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I was less than pleased to be quoted with a how to light charcoal that is nothing special. I wrote Max and told him my lighting technique got a bit lost in translation.. and gave him this. Fill the charcoal basket, light one small piece of lump charcoal the size of a walnut with a paraffin cube, torch or heat gun. Once lit use a cheapo hairdryer as a “blower” to get the now lit piece glowing madly. (get one with a big fan the size of a large lemon) The heat generated from the glowing charcoal will quickly ignite as much charcoal as you need because as the charcoal is lit it also immediately starts to glow madly and light more. Nothing gets charcoal lit faster outside of a big gas weed burner.

Everyone is welcome at Outback Kamado Bar and Grill Outback Kamado Bar and Grill ♨

I spoke with Dennis today just to confirm my money went through ,it's all good whilst I had the chance I ordered my accessories . Double drip pan Splitter Extra basket 8" rotisserie with the 6" reducer Large baking stone and the teak side tables Was thinking about a couple of boxes of charcoal but my kk will be shipped via lcl and the charcoal is considered a flammable material which it is I can get a whole pallet shipped but not interested at this point of time and Dennis very graciously threw in the teak grill grabbers can't wait lol Outback Kamado Bar and Grill ♨

I finally got my notification this morning. My KK 32 will be delivered on 6/23!

Day 2 of KK cooking - thought we'd try some tandoori to take advantage of all the space available in the KK relative to other cookers. Turned out very nicely - the skewers sat nicely above the fire, all contained, temperature rock solid at 250C. Served with naan, kachumber, tandoori mushrooms and mint raita.

I've outlined this procedure before but with a few new members I thought I would do it again. Besides had to cook something for dinner last night. . The idea is to quickly sear a piece of protein then use the kamado to bake a dish. . Start by lighting a full firebox of lump in 2 or 3 spots. Close the dome and set both upper and lower vents to wide open. The idea is to get a raging bed off coals (for the sear) while trapping as little heat in the kamado as possible. Once the coals are going good do a quick sear using a lower grate. (in this case 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs) . Once the Sear is complete pull the protein, add your heat diffuser and main grate. Close the dome and adjust your vents for your desired baking temperature. Initially your temperature is going to plunge. Just be patient. The fire will die down while the ceramics soak up the extra heat in there. Your kamado should now slowly glide up to the baking temperature you set with your vents. I was aiming for 400* baking temperature. Once stable at your temperature proceed with your cook. . While waiting for the kamado to get to baking temperature I went inside and got my chicken pot pie ready using the grilled chicken. If you have never used grilled protein in a meat pie you are in for a treat. Takes chicken pot pie to a whole other level. I put the pot pie on a heat soaked kamado and 35 minutes later it was done. A simple easy meal using one kamado. Reef's Bistro

Normally I stay as far from fish dinners as I can but after hearing how great the fish is from a guy who parks beside the road at a local gas station I thought I try it out. Bought 1 pound of haddock fillets, raced home to look up how to cook them sous vide. 130F for 30 mins the recipe said. Sprinkled on some granulated garlic, a little black pepper and a little cayenne which turnout to be too much.;) Half way thru the cook the power went out, eek. Fortunately I had some water on hand so I heated it in a pot on the gas stove and was able to keep the water pretty much at 130F. Here's my first sous vide haddock dinner. I wanted to get an interior shot of the fish but didn't want a cold fish dinner. The result is not such a great shot, the fish was very moist, flaky and simply wonderful. I can't believe I'm saying that. I just came back from town with 2 more pounds. It is now vacuum sealed and in the freezer. The truck just shows up whenever, it could be weeks before he's back, you just have to be lucky and catch him when you can.

This is the first time I've seen boneless beef short ribs at the local store so I thought I'd give them a try. SV @ 137F for 48 hours. While this was happening look at what was happening at my pot of chives- Dinner- The meat was very tender and tasty.

It is a wonderful place to live, we are so far behind that we are ahead of the rest of the country, We are even ahead time wise, they are all behind us but don't tell them I said that.;)

I'm very happy that I might get to eat some healthy fish;) There is no crust all I did was 30 mins. @ 130F, cut the bag open and put the fish on my plate. Yes, that is some day or two old potato salad. I use a few different containers for sous vide, mostly use an 8 L polycarbaonate container. It looks like this https://www.amazon.ca/Cambro-6SFSPP190-Polypropylene-CamSquares-Translucent/dp/B001BZEQ44/ref=pd_sim_79_7?ie=UTF8&dpID=41PBNHNpfLL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR155%2C160_&refRID=CVWFFWFFA8NX29T8WJ7H but any container that will hold your circulator and the food is good. No, don't sv the pork shoulder, cook that on the KK, for sure! There are certain conditions that you must follow when doing SV cooking. Lots of info to read on the web. You need to follow these guides so that you do kill all the nasties in the raw food. The time and temp. you use depends upon the food, and the thickness. It does take some reading but well worth it. Ex. I love the look of a medium rare steak but I'm not comfortable doing it using traditionall techniques, frying pan, grill, etc. but with SV I can be sure all the nasties are gone and I can have the look and texture of med. rare. Because you have had others cook your food for so long I suggest you go slow, Pick something you like, do your research on how to cook it, do it, enjoy and move forward. I hope you have a camera and are prepared to take pixs and post them. This is a journey and an enjoyable one. Time is your friend. We will be here to root for you and watch your progress.:)

Bruce, I normally just use a 5 qt stock pot for my SV cooks, which are usually small. There is a "low level" alarm and shut-off switch in the Anova, so you need a vessel that will submerge it to above that level, with extra room for evaporation. It's easier in the newer model with the adjustable height clamp. I have the older model with the fixed clamp. For a bigger cook, like beef ribs, corned beef brisket, etc. that won't fit in the stock pot, I have a bigger Cambro box and lid (which has a sliding top). Picked them up on Amazon. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001MRVN6/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002NQB63E/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Looking good! I went down the the Black bear restaurant last week to have a chicken pot pie and they don't make them anymore:-( Guess I'll have to learn to make my own, probably taste better anyway. This is a cool site, I'm learning a lot reading all the great posts. Thanks everybody.

