tekobo

At last! My konro grill arrived on Friday. It took me by surprise as I'd been sent some tracking data for UPS that didn't work and, by the time I got around to checking it out with the seller, the DHL man was at my door with an enormous, heavy box. Why was it so big? Well that is @Syzygies's fault. He was the one who turned me on to binchotan charcoal. Long before my KK arrived I figured I couldn't afford the real deal and so I bought these binchotan briquettes for a fraction of the price. I never used them in the KK because they seemed like such a precious resource and I instead waited until I could buy a konro grill so I could use them in small amounts. When I came to order the grill from the US it turned out that both the grill and the binchotan were so much cheaper in the US that it was worth ordering both, even with the additional UK duty and tax. Hence my super heavy delivery yesterday. Here are the beauties. Binchotan is notoriously difficult to light. I didn't have a chimney so I lit a fire in my KK21 and put the binchotan in there to get hot. Here are are the hot coals in my pristine konro grill My prawn stuffed chicken wings started to sizzle pretty much immediately. Yum!! I stood out in the cold, turning and basting every couple of minutes. I have to do something about my ODK arrangements. Nothing like @MacKenzie's custom set up!! Best of all, the KK came in very handy at the end of the cook. I was able to put the left over binchotan in the KK23, shut the lid and preserve these pieces for my next cook. I think binchotan actually works out to be very economical given it doesn't burn away very fast, is super hot and can be re-used. All good. Slightly wonky plated shot but very tasty nonetheless.

Looks yummy Aussie!

Congratulations to you both and welcome to the owner's community @TomRaz.

Congratulations are due on two counts: 1. On starting to build your rainbow stable of KKs. I am sure more will follow now that you have caught the bug. 2. On having a new toy to play with so soon after the first. I am sure you will like the 23. I find it does pretty much everything I need alongside my 21. I hope your 23 doesn't feel cowed by your 42! Still jealous of that carcass absorbing real estate.

Great to see that you are both happy with your new, long awaited purchases. I've loved mine for a while and am looking forward to the upgrade to the block.

Ha ha @Wahoo. So you've succumbed to the two KK rule very quickly. Why the 23 and isn't that a different colour to your 42?

I'm so glad you are back posting @Pequod. Now I can talk about bread ears with the best of them.

First I must apologise to @MacKenzie for not saying how nice her meatloaf looked. I was more preoccupied with trying to figure out what a meatloaf is. Sorry. Your meatloaf looks v moist and tasty! I read about references to meatloaf like food in history books but it sounds like what is eaten now is largely an American invention. It is funny how things that were created in times of difficulty and for convenience become the comfort food that we turn to even when we have so much to choose from. As for the fatty/baconator? Wow. It is hard to say no to anything with bacon but that is quite a thing! My local pig farmer is pretty much up for anything so I might send him the recipe and see if he can pick out some bacon with the right width to make a decent lattice. What fun. Heart attack, here I come...

That looks lovely @Aussie Ora. At first I thought it was too cooked for me but that nice red tinge tells me it must have been moist and vey tasty.

I think I am with you on that. Not keen on the idea of coming back and starting again. Maxing out this life is quite enough for this one soul.

Yeah, I agree with Aussie, it would be good to see your cooks. My dad asked me to buy him an instant pot when he visited earlier in the year. He has had such fun with it. He complains that the recipes are for ingredients that he can't find in Nigeria but he substitutes stuff and was really proud of the goat ribs he cooked the other week!

The Husband loves Guinness and agrees that it tastes better in Ireland. Don't just go to the brewery, he had great fun in pubs when we did a driving tour. The Irish are so welcoming. In one visit he was quizzed about his football team (no controversy there, he follows rugby) and was given a nickname and on his second visit to another pub the barman was already pouring his Guinness out as he approached the bar. I've always said that I've enjoyed being Nigerian but next time around I would like to see what it is like being Irish or Italian.

