tekobo

Yesterday was Day 198. Here is the whole sirloin rack when it arrived back in September of last year. I coated three ribs in fat and the rack has been sitting at the bottom of my dry ager for months. I invited friends round last night. The fore rib, one shelf up, was the back up in case the long aging experiment had gone wrong. The fore rib had only been in for about 50 days. Sense of trepidation. I thought I could see some dark mould underneath the fat on the end face of the meat. I need not have worried. It was an amazing revelation to see such clean, beautiful meat on the inside. We did have to trim off the ends. Cooking pictures to make you drool. No plated pictures. We were too busy eating. Salad, sweet potato fries and bearnaise made for a lovely meal. The meat wasn't too funky, just a slight blue cheese flavour. Very very enjoyable.

Of course I couldn't resist. For UK KK'ers - this book is on a number of sites for over £100. I got the best deal, at £49, here https://puritandoors.co.uk/recipe-book-by-ranjit-rai.html

@Troble's beer, stack, beer, stack method is much more exciting than mine! I rotate mine by 60 degrees in each layer so that I return to original position every third piece. Exposes more of the edges to the flame I think. For my most recent cook I realised that carrying an exposed spike down the stairs to the KK was not the best idea I had ever had. Safety tip for the day: put a cork on it if you have to carry your trompo king around and don't have the meat or pineapple stacked to the very top.

@Bruine I think that half grate is a game changer. In combination with the basket splitter it gives you more flexibility and the chance to try out two zone cooking in your 23 or 21.

No restaurant planned but, if we ever get out of these lockdown restrictions, I am planning a themed banquet a month. Big trestle tables in the garden and menus themed by country. I cannot wait to see and feed my friends again!

@Troble is right, the achiote paste is fundamental to this dish and to other Mexican cooking. You use heroic amounts of it just to make this sauce so don't be daunted by the amount that he has sent you. There is a saying that The Husband and I have - what you are seeking is usually within 5 miles of where you are. I would bet you a lot of money that there is someone in Australia importing (or growing) and selling authentic Mexican chillies. Worth trying to find them to make this dish authentic. The instructions, as I copied them down from the video, are: Adobo sauce toast guallijo peppers, chipotles 2 oz of each take off ends and shake seeds out break up and put back in pan, cover with water simmer for 5 minutes to rehydrate the peppers lift out of liquid and into food processor/blender add half white onion, 1oz of mexican sugar, 1Tbsp cumin, mex oregano, thyme 1 tsp all spice 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 2 cloves garlic, pineapple and orange juices about half a cup, 1tsp salt Blend Marinade for al pastor achiote paste 14oz. mash up add half cup apple cider vinegar, same olive oil whisk add 2 cups or more of adobo sauce whisk

I am in this camp. Having a thermometer in your BBQ gives us the comfort of precision but I tend to simply use it as a rough guide. Just so long as the temps are in the neighbour hood of where I need to be, I’m happy.

Today my ship came in. Well, the UPS man delivered. I bought a load of corn to start my nixtamalisation journey. A bit daunting. I bought some masa harina to see what the end product is like. Made a few tortilla to go with our chilli tonight. Not bad for first try. Good but not transcendental noting that this is, admittedly, just the dried corn flour. I look forward to seeing how the wet masa turns out. It feels like the start of a journey. I hope the destination turns out to be worth it...

Hi @Troble, I am sorry that the pictures were so poor. It was our first contact with friends post lockdown. We were only allowed to eat in the garden so it was a bit of a rushed event, trying to cook and eat before it got too cold outdoors. I cooked the meat on the 32 and the flour tortillas on the 23. It all went well and I served them with pineapple, pickled cucumber, an arbol chilli sauce and other things that i cannot remember. I do remember that I forgot to serve slices of lime. Alchohol and happiness induced forgetfulness. Next time!

Thank you so much for sending over the ingredients for this dish @Troble. My pictures are not great but the taste was fantastic!

Lamb shoulder slow cooked with wine, stock and creme fraiche. Finished with frozen peas and mint. Super yummy.

I second that emotion. Gorgeous.

