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So I have been busy grilling and a lot of remiss with posting. A couple weeks ago I had a friend over who wanted shrimp for dinner so I decided to make paella. Mind you I have never made paella before but I have eaten my share. So I researched and research and found a procedure on Naked Whiz's site. What I found most helpful was Naked Whiz provided the pillars or the important things to pay attention to and the basic procedure this was brilliant since I rarely follow recipes. So again I am not going to plagiarize from Naked Whiz if you want the procedure go to the link above I am going to share my experience, ingredients and what I learned. I wanted to buy the sofrito but could not find anything to my satisfaction however, I did find a recipe on Pinterest that seemed like it was the real deal and I was not wrong. I cooked Heidi's recipe the night before and it provided amazing depth of flavor and I will make it again as a base for many recipes not just paella. I used canned whole San Marzano style tomatoes without the juice. For the liquid I used chicken bone broth by Kettle and Fire with 32 oz of clam juice in the bottle. I made sure this was warmed and ready to add. My ingredients included: 1 lb shrimp soaked 30 minutes in a salt brine 0.6 lb salmon soaked 30 minutes in a salt brine 3 lobster tails soaked 30 minutes in a salt brine 1/2 lb Basque style Chorizo, not my first choice, I would have preferred Spanish style and yes I mixed meats. For veggies I used 1 cup frozen peas Tops from one bunch of asparagus par boiled in the liquid Photo below shows the ingredients ready to go. Everything I read said to have your ingredients prepped and ready to go and it paid off in spades. I got the grill to 550 degrees and away I went. Saute chorizo, warmed the sofrito, browned the rice in the sofrito, added saffron, then added the liquid and cooked for about 30 minutes, added the vegetables and mixed into the rice. Then I added the seafood on top and cooked for about 10 minutes and the results were amazing as demonstrated by the beauty shown in the photo below. The rice was creamy the flavor profile was complex and balanced. Frankly, I have thought about this meal everyday since I have made it. What I learned was this dish is beautiful to look at, amazing flavor, fairly simple to make. I will definitely make this again and thanks to Naked Whiz for the procedure and all the tips. While I have a pork butt smoking as I write this I really want some more paella!

Got to talk with Mr. Linkletter on the phone again today. He is a wealth of knowledge, thanks again for your time Dennis! Also he sounds super busy, I believe he said he was 100+ grills backordered. Patience is good if you’re trying to reach him. I found out my KK is actually already on the boat headed my way! I’m super stoked as I didn’t think it would hit the water tell later this month. Dennis sent me this photo of my grill and I’m going to step out and say I think the sleek simple lines and geometry of the 21 make it the best looking KK. Oh and these gorgeous olive-gold pebbles are going to lead to cooking performance none of you tile guys would be able to understand! [emoji6] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Peri peri chicken tonight. I hadn’t made this recipe for a long time, but I’m really glad I got back onto it as it’s delicious! The brine ingredients and the peri peri sauce all go together so well! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I do believe my KK isn't taking this news well

Here is one I just put together today for my 42. Want to keep organized. let’s see yours...

👍😉

Off to the races! Burn in and after that pizza!

Nada, nothing at all. Started at 10 am and just shut it down about an hr ago after the cook.

I was cooking Kalbi ribs hot and fast, hence the abundance of smoke.

Looks lovely, alimac.

I love the addition of lobster tails. Great cook.

I’ve got an under bed storage box for that purpose, something like this, but you can get them much cheaper from ikea and Bunnings: https://www.hsw.com.au/howards-underbed-roller-box-52-litre/?gclid=CjwKCAiAhbeCBhBcEiwAkv2cY3l-8wFdeQ4PjHcEra2dvRKIIowGG6Sn2kVyACWKRDSRrwR5qvirmBoCYQMQAvD_BwE Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He looks heated. [emoji23] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, ain't that PRETTY. A seafood bonanza. Beautiful job, lovely tails and gorgeous tiles. (they cook the best, as we see. our secret)

Amazing. Love paella! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Beautiful!

@Forrest I just got my grill 22" TT (the best looking, in MHO😀), in February and you will not be disappointed. These grills are amazing! Can't wait to see the unload and first cook photos. Welcome to the club.

