Leaderboard

It was great fun following her across the pacific, to LA, then to Miami, then finally to Southwest Florida. My concern was getting her onto the lanai to her final resting spot. Thanks to the great advice here and help from a few friends, the ¾ in plywood ramp worked like a charm. Uncrating was easy, I supported the 4x8 ft ramp with 3 2x6's (may have been overkill but better safe than sorry) and the ramp included in the crate let her glide easily to my ramp. We needed to go up 4 steps for a total of 20 inches. With the 8 foot ramp, that gave us an incline of about 12 degrees and that was very do-able. She now sits on my lanai while I play with temp control. Found a local dealer that has Rockwood charcoal (quite sparky) and I'm getting the hang of temp control. It's quite different than the Primo XL oval I'm used to. I'm still trying to figure out exactly where on the lanai will be her final perch and I definitely need a prep table and storage for accessories, grates, etc. Here are some photos of the process. @StevenS, thanks so much for your help. Though the photos don't show it, we did remove the lid when pushing it up the ramp. Reattaching the lid (primarily inserting the hinge pin) was the toughest part of the whole project.

Here is the new and MUCH Improved Cold Smoker Bracket.. These can be used of course with existing cold smokers.. They will be an inexpensive upgrade. Quick, easy.. no tools!

Two views of last night's "Cowboy Steak", a super thick, 4" ribeye, bone in. The previous attempt, with a 3" cut, was cooked with mesquite wood, and was quite good. Last night I used post oak, and it was also very good, albeit quite different. I did find that cooking the 4" steak was a good deal more difficult, or maybe tricky, than the 3" version. I set up the fire on one side of the KK and roasted it about 18" high over the fire, offset to the "cool" side, at 400-450 degrees, for about 25 minutes, flipping it frequently, then did the sear on the lower grill directly over the remaining fire. It was kind of interesting that in my recollection, the 3" steak cooked at a relatively even rate, and this one was wild: one minute it was testing about 89* in places, and 5 minutes later, up to 135* in spots, a LOT hotter than I wanted. Thankfully, it was big and thick enough that I managed to salvage some very rare slices for my wife, and there were some medium rare pieces perfect for me. I used the usual salt and medium-ground pepper for rub. Both steaks were prime and the flavor was excellent. Next time....I just got 4 3" cowboy steaks delivered from Snake River Farms and I expect the meat quality to be the best.

Are you quite sure???

I am humbled to have this great honour bestowed upon me @tekobo. Thank you. Thanks for your confirmatory comments MK, Troble. I have just wired my first payment to Dennis, and see that I have already been promoted to owner !! Now, I haven't got the rib rack, but I don't suppose I'll be needing one. Best RD

You have passed our initiation @RokDok. Influencing other KK forum members to do or buy things that they otherwise would not have is a key requirement. I have added a pizza stone for my 23 to my order.

Evo to the left and the tank is on the right! Forget the grill....That’s why the cover is on it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had an outdoor kitchen built and I am not kidding I wish I didn’t have my gas grill. I use the Evo for breakfast and Komodo every weekend. No regrets whatsoever! Worth every penny in fact my wife’s cousin who bought my old KJ is considering switching! I haven’t quite nailed down my pizza yet. I think I have to heat soak the stone some more. Suggestions? Oh yea the power burner is for brewing beer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I gave my Weber summit to a coworker.

I like this kind of interesting. The unpredictability of it all and the high expectations that everyone has of steak means it is a high stakes game. It feels sooo good when you get it right.

My go-to is: 1/3 fresh squeezed lime juice 1/3 simple syrup ~1/3 Tequila with a top it off of Grand Mariner Imperial pint glass (20oz if memory serves) I like to use a sliced lime to rim an imperial-pint glass for the salt, then fill the glass up with ice and put the it in the freezer. If you do this right when you start squeezing the limes, the glasses will be nicely frosted by the time it's ready to mix....And it helps keep the salt adhere to the glass. Then add the lime juice and simple syrup (to about 2/3's full). The rest can be tailored depending on how strong you and your guests like it. It goes down pretty easy... And it can catch up with you just as easy!

I haven’t cooked one of these but would probably do like a prime rib roast. Low temp and smoke to about 112-115, pull it and run the KK up to 450-500, then sear all the sides. Since your wife likes rare, might pull it a bit lower before the sear.

Tony, funny you should mention the sous vide option: my wife suggested the same thing. If I were only focusing on cooking to a perfect rare or medium rare, probably that would be the way to go. Finish on the gas grill over the infrared searing burner. But if I were going to start a fire in the KK, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to roast it over a natural wood/charcoal fire, and the results, flavor wise, were really, really good. I think maybe some of the variability in the cooking - the temperature fluctuations- might have come from me moving it closer /farther to the radiant heat from the fire. However, I need more experience with this cut of steak to really know what I am doing.

I eat that! I've never cooked one that thick before. I can image that it would be more difficult trying to manage it. I'd have bailed and done it sous vide, then finished it on the lower grate to sear it.

