Leaderboard

Spun a couple of chooks last night 6hrs of wet brining, half an orange and a couple of slices of butter in each cavity, then dusted with Kosmo's Q Dirty Bird , onto the charcoal+few chunks of Pecan & Mulberry Yesterday was a good day, son and daughter both scored in their respective football codes.......oh yeh the chicken wasn't too bad either

Burger night on the jr ... . . Outback kamado Bar and Grill

OK, my Donabe pot arrived today, so I had to give it a try. First, mine is glazed on the inside, so I didn't have to season it. Nice bonus. First pot of rice was a bit of a miss - had the heat too high and scorched the bottom of the rice in spots (not the yummy crust, black = burnt!). Tossed it out and started over, being careful not to get the heat too high this time. (btw - threw off dinner schedule by about 45 minutes in the "do over.") But, much better results the second time around. Nice fluffy individual grains of rice. I did plain water this time, but going forward, I'll revert to my standard of using stock. Here's a couple of pics - pot cooking on the stove and the finished rice. I have to say that this was some very tasty rice, even plain. But, who am I to question a culture that's been cooking rice for several thousand years!

Charles Back in the US for vacation (can’t wait to get to my Jackson Hole BB32!) with a care package on the way. PIC attached with: - Teriyaki sauce - My favorite onion and sesame (goma) dressings - Wasabi for marinating - Japanese pepper mix - Misi for marinating Enjoy and will share other unique Japanese items moving forward Best!

I finally got nice enough weather to fire up the KK and do a pizza that I'd planned several days ago. Sorry, it's purchased pizza dough, but I did make an uncooked tomato sauce for it. It's a 4 cheese blend - fontina, mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan. Sliced cherry tomatoes dressed with a splash of balsamic vinegar (too early for any from my garden yet), but I did use the basil off my plants. 2 hour heatup/soak @ 475F with the pizza stone on the top grate. Parbaked the crust for 5 minutes, as the uncooked sauce is a bit waterier than a cooked one and didn't want soggy pizza. After the parbake and assembly. Almost done on the KK. Up close and personal. A couple more minutes and viola!

With the over abundant Blueberries I have at my disposal this year I decided to can a batch of my Blueberry BBQ sauce. I did tweak the recipe a little bit. We’ll see how it turns out.  I started by lightly smoking 5 cups of Blueberries at 200*. Here they are after about an hour. Some of them lost their color but that's OK. The juice is in the bottom of the pan (you just can't see it) and they'll all get there color back once you start cooking it.  After an hour or so I dumped them into my pot and smashed them a bit with a potato smasher. Bring to a full rolling boil. Mix up the other ingredients and add to the blueberries. Return to a full rolling boil. After the second rolling boil jar up the mixture and water process for 10 minutes. Check back tomorrow night. We’ll open a small jar and see what we got.

Well, not having any benchmark for how close to original I got, but I have to say that this is some seriously tasty sh!t!! I mixed up the rub and couldn't stop myself from sampling it - it was that good! This one's a keeper - a big THANK YOU to @tekobo ! (btw - the unsalted dry roasted peanuts worked GREAT!) A quick shot of the skewers. I cooked probably twice this many, but I was hungry and was sampling them as they came off the grill - LOL! The key/trick seems to be to hold back some rub and dust them again just before taking them off the grill. I hit them right after they started to sweat. Brilliant! Oh, as a comparison, I did one skewer with my standard Satay rub. Both are good, but surprisingly very different flavor profiles. Won't say one's better than the other. In fairness to the Satay, I didn't have any peanut/coconut milk sauce for it, which might have made the comparison closer. DAMN this is fun!

Pizza night again. Followed a couple of Nancy Silverton recipes. Second pie got away from me a bit and got one side charred a bit. Other side tasted great

So I have been gone for half the month to London and Iceland and now am slowly acclimating back to my time zone..... Which is really difficult. I needed to make sure that I atleast got one pizza in for this month's challenge on the guru and as always I wanted to try something new. I kept hearing about Detroit style pizza, seeing write ups in my magazines, and then some posts on here, so I went to my favorite web resource for new recipes.... Serious eats. I have NEVER had a bad recipe from serious eats, and if they are from j. Kenji Lopez-alt, they are even better. Anyway I was thrilled when he had a Detroit Pizza article and recipe. https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/02/how-to-make-detroit-style-pizza.html After my first post vacation long run I decided to give this a shot. First the dough This was to rise for 2 hours so I had some time to kill. Then I made the sauce which was a cooked sauce. I have been a fan of the no cook sauce for my NY style pizza, but I usually follow a recipe pretty closely the first time I try it. and let it reduce for about a half hour. During this time I was to stretch and let the dough rise some more. I did not have a Detroit pan, but this worked. Then cubed up the cheeses and got the pepperoni. Now this is where I slightly deviated from the great Kenji's recipe. It called for 12 Ounces of pepperoni.... Which would be equal to the amount of cheese called for. His was thicker cut, which I couldn't get, but I still only bought half the amount (in weight) thst was called for.... 2 full packs. His recipe called to layer pepperoni, cubed cheese to the edges than another layer of pepperoni followed by sauce layered in lines. This was so much pepperoni that I didn't end up using the two full packs..... And it was still a ton. Then onto Koko Right before taking it off... Man it smelled amazing... Dislodged it from the pan to wait a few minutes before cutting into it. Then sliced and served with some blistered shitshito peppers. This was positively delicious. The flavor reminded me somewhat of Chicago style.... Sweeter cooked thick sauce with lots of cheese and a thicker crust, but came together more quickly. Of course there were differences, the chewy but slightly crispy cheesy edge, the crust was a lot lighter.... But this will definitely in in the rotation. The next time I make it, I will reduce pepperoni by atleast half and make sure to rotate the pan halfway through baking to make sure all sides get and evenly crisp cheese crust. The family loved this one and it was fun to try a new style of pizza.