Thanks all! It was a very tasty bird indeed. Ate one of the leftover breast pieces last night on top of my dinner salad after golf. (Too tired to cook.) I'll try one with the basket splitter down the road. I'll also do one with Charles' infrared shield. As a first-out-of-the-shoot cook, I wanted to do this one as straight-up as I could.

Wish we were that careful in this country. Look at all the invasive species we've introduced into our biology as landscaping plants (Japanese wisteria), erosion control (good old kudzu!) and pets (ask the Floridians about all the pythons loose in the Everglades!)

A great post of about the best comfort food there is. Thanks, Charles! Kudos to you.

Definitely wouldn't want you getting in trouble with our deputy prime minister Chris. I suggest inviting Barnaby to the first meal you produce on KK. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The cotter pin was attached to the top vent cap when I unpacked it. You can see the cotter pin in one of the photos in my original post. I took it off to get the top vent cap out of the box, and reattached it when I screwed it into the top lid.

I know Dennis goes through a bit more getting a KK into Australia than he does getting them into the states. Your pallet will come wrapped in plastic, fumigated and certified as such. There is a picture somewhere on this forum showing a KK pallet still in the plastic. . In the states he can just stack a bunch of stuff on top of the pallet and secure it with saran wrap. Reef's Bistro

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill ♨

That article is written by Max Good, the principal reviewers over at AmazingRibs.com and reflects a small bias against the kamado. To the Amazing Ribs crew, 2-Zone is the be all and end all. they generally don't think much of kamados when all is said and done. I'm trying my best to educate them over there. The kamado 101 posts have been well received so far. I'm about to wind up the posts on Smoking and we're about to move on to 2-Zone cooking, something that you can do on just about any kamado IF you know what you're doing. All in all, I think that review is pretty fair. I will say this, Amazing Ribs does like the KK. But then, what's not to like, right!?

Thanks, CC. You are not the only one surprised by this dinner I was too.

I was trying for 250* but was OK with 300* - I basically got this one. I probably would have gone slightly smaller vent settings but after getting up so late I was scared the temp would be low and I'd never get to eat. . Clues along the way was the color of the bark and how much drippings were in the drip pan. Those just gave me a basic idea of how far along this cook was. Probe tender is always done regardless of everything else. . A great personal challenge. Reef's Bistro

I volunteer to go to Australia to help Aussie Ora - LOL Reef's Bistro

Still waiting on that indoor plumbing thing to catch on there, too, I bet!

@_Ed_ - Take MacKenzie's advice and set everything up cold and run it for about 15 minutes with some weight (at least a couple of pounds) in the basket. I used a 3# sack of onions. You'll know right away if things are going to go south on you. Depending on what issues you may have (hopefully none!), the fixes can be as simple as swapping the shafts on the rotisserie basket so they don't unscrew. Yes, there's a Left/Right to the threads. If the motor shaft unscrews, you might have to put some blue LockTite on the threads to get them to hold. Last alternative, is to reverse the spin on your motor. I posted the instructions on how to do that in the Maintenance thread of the Forum. Good Luck. Let us know how it worked out.

@ dstr8, you are very welcome and it just occurred to me that I probably sprinkled the diced potatoes with cayenne pepper before I put them in the sous vide bath.

@ dstr8, Potato Salad - Dice the potatoes, sprinkle with granulated garlic, cayenne pepper, and freshly ground black pepper. Spread in single layer and vacuum seal. SV @ 185F for 75-90 mins, depends upon how thick the cubes are. Test by squeezing one of the cube to see if it is soft. Remove when done and immediately put into very cold water of even better an ice bath. Add dressing to suit and I added a little seed style mustard, sliced fresh radish from my garden, chopped chives, diced onion, diced boiled egg that was not used for egg slices, and some cooked peas. You will find the texture of the salad different than normally boiled potatoes, but in a good way, they don't mush up. Now I'm hungry

The dough looks soft and airy.

@CeramicChef - corn was tasty, but not the good local stuff yet. Won't start seeing that until late July. Driving out in the countryside yesterday, corn is only about 2 ft tall right now. Remember the old saying - knee high by the 4th of July. @bryan - no, it didn't. Hence, thinking it might have needed an extra day. @ckreef - I toyed with an actual side-by-side cook, but I've cooked these TJ steaks a few times now and have a pretty good feel for what they taste like and their texture. One of the reasons I chose this steak for the trial, is that they are a bit on the chewy side, but have great flavor. What would be fun to do is a sirloin, cut it half, do one half with the koji for 3 days and second half just plain, dry aged for 3 days. Cooked side-by-side. I've done bigger steaks in the fridge for up to a week and like the way they turn out. Been meaning to try the UMAi bags, but haven't broken down and ordered any yet. So many things to try, so few meals!

Thanks I went to u-tube and looked it up and then ordered a anova. I already have a vacuum sealer so I will be ready to go. Now all I have to is start cooking LOL. Been eating out the past 27 years. I am having a hard time breaking this habit. Have a great weekend