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I'd planned this cook for Sunday, but it rained 4.25" so it was postponed to today. Two slabs of baby back ribs and a pork loin, marinated in Wicker's for 36 hours, smoked at 225°-245° with hickory chunks, no wrap. With BBQ beans, grilled corn and a 2011 Merry Edwards Meredith Estate Pinot Noir.

I love watching the Taco Chronicles on Netflix. The tacos that everyone seems to like best always have the word "fat" used liberally in their description. I sit there, salivating, as the folk stuff tortilla, meat and all those exotic toppings into their mouths. The Husband and I have a fantasy post-COVID trip planned in our heads. We will eat tacos until we burst. Until then, I have to make do with what I can make at home. Yesterday was our freedom to have six friends in the house at last day. We did. Started the day putting this dish in the KK. Mostly lamb belly strips on the bone, marinated overnight in adobo sauce. The sequence is hopefully self explanatory. Avocado leaves lined the bottom and the top of the dish and it cooked for about 12 hours at about 140C. I pulled the bones out with a pair of forks and our guests pulled the wonderfully soft meat out of the greasy swamp with tongs. I also cooked buttermilk marinated lambs kidneys and lamb neck fillet - first indirect and then I abused them on the direct side. First outing for homemade masa tortillas. A great success. I didn't have time to document it properly for @Syzygies' nixtamalisation thread but I shall do so when I try it again. Suffice to say that 500g of corn, with a bit of dry masa harina added to the masa, made more than enough tortillas for the six of us. Here was the production line. And to finish it off? No pretty taco shots. This taco with a smear of black bean paste, sitting on my greasy plate says it all. My Texan girlfriend was one of the guests and she would have wept with joy if she wasn't so busy eating instead.

@Troble, my BBQ bean recipe is not very sophisticated and I pretty much make it up as I go each time. The basic components begin with canned pork and beans, with the “pork” and liquid removed, then rinsed. This is just to get basic cooked beans for the dish – I have made them in the past starting with dried beans and cooking the day before, but found it not to be worth the effort. I sauté bacon (or pancetta), chopped onion and minced garlic (to taste), then add the beans, some of the same kind of marinade I’ve used on the meat (about 1/3 cup or if I have just used a rub instead, a healthy sprinkle of it), some molasses (about 1/3 cup), a dash of Worchester sauce, and some of the BBQ sauce I plan to serve with the meat (about 1/3 cup). All this is basically to taste. I sometimes added some cayenne or crushed red pepper if I think the meal will need some spice. This typically results in a pretty loose mixture, which I heat on the stove to just a simmer, then transfer to my bean smoking pan and place in the smoker for 30 -45 minutes (depending upon the smoker temperature) to gain some smoke flavor and thicken to the right consistency. If left in the smoker too long, the beans will dry out. When the meat comes off the smoker, I carve off some of the edge meat with bark and add to the beans. That’s it.

Lockdown has brought some great food discoveries. Posh restaurants ship you cook at home kits. I have only tried the one called Aktar at Home. He is a Michelin star chef and his curry box is a thing of wonder - great taste, volume and value. I tried his Argentinian meat box. It was fun not to have to prep for a BBQ and our favourite thing was the morcilla. I disappeared down a rabbit hole, trying to find more and came across this company: https://www.bascofinefoods.com This haul arrived a couple of weeks ago: They are bits of an Iberico pig that I had never heard of/used. Albanico, Pluma, Secreto. The only one I knew anything about were the baby back ribs. And sooo fatty. I looked up the Albanico online and found this cook: https://bbq-heroes.com/recipe/pork/amazing-iberico-abanico-sandwich/ We tried it out. I cooked half of the albanico, first indirect and then smokily and satisfyingly on the lower grate. Asparagus cooked while the pork was resting. Sorry, no pix of the sandwich but here is the piggy sliced up. It was freakin’ delicious. A missive from @tony b made me think “suya!” for the remaining half of the Albanico. I took the easy route and cooked it indoors last night. No char or smoke but The Husband still declared it the best suya meat ever. That intramuscular fat just gave it such a great mouth feel and taste. Marbled pork rocks.

These let you hang your right side table in the vertical storage position with the rotisserie bracket installed.

I am going to post details of this cook elsewhere but, in the meantime, here is a photo of yesterday's cook. First time using the double drip pan under my new vertical spike. Indirect on the 32. Lots of stickiness from the balsamic element of the marinade. The double drip tray cleaned up very well. The Husband did the washing and it just took a half hour soak in ordinary dishwashing liquid and hot water and a bit of elbow grease with a curly kate to get it nice and clean again. No biggie.

@tekobo nice work. Looks legit to me. How did you make the adobo sauce?

@jonj thanks. I’ve never made baked beans but thought that some combination of onions, bacon and Worcester would work. Your description works for me perfectly and I was wondering if getting dry beans and doing it the day before was worth it. Thanks for answering that. I’m gonna make these next weekend with my pig

Did I say one needs a grate? One doesn't need a grate! (I've come to my senses.)

received email today with delivery instructions. my KK was picked up by freight company yesterday. WOO HOO.