I'm betting it will get a big thumbs up!!

Ha ha. Pleased that Nigeria will be represented. Remember that old expression? Some of my best friends are black? Well, some of my best friends voted for Brexit and for Trump (not the same friends given the geographic challenges). What the current politics draws out is the differences between us. I think it is a good thing that we are more aware of those differences but I sure as hell have no idea how we reconcile them.

Wait...this thread is about Marmite? When did that happen?? I’m thinking flank or skirt steak would work well here. Can’t wait to try it. Looks awesome! I have all sorts of ethnic cooks planned for next week celebrating the 4th of July — the birth of a nation of immigrants. My personal way of sticking it to the man!

Oooh. What a lot of lovely cooks! By the magic of the internet I have been able to start my day with sausage, chook, burger, pizza and rice. All really nice. No wonder I am not losing any weight...

Welcome back to the states! And the J-Hole as my husband affectionately refers to it as..... (he can do that since he grew up there I suppose...)

I had a visitor yesterday - not a bear, thankfully, just a cute chipmunk (ground squirrel). He was just helping out getting the grill ready for supper!

I put the meat on last night, all on the main grate, with foil on the lower grate. This morning it looks like a couple of hours to go. There is a very nice aroma around the cooker! I am thinking I won't be run out of town

OK. There is a certain irony in the fact that the two most vociferous opponents of marmite @Pequod and @tony b have managed to trick me into hijacking my own thread. You evil mind benders you! Explaining my suya dilemma is difficult on this first world BBQ forum where we all know our meat. The issue is that I genuinely cannot remember talking about cuts of meat when I lived in Nigeria. Admittedly I was only a kid but I remember meat like beef was categorised as a) "meat" = joined up stuff, b) "shaki and lots of other names" = the fun world of offal and, if you were being particularly posh, c) "fullay" which I later discovered = fillet. I texted a friend from the north today to ask her if she knew what meat suya is made from and said "Hi. No sorry." When I explained that I needed to tell some weird Americans she said "I think it is just very thinly sliced meat from wherever". That pretty much sums up our approach to meat and explains why I have been struggling to settle on the right cut when the reality is any cut I like for barbecuing would be right. I remember raw suya as broad, thin, cross grain cuts of meat soaking in what looked like a marinade of oil and rub. I also remember there being the occasional, tasty bit of fat. My guess is that fillet or skirt would be good but, given the amount of suya that gets eaten it must also come from other parts of the animal. Photos on these sites approximate best to what I remember: https://www.dealdey.com/deals/special-beef-suya-sausages https://abbeywoodcashandcarry.com/shop/meat-fish-and-poultry/suya-takeaway/ I will go on researching but I suspect you should make it with what you have. In any case suya also gets made with all sorts of other meat - chicken gizzards, goat, liver, etc so feel free to experiment. The key is the rub and getting the right level of hot pepper heat without killing the other flavours is part of the Russian roulette of choosing your favourite suya spot.

There’s a recipe for suya and an entire article talking about it in the July-August 2017 issue of Milk Street magazine (which I really like). I just put it on my menu for next weekend if I can get all of the ingredients. @tekobo - what is the traditional cut of beef to use? The Milk Street recipe calls for flat iron steak, but curious if there’s something more legit.

It was actually sitting on one of the half deflector plates on top of what i think you call the deflector grid. I was going to post the question on how to go about it, was worried about the pan getting too hot hence the def. plate. Pre cooked only the potatoes in microwave for ten minutes. Had temp sitting around 370-390F for entire cook (1hr45mins) was using the Meater probe as well (impressed), did notice i used a fair bit of charcoal on that cook, it was i'd say 3/4 basket full with around half of it fresh charcoal. I took the veggie pan and deflector out for the last 20mins (they were done) wanted to crisp up the skin a bit with some direct grilling, which you can do with this fabulous beast. Veggie pan survived the test, but only because it was screened by the Def. plate.....and did i say the veggies we're the ducks nuts

@BonFire - nice spin! Looks like your veg pan is directly on the deflector grid, is that right? What temp did you run for this spin? Did the veg pan get charred a bit on the bottom? Curious about the parameters and results as I usually have my veg pan on the indirect side of my 23 splitter, but like the idea of running direct as you did.

