Leaderboard

I experimented with many add-ins, including diastatic malt powder, figuring out sourdough bread in the KK. I stopped using it after a few tries. I want to bake my bread as long as feasible. A browning agent shortens this window with no compensating benefit that I could identify. We took a pizza class with Rosetta Costantino (author of My Calabria). She favors the hottest oven one can arrange, so she counsels stripping any dough recipe of any add-ins (sugar, oil) that increase browning. Like landing a plane in adverse conditions, one wants the longest possible runway. My neighbors installed a dedicated wood-fired pizza oven, which presents its own host of challenges. By comparison, the main challenge (in my experience) using a KK is properly contending with the "from below" heat source. Without a heat deflector, essentially all of the heat is coming up through the stone, and one ends up pan-roasting the pizza. Recall the often-given advice for wood burning pizza ovens: Measure the stone, not the air. There's considerable lag in the stone. In the worst case, a fire got away but one corrects, thinking the new lower air temperature means one can bake pizzas after all. The still-too-hot stone then incinerates the pizza crust before the topping cooks. My favorite way to bake/roast anything in the KK is to start the fire earlier than one thinks necessary, and cook after the fire is dying down, but the KK itself is very heat soaked. This is tricky to both time and manage, but then one is cooking more with radiant heat from the KK walls, for a more even effect like a dedicated wood-fired pizza oven.

Got some nice shorties and double rubbed them ..on they go over Pecan..looking good another hour to go..I put some butter on some corn and a sweet rub tony b sent me...on they go with the ribs..Dee was going to hard boil some eggs for the salad I thought I would throw them on as well good move cooked great ..ready to go...and sliced..and plated used some of ckreefs peach balsamic liquid gold on the sale yum.

Our local farmer’s market features a vendor who brings us the best of the Chesapeake. This week he had enormous Rockfish filets, so we’re making a recipe from Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill cookbook. Like many Flay recipes, we start by charring and roasting peppers. This time it’s yellow peppers and poblanos, hence the title of this thread. The peppers are being converted into the subject accompaniments. Meanwhile, grilling corn whilst cooking the humongous rockfish filets on the Baking Steel griddle. Just look at these beauties. On the serving platter with the grits and poblano vinaigrette. Like many Flay recipes, big flavors and great use of Southwestern flavors. Home run!

Tonight’s dinner was Berkshire pork belly with home made bao buns and a hoisin based bbq sauce, these are quickly becoming a favourite!

Tonight's dinner was a double experiment - a second try at the Japanese charcoal on the yakitori grill and another side-by-side of my recipe and tekobo's on some suya skewers, with some ponzu shrimp thrown in for a palate cleanser! First, ckreef gets a shout out for his tip on getting this Japanese charcoal to stay lit on the yakitori grill. Pictures? Of course there's pictures! Skewers prep'ed and ready to go - my suya recipe is on the left, tekobo's on the right. On the yakitori grill. Had to stagger the cooks to fit. Tekobo's suya on the left, shrimp on the right. Each side had a different charcoal. Both worked very well and produced a nice steady heat. They are still going a couple of hours later. This stuff compares favorably to Dennis' cocochar - albeit a bit more pricey! Plated, with a nice side salad, crisp rose wine and some Caribbean yellow rice (done in the donabe). It was such a nice day, that I had to eat outside on the deck. Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up! My rub on the left and tekobo's on the right, with extra sprinkles after cooking. By the end of the meal, I was hitting that rose hard! Thankfully there was a salad at the end. But, I do have to say that my recipe had a tad more heat than tekobo's. Gonna have to work on it a bit more. I like the peanut in mine, but the earthy flavors in tekobo's are nice.

Kai Yang Chicken with Tamarind Dipping Sauce. This is a Milk Street recipe. There’s lemongrass in there, so I know it’s authentic. Making the sauce. Starts with sautéing some lemongrass, a chili, and shallot. Then magic happened! (I.e., I forgot to take any other pics of the sauce making process). The chook brined in a soy sauce, fish sauce, cilantro, lemongrass, etc. mixture for two hours. Then I spun it with a pineapple. The pineapple is sporting Dizzy Pig Pineapple Head, which I’m told is all the rage in Thailand. Ready to serve. Have done this one before. It’s becoming a favorite way to do a chook.