No worries at all @Troble, @Forrest et al. My tongue was firmly in my cheek as I wrote that post. Looking forward to seeing @Pequod pretending to sell his KKs. Again. As for the 4Ks? I am so pleased that the celebs are moving on from thinking a Kamado Joe is the bees knees. I remember seeing these articles and cringing: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5903077/The-3-000-barbecue-status-symbol-loved-celebrities.html https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/9696775/david-beckham-5k-summer-bbq-storms/

Ha. All our prejudices are wonderfully illustrated by this thread. The young “grasshopper” brings us a story we oldies would never have found ourselves, we hate it because it brings our precious club into contact with the world of the nouveau riche, we hope that it turns out that the Man owns the tool and rail at the fact that a woman might afford to get someone else to do her barbecuing for her. I love it. Long live our weirdly wired human brains.

Oooh That looks delicious @Buzilo

Cooked Hispi cabbage on the grill grate and finished it off in La Chamba roasting pan, alongside some sous vide potatoes. Seasoned the cabbage with some Mexican oregano, champagne vinegar and salt and pepper rub to cook it and then poured on some bagna cauda sauce to soak into the crevices in the cabbage towards the end of the cook. Super delicious. Sliced up like a nice piece of meat. Served with a deep fried whole sea bass.

Hi Brian. I liked the rotisserie method because it looks great and you get a crisper finish when you slice the meat onto the pan below. That said, the vertical method is sooo simple and fuss free that it is a winner for me. I also think that the vertical method can work well in a 32 set up for two zone cooking. Cook slow on the "cool" zone and then move to the hot zone when you want to slice and give your meat a crisp edge. You are of course limited by the height of your spike in the vertical method while stacking a rotisserie on a 32 would feed a crowd and would look super impressive.

Sorry for not being as clear as I could have been @Bruine. The problem I had on previous cooks was that the juices ran into the bowl of the cake tin and burned up. When I came to slice it wasn't an attractive destination for my nice juicy meat. My solution was impromptu and rather crude. I rolled up foil and put it in the bottom of the bowl like so: With this last cook some juice and fat from the chicken skin collected on top of an around the foil. When I was ready to slice I pulled out the foil, leaving a nice amount of liquid. It was just perfect to toss the chicken slices in while doing the crisping. Extra tastiness.

Thanks all for your kind comments. First I must give credit where credit is due. To @Troble for introducing the concept and leading the way with shawarma on the rotisserie and then on to this vertical cooking method and to @BOC for encouraging me to make my own Trompo King. Spices used came from this pack from our local Meditteranean store. Tasting the powder on its own is yak but super tasty when spread liberally on the chicken and cooked. I have to admit that I am not sure about the temp or the timing. Temp was approx 180C-200C and timing between half an hour and 45 minutes before I started slicing. @Tyrus this is a home made contraption. The cast iron tray at the bottom helps to keep the vertical spike in place and provides a fire shield during the early part of the cook. I considered @Forrest's suggestion that you sit your Trompo King on a double drip tray to avoid burning the juices. That would work for the cooking phase but not for the crisping up phase. My foil solution was clumsy but effective. Next try will be troble's adobado and I will see if an alternative idea appears. In the meantime here is my completely free re-purposing of a cake tin that I had only ever used once or twice to make cake and now have used for vertical roasting at least ten times. Works a treat and cleans up beautifully after each cook.

Great chicken schawarma a couple of nights ago. Two new innovations for me. I kept the skin on alternate boned out thighs and I put foil in the bottom of the pan to stop the juices burning. Pulled out the foil when I came to slice the meat. Delicious.

@Buzilo I am so pleased that the 42 is doing just what you wanted it to do - two large pizzas side by side. I don't imagine that was much fun in two layers on a 21. Here's to many more magic meals.

Yummy!

I would start with just sitting and looking at your new KK. It's a beaut. Congratulations.

@Syzygies- what beautiful tortilla! Super lovely puff. @PVPAUL it was one of your earlier posts, as you know, that got me into making tortilla for the first time. Thank you for generously sharing your family recipe. Your little tips were very helpful. You said not to add too much flour at the rolling stage and that your family used to use lard in place of oil. I find that using animal fat in my flour tortillas seems to make them less likely to stick and I don't need to flour my rolling surface much, if at all. You also said about cooking the tacos over direct flame and I have found that to be a good technique when I want a quick puff and slight char. Thanks a lot. I look forward to seeing how you get on with the Masienda products. Mine will probably arrive in April and I will have a go with the Premier grinder then. @SilverSuzieQue look forward to seeing your blue tortillas in all their glory.

You are teasing us @Buzilo! Nothing in the pics to give us a sense of scale. Can you throw a child, dog or goat into the KK to help us understand just how mighty it is?