tekobo

Woo hoo!  Our Mexican neighbour helped with making the tortillas.  I think her expectations were low and this Al Pastor recipe far, far exceeded her and her husband's expectations.  Hurrah for @Troble.  I made fish tacos to start, followed by Al Pastor and then finished with pineapple and ginger sorbet.  I was touched by the fact that she has not been able to get to Mexico for a while (looking after sick old dog) and so was super happy to have the taste of Mexico brought to her.  And her husband loved rolling the meat in the fat that accumulated in the bottom of the pan.  

Well, please wish me luck.  Tomorrow is the day.  I am at our place in Italy and I have promised to serve our Mexican neighbour and her Italian husband home made tacos.  That involved making the fresh masa at home in England earlier in the week, vacuum packing it and transporting it in the car.  I bought some pork shoulder from the market this morning and marinaded it in the bright red marinade for al pastor.  I also bought a pineapple and have scoped out some fish to buy tomorrow so we can have some fish tacos for starters.  A brave (or foolish) move, trying to cook someone else's native food and telling them that you do it well!  I will report back after the event.  In the meantime here is a couple of photos of the work in progress.

I use my spit and fork more often and I bought an extra set of double ended forks so that I could spin 3 chickens at a time in my 32.  The cradle is more unwieldy but does help with larger joints and I would probably recommend it over a spit and fork for something as large as a turkey. That said, I have never spun a turkey and don't even like the stuff so I am not a good judge!

I am away from home without access to my 32 so sadly cannot answer your question about dimensions.  

On 4/19/2025 at 6:42 PM, Tyrus said:

Intriguing, the S. African by Tekebo would surely know more about this cuisine...his name begins with a B as I try to recall, it'll come to me after I hit send. The sausage at a glance looks like a mix of pork and beef, I'll find a recipe and make a batch. Call it a challenge of curiousity.

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.

On 3/31/2025 at 10:29 PM, Troble said:

@tekoboi planted 7 different types so that they would bloom during various months of the year. This Fuerte is moving the slowest 1 avo in year 4. My others gave me 1-2 in year 2/3, 10-15 In year 3-4

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. 

🤤

12 hours ago, Troble said:

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 

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!

Good looking chook @Wobster.  I am really glad the video is still here and still helpful.  2020?  Wow, doesn't time fly?!

I see what you guys are doing here.  Return of the @Pequod has triggered some competitive KK Shopping Channel activity.  RFX, Combustion Predictive Thermometer.  Get thee away from me, I will continue to guess and hope for the best until....

P.S.  Pigs with wings seem like a cheaper option!

That cook made me hungry @Mark Jacobs.  Yum.  Hey @tony b, let's see your chops!

Looks like a good time was had by all @jonj!

Chicken dinner, cooked indoors.  Tasted good but not as nice as when cooked in the KK.  Roll on spring!

I bought a whole hogget (slightly older lamb) from a farmer friend of @RokDok's last weekend.  Knowing that I had asked for lamb's kidney's, the farmer decided that I must like all other offal too.  So...he gave me a bag full of lamb's hearts and a couple of lamb's livers.  Aaargh.  I am squeamish about hearts and much prefer calf's liver to any other liver but I did not want to waste any of the meat I had been given.  What to do?  Yeah, I know, take the highest risk option and feed it to 20 of my best friends, that's what!  

The organs were very clean and tidy so I just had to cut off the hard bits of fat and arteries at the top of the hearts, cut them open and clean out the blood before mincing them with a bit of breast meat to introduce some fat.  I know, at this stage you are probably shouting, "that looks like what I feed to my dog" but have faith, things get better.

I had gone for a Turkish theme so the minced heart  meat was mixed with herbs and onion and formed into kofte kebabs.  Easier said than done, keeping the damp meat on the skewers even after chilling them in the dry ager.  It would  have been helpful to grill them using a fish basket but I didn't have one, so they were grilled on a hot plate in the 23 and @RokDok did a sterling job of keeping most of them from crumbling.  

On to the liver.  I sliced it thinly, soaked it in milk and then, just before deep frying, Mrs Rokdok dredged the pieces in a delicious spiced flour.

The lamb shoulders (my saving grace if the guests revolted) were cooked for 8 hours at 130C in the 32.

The good news is that lamb three ways was a roaring success, even though lamb's liver and heart were new to many, including me!

Belated update.  Watching the SuperBowl in an Italian bar was indeed good fun.  Our Italian friends were surprised by how much they liked buffalo wings and blue cheese sauce.  I had to admit to having used a French cheese, Roquefort, to make the blue cheese sauce but they liked it all the same. The best compliment was seeing the, normally very critical and conservative, bar owner mop up some of the sauce with a piece of bread.  And I enjoyed the result of the game too!

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!

Thank you @Tyrus!

Those look really tasty @Tyrus!  Care to share the recipe?

Nice looking recipe @Tyrus.  I turned the second half of that humungous squash into four different sides and my husband used the very last chunk to make soup but he did not have the benefit of your recipe.  I will see if I can outdo his efforts when I break into one of the much smaller squashes from my harvest.  Depending on how it turns out I might back your wife's silverware for the win!

On 1/7/2025 at 4:12 PM, Tyrus said:

What kind of squash did you use, my guess is butternut.

I used the squash in the picture above.  I had a lot of squash to get rid of!

On 1/7/2025 at 3:20 PM, qundoy said:

Very unique desert idea.

A friend who had tasted the dessert on a cruise came home and told me about it.  I normally ignore people's requests for ice cream flavours because of the challenge of making something that tastes like what they remembered and loved. This time, with my huge squash sitting in the basement waiting to be eaten, I thought I would give it a go.  It was a triumph.  The roasted pumpkin seed oil was essential.  

On 1/2/2025 at 9:47 PM, C6Bill said:

But but but where’s the bread !!!!!

Ha ha.  No bread but I did make squash ice cream for 50.  It was divine with a squeeze of pumpkin seed oil. 

On 1/4/2025 at 9:15 PM, qundoy said:

Smoked a lamb breast today. This is my 2nd attempt with this cut, the first time was pretty much a disaster. Lightly salted them for an overnight dry brine, coated them with Berbere spice early this morning. On the smoker at 230 degrees. Finished the ribs with a coat of Bachans Sweet Honey Japanese BBQ sauce. They turned out nicely, the sweet sauce and berbere spice rub worked well together.

I love, love, love lamb ribs @qundoy.  A local Turkish grill house does them beautifully but I have never been able to find them to buy and cook myself.  I tried with a supplier in December and he said to wait until after the Christmas rush to place a special order.  Your cook has inspired me.  I will be following up right now....

I managed to use up half of this 22kg squash (galeux d'Eysines variety) for my New Year's party vegan dish

When I piled it all into my double bottomed pan in the 32, I started to regret not having bought a 42. 

Luckily it all cooked down nicely and, with the addition of some cooked grains and romesco sauce, it was a real hit on the  night.

Meat eaters found solace in this pork paella, cooked in my greenhouse to stay out of the wind.  And yes, @tony b, there was soccarat!

Tee hee.  Popped back to take a look at the forum after a bit of an absence.  Good to see you are all as silly as usual!  Best of the season to you all.  

Boy, that looks yummy @Franck!

We spent a week away with @RokDok, Mrs RokDok and a bunch of other friends to celebrate my husband's sixtieth birthday.  

Here is the great steak spread that @RokDok conjured up on his trusty Weber kettle (not being able to transport his 32 KK to a cliff top in Cornwall).

We also upped our paella game, with the addition of a great big gas burner.

Yum!