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Bourbon sausages with sweet corn . Indirect with a little mesquite wood

We're in the middle of Indian Summer here. Taking advantage as much as I can. Did some tile cleaning and touched up the grout in spots on the KK to get it ready for winter. Last night was a Cajun spiced pork chop, direct, main grate, over hickory and apple chunks. Paired with a wild rice medley and Mexican street corn (local stuff is gone, so had to settle for frozen. 😢 )

Thanks @Basher. It's a little sad but having been catching up on the news, a bit of levity is needed. 0027 is the international dialling code for South Africa amongst some other 'lekker' references in case anyone wondered. Parts of it feel like a homage to 'The Braai' which was scripted by an old school mate. It's quite old now and features an English actor who became big on a daytime soap in the UK in the late '90s. In Australian money, he'd be Jason Donovan. Jake always claimed that 'The Braai' gave the English actor his big break and whenever I see pictures of the actor, I just see a kettle BBQ and that scene! 😁

Lobster season started in San Diego yesterday. We get spiny lobsters which don’t have claws but have lots of tail meat. funny thing is I haven’t cooked lobster in 20 years. It was actually one of the first things I ever grilled when I bought my first house in 2001 and I distinctly remembering grilling 4 things. Bourbon sausages, baseball cut sirloin steaks, cheese burgers and lobster always paired (all 4 of my dishes were served with sweet corn and a baked potato) I only cooked on my first propane grill. Lobster might sound weird but I lived around the corner from the fish market and they sold it $10/lb in season....this is circa 2001. They’d clean it and give me a tail and I’d grill it and thought I was fancy....and it was cheap I moved downtown for a bit a didnt have a grill for awhile and whenI finally got back to grilling they were selling our lobsters to China for $35/lb so we never had them. Due to COVID and restaurants being closed etc all the local fisherman have tons of lobster. Today it was $16/lb. I cooked it in the KK at 375 basted with butter, garlic, salt, pepper and chives. Served with Yukon good mashed potatoes with sour cream, Parmesan, chives and garlic and grilled asparagus over mesquite wood with coco char freaking amazing! My wife didn't like lobster, it’s not something we really order out but she loved it tonight. I’ll be cooking it again while this lobster is in season

I finally did it. I ordered my dream grill/ smoker. Like most, I have been lurking for years. I started saving my pennies via a round up app, and finally pulled the trigger. I pulled it a little early, but with corona more time with family on the patio has become even more important. The accessories I ordered are rotisserie motor ( big one) spit not the cradle ( anyone think I made a bad decision please tell me why so I can start saving my pennies again) cold smoker drip pan and cover (thanks Diego brew n q) A bunch of coffee char pizza Stone This is one of the biggest purchases I have ever made. I am scared crapless of un-crating and the burn in! Like Chris Lilly said choose a color your kids will want because it will be there’s someday. I am so excited! I have gained a ton of knowledge from reading your posts and any advice or favorite recipes are always welcome. ( even home brewing recipes, as I have found a lot of home brewers here). I ordered Big Blue at the beginning of August and am awaiting the call to find out when she will be delivered. I will make sure to post pictures, and hope I can become part of this super friendly board. Please feel free to give me any advice! I am an open book who wants to learn as much as possible!

@Basher look what just arrived in the mail

I hear yah! I'm not shy at all when it comes to using garlic. No vampire worries here! LOL!!! Those spiny lobsters remind me of the Caribbean. Try a Jamaican jerk style. I know it sounds crazy, but it works! btw - I spotted that Pliny in the background. I suspect it was put there for my benefit - ha, ha!

@MacKenzieI got a bit of a pizza bug and was struck by the variety in recipes for the dough (non sourdough). I just saw the difference in salt between your two recipes. Do you find that you can actively taste the difference? It was something that got me. I would see variation from 2g to 20g with broadly similar measures but I wanted to understand the science or rather the chemistry so I knew how to adjust the variables. I tried a recipe at one point which called for 18g of salt and it was excessive. I knew I needed a level of salt for the chemistry but I didn't know how much to reduce it by and removing it entirely changed the texture and there was a lot less air (bubble formation) in the crust. I did some research and found a book called 'The Neapolitan Pizza. A scientific guide about the artisanal process'. It feels like a dissertation project and was a bit intimidating at first - I hadn't seen a dough extensograph before but the graph showing the variation of mozzarella stringiness as a function of temperature convinced me that the authors had thought about this a lot more than I had. But going back to the subject of salt, the authors discuss how salt acts on gluten composition and how it affects the second fermentation. Too much salt alters the PH towards alkalinity and contrasts the fermentation activity of the yeast. They prove why you must dissolve the salt completely in water before adding it during mixing. Not a single recipe I've seen even mentions this or explains why it's necessary. While I haven't done Neapolitan pizzas in the KK, there is so much valuable information in the book about making pizza. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking to improve their pizza skills. I'm also looking forward to the Modernist Pizza book as well. I believe it's out next year but delayed as their research (restaurant visits) have been curtailed. I wouldn't consider myself an expert (although I'm happy with where I've gotten to in terms of results) but thought the books might help others. Amazing how so few ingredients can create so many variables and different outcome.

Happy to. I really enjoy the Jamaican spice pallet but it's not an eat all the time affair. A friend of mine is from Trinidad and her mother runs a catering business. They had Trini Goat Curry (Goat Roti) at the wedding. I tried to get the recipe. I'd describe it as being in between Jamaica and India. But the bride's mother was having none of it. Even with a consolidated charm offensive. I have a friendship circle that is as diverse as it is eclectic and all the better for it. I grew up as the first generation in a newly independent country (Zimbabwe) with a very politically correct surname. I know this isn't the place for politics so won't venture that path but having seen the ruinous outcomes of divisive politics played out multiple times, it's galling that society seems perpetually doomed to repeat the mistakes of history.

Recipe please! When James was first starting out I bought goat from him. He turned up in my kitchen and slapped a whole goat carcass on my kitchen work top for what felt like no money at all. I gave him some of my 55 day aged pork from Huntsham Farm for him to take home and he loved it. I really like feeding meat to meat suppliers because they know what has gone into producing the quality that they are tasting. No chance that he will be delivering meat personally these days but his website offers good options for those of us who are not near a West Indian community: https://cabrito.co.uk/about/. I see his website promotes kid goat. I asked for nanny goat because I wanted that maturer flavour for making Nigerian goat stew. Now that I have a dry ager I might see what that does for tenderising the meat. Yes, recipe. Please. Silly. Especially ironic for this black Nigerian 52 year old is communing with white Africans/Brits who lived in Africa and watching a video posted by an Australian on a forum established by an American living in Indonesia. A long way from anti-apartheid rallies in the 80s and all the better for it. I still want to cry whenever I think of the day I watched Nelson Mandela walk out of prison on my landlady's telly in Brixton. Human nature means that that pure moment of joy has not translated into long term happiness in South Africa but we all have a long way to go in our different countries.

This is a little sad, but you Africans may enjoy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I can get behind @Basher's sentiment. The beers sound great but I always thought that beer pairings were with food and not KKs! 😄

Welcome to the gang. You've not left the group much to work with as you specified everything. So, have you considered a Robin to your 42" Batman? 😀 I can confirm from my 51KK experiences (I have a 32+19 combination before anyone thinks Dennis is cooking up a new model) that black pebble cooks better, stabilises more reliably and imbues all sorts of qualities on the pitmaster owner.