tekobo

Lovely looking cooks all. Veal steaks for lunch. Indirect most of the way with a quick sear at the end. One was thicker than the other so I was able to cook them in the same time frame with one rarer than the other. Turned out really well with home made fries, mayonnaise, peas and hot sauce. No plated pics, was too busy eating.

Gosh @Chief, my husband and I were tentative about carrying the top of a 16TT. The lid on 32 is a whole other scale! As @tony b said, I hope your arm was only bruised and not broken. Welcome to the most fun you will have in your back yard with your clothes on.

I didn't like to say, when @tony b and @5698k both said it was easy, that I have always found it hard to separate the point and flat on a raw brisket. I guess practice helps and I do this so rarely that I approach it with trepidation every time. P.S. Your results look good.

Chicken dinner, always a winner. Used the upper rack to get the chicken skin nice and crispy using reflected heat from the dome. Crisped up these potato slices while the chicken was resting. New to me recipe from Francis Mallman's Green Fire. Enjoyed by all. Worked well with chilli sauce and ketchup.

Thanks @tony b. I will set some time aside this weekend to try a few variants. In the past I thought that keeping the mash going for longer was the way to go but now realise that 6-8 weeks is long enough for a mighty fine tasting sauce. I am looking forward to this year's crop of chillis. It will be interesting to explore the different flavours that different chillis deliver in a sauce.

@Tucker I did a quick google search and it appears the sentiment is well known and available on posters and T-shirts in the US. With the growing number of vegans in the UK I don't think I'll be walking down the street in one of those T-shirts anytime soon but I might just spring for an apron.

So...after three days off the booze and eating in a restricted time window, this vegetarian lark seems to be working. I am sleeping better and have lost a little girth and a little weight. @Tyrus is right, I won't ever pass for a vegetarian with two freezers full of meat in the house but I am discovering the benefits of not loading every meal with meat and sides and washing it all down with wine at every opportunity. Baby steps. I can't be bothered with a diet but if I can make some sustainable changes I will be happy.

Yipppee! I made started three batches of Scotch bonnet ferments in early April and tried the first batch last week. At first I was worried that the heat would knock my head off but with the judicious addition of some sushi vinegar it mellowed out and is joyously addictive. I want to try different additives and wondered what others have tried with success. When you add garlic @tony b is it just whizzed in raw with the ferment? Any other interesting flavours? I tried balsamic vinegar but that wasn't as good as the sushi vinegar. Thinking I might riff on the latter with some straight mirin. I also tried with soy tonight but I think I put a bit too much in.

My husband's away for a few days and I decided to try being a vegetarian teetotaller while I was on my own. Otherwise known as drying out and slimming down. The only problem is that my Texan girlfriend was in town for just one night and I had lured her to dinner with a picture of a nice T-bone steak. She arrived with this tea towel for me but quickly got with the programme and we had a lovely evening, sober at dinner for the first time in our acquaintance. I tried out some BBQ recipes from Francis Mallman's Green Fire and they were all a success, washed down with homemade lemonade. I didn't get photos of the fennel and spring onions on the konro grill but this one, shows cooked black beans and broad beans getting some char. It made the black beans a bit crunchy and very tasty. Next came the smashed potatoes, grilled with a fennel seed and fennel pollen topping - intended to replicate the flavours of a porchetta and... it worked! The beans were mixed up with the grilled fennel and spring onions and a bit of vinegar and oil to make the centrepiece salad which we ate with our smashed potatoes. Surprisingly filling. Dessert was one of the weirdest things I have ever made. Grilled stone fruit - I used a plum, a peach and a nectarine - with grilled Raclette cheese! Texan was NOT weirded out. We considered what it might need to lift it. She suggested white balsamic vinegar. It was the perfect match. And yes, I know the picture is not the best but I promise you it was tasty. In fact, I am coming round to thinking that I can eat less meat and still enjoy a meal. Shock! Horror.

That looks sooo delicious @Adam Ag 98. I don't think there is enough time left in my life to eat all the tacos that I believe I deserve but I'm going to die trying and this recipe will help!

Two lovely looking grills. Congratulations on the 22 @BowtieBill. That is my secret favourite KK but I don't have the right setting for one. @Rob.C, you struck really lucky with that buy! Beautiful tiles. Now need to see your cooks!

Yummy cauliflower bake with harissa based marinade and peppers. I have made this at least 6 times and It is probably the only meal that would persuade me to become a vegetarian. Before and after about an hour at 180C It is another Ottolenghi recipe, this time from his Flavour book. i have no affiliation with him other than loving the things he does with vegetables. Link to online copy of the recipe is here https://www.irishexaminer.com/recipes/?c-recipeid=4124 I freestyle with the different types of pepper flakes, using what I've got rather than what he asks for and make my own rose harissa. Never disappoints.

Yummy looking food. All look great but my current trigger is @Troble's lamb. Would slice it up so that there were nice soft inside bits alongside the crunchy outside bits and I would lay them on top of a beautiful cheesy leopard skin pizza alla @Mcjudsten. I hate calling out individual cooks as, at a different time of day I would go for brisket in a burger. And it is only breakfast time. No wonder I am not getting any thinner!