Today I used my NY style Serious Eats pizza dough to make a naked pizza. Heated the KK and stone to 530F. Used an IR thermometer to check. Dough is just out of fridge, started it last evening. Made 2 dough balls. Pizza one with fresh mozzarella. Baking on KK. Done and ready for basil from the garden. Basil from the garden. Crumb view. Pizza 2 added more sauce and cheese this time. Pizza 2 on KK. Second pizza baked. This was a fun cook, but I miss my loaded pizza.

When using the baking stone in the KK I first light the fire, wait for the KK to get to the temperature I want and stabilize (this takes about an hour). It's at this point I put the baking stone in. The temperature will drop but I leave the vents alone. Eventually the temp climbs back up to where it was when I put the stone on. (takes about an hour). I now know the KK and stone are equalized and ready. It's a fairly simple process that you can use for timing. I usually start this 2 1/2 hours before I need it ready. Gives me an extra 30 minutes and if it is ready early no big deal it can sit and wait on me.

I took this advice and got up and move from comfy chair in my ODK and lit my pizza cook fire. Now I can go back to where I was for a couple of hours. [emoji4][emoji41][emoji7]

What happend to the BMX.lol. Outback kamado Bar and Grill

Helpful explanation about the role of the diastatic malt, @Pequod. The Pizza Bible Neopolitan recipe does call for 00 flour + the malt so I will try that combo next. The browning effect is interesting but potentially more impactful will be the effect on how the yeast behaves. The Pizza Bible balls rose the least out of the three recipes tried. Not a bad thing necessarily but it will be good to see what they do when I actually follow that part of the recipe. My experience with dough to date has been with bread and, looking at @ckreef's dough tutorial and the YouTube videos I have watched, I see that pizza dough needs a different type of handling. Less heavy handed and more purposeful. Learning that difference will help. I was afraid that the Neopolitan Pizza book by Paolo Masi would be as @Syzygies described the first 100 pages i.e. dry and technical. I am sooo tempted by the pretty pictures and explanations in the latter part of the book. There was a lot of uninformed theory flying about last weekend when I was trying to get critical feedback from The Husband and our friends. It would be good to have the definitive text. At £40 that is only the cost of 3-4 pizzas from our local pizzeria. It is in my Amazon basket. I will meditate on it overnight and will likely then push the "buy" button.

The portions are for refrigerator sauce. Double the amounts if you are going to can it. 2 1/2 cups fresh Blueberries crushed with a potato masher. 1/2 cup water Bring the above to a full rolling boil then add the following: 1/2 cup ketchup 1/3 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 2 Tbsp yellow mustard 1 Tbsp Sriracha sauce 1/2 Tbsp "Real Lemon" from the bottle (not fresh squeezed) 1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp ground black pepper (or fresh ground crack berries ) Return to a full rolling boil. For refrigerator use reduce heat and simmer to desired consistency. For canning go straight to a 10 minute water bath. Approximately 6 regular jelly jars and maybe one small jelly jar. A simple recipe that tastes good. Use it as a finishing or dipping sauce.

Awesome! How did you find the brick cheese? We were definitely fans.

They look tasty to me.

Looking extra tasty, Pequod.

The Kamado Joe Soapstone intrigued me. So I ordered 2.

And.

This was the last of my 1st batch, so it was dry roasted peanuts. I haven't tried the PB powder yet. @_Ed_ - I'll give the black cardamom a try in the next batch, as I have some in my pantry. I also usually have grains of paradise around in the brew room. Not sure if I have any at the moment though. @MacKenzie - you didn't miss it, as it was a PM. I should have figured it out myself, as it's pretty obvious - use the chimney with some regular lump in the bottom as a kickstart to the Japanese charcoal. Once it's going well, just use some tongs to transfer the Japanese stuff to the yakitori. Easy, peasy! On the downside, I just had to let it burn itself out, as I didn't have a good way to snuff it. Guess I could have put the whole thing in the KK and sealed it up to put it out, but I wasn't using that much charcoal anyway, so not a lot of wastage.

