Leaderboard

A late cook on a miserable rainy holiday Sunday evening. Plated.

So, new piece of kit arrived last week. It meets my requirements and fits in the 23 and 32. Testing against @Syzygies's criteria: being able to leave the food in a fixed position which will cook evenly without one side burning - one side will burn if you don't have a heat shield and/or don't turn the skewers over. I do like the way the skewers are held in position so that you have control over the position of your food. getting serious "taste of the fire" not tainted by fats burning in the fire - not tainted if you put a heat shield underneath. I might not use a heat shield, particularly for leaner proteins, and am looking forward to getting a good taste/kiss of fire. being able to baste easily on all sides with ghee, without having to move the food - nope, you need to turn being able to remove the cook for careful Thermapen temperature testing, then return it to the fire if needed. - yup, it is relatively lightweight and so should be easy to move when loaded with meat. Real life trial to follow when I receive my Tandoori BBQ pack from Aktar at Home. In the 23 Low down in the 32 if you want to get close to the fire.

Lamb shoulder marinated 72 hours in balsamic, cumin, garlic, salt, mint & rosemary served with Mediterranean salad and olive oil & garlic cous cous with homemade Tadziki and toasted pita. summer is here and the pool is firing

I’ll weigh in on this one. No 42 for me tekobo, but I’ve found that I don’t use the splitter much in my 32. I just load it up and light it. If I need two zone for a good reverse sear, veggie cook, etc., I mostly haven’t bothered with the splitter, I just load up one side of the basket, light it up and go…I have a feeling that will quickly become the norm for me unless I am grilling for a larger number than 2-4 because I might need more precision in my zone management. It probably not quite as fuel efficient as using the splitter but I’m not one to put the extra squeeze on my char use unless I’m running low. And great space buzillo! I’d probably never leave the house with that in my backyard. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting. Here I am trying to get hold of some goat for BBQ and stews. I used to buy older goats which were called "nanny" goat but they have now been re-branded as "ex-dairy" goat. Either way I hope to have some tasty meat, including ribs, to cook up soon.

Yes decided to keep it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here is my babies home

Murphy was working overtime on this one!

Isn't that always the way, Tony.

Looking forward to seeing it in action.

I sent an update request this morning. I am being told it will arrive in NJ on 5/31 and I should get a call by 6/3 to schedule final delivery

Not exactly what you asked for, but a good sauce one can buy, a spectacular sauce one can make: Roasted Chilli Paste – Nahm Prik Pao The recipe is by my Thai cooking teacher, now retired. I took every weeklong intensive she taught in Oakland, and traveled for a month in Thailand on one of her food tours. I even repeated one of her weeklong intensives: several people dropped out, and she invited me out of fear that without another set of fast hands the classes would go too deep into the evenings. She's very direct: Introducing me to everyone, she explained that I would be leaving if one absentee showed up, as the woman in question found me an acquired taste. Somehow this made liking me a matter of pride; I got along famously with this group. The recipe isn't as hard as it looks, and the paste is astounding.

Almost ready..... 1 more week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nixtamalisation report - A+. It is well worth diving down this rabbit hole. I have done this twice now and the second time was even better than the first. In reverse order: Every tortilla in the batch bubbled to order. Not @Syzygiesfull tortilla rise but enough to get me whooping for joy. We tried some tortilla in the hollandaise sauce from the previous course. A combination to die for. I wrote to Tony at Masienda after my first cook and he advised me to use plastic bags to line my tortilla press in place of the grease proof paper that I normally use. Big improvement. Peeled off so much easier. I also asked him about needing to use masa harina (dried masa flour) to get the wet masa to the right consistency. I felt like a pregnant mum who had wanted a natural birth but ended up screaming for the epidural. He reassured me that it was perfectly normal. I didn't want to have to ship more masa harina over from the US and so I asked if I could make my own. He said I could dehydrate my masa and then grind it myself. Here it is, with the bonus that the masa harina is made from the same corn as the wet masa. Fresh masa straight from the grinder, ready to go in the dehydrator. Dried Ground No pictures of the front end of the process but this is what I did: Cooked 500g of corn with 2000g of water and 15g of cal. It took about 1hr and 15 mins for the bolita amarillo corn to get soft(ish) to the bite on the outer kernel while keeping the heart of the kernel hard. Heated slowly and it didn't read over 90C until after 45 minutes. Didn't let it get to boiling. At the end, overall weight was down to 2000g. I decanted the hot mix - corn, nixmatal and all - into a fresh container, added 500g of ice and placed in a sink full of cold water and ice. Once cooled, I left the mix to rest for 24hrs at room temp and then stored it in the fridge without grinding. One recipe that came with the corn said never to put this stuff in the fridge and the other said it was OK to put in the fridge for a couple of days or so. Latter much more convenient, given the need to use the masa within a couple of hours of grinding. When I was ready to grind, I washed the corn in lots of running water (some recipes say not to be too vigorous with your cleaning, others say to be thorough). The Premier grinder is awesome. It comes with rudimentary instructions and I watched a Gujerati woman on YouTube before assembling and using the kit. Dead easy to use and you need to judge the amount of liquid you need to keep the ground corn going round smoothly. A few interventions with spatula needed during the process but it works pretty well on its own for 40 minutes. I suspect I could have stopped at 20 minutes but twice as long was good. I added in my powdered masa when I came to make up the balls and all was good with the world. The Husband said he could understand why Mexican chefs would cry when they tasted tortillas made with fresh masa made from good corn. The best compliment came from one of our guests when he said what a difference it was to eat a tortilla that was not just a tasteless conveyor of its taco contents but a player with a stake in the game. Thanks @Syzygies P.S. No I am not mad and this is not difficult. I cooked the corn two days before I needed to use it. All of the process on the day fitted into the prep for a four course meal that was cooked fresh on the day in a total of three hours active cooking time. I continue in search of the perfect tortilla but, in the meantime, this was pretty damn good.

Troble I’m looking forward to seeing your whole pig cook. This is where the ingenuity of having this Parilla tailored comes in..... adjustable spit height and grill space. This has a 900mm(35 inches) wide cooking surface and 550mm deep...... what’s the length of your pig Troble? I am really liking the quality of this Flaming Coals roti motor. This is designed to hold 30kg( 66lb) without requiring an anchor at the end of the spit rod. https://www.flamingcoals.com.au/spit_motors/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Okay good to know. So with the border and a Holiday up here today I shouldn't expect mine for another week or so probably. Glad you guys got yours!

the motor just showed up

Looking great @Buzilo. I particularly like the multi KK look. Are you planning to keep the 21?

Looks like a great end to wet day. And that tower of lamb looks delectable @Troble!

Old Julia Child tip for getting beet stains off your hands - table salt. Mix up a wet paste of salt and water and use it as a scrub for your hands. Then wash with soap & water.

I had to "rescue" my chicken last night off the grill in a torrential downpour that the forecast hadn't warned me about - surprise! And, Murphy's Law - as soon as I plated up dinner and sat down to eat, it abruptly quit and the sun came out about 10 minutes later! 😝