Hey @Tyrus. You're right, it was fun and it wasn't that much work. That is just a selection of meals over a period of two weeks and I used the KK because I didn't have an indoor oven. The rest of the time we lived on cichetti (Venetian equivalent of tapas) in the bars we frequented. Back home sweet home, Italian chicken cooked on my 23KK. Could have been crispier but I now know, from my cooking in the 16KK without my usual clay dish, that I should leave clay top off for all or most of the cook. Next time it will be perfect.

Thanks for all your kind comments. We ate(and drank) well. I now need a drying out period with a fair bit of exercise to recover!

Had a blast with my 16KK in Italy and then had an 18hr journey home. 6:20am start in Italy and arrived home at 11:35pm in the UK. I didn't have a working indoor oven and so most of my cooking was done on the KK. Here are my cooking highlights from our stay in Italy: Asparagus mimosa from Plenty by Ottolenghi Sticky sweet and sour plums and sausages from Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love except I used apricots instead. Pan was on limit of its capacity. Excuse to go shopping. Best roast potatoes in the world according to our friend Francesco Cooked a couple of these beef ribs in quick succession. Top right is the Castellucio lentils with tomatoes and Gorgonzola dish from the "Plenty" book, made with orzo/pot barley in place of lentils. It worked really well. Bottom left is the roasted potatoes with aioli and buttered pine nuts from Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love. Francesco's opinion was that I had ruined the previously perfect roast potatoes by dousing them in aioli. I quite liked it! This dentice or bream was deeelicious. Served us for two meals. I didn't cook it as recommended which was a) to leave the scales on and peel off the skin when cooked and b) to cut a shallow incision on either side of the spine and use the colour of the flesh there to indicate doneness. I hadn't read the recipe when I chose the fish at the fishmongers and so had them take the scales off. The mat that I bought meant that the skin did not stick AND was crispy and tasty to eat. Our local butcher is a magician. From left to right - chicken wrapped in bacon (the best lollipop ever), mixed veal, pork and turkey kebab, lamb kebab and a "carpaccio" kebab which was beef wrapped with lardo. I was given strict instructions for cooking times, from 20 minutes down to 5 minutes. I staggered the timings for putting the kebabs on and they all came out beautifully. Except perhaps for the lamb which I would have had rarer. New pan and spatcocked, practically boneless chicken (dissosato). I omitted to take a photo of the finished product but can assure you that our friend Francesco declared it the "best chicken ever". He has been rude about my chicken cooks in the past but that was because I was cooking with crappy indoor equipment in Airbnbs. He was astounded by the juiciness of the chicken breast. KK magic. Day before our long road trip. Kebabs on a bed of summer courgette with tomatoes and ricotta (I substituted feta) from Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love Plus yummy fresh strawberries. Easy to pop in your mouth as you are driving along. Peaches and plums were banned, too dribbly. I have referred to this Ottolenghi book and the other one that I have in Italy called Plenty because I have been using them to explore veg cooking. It is easy to get stuck in a rut with veg and so I forced myself to try new recipes with the great produce available from our local market. It was a real success and I would recommend this and his other books. There can be lots of chopping sometimes but it's worth it.

Hey @Paul, you must be so proud of him! That article was really interesting. Hard to imagine how focussed, fearless and skilled you need to be to compete and win at that level.

Sorry to be late to the party. I hope you had a VERY Happy Birthday @Bruce Pearson

I think that works perfectly - no pressure to share!

Thanks @Paul et al. I have already packed the second grate away but I see the benefit of using it as a surface for placing foil to shield from dripping fat and juices. I used the tray that came with the KK but that does block more of the heat and is lower down than the second grate. One to try. I have fish for tonight or tomorrow but nothing else in the house. Reminds me that I must plan what we are eating over the next few days and get to the market. The market and butchers are shut all day Sunday and on Monday morning so some forethought is required compared to when I am back home in the UK.

The breed of animal also makes a big difference. I like Dexter beef and also Longhorn. It would be worth checking on breed as well as how the animal is fed as you progress with your mission. My ultimate steak was aged 198 days (I had been trying to hit 200 but I counted wrong!). Not sure I would go to that trouble again but we very much enjoyed it. Link to the post I put up at the time.

I've just remembered that one neighbour said she was from Mexico. She is the one most likely to be upwind of the KK. Will try to win her over with @Troble's Al Pastor recipe one day soon....

Those bears of yours look nice and gentle @MacKenzie but I am absolutely certain I would not want them prowling around my yard!!!

Very nice looking sauce @David Chang

Glad to be providing solace to 16KKs around the world. Well done Mac! Quick bit of advice required from 16KK owners. I don't have room to store all KK accessories in my ready access cupboards here and have had to decide on what will go into "deep" storage. Two grates come with the KK but I can't figure out why I would ever want to use anything other than the main grate. Is there any benefit in keeping the smaller grate in easy reach or can I pack it away on my top shelf?