While in a market the other day I saw this fresh rabbit. I decided to get it and give it a try on the rotisserie. We applied a wet paste and added cherry chips for some extra flavour. We found the meat very tender. If anything I would have used less wood chips. The smoke flavour was a little overwhelming. Have a look.

Very unique display of heat deflector going on there. Many years ago I use to go to a live poultry and rabbit shop of Portuguese ownership. I'd order say'a 5lb. rabbit and the proprietor would grab the rabbit from the cage and before he turned the corner from the public store he would hit the rabbit on the head with a small club. Old country in the new country but, at the time it was acceptable. However, the image has never left my mind. Sorry to disturb you, but aside from this I have always favored the German preparation with of rabbit with potatoes and sour cream. The Portuguese have spices that compliment this game as well. Spinning the rabbit as you did looked well done as to say good show. In the pot or not I think the game is somehow overlooked and forgotten, thanks for bringing it to the forefront, I will endeavor to look for it again,.....preferably wrapped.

Yup. Agree with everything @Syzygies said. When baking anything in the KK, I’ll light it long before the bake to both fully heat soak and manage the direct heat from below. I also tend to use repurposed Grillgrates as a deflector just in case. The whole thing about browning agents reminds me of something @ckreef preaches often. One of his ten commandments of pizza: the dough recipe is designed to be baked at the temp called for. Taking that one step further - the dough recipe is designed for a particular cooking method too. Hence, when Forkish preaches Neapolitan 00 doughs in a home oven...that works because of the Hydration he employs AND use of a broiler to achieve browning. Browning agents (sugar, oil, DMP) are a way to, in effect, cheat a bit on the cook temp while achieving a similar result. However, sugar and DMP can and do have an impact on the dough itself via the fermentation and proofing processes too. There’s a long thread and much other discussion at pizzamaking.com comparing DMP and non-DMP doughs. There are also a couple of useful tables someone developed that provide guidance on dough fermentation & proofing times as a function of leavening type (sourdough or baker’s yeast) and amount (%) as a function of temperature. The preponderance of empirical evidence is that these tables are pretty accurate. Hence, if you find a dough formula you like, but want to convert it to sourdough or extend the fermentation time for more flavour, these tables provide a nice way to make that conversion. This is the table for sourdough: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=22649.0 This is the table for baker’s yeast: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=26831.0

There’s heavy cream and cheese in there too, not to mention two puréed yellow peppers. The recipe is online here: https://canadianfamily.ca/recipe/striped-sea-bass-with-roasted-poblano-vinaigrette/

https://natashaskitchen.com/cucumber-tomato-avocado-salad/

@tony b that looks really good! If it's earthier flavours you are after, one of the things missing in the Milk St recipe is either (a) a sufficient amount of black pepper or (b) try some grains of paradise, long pepper, or other varieties. There are all sorts of spices used in W Africa that are not typical to the Euro/American experience - Calabash nutmeg, for example, is a nightmare to find here. Ditto Uda seeds and Alligator Pepper - both of which are used for the pepper soup spice mix, but almost impossible to find in the UK. In fact, the spice element of pepper soup has a lot in common with suya spice, absent the ground nuts and ginger elements. So I can see why the milk st recipe has a 'lighter' taste than the authentic Nigerian version - just a question of availability. To be quite honest, I have often replicated the lack of depth of the suggested substitutions with ground black cardamom (NOT green), which does help ground it a little bit.

Been trying to catch up reading through this thread, you guys are having way too much fun

That looks great @tony b. I would love to try your rub recipe when you have finished refining it.

Nice looking meal. I miss the Mesa Grill. Now I want a margarita.

8 shrimp @1.29 lbs. That's a full size dinner plate Now that I have your attention let's get on with dinner. We'll get back to the shrimp in a minute. We started by making 2 small pies for desert. Frozen Rainer cherries from last year and fresh blueberries.  Made a few ABT's and some green beans.  Now back to the shrimp. I pulled the meat out and layed it back on the shell. A quick slit to butterfly it open then stuff it with a crab meat mixture. To round this meal out we have USDA Prime first cut NY strips. There you have it. A fantastic 4th of July meal. 

