wood burning oven legacy

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 Matt is a chef at Amuse Bistro in Shawnigan Lake.

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This September approximately 600 chefs will gather at Providence Farm in Duncan to cook, eat and discuss how culinary professionals can contribute to the sustainability of our oceans.  The event is being hosted by the Canadian Chef Congress and dozens of chefs from Vancouver and Vancouver Island have worked hard during the last two years to organize this ambitious gathering.

The chair of the Vancouver Island organizing committee is well known island chef and expert mushroom forager Bill Jones.  Bill owns and runs Deerholme Farm in the Cowichan Valley.

It was decided early on to ensure that the event provide a legacy for Providence Farm that will endure long after the chefs depart. The farm hosts many great food events and so the chefs decided to build an outdoor wood burning oven in memory of the island’s nationally loved culinary icon James Barber.

We are not talking about an ordinary oven here but rather a concrete structure the size of a small cottage that can accommodate several pigs or enough pizza to feed an army of chefs. It will be a tremendous asset to the farm.

The Congress chefs hosted a successful dinner at the farm in the spring to raise funds for the oven building project. Gary Hynes, editor of Eat Magazine wrote an article about the dinner and the project. A reader named Carol Spencer was inspired by the article to donate an oven thus saving us from building one from scratch. James Barber was involved in the creation of this oven so it seemed appropriate.

The oven was in Comox and needed to get to Duncan so we we started to work out the complicated logistics of moving a cottage-sized oven two hundred kilometres. Many phone calls ensued.  The Cowichan School of Motoring generously offered to donate a flat bed truck for the purpose so now all we had to figure out was how to get the oven onto the truck. In order to do so we needed to know how much the oven weighed.   This was a difficult calculation to make as you cannot simply pop an oven this size on a scale.

The original owner of the oven guessed it weighted around 12,000 pounds. Based on this estimate we found a crane with a load limit of 20,000 pounds and assumed lifting the oven would be a breeze. Bill and I arrived in Comox early to prepare for the lift. We cleaned up the insulation and loosened the rock holding the oven in place. We then dug a foot deep trench around the perimetre of the oven so we could place the sling under the concrete slab holding it in place.

When the crane arrived we successfully hooked up the oven and started to hoist it up. The crane operator took up the slack and the oven budged a little -the scale read 13,000 pounds. The crane operator continued until the scale read 18,000 pounds but the oven still had not moved. At this point he declared he had reached the limit of his crane’s capacity and could not proceed further so he released the tension, unhooked everything, packed up his cables and left.

We immediately got on the phone and called another crane company who to our immense relief said they could come within the hour. We had a donated flat bed truck on site patiently waiting for its load. The lift limit for this crane was 50,000 pounds.

The new crane arrived, hooked up the oven and lifted it like it was a sack of potatoes. When the oven was up in the air hanging above the flat bed the scale registered 27,200 pounds, more then double our original estimate. The guys from Cowichan School of Motoring secured the oven on the truck and proceeded to transport it to its new home.

In the next couple of weeks we are going to finish the outside of the with bricks, add insulation and a new roof. Another post with pictures of the final oven will follow soon.  In the meantime Bill shared this great wood oven recipe.  Enjoy.

Tarte Flambe with Morels, Fresh Cream Cheese and Bacon

Pre-heat Oven to 425 F

Pastry:

1 cup (250 mL)           warm water

1 tsp (5 mL)    I           instant yeast

1 tsp (5 mL)                salt

2 cup (500 mL)           unbleached flour

Topping:

1 cup (250 mL)           slab bacon (or pork belly) small cubed or thick slices

1                                  onion, sliced (or washed and cleaned leek)

1 cup (250 mL)           fresh cream cheese (or sour cream

¼ cup                          dried morels (soaked in water 1 hour)

¼ cup                          white wine

1 tbsp                          fresh chives, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

In a mixing bowl, mix the warm water and yeast and allow to stand 5 minutes until frothy. Add salt and flour and mix with a wooden spoon until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes, until dough has an elastic texture. Cover and allow to rise 20 minutes in a warm area.

In a frying pan, sauté the bacon and onion (or leek). When the mixture has just begun to colour, add the morels (remove from soaking liquid) and white wine. Cook until the mixture has reduced down and the pan appears dry. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut dough into 2 equal portions and dust lightly with flour. Roll as thinly as possible into a rectangle about the size of a legal sheet (11” x 14”) and place on prepared baking tray. Spread 1/2 of the sour cream over the surface of the dough. Top with 1/2 each of the bacon and sliced onions. Season with salt and pepper. Repeat with remaining dough and ingredients.

Bake in the oven 10 minutes or until the crust is golden and crisp.

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