Lamb shoulder Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Smoked rainbow trout pressed with dill, capers and tiger prawns. And seeded sourdough. My wife hates sorting through fish bones, so this was a good way to sort this out. Followed by eye fillet steaks. And roasted lemons. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@tony b I’m glad you liked it! Try it with some of your air fryed potatoes sometime. i made pizza Saturday but thought it was too boring to post my usual pepperoni, cheese and veggie pizza did boneless leg of lamb on the spit. Mediterranean salad, cous cous and Tadziki sauce. Unlike the UK it’s been hotter than sh*t here. Was too busy hosting, cooking. Drinking and swimming to take pics but managed one finished plate pic

Great food pictures- can't wait for the arrival of my KK. I just love the notion that you need an Allen key to cook a chicken. There is something about minds thinking alike here @Braai-Q??? We also had Roast Beef Sunday Lunch yesterday 1.3 kg sirloin, with Yorkshire pud, roast potatoes and root veg with some greens from the allotment, but, cooked on the range. Timing is vital. We cooked the beef initially (and had a slight difference of opinion with Mrs RD as to the correct cooking time for the beef ) and let it rest for an hour. Put the veg & roasties in and then went down the pub ( next door ) for a couple of pre lunch beers. Mrs RD had to nip back for a moment to do the YP. Bottle of Cotes de Rhone and we were set. Can't wait to do this on the KK !! I think we might invest in a MEATER - I like the idea of being able to monitor your cooking from the comfort of your local pub. Range shouldn't be a problem - our baby alarm used to work there. Cheers RD

That cheese! Looks delicious.

As noted earlier, inspired to try the Peruvian chicken with green sauce. Marinated the chicken overnight. Rotisserie basket, direct, coffee and peach wood chunks, started out at 275F for the first 30 minutes, then slowly raised temps up to 350F for the last 30 minutes for crispier skin. Out of the rack. Plated with side salad, crusty bread and airfried spuds, with green sauce on the side. This green sauce is da bomb, folks!

Right after the tomatoes I started on cheese burgers. The cheese was a Guinness flavoured cheddar cheese that I love. Dressed the bun with some pickled peppers and tomato slices. Burger off the KK and onto the bun, then topped with the cheese.

A friend set me on this journey of roasted tomatoes, lucky me.

The weather in the UK has been miserable. It's like someone flicked the winter switch and I don't think it has stopped raining in the last 24 hours. We felt Sunday would be a good day for a 'pub lunch' aka Sunday roast so laid in ingredients and set the challenge of cooking most of it in our 19KK. Despite it raining constantly. It was also 6 degrees. So, we cooked a 1.6KG topside of beef (sourced from a farm about 2 miles from us) and added the traditional Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and decided to go with cauliflower cheese as another side. It was just the two of us and a dog who very much wanted in on the action. If you've never done a traditional English Sunday roast, it's about sequencing and timing if you want to eat everything hot. We did a rub on the topside and gave it 45 mins while the KK was bedding in - quite simple - salt/black pepper/olive oil together with tiny amount of oregano and braai spice (I made it a while ago and think I had cumin seed, coriander seed, cayenne, chilli, salt,thyme in the mixture). Put a small piece of coffee wood in once we were ready to cook. Took it off with internal temperature at 52°C but ambient on the Meater+ was about 50°C out on the TelTru in the dome. Not that much of an issue as I was only interested in the internal temperature but I would have expected them to be much closer in a heat soaked KK after temps had stabilised with the meat in. Yorkshires came out well - second time doing them in the KK (210°C for 20mins). Put some water in to increase vapour in the KK. We have a range cooker and all the ovens have a fan assist function which produces a lot of steam and makes for incredibly good Yorkshires. On our first attempt, we'd found the Yorkshires to be a little dry and the texture wasn't quite right - bubble size/density wasn't great and it wasn't particularly elastic and aerated. They should be light and fluffy. The additional water vapour created sufficient steam to resolve this. Be interested if anyone else has had the same experience or has a different method. Given we were cooking the potatoes in duck fat and the Yorkshires were being cooked with a duck fat base, I thought I'd cut out the cream for the Cauliflower cheese to reduce the richness. I didn't want to overpower the dish with smoke but wanted to get some coffee wood smoke into the cauliflower so I cooked the cauliflower separately in a foil tray as an indirect cook and threw coffee wood on to the coal for smoke. Gave it 15-20 mins at 175°C and it tasted fabulous - it was a little underdone deliberately but I was pouring a bechamel over and finishing in the oven. I made a roux, added whole milk, Cheddar Cheese and nutmeg. Topped with a little grated cheese and cooked in the oven. I could have done it in the KK stacking shelves but didn't want to end up see sawing temperatures and messing timings up. The cook graph for ambient temperatures on the Meater app showed a rock solid horizontal line once I'd reached target temperature. Would have been easy running with the 32KK as well but the oven was just as easy and the cauliflower already had the right level of smoke I wanted. Few pictures below taken on iPhone. We had it with a lovely bottle of Peyrouzelles 2017.

@tony b this recipe is easy to make and source ingredients and it’s damn close to the Peruvian green sauces we like. Although mine is never quite as green but give it a whirl. Super easy to make, stores up to a week or two potentially and it’s abasing over potatoes. https://thisishowicook.com/voodoo-in-air-and-peruvian-green-sauce/

Nicley done ribs are a great feed Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Making pickled peppers today, peppers right from the garden. Did these jars in the pressure cooker for 10 mins. I did get 4 jars, one is hidden in the background.

Roasted chicken two ways. Lemon, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary & oregano from the garden with Kerry butter slices tucked under the skin over the breasts and Peruvian spiced chicken with aji amarillo, aji panca, salt, pepper and fresh cilantro from the garden served with spicy Peruvian green sauce over roasted red and yellow baby potatoes roasted in the cast iron pan under the chickens with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and fresh rosemary & lemon thyme from the herb garden....not potatoes finished in broiler with shredded Mexican cheese on top for added crunch