This was from the Mesa Grill book. Interesting thing about the grits is that they were made using canned hominy drained, rinsed, then coarsely chopped in the food processor. They were really fantastic grits.

Bonefish Grill is awesome! But, the closest one to me is 150 miles. My best use of Rockfish to date was in Bouillabaisse, I've also used it in Cioppino. Unfortunately, here in Iowa, we don't see it very often. What Flay cookbook did this come out of? I'm intrigued by the grits - they look decadent!

That sure does look tasty great cook Outback kamado Bar and Grill

Wow nice cook looks delicious

You had me at Rockfish and grits. I've done many grits cooks but I've only had Rockfish once (at the Bonefish Grill restaurant). Yours looks much better. Great cook.

Wanted to update this older thread. 2 years into the goldfish pond. It has 1 male, 1 female and 1 juvie. (that's the way goldfish work). Anyway the pond and fish have been growing and kicking it. We now have 2 baby goldfish in the pond (3/4"). I'm sure way more hatched but looks like 2 survived. This is way kewl. As soon as they get bigger I'll try and get a picture.

Alright, here it is. And the verdict is that this is awesome stuff. First, after two hours the blueberries were very sticky from accumulated smoke. Very shiny in the pan. Made the recipe as written, simmering for twenty minutes. Tasting as I went to see what I might add or change. The smoke flavor was a bit strong, so made two adjustments. First, I thought chipotle chili powder would complement the smoky blueberries, and maybe mellow it a bit. Since I already had Sriracha in there for heat, I only add 1/2 tsp, but I liked the result. Next time I'd probably omit the Sriracha and start with 1/2 tbsp chipotle adding more if needed. Second addition was 2 tbsp of this: I think this is a keeper. Final result: Great stuff. Will experiment more next time, but can't wait for a cook with this.

Nice tuna and asparagus plate! @Bruce Pearson - Aleppo is about the same as a Hungarian hot paprika, maybe a tad spicier?Definitely not as hot as cayenne. They are my "go to" when a recipe calls for "red pepper flakes."

OOPS - no pic, Aussie??

@Aussie Ora How you doing on Uncle Dougie's and other stuff? I have a couple of things to send you, including a new bourbon glass that I picked up on my last trip to KY.

One hour in. The blueberries are taking on a glossy sheen.

Looking forward to hearing about these results. A cold smoker is scheduled to arrive at the house on Monday The question will be...... Is it better to cold smoke the blueberries or do a warm smoke so the blueberries start to split open during the smoking phase? I plan on doing at least 2 more batches, maybe I'll try it both ways.

That's what I was thinking Don't forget the Prime NY Strips

Fresh Market is awesome. I just dont go there often for fear it'll drive me to eating at the local soup kitchen - LOL

I should have bought a good bottle. Instead I was drinking low end Malt Liquor/beer - LOL - it was all about the food anyway.

All the Twisted Q's are pretty darn good. Before I send you another care package (coming soon) we'll figure out what Twisted Q's you need

Shish Tawuq using a simple Aleppo Pepper marinade from the book, “Aromas of Aleppo”. Very tasty indeed.

I made Syzygies' Spanish Onion and Potato Casserole today, just didn't have the Marash Pepper but did add some heat. Served with previously grilled chicken and first batch of spinach for the season. I loved the casserole and will be doing it again and again. The spinach leaves were huge although they don't look like it in the pix. They were the size of my hand and I was a little concerned that they might be tough. I steamed the spinach and it was lovely. Plated.

To round it out?? Prime NY Strips to "ROUND IT OUT??"

@Steve M I like your ribs but, weirdly for 6:52am on a weekday morning, I am even more attracted to the cold beer that you have as your profile picture. I will blame it on the heatwave that we are having in the UK rather than my latent alchoholism. Looking forward to a cold cider later.

Aussie's influence reaches far and wide, I did a spatchcock chicken today so I'd have some leftovers.

Thanks Tekobo I’ll give it a try. If it turns out ok I’ll post some pictures. Oh what the heck I’ll post pics even it turns out terrible lol