Jonj those bean sound good. I’d try that Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tekobo that looks delish. What flavour do you think the avocado leaves imparted? I tasted some lamb ribs at this relatively new restaurant in Brisbane. https://agnesrestaurant.com.au/eat/ they were so good. Steamed in a light vinegar then sugared and finished over fire on the grill- that’s what my taste buds said. I’ll be trying it soon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gorgeous smoke rings .

Always a good plan!

Nailed it!

Cleaned up nicely - and without PBW - LOL!!

Beef marinade recipe courtesy of Padma Lakshi. I used a 6lb Lamb Shoulder or boneless leg of lamb for the cut. Cooked at 425-400, sliced 3x & basted with leftover marinade after each slicing. Beef Shawarma Lamb cooked on the Komodo Kamado with the Trompo King attachment. Marinade courtesy of Padma Lakshmi 1/2 cup Lemon juice 1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar 2 tsp Garlic powder 2 tsp Salt 1 tsp Cumin 1 tsp Cardamom 1 tsp Oregano 1 tsp Cinnamon 1 tsp Allspice 1 tsp Nutmeg 1 tsp Ground cloves (go easy on the cloves, I didn't have ground cloves and used whole cloves and it was a bit too much) 1 tsp Black pepper 1 tsp Cayenne 1 tsp Ginger 1 tsp Z’atar (this was my addition to Padma's recipe) Served with Beet/tahini yogurt sauce 2 medium sized beets wrapped in tin foil and roasted at 450 for 45 minutes 1/4 tsp salt 1/3 cup full fat yogurt 1.5 tsp Tahini top with fresh cut dill 1 clove garlic Homemade Tadziki 1 cup Greek whole milk yogurt 1 English cucumber 2 cloves garlic 1 teaspoon lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill Kosher salt & fresh cracked black pepper to taste Mediterranean salad 1 diced red onion 2 cans garbanzo beans 1 1/2 cups of fresh mint 1 red bell pepper 1 yellow bell pepper 1 orange bell pepper 2 large cucumbers (peeled and chopped) 1/2 cup crumbled feta For the Dressing 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 2 cloves of garlic (minced) 1 1/2 teaspoons oregano 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper Roasted garlic & olive oil pearled cous cous boxed and served with fresh herbs (parsley, thyme etc)

Based on @Troble saying that this marinade works for other meats, I tried this out with chicken thighs yesterday. Delicious! Two modifications: I agree with @Troble about the cloves. I ground them up with the other spices but still found that the flavour dominated. I would halve the quantity of cloves next time. The second modification was that I did not use my expensive balsamic vinegar in the marinade. I used this stuff - Saba - instead. All in all, it tasted great.

The shipping companies won't let me ship any charcoal from Indonesia because they consider it semi hazardous cargo. At some point a bean counter decided that if ships were over X full they didn't want to take semi hazardous cargo. All ships are full and they won't take any.. That being said, I'm working with a company in another country that can still ship on one line.. Keep your fingers crossed.

I keep my starter in the fridge and usually refresh it just once before making up my dough. This weekend it was about three weeks since the last time I refreshed the starter and so I decided to refresh it three times before making up the dough. What a difference! My leaven usually floats but it was soooo beautifully light this time. Danced round the kitchen at the sight of this: Yesterday I made the coriander and carraway loaf from Tartine No 3. Tonight I made a seeded loaf. Squashed onto the baking stone from my 23, sitting in my 32. Looking forward to having a lot more room when I pick up @RokDok's extra baking stone for the 32 which he has kindly said that I can have. Cooling. Looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

When I tried the white corn masa harina from Masienda I thought it was OK. Today I tried their blue corn masa harina and I am super pleased with it. The tortilla came out strong and supple and tasty. I was extra happy because tonight’s dinner turned into a Nigerian-Mexican mash up. We have been ordering online from restaurants who are now shipping meals nationwide for you to experience their food and help them keep going through lockdown. A friend of mine had raved about this Nigerian place in North London, Chuku’s, and so I ordered some of their Nigerian “tapas”. I didn’t realise I had to order wraps to go with a couple of dishes on the menu and so held them over until tonight when I had time to make some tortilla. Wow. So Mexican’s weep when they taste a great corn tortilla? That’s nothing on this Nigerian weeping at tasting authentic Yoruba flavours in a Mexican blue corn tortilla with home made pickled onions. #Mash UP!

After putting another lamb leg on last night I noticed we had plenty of fruit 2 days short of a trip to the compost. Sliced and peeled 6 apples. Strawberries, blueberries and 6 bananas. Placed them in a baking dish and poured 1 cup of apple cider vinegar mixed with 2 tablespoons of honey over them. Sprinkled a bit of cinnamon over the top and put it in the kk when I pulled the lamb and shut the kk down. The residual heat baked the fruit beautifully in 30- 40 mins. Tart vinegar, sweet honey, mixed fruit....... almost no sugar cos we had it with ice cream. I’ll take photos of the next version..... probably within a week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk