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One of my favourite meals to cook on the KK is paella. Especially since moving to our new house, which has an induction cooktop. Steel paella pans are never perfectly flat, so induction cooking is a pain. And then there is the mess. Cooking a paella outdoors, over fire, is one of life’s great pleasures. And that’s all traditional paella was- a rice dish cooked over fire in a pan. Having spent some time in Valencia, I’m well versed in traditional paella- and often make a traditional inspired dish with chicken, green beans and sliced Roma tomatoes. At other times- I go maximalist. Tonight, with my parents visiting from interstate, was maximalist. Chorizo, chicken thighs, baby calamari, prawns and mussels with Roma tomato, saffron, spicy smoked and sweet pimenton, fresh rosemary from the garden and green beans on top. My friends always complain that I say that each iteration of a dish was the best ever. They have a point. Nevertheless this was the best paella ever- smoky, spicy, redolent of the aromas of fresh seafood and herbs, the bitter crunch of the soccsrat from the bottom of the pan. Sharpened up with a healthy squeeze of fresh lemon over the top. Heaven.

Brown sugar & maple syrup glazed bone in pork chop with duck fat and truffle salt air fryer potatoes and roasted carrots

Had some good friends over last night and they requested brisket. Picked up a monster 8kg (17.5lb) brisket with a 4+ marble score. Given the size I decided on an overnight cooking session at traditional low and slow temp (225F). Only the second time I’ve done that, as I usually do a 285-300F 8-9hr cook during the day. Estimated it would take 12-14hrs, allowing for a long rest. Put it on at 11:30pm, it was ready for wrapping at 9:30am, and came off at 2:30pm, so 15hrs all up. 4 hr rest in the esky (cooler). Couple of racks of ribs as well, served with salad, coleslaw, roast potatoes, horseradish cream, smoked salsa and espresso BBQ sauce. My god- it was far and away the most amazing brisket I’ve ever experienced, even the flat was so fall apart moist and tender that it almost defied belief. Don’t know if it was the low and slow, the quality of the brisket or the long rest- but I’m only ever doing brisket this way from now on. Very happy guests!

baby back ribs havent cooked on the kk in a long time but still nailed my temp in two adjustments..

Following up on my curiousity deal to David Chang I made approx 5lbs of Boerewors with a 50/50 blend of pork and beef. The ingredients were a bit different from a conventional sausage, this one had some unusual additions as worstershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, cloves, corriander & nutmeg, to name a few giving the sausage a unique tangy flavor, but in a good way with a desire to keep reaching for another slice. I did toss in some red pepper, half a Jalepeno and parsley all for color, and almost tossed some in red pepper flakes, had the jar in my hand, but figured straying to far from an original recipe might not be a good thing, besides the wife complains if it's too hot. The meat was prepared on my offset running 200-225 for 2 1/2 hrs to 160 internal using cherry and oak. I know the traditional way is over an open fire, however this method always turns out a nice product and for a few hours I get to feed and work a fire, now that's entertainment.

I was so busy i forgot to take pics while cooking but .....

Brisket for a nice spring day with kids being home Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

boerewors pap chakalaka

Home from vacation and it was warm enough to fire up the KK for dinner last night. Pork Chop and Corn. This early in the season, I'm guessing the corn is from FL? It was OK - a bit tough (expected if shipped from that far away), but it did have a bit of sweetness to it, so not all bad. Direct, main grate, 325F, with a chunk of peach. (BTW - just got my box from Fruita. Sad to see them go!)

This is a sample of what I’ve been cooking on the KK lately, lot of chicken breast used for other things this is a Mexican bowl and I used my ONE Fueryr avocado that I got from the tree I planted four years ago to just aji a the avocado instead of making guacamole. Fuerte is one of my favorites and I’m looking forward to staring to grow my harvest exponentially this year

@Tyrus this is my first time making south african food. someone gifted me boerewors, which is that coiled sausage. pap is a white corn polenta made into a creamed texture, the rice substitute over there. chakalaka is like a mix veg stew sauce.

Leg of lamb

Not one to be outdone, I started to look up avocado plants that might survive the UK climate. Pulled myself out of that rabbit hole when I remembered that I probably eat no more than 2 avocados a year and that increasing my intake by the magic of shopping might be a better option.

Jonj, unbelieveable, my 23 is like Toney's, dark as hell down there. It's unreadable now, I'd would need a hieroglyphic translator to read it.

Some good news. Got an email from the owner of Fruita woods. He's sold the business to Denver Firewoods. They are in transition, so we won't be able to check them out just yet. But it's nice to know that we will have some options again for getting smoking wood chunks/splits. From the email: I am proud to announce that one of my suppliers has elected to take over the websites in effort to keep fruitawood.com and fruitawood chunks.com ALIVE!!! I am confident the Denver Firewood team will be able to continue providing you the same quality wood I have for the past 16 years. I am in the process of transferring the websites and all necessary information over to them. Please allow sufficient time to update the websites and get inventory available to start accepting orders.

one of the last cool evenings to do cold smoking.. maldon salt cultured french butter salmon

This is the other stay I’ve been cooking which you’ve all seen 100x pork tenderloin with air fryer potatoes tossed it duck fat and dusted with Parmesan cheese once removed too lazy to even cook a veg!