@BOC I set an alarm for 1 hour after I shutdown all the vents and then I cover. The temperature is always below 100 degrees F and the Grill is cool to the touch.

Well, I’m pretty impressed with my little 475 ml MSR smoker pot on my first cook. I’ve heard one of the down sides to the traditional Dutch Oven smoke pot is it doesn’t handle hotter temperatures well. One of the advantages of the small size of the MSR is you can bury it in the charcoal. The temperature at the bottom of the fire basket is much cooler then the top, sometimes several hundred degrees cooler. I cooked some chicken at 400 degrees. To start I placed the MSR at the bottom of the basket and then buried it in charcoal. I then lit some charcoal on top with my torch. I allowed the grill to come up to temp over the course of an hour. The bottom of the fire box basket takes awhile to heat up, I know this because I have run temp probes during cooks at the bottom of the basket for testing purposes. This works out perfect because the thicker white smoke that started coming from the smoker pot thinned out once I got the Kamado Joe up to 375 degrees. Placing the smoker pot underneath the coals requires a lot more heat and time to come up to temp, you just have to preheat the smoke pot from the beginning of firing the grill up. The smoke pot maintained a nice thin level of smoke through the entire cook at 400 degrees the pot was filled with 2 cups of B&B Competition blend pellets. I think this method might be the best way to adapt the smoke pot to hotter cooking temperatures (bury it at the bottom of the charcoal). As a bonus it shoots the smoke way down to the lower vent ensuring the smoke has to go up through the burning charcoal purifying (in theory it burns off volatile organic compounds in the smoke before it reaches your food). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, no! I must look away!

So far so good. The stone wet grinder has arrived from India. Gotta change the plug but then it should be good to go. Also have to find somewhere to store it! Now the wait for the corn from Masienda...

So, thank you for all of this @Syzygies. I am already partway down this rabbit hole but have a look out on the outside, ready to pull me out if I look like getting stuck down a side burrow. All roads appear to lead to Masienda. My tacos inspiration is coming from this awesome book, Tacos by Alex Stupak: https://read.amazon.co.uk/kp/embed?asin=B00TCI2A3Q&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_4NRTZSQKNF2TREX70V7G I don't think I will find another book to top this one for its sheer inventiveness and range. The author recommends Masienda. I reached out to @Braai-Q for Mexican cook book recommendations and he came up with Breddos, the same Tacos book by Alex Stupack as above, Mexico the cookbook and the same Oaxaca book that @Syzygies recommends. Interestingly Breddos also shop with Masienda even though their restaurant is in the UK. So, Masienda is a common thread. I have had a fair bit of correspondence with them, poor things, and have ordered their nixtamatal starter kit (excluding the tortilla press) and white and blue masa harina so that I have something to compare to my fresh masa efforts. They do not have stock of the black beans that I also want and I have decided to wait until the end of March when they are available. Shipping is not cheap and I need to maximise what I get in my package. No new tortilla press. My husband laughed at me when I gave away what was then our "second best" tortilla press last summer. How many UK households have one tortilla press, let alone two? Well, having bought the Netherton Foundry tortilla press over Christmas I now have two again and I am happy with both. Will see what Sy thinks of the Netherton tortilla press when he finally gets his hands on one. I am sure he won't be able to resist. On to grinding the masa. The guy at Masienda wanted to know what I would be grinding the corn with. A perfectly good question given the challenge of doing this well. I took Sy's lead and looked into the Premier stone wet grinders. I looked at the 2 litre version - takes up too much space on the countertop. The tilting version looked attractive but it didn't have good reviews. So, I ended up where I started, with Sy's recommendation of the 1.5 litre version. My dad gave me £100 for my birthday present and that was the trigger to place my order. Waiting for it to arrive. Sometime in April I will report back on whether this was all worth it. In the meantime, I am enjoying upping my flour tortilla game will be dabbling in the corn tortilla space, using "inferior" cheap masa harina with flavourings to test the boundaries of what is good and what is not .

Cobalt blue. Cover, Baking Stone, Side Tables L/R with SS. Gas Burner Assembly, Rotisserie, Motor.

Is it a wood deck or a concrete pad you'll be putting this beast on? Wood deck - I'd advise ensuring you have it severely reinforced.