.25L - 1.5L water
- 50ml extra virgin olive oil
Method
- Combine flour with salt, sugar and water. Mix until well formed dough is attained.
- In a separate bowl add a small amount of tepid water to yeast and stir until dissolved.
- Add the yeast, baking powder and olive oil to the dough and knead until combined.
- Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before using.
More Information
Makes 15 - 20 pizzas. Recipe may be halved. Unused dough may be kept in the fridge for up to 5 weeks in a sealed container.
Basic Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
- Handful of fresh basil, chopped
- 30ml extra virgin olive oil
- Fresh garlic according to taste, crushed
- Pinch of salt
Method
- Combine all ingredients in blender and spread evenly over prepared pizza base.
More Information
Try blending sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil with basil, garlic and seasonings for a richer, fuller flavour.
Making Pizzas
Method
- Prepare 300g of the basic dough to make a pizza base of desired thickness.
- Spread evenly with 70g of the basic sauce, leaving a 2cm border.
- Sprinkle 50g of mozzarella cheese and add toppings of your choice (see our recommendations).
More Information
Remember, the best pizzas are often those that are the most simple, so keep the number of toppings and the amount that you use to a minimum (we usually recommend 2 or 3 different toppings). Have fun experimenting!
Recommended Toppings
We have included below a list of toppings you might like to keep handy in your fridge and pantry:
Fresh Herbs
- Basil
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Oregano
Meats
- Proscuito
- Parma ham
- Bacon
- Salami
- Roasted chicken
Seafoods
- Scallops (sear these before adding them to the pizza)
- Prawns
- Anchovies
Vegetables
- Onions
- Tomatoes (fresh and sundried in olive oil)
- Olives
- Mushrooms
- Capsicum
- Artichokes
- Capers
- Corn
- Asparagus
Additional cheeses
Try adding other cheeses like those below as toppings.
- Fetta
- Parmesan
- Bocconcini
Smoking Meat & Fish
Many use our wood fired pizza ovens for smoking meats, fish, etc. The oven temperature is kept at below 200°C and, as a slow cook or bake as required.
Let your oven go to a downward temperature and then place water soaked hickory, marri or other scented woods, sawdust or shavings. A 2kg chicken can take up to 2 hours, but the flavour is to die for. This meat is especially tasty when left a day to cool and eaten cold.
The heat does the job of cooking and the smoke imparts flavour.
Some close the door off after their main cooking and let their meats cook and smoke overnight.
A variation of smoking is as follows:
Fish smoked in paper
Fish cooked this way is moist and has a mild smoky flavour.; if you have any left over, it's delicious served cold. This is a good way to prepare and carry fish to a picnic site, as the paper will keep the fish cold for several hours.
You can use salmon, flounder, or rockfish, allowing about 1 pound per person. For 8 to 10 people, plan on 3 fish or about 3 pounds each, or 2 fish of 4 to .5 pounds each.
Clean the fish, removing heads and tails; rub with salt (about 1 tea spoon per pound of fish) and sprinkle with pepper. Stuff the cavity of each fish with equal parts of chopped parsley and finely chopped onion. Wrap each fish well in buttered waxed paper so there is a 1 inch thickness of paper (you'll need about 8 double sheets of newspaper for a 3 pound fish). To make the packet easier to handle, tie with string.
Dip the packets in water to moisten the outer layer of paper and place in the oven away from the fire. Let the newspaper smoulder but not flame (quench flames with water). The fish only has to be turned once at 25 minutes then another 20 minutes. When packets have smouldered down to the waxed paper layer (it takes about 3/4 of an hour for a fish of about 3 pounds to cook). Remove the charred newspaper and waxed paper from one side of each fish and turn over onto serving platter; then remove the paper from the other side of each fish. Serve with melted butter and lemon slices.
Use Your Oven as a BBQ
Steaks
Good chefs will tell you the only way to cook steak is to heat up a pan with a thick base. Place the steak in the pan and sear both sides. Place the pan and meat in the oven for 5 to 6 minutes and then pull the pan out and let it sit for 5 minutes. You won't taste better steaks.
Sausages
When cooking sausages there is no need to turn them when cooking. The Alfresco oven is designed so that it heats equally at the top and bottom. We lay fresh asparagus out to cover the bottom of a pan and place spiced sausages on top. All is cooked within 6 to 8 minutes.
Cooking on Skewers
Place your metal skewers with food over a pan to support each skewer end and to catch fats and juices. Simply slide the tray into the oven. The skewers will only have to be rotated once because of the ovens equal heat.
BBQ Recipes
Below are some great BBQ recipes to try with your Alfresco oven:
Pakistani Kebabs
The spice mixture in the marinade for these kebabs is similar to a Pakistani curry. Use beef, lamb or chicken - or some of each. If you plan to serve a combination of meats, put each kind on an individual skewer.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cups yoghurt
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger (or 0.25 teaspoon ground ginger)
- 1 small dried hot chilli pepper, crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed, crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 2 pounds of boneless lean beef sirloin or lamb (shoulder or leg), cut in 1 1/4 inch cubes, or 5 whole chicken breasts, skinned, boned, and cut in bite-size pieces
Method
To make the marinade, combine the yoghurt, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli pepper, cumin, nutmeg, cardamom, salt, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper. Stir meat into marinade (keep meats separate if you use several so you can skewer and cook them separately). Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Remove meat from marinade and string on skewers. Cook until browned and just tender - about 6 - 7 minutes for lamb and beef, 5 to 6 minutes for chicken. Makes about 6 servings.
Skewered Veal Barbecue
When making these kebabs, if you have any pineapple left over, drain it well; sauté the pieces in a small amount of butter until lightly browned and serve as an accompaniment.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons salad or olive oil
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 2 or 3 veal steaks, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick
- Dry red wine
- 1 can (1lb., 13oz.) sliced pineapple
Method
Mix together soy sauce, onion, oil, and oregano. Cut the veal steaks into 1 to 1 1/2 inch squares, depending on the thickness of your skewers. Put the veal squares in a bowl, pour in the marinade, then add enough wine to cover the meat. Let the meat marinate all day and turn it in the marinade from time to time. Cut the pineapple slices into quarters.
About 2 hours before time to cook, string the meat on the skewers with a piece of of pineapple between every two pieces of meat. You'll have to work carefully as the pineapple might split if the skewers are too large. Arrange the skewers on a shallow pan (pizza trays are ideal), pour over the sauce and marinate, turning once. Baste with the marinade when you turn skewers. This fills 6 good sized skewers.
Skewer Combinations
If you are wondering what foods complement each other on skewers, here are some tried and true combinations:
- Pork cubes, pineapple chunks, green pepper squares, sweet potato squares.
- Steak cubes, brown-and-serve bread chunks, mushroom caps, tomatoes.
- Prunes, brown-and-serve sausage, small onions, spiced crab apples.
- Ham cubes, thick sliced banana, sweet potatoes.
- Figs stuffed with anchovies, ripe olives, salami cubes, brown-and-serve rolls.
- Polish sausage, cherry tomatoes, eggplant cubes, stuffed green olives.
- Cheese cubes and luncheon meat, cut in quarters, and threaded alternately with mushrooms or ripe olives.
- Meatballs, onions, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms.
- Knackwurst, small onions, potato or zucchini slices.
- Turkey cubes, pineapple chunks, ripe olives, sweet potatoes.
- Ham cubes, corn on the cob, cheese wrapped in refrigerated biscuits, stuffed olives.
