tekobo

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.

@Buzilo - you may want to update this now that you have decided to hang on to the 21.

A 21 and a 42 - a great combination. How do you decide which to use and do you divide up the fire basket in the 42 or burn a full basket every time? I am feeling my way with the extra space in my 32 trying to decide if I keep it in two zone configuration for most of the time or not.

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.

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.

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!

I looked up the restaurant @Basher. Looks interesting. Our local Kurdish grill house does grilled lamb ribs so well that I don't try to make them myself. Look forward to hearing about how they work out when you do cook them.

Oops. Sorry to report but that is my small la chamba pot at 5.5Qt. When cooking for more I will be using the 10Qt one which didn't fit in my 23 but does fit in my 32.

Hi @Troble. It appears avocado leaves are used in the southern states of Mexico and that they are leaves of the Mexican avocado. The version that you have in the US may be toxic. See this article for some interesting information. http://flavorsofthesun.blogspot.com/2008/02/avocado-leaves-secret-mexican.html

Funny you should say that. We used clarified butter for all our "butter" frying needs, including in our air fryer. The Husband is usually in charge of making it and he buys a stack of butter from our local catering supplier. Last time he went, he decided to save himself effort and bought some pre made ghee instead. I was a little snooty at first but I have to admit that I cannot tell the difference when compared to the clarified butter he used to make. Good tip re using ghee to baste grilling food. My decision to make the pilgrimage to the restaurant Ynyshir, in Wales, was based almost entirely on seeing chef Gareth soaking his skewers in liquid butter before grilling. What could be better? Yes they are and I have taken one for Team UK and have ordered some stuff to try.

i am not sure @Basher and that is partly because all the flavours were relatively new to me. The leaves smell like a slightly anisey bay leaf to me. I have a massive bag of the stuff and will be trying with other recipes. The black bean paste included a whizzed up avocado leaf. This recipe came from the Tacos - Recipes and Provocations book that I like so much. It was for lamb barbacoa and was very similar to other marinades for lamb barbacoa that I found online. Ancho, guajillo and chipotle morita heated, soaked and then whizzed up with pan roasted garlic cloves and powdered mix of cloves, cumin seeds, canela, black peppercorns and oregano. I have some extra adobo in the fridge and will be looking for other ways to use it ver soon.

I have been watching and wondering with this thread. Why is @Syzygies so excited about a weird prongy attachment to the Trompo King? Can't he just cook tandoori on his KK grates like everyone else? There must be a reason.... I looked around the KK forum and found lots of fun stuff about clay pots that you could put into your KK, to slap naan on the outside and cook your skewers on the inside. Hmm. Interesting so far. By coincidence I received a £15 off code from Aktar at Home. I applied that to one of the tandoori BBQ boxes for delivery mid June. Enough time to find a solution to this tandoori cooking conundrum. This post from @_Ed_ had a reassuringly simple solution - skewers direct into the belly of the KK. I wandered off to find good quality long skewers and found this UK tandoor site and their interesting prongy solutions. Seems like @S is onto something with the prongs. https://tandoor-adventures.uk/collections/accessories-for-tandoor-and-bbq?page=1 And then a random search for tandoori skewers came up with this interesting contraption: https://www.souschef.co.uk/products/thuros-t1-stainless-steel-bbq-skewer-attachment?variant=31473519362106&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7pKFBhDUARIsAFUoMDaZWjmoclweHuL8ClyFDf2LnXY6wSNBhOY-RoyfUJ0oXlCIZDZHf6oaAug2EALw_wcB Could work well, close to the fire in a KK. All good fun. Opinions on all of the above and other stuff welcome!

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.

I was puzzled by this comment when you first posted it @Syzygies Why does one need a grate at all in the TrompoKing pan? I am curious about this and keen to see what happens if you do try this. I have not yet run out of height on the short spike on my cheat Trompo King and am not sure if I will ever need the four spike system but when has that ever stopped any of us trying something new???

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.

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.

The only trouble is, they probably only deliver in the UK. That said, I am curious about whether you get these cuts of meat in Mexican supermarkets in the US. That albanico tasted like the best rib meat, just without the bones. I think these cuts will be ideal for juicy porky tacos. To be continued…

That sounds like a good plan @Troble. The combination of good meat, a KK and your experience should make it really difficult to screw up. Enjoy!

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.

Err…no! Everyone knows chicken wings ARE THE BEST.

Seems pretty quick to me. And pretty. When is the big day and will it be ready in time?

Countdown! You are making me want to do it again. Our COVID restrictions ease a little more on Monday and we will be allowed 6 people indoors and 30 outdoors. A pig cook, when the weather is better, would be a lovely way to celebrate.

Thanks @BigO. I have not managed to find time to watch it all but I know it’ll be a great video to share with a friend who has caught the KK bug. Cool.

Ooooh. Which one are you going for? Instinctively I like 3 or 5 spokes and probably 3.