croadie

Oooohhh I like the Joule concept...thanks for the link

I'm up for that - nice!!

Great thanks for the encouragement everyone

We grill them chopped in biggish chunks and throw it in a salad with chilli, grilled limes, coriander and grilled tomato's....

looking good Hugo Boss, hadn't thought of meatloaf, must be worth a try...When do we see soem kangaroo and crocodile???

Okay = as others have experienced the first cook is a mixture of trepidation, dis-organisation, excitement, too many people looking over your shoulder, and relief. At the end I probably got the tastiest steak I have ever had of the grill - had rubbed it eh night before with a mix I ground up of chili=flakes, fennel seeds, sea salt, peppercorns and cardamon - i also only got a blurry photo such was the quantity of Oregon Beer and pinto noir consumed at this stage. I also missed a pick of the roast veggies I did - parsnips and spuds, but i do have photo's of the other items - My sourdough - taking advice from the other post on steaming bread - I placed a deep cast iron dish on the lower grill and let it get good and hot - I boiled water in a jug separately then immediately before adding the bread poured 400ml into the pan below. That bit worked really well and it was amazing how well the steam held in Yoda as I closed it off for 10 minutes. What did go wrong though was i added the pizza stone too late and as the grill had been waiting longer than was planned (due to being distracted at a friends place for 3 hours) - i didn't have enough charcoal left to drive the heat back fully and the bake was at a lower temperature than planned (i also suspect my thermometer is reading high). Anyway the result was a thin crust and a light loaf, but otherwise it baked nicely. I use my own sourdough starter and follow the Tartin method. It was great not having to use the dutch oven, so I'm definitely doing this again. This photo is of the other loaf to show how well the steam worked in providing the oven spring but not 'burning ' the loaf. I also did mushrooms on the grill, but above the pan I'd used to steam the bread, I then sweated them in a dutch oven with butter and fresh tarragon, they picked up a beautiful smokey note. Last I grilled eggplants which slashed and marinated with a chilli, miso, sake, mirin mixture, these came about brilliantly and were devoured by our guests who had never had eggplant this way before. The trick with this is to shallow fry them initially then let them rest with the marinade on them for about 30 minutes then grill to finish to a lovely creamy texture. again I'll be doing this again for sure. What I liked: I loved the different levels at which I could cook. I loved the smokey flavour t that came through. i loved that with a little planning you could do multiple things all for the same meal. I'm very excited about the bread possibilites and things like Tart Tartin. What I need to do better: Don't go drinking at a mates place for 3 hours in the middle!! allow more time for the pizza stone to heat and rebalance the temperature of the grill (or ensure i have more charcoal left to ramp back up) Get another grill mitt and have a slab I can put really hot stuff on right next to the grill More heat, more crust. Plan my levels a but better. Take photo's What i got right: I went with more charcoal at the outset which was just as well as I still didn't have enough I think boiling the water prior to adding worked well for the steaming of the bread Thanks everyone, This would have been a disaster if not for all the guidance available on this site.

mmm. I'm thinking I'm under-loading mine... more is better seems to be the message here..???

Also I suspect dropping the diffuser in sucks up a bit of heat as well - at least 30-40 I would think - has anybody run that test???

My wife wants to know as well,,, Guess I've always had a good lifting technique - though I was on tippy toes and thinking Oh Sh#@! Out for dinner tonight with Chrissy but I've heated Yoda up again to day to do the kids fish and chips and stuffed baked apples - I won't consider that my first cook...

Yes really great pics etc. wish I'd known i had a carton with the long alum key in it :/ - it's so simple with that and almost impossible without!!

That part - getting the pictures up - was exhausting. Right - Yoda arrived today. everything went smoothly except freeing the little tension bolts to swing away the spring cover - that took at least 30 minutes as one was super tight. I moved the whole thing by myself - 5'6" and 140lbs vs 23" Komodo Ultimate. I had extra hands organised for Tuesday, but not today :/ Here we go : Thanks Jerry Yee, nice job. there she is - excitement mounts - I created a bridge from the pallet to the first step, one down. Now to get the lid off, these little suckers were a nightmare. success, nice arrangement overall, just don't make the top bolts so tight. The top resting - don't worry you'll be back together soon. I modified the ramp a little to get up the next step, and pushed REALLY HARD!!! Through the front door, down through the living room and kitchen and out to the deck. Almost back together. Big relief at this stage, time for some strong coffee... The corrugated cardboard comes in handy as I support the lid whilst reattaching the spring at the back. Come on baby light my fire - corny I know but it did go through a Number of Doors. I like living with things of beauty... This certainly adds to that Hope the pic's help someone out, or inspire others to indulge. I took it up to 500f in about 70 minutes then sat it there for 4 1/2 hours - held perfectly. Tomorrow a cook maybe (although we're going out and the kids have a baby sitter) Sunday Definitely!! thanks for looking - sorry about my hissy-photo-fit

Sorry spend the last hour 1/2 swearing at this forum - I've been trying to load photo's and it keeps killing me - I give up .. it says can't load photo's with that extension - what the!!

Yeah it's here and it's a beautiful thing. I've decided to call it Yoda, unless someone else has stolen that name. Doing the pre-heat thing now, but out with friends tonight so no cooking. will have time to get pics up tomorrow - provided i sleep tonight...

Yes thanks Rak, It's a beautiful thing, have taken lots of pics, moved the whole thing up two steps through the house and out onto our deck by myself (Probably best Chrissy didn't see). No time to get pics up today - but it's outside doing the heat treatment thing now. Already noticed a huge difference to my previous one. It's beautiful though, cooking porn of the very best kind

Having just done this - there is a super long 5mm hex key that came with my grill - I only found it after I had completed the task but what the heh!! - loosen the two points at the top of the stainless v at the back of the grill, swing this off, then you can unwind the spring from below with a 19mm wrench or similar - have the lid tilted back while you do this(but supported so it doesn't slump as you loosen the spring). Undo completely, remove supports from lid and ease it closed. Then take the pin out that holds the lid in place. I'll put photo's up tomorrow - all of this is for the ultimate 23 , but I expect it's similar on most of the grills.

Welcome - my fellow Kiwi - you beat me by a few weeks. Looks like a good ol' kiwi cook up - let's see how we progress from our different hemispheres, all the best

Not able to deliver until Friday - waaaahhhhhh

No Komodo today - still too much ice on the road -

Agree with Rak - very useful before I go crazy-ar#$ playing around with it. Thanks Dennis.

Wow, thanks everyone... I 'hoped' for a comment or two - but realize now I've joined a family. With the icy snow here in portland yesterday even my 9 year old daughter was concerned that my 'grill' wouldn't arrive on time!! Thanks for all the welcomes and advice. I have seen some of the 'ladies' creations - and I must say it's opened my eyes to all sorts of general cooking possibilities pressures on now to take the pic's and cook up something respectable... Be in touch (provided the ice clears form the driveway) Croadie

Hi - I'm taking delivery Tuesday morning of a new 23 matte blue/black pebble. I'm living in Portland and had never cooked with charcoal until 3 years ago when i brought a cheap komodo - which actually has done a great job - Turkey for Christmas, Pizza, Ribs, lamb legs , fish, even bread in a cast iron 'oven', Very excited - I appreciate things done well and this certainly seems to be one - I remember seeing the site when I first got into this style of cooking. Originally from New Zealand - hence the long delay to have my eyes opened. Hope to post pic's etc as it arrives, provided the excitement isn't too great. Any do's or don'ts - other than cook up a storm and don't hold back??? Great forum by the way, nice to see the support - why though is it mainly guy's - is it a pyromania thing??? : Croadie