Tori

Quick Bavette on my gas grill. (Weather not good for breaking out KK). Plus side of bok choi and some onions and mushrooms Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very cool day here in New England and a TriTip on the menu. This was a bit of a process, last years coals in this cooker were uncooperative, inheritently they burn down to smalls which inhibit air flow, a distraction, an effort that eventually after a lenghty considerable time they do come to rise...then it happened. The cook was on, time to make love...and so we did. It was a marinated piece in a Japenese BBQ sauce overnite and then fork tendered for texture a few hundred times to soften. Placed on the grill with wrapped potatoes in a Southwestern rub, flipped twice and all was nice. Started with a Carrot soup to begin having a peanut butter final addition, cashews on the top then all plated with Cheesy Mex Cauliflower and soft tender potatoes.

Well, I've always said if the lawns to big to cut in a day...you gotta get a bigger mower.

Never left my hand Jonj, when I swigged my beer or visiting the restroom.

I hope @Tyrus, as a proper Braai-Master, you at least kept the tongs in your possession at all times! 😛

Not a problem, I found a recipe on YT by a S.African gent. I looked over a few and one common addition seems to be Corriander. Going to do it today, I'd post the results however I'm having a bit of a problem with my photo storage. Seems when I add them in the pictures go where they want, have you ever tried looking through a thousand photos of mostly cooking pics....it ain't fun. Nope, not that one, Nope, not that one, etc, etc

Yes, as @jonj said, the South African is @Braai-Q. I am pretty certain he shared his boerewors sausage recipe with me but I just can't lay my hands on it at this moment. Hopefully all this tagging will wake him up and he will find his way over to help you! Great looking cooks all. Can't wait for our summer to kick in.

@Tyrus KK-DY5123 But, I "cheated" - it's on the original invoice when I bought it in 2012!

https://komodokamado.com/collections/23-ultimate-spare-parts/products/23-ultimate-new-one-piece-main-gasket This one. My 23 is 13 years old and this one works fine. I’m pretty sure the physical design of the lid/body seal hasn’t changed, and this is the newest design. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Is that what is referred to as signature bread? Dinner for two,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,dozen, looking good.

Fruita Wood is back live and taking orders https://fruitawoodchunks.com

@Braai-Q

The KK missed yah, and no that doesn't look like Iowa corn, they say Iowa corn is as high as an elephants eye...but how would I know, never been to Iowa, only on a map.

Well, I dodged the proverbial bullet—at least the 32% one for 90 days. I will still get hit with a 10% at the end of this month, which still hurts, but I won't be losing money and need to reevaluate everything. ARGH.

I bet you did though, you have to dress it up to play it up. The steak was wonderful, I lit up a cigarette right after.

I just got my 3rd and 4th avocados in 45 years. (Don't grow your tree from the seed.)

It was the best chicken of my life and has won the award for “best pollo a la brasa in Lima” for last few years

Well I planned to do grilled carrots or asparagus but just too busy managing work and kids being home from spring break, but will pick up some of those Brussels sprouts next time iM at the store sounds like a great idea……thanks @C6Bill

Am I the only one who stopped reading right there LOL PS, that's the best way to time a duck breast cook lol

Wow, that's great @Troble. I remember when you were first planting your garden. Fresh home grown avocado. I think I need to move to warmer climes!

@Troble, beautiful restaurants and presentations! Thanks for sharing.

@remi - very nice brisket cook (+ sides!) I'm betting it was the quality of the meat that was the key difference.

Just wanted to take a second to check in and say hi. I recently purchased a 23 Ultimate Cobalt Blue KK with tiles. The grill was delivered in early February. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures or videos during delivery. The grill showed up around dark and I needed to get it unpacked, out of the driveway, and in place since rain was expected for several days. Fortunately, I had watched several videos and read numerous posts here, which made unpacking and moving the grill to its permanent home very easy. I did the burn in a day or two after I received the grill and have been cooking non stop ever since. The grill is fantastic as is all the food that's been cooked so far. As you can see in one of the pictures, my wife has started cooking on the grill too (it was a struggle to get her on board with purchasing the grill, but I think she's sold on it now). Looking forward to sharing more cooks and reading more from others in the future. IMG_20250301_200749.heic

Just a little more info, mine originally came with the single gasket. The next evolution was the additional gasket on the horizontal of the lip. Finally, the one piece version of the two gaskets, which is what i have now. Previous to all this, i believe the gasket was a fiber material. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Awesome to hear from you @Troble. Looking forward to seeing those great cooking pictures again!

Just stopped by to get some inspiration. Been too busy with the new job to cook like I used to. Hoping to get back. Good to see everyone doing well

Woo, Hoo! We hit 74F yesterday (this is after 4" of snow last Friday!), so off to the grill we go! Tonight it's Pork Wings. Done @ 250F (w/Guru - I went out to the brewery for a cold one to celebrate while the wings smoked), indirect, hickory & apple chunks in the smoker pot, smoked for 4 hours. Plated with yellow rice (Sazon Tropical) and sauteed green beans.

Prepping for Super Bowl tonight. We are in Italy and our friend is going to open his bar so we can watch the game from 00:30 tonight. I will be introducing the Italians to Franks Hot sauce and blue cheese dressing. Not brave enough to try to get my KK 16 down in the lift and down the road to the bar and so we will be using their professional oven. Here is what 5kg of wings, neatly prepared by our local butcher, look like. Dry marinade applied, now waiting in the fridge. Fly Eagles Fly!

i used to eat this every other day when i was working in lower Manhattan. sold out quick so i always made sure i got to the soup kitchen on time.. adapted from this yt recipe, but i used pork meat and added a ton of chili flakes in the meatballs. italian style foods are always better spicy for some reason. the broth is homemade. i don't like broth from a box. oh and when making the meatballs, they are supposed to be mini, so piping them through a disposable pastry bag is the way to go. you don't want to roll these by hand. it would take forever...