Way cool!!! I am so glad you like it. They have the authentic dry rub look. It would be good to start a new thread with your recipe and method if you want. I can then add to it when I try it too. My dad is still here on holiday and he's been giving me the jeebies: "getting the right piece of meat is important, that is what the suya man said in Lagos. Ask a butcher who knows about suya". I had to remind him that he was in England and that the butchers here have never heard of suya. He is also insistent that any internet research includes making sure that the writer is a northerner. We are from southern Nigeria and suya is traditionally made by northerners so he thinks it won't be right unless I do it their way. As you can guess, the weight of expectation is even greater with dad here to judge the authenticity! Super pumped and happy that you enjoyed it so much Tony. Thanks for trying it.

Turned out superb Bruce. Been reading a lot about catching the drippings over the veggies be it chicken or beef, Julie usually does them in the kitchen oven and she commented how nice they turned out, so thats another one for the little black book and one less job for my darling wife.

I received my replacement part for my roti a few days ago and it works great!! Thanks @DennisLinkletter put another check in the win column!

Cute, I love those little critters, they are so gentle and normally quite shy.

Live .lol Outback kamado Bar and Grill

Why we don't want to cook with wood.. When wood or any biomass is heated the biofuel/wood alcohol/methanol in it turns to gas/vapor.. Because the gas is hot it rises and mixes with the available air/oxygen.. When the fuel-air ratio/mixture is correct it ignites and burns as a flame. If this takes place inside a grill where there is no available air/oxygen it then turns into a thick fog like smoke with large very sticky droplets. This thick smoke burns your eyes of course because it's wood alcohol. Imagine misting your eyes with alcohol. These large molecules of wood alcohol also stick to your clothes and makes you smell like a forest fire. Condensation is how the vapor and flavor is transmitted to your food.. If this vapor condenses on your food it is extremely bitter and acrid.. Nasty stuff. It's my hypothesis that many people smoke their food with this first thick smoke, that's why so many rubs and sauces are ridiculously sweet using high fructose corn syrup because adding sweet to this bitter flavor make can make a semi-palatable "tangy" flavor.. We want the organic material that is released just after the flame or thick fog/smoke is vented.. It's translucent and can have a blue tint.. one often hears to it referred to as blue smoke. Truth is cooking with wood when there is a flame is really cooking with gas.. Old school BBQ joints burn their wood outside until the flame is just about gone and then immediately shovel the remaining charcoal into their grills/smokers.. That's the magic smooth smoke that makes Q out of this world..

Thanks, Randy. I gave up on corn on the cob because the raccoons would come and test it then just when I was about to get some they would come overnight and clean the whole thing out. :(

Made these mini baguettes for the first time this morning. The recipe only made 4. Now I need something to go with them so thought some very spicy beer sausages would do the trick. Plated.

Bought some unsalted dry roasted peanuts at the market today, along with nice thin sliced beef bottom round. So, if the weather cooperates (been raining for days now!), I hope to give the Suya a go. Will be 2 experiments - finally gonna break out the yakitori grill and try the new charcoals I bought for it months ago!

Naa no heating up, just the warm balmy climate we have here in England Something for you: I read that there was an aged version of Marmite called Marmite XO. Looked on shelves in my local supermarket, no sign of such a thing. Searched online and found a "limited edition collectable" jar of XO on sale on ebay for, wait for it, £60. You learn something new every day and it is not always useful!

Had a couple of fun cooks over the weekend. Tried out my griddle plate on some nice Aussie red jumbo shrimp, lobster tails and Mexican corn. The next day spun a nice hen with a pan of vadalias and brussels catching the drippings underneath. It always amazes me how the KK keeps everything so moist! Crisping the skin 4484A6F9-B634-416B-96F2-545173E6810E.MOV

Well I received my donabe rice cooker today. But the instructions are all in Japanese go figure. Anyway I looked up how to season it on YouTube and will probably season it tomorrow. Then I can cook some rice in it. I’m also going to cook a pork butt tomorrow and make some pulled pork. This will be the first port butt that I’ve ever cooked so wish me luck. I gave it a good rub down today with some mustard and some pork rub and its in the refrigerator till tomorrow morning. I haven’t decided Whether to cook it on my Traeger or on my KK. I know, I know! use the KK. But I’m trying to get good using both. Pictures to follow

Thought I might just as well add a couple of pixs from the rebuild of my square foot garden boxes.

Almost looks like those grates were smeared with Vegemite. Couldn't you just lick them clean?

Yep looks like Jon went whole hog on this cook lol

Really beautiful, MacKenzie. I used to have a fair size garden, but quit when the deer completely cleaned out 750 feet of cream peas, in one night! We were actually going to pick them the next day. But no bears!

Thanks, Aussie, so far they have destroyed beehives that we had but that was many years ago, more recently they have only ripped down the two bird feeders that I was able to fix. Knock on wood they have not touched my garden. We never used to see bears and they have only become a problem in recent years. I believe it is because we have lost all the small farms in the area and a big outfit will come in and rent the land and grow huge crops of corn, there are acres and acres of corn normally. Good feed for the raccoons and bears. The outfit that was doing that went bankrupt this year and so far nothing has been planted. I guess we might have a lot of hungry critters. I am hoping they will move on. (The critters, that is.)