Ha ha ha. Good to know that I discovered the shop vac even though I didn't know what one was. For UK folk, here is the link in case you are interested...https://www.domu.co.uk/vonhaus-25l-ash-vacuum. I am also interested in the fact that @orthopod threw us off the scent with his question and still hasn't told us much about his KK or when it is arriving!

Hmmm. Where does meatloaf come from? It is not something that is part of my culture and it seems uniquely American but you can't be the only ones who make it. Off to find out.

That sounds really good. This is my go to takeaway dish locally and it is just great. I've never taken a picture as I generally walk in the door, decant into plate and apply face. Yum!

Cool. Great to hear from you again @Bruce Pearson. You brighten our days with your positive outlook. And I have missed hearing about your latest shopping splurge. What? No new sauce hoard? How are you getting on with the stuff you bought??

Thanks all, very kind. I love the allotment. It would be great if I could work in an office in the winter and take a sabbatical every summer to play with seeds and soil. I did that this year but won't get the opportunity to repeat for a while and retirement is a way off yet. You retirees don't know how jealous I am of you. Hey @Tyrus, my team isn't doing quite so well this year. Any ideas about a mid to late season bet that we could enter into? Getting low on rub here.

Congratulations @orthopod! I absolutely love the 22" table top. What colour did you choose? I am looking forward to seeing it in situ. Whenever there is a conversation about cleaning KKs there are the brushers and the vaccers. I still have not worked out what a "shop vac" is. Is it a known thing in the US? Here I bought this really simple and effective vacuum cleaner. It was super cheap as well, under £30 if I remember correctly. The only maintenance required is to wash the filter out every 5-10 uses depending on the amount of stuff you hoovered up. You don't get much simpler or lighter than this:

I had beginner's luck with growing peppers on our allotment for the first time this year. We had an amazing summer and I harvested boxes and boxes of peppers and other good stuff from our new square foot gardening plot. This was last weekend's harvest, radiating happiness on a dismal, rainy day in October. I love peppers and have previously made up Thomas Keller's pepperonata recipe and froze batches for use through the winter. This year I decided to try this April Bloomfield recipe https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/04/six-of-the-best-spring-side-dishes. I liked the results so much I have made the recipe three times so far this season. Here's the latest version. I never actually follow the recipe strictly but the concept is great and will sustain us through the winter. Peppers onto the lower grate of a hot KK. I think it was about 250C. First time I did this I kept the peppers in for about 35 -40 minutes, turning three times. Bad idea, the flesh got too dehydrated and I had a job to get the skin off. This time I left them in for just 25-35 minutes, taking the smaller ones off early. Part way through Into a bowl for about 10-15 minutes to make it easier to separate the skins. This time I also took out the seeds and stalks BEFORE grilling. Made them easier to peel and saved me the messy task of trying to get the seeds out cleanly from the hot soft mess that came out of the grill! Here are the tomatoes, roasted in the IDK oven because I didn't quite get the KK timing right. And best of all, bottled and sealed, ready to dispense summer's delights whenever I want. They are sealed but I also store them in the fridge to be extra sure they will last.

This is the only way I can use my current single Meater effectively given the limited range. It means leaving one phone outdoors with the KK I can then see details of the cook anywhere in the house on my other phone. Not ideal but it works. I am looking forward to the Block even though I don't think I will need four probes. Does anyone know if the Block will allow you to monitor your cook even when you are away from home? It is so long since I last read the blurb...

Great looking cook @tony b. My local Kurdish kebab place does individual lamb ribs, from the breast, marinated and then cooked relatively quickly on a skewer. Very tasty variation.

Tasty looking dinner @Steve M!

Errr..no?

Thanks Tony. I haven't ever done a fermented style sauce. Will give that a go. I think I will harvest over the next couple of weeks so would be grateful for more recipes if anyone else on the site makes hot sauces. One variation that has been good has been to slice and dehydrate some peppers. They