tekobo

Find a salsa recipe and make it. Dried chillies are a great way to explore sauces, particularly in the winter when the fresh stuff is less available.

So, thank you for all of this @Syzygies. I am already partway down this rabbit hole but have a look out on the outside, ready to pull me out if I look like getting stuck down a side burrow. All roads appear to lead to Masienda. My tacos inspiration is coming from this awesome book, Tacos by Alex Stupak: https://read.amazon.co.uk/kp/embed?asin=B00TCI2A3Q&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_4NRTZSQKNF2TREX70V7G I don't think I will find another book to top this one for its sheer inventiveness and range. The author recommends Masienda. I reached out to @Braai-Q for Mexican cook book recommendations and he came up with Breddos, the same Tacos book by Alex Stupack as above, Mexico the cookbook and the same Oaxaca book that @Syzygies recommends. Interestingly Breddos also shop with Masienda even though their restaurant is in the UK. So, Masienda is a common thread. I have had a fair bit of correspondence with them, poor things, and have ordered their nixtamatal starter kit (excluding the tortilla press) and white and blue masa harina so that I have something to compare to my fresh masa efforts. They do not have stock of the black beans that I also want and I have decided to wait until the end of March when they are available. Shipping is not cheap and I need to maximise what I get in my package. No new tortilla press. My husband laughed at me when I gave away what was then our "second best" tortilla press last summer. How many UK households have one tortilla press, let alone two? Well, having bought the Netherton Foundry tortilla press over Christmas I now have two again and I am happy with both. Will see what Sy thinks of the Netherton tortilla press when he finally gets his hands on one. I am sure he won't be able to resist. On to grinding the masa. The guy at Masienda wanted to know what I would be grinding the corn with. A perfectly good question given the challenge of doing this well. I took Sy's lead and looked into the Premier stone wet grinders. I looked at the 2 litre version - takes up too much space on the countertop. The tilting version looked attractive but it didn't have good reviews. So, I ended up where I started, with Sy's recommendation of the 1.5 litre version. My dad gave me £100 for my birthday present and that was the trigger to place my order. Waiting for it to arrive. Sometime in April I will report back on whether this was all worth it. In the meantime, I am enjoying upping my flour tortilla game will be dabbling in the corn tortilla space, using "inferior" cheap masa harina with flavourings to test the boundaries of what is good and what is not .

I have played with this. My half main grate seems to only fit on the left hand side of my 32 KK. For bread making I have settled on having the fire under the half main grate with the bread directly above and my steam generator sitting over to the right on the non-fire side. I don't generally do the reverse or forward sear thing on my steaks because I like them blue in any case but if I did I would swap sides i.e. no fire under the half grate on the LHS and I would put the lower grate in to cook over the hot fire on the RHS. Others who have actually done this may have a different view. Keen to hear.

Tee hee. Happy to help. I have had a total of 5 KKs and currently have 3. I cannot wait for the summer. Cooking and eating outdoors with the various means of cooking available to us is going to be such fun. Whether cooking on a Solo stove, an Argentinian barbecue or an over engineered KK, cooking over live fire is unpredictable and brings joy when you get it right.

When the summer comes I will get back to experimenting with cooking tacos on a plancha outdoors. For now I am experimenting indoors. I have eaten a lot of tacos over the last few weeks. I had some left over brisket in the fridge. Burnt ends were an option but instead I tried out this brisket and foie gras taco. Delish. The flour tortillas were made with goose fat. I like the fact that the starting point for a taco meal is a table that looks like this: With the tortillas for the last night I tried what I thought was a bit gimmicky and risky: corn tortillas made with beetroot juice. My hands were bright red after rolling these. So beautiful to look at And really delicious to eat. Rubbish photo but I was too excited to move to a room with better lighting. Fish tacos. The fish was brill, fried in panko breadcrumbs.

Slowly, slowly...

Ha. If only. We might be able to leave home in about a month's time. That and the fact that I probably do a lot fewer time and temp critical low and slow cooks mean that I have not seen the need. Yet. Never say never.

I agree that the connectivity for the MEATER, even the block, can be flaky but it has been good enough for me so far. I guess when we start going out again I might start to get interested in other methods. As it is, I have a Cyber Q and a Maverick set up that I have used once each. No buying signals here. Yet.

42. The answer to the Ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything.

Nope. I have a box of unused kit with wires. I tend to use multiple probes from my MEATER block if I have to and I am relaxed about some variation in temp if I fail to set the KK vents right. Always learning but still not convinced of the need for blowers and wired probes.

That is going to look spectacular. Baking stone should hopefully meet all your (large) pizza needs. The gas burner assembly is unusual. How are you planning to use it? I look forward to seeing the rotisserie - the cradle that one other KK'er had for his 42 looked massive!

Sorry, I am no help here @Braai-Q. I think the stainless steel upgrade looks pretty but, as I don't use any of those monitors with probes, I have not had any reason to play with the stainless steel plug or the plastic bung before it.

In all the excitement of you ordering a 42 @buzilo, we've forgotten to ask about the important stuff. What colour? What accessories?

Yay! She looks beautiful @BOC. What do you think of your KK now that you have finally got to see one up close and personal?

Good looking cook on your new KK @Troble. I guess "KK cooking" is something that you can now list on your CV as a "transferable skill".

Looking good @SilverSuzieQue!

I think it is insane but great for you @buzilo. It seemed mad to be trying to cook pizzas on two levels in a KK, even though you had managed it successfully on the 21. My guess is that the 42 will make your pizza nights so much easier. Double the fun. Congratulations!

Well that would be one hell of an accessory.

Could be, although they have been drying for about a year now. One thing that I have never done is to watch the smoke pot in operation to see where the smoke exits. Could do it on the stove in the kitchen but I suspect I wouldn't be popular with The Husband or our alarm company. Will devise an experiment to check this out.

Ha ha. You need to shop smart. I bought mine preloved on ebay in 2017 and it turns out it is a Chasseur and not a Le Creuset. Looking at the date it was before my first KKs arrived so I was in the same pre-arrival frenzy that Forrest and BOC are experiencing now. I know they are making a big thing of their age but, in the end, we are all the same. Mad, bad children forever. Chasseur Cast Iron Casserole Dish Pot Cream Cas... Item ID: 292114762261 Quantity: 1 Estimated delivery: Thu. 14 Sep. - Sat. 16 Sep. Paid: £21.99 with PayPal

If you want it I would raid your children's piggy banks and get one. Life is too short for KK regrets.

Loving it! Another pebble to tile convert. Enjoy the burn in. Mine's a mojito.

Cool. A 42 and a goat would be more fun though.

So...confession time here. Hoping to learn something. I use my smoke pot regularly and I never use the flour paste. It is a Le Creuset pot with lid that fits well and I definitely cannot be bothered to mess around with flour paste before each cook. What I am not sure of is whether I am getting the right effect. The chips in the pot always combust nicely by the end of the cook and I get smoke that I think is acceptable. I got a lot of smoke recently, using chips that I made from cutttings from my apple trees earlier in the year. Not sure if that's the wrong sort of smoke. It was a cold night. Will try again with and without the flour paste to test but just saying that it may not be essential...

Hey @buzilo. I am struggling to see how you get two pizza stones that size onto your KK. My advice would be to make smaller pizzas or get the 42. Joking aside, if the 42 is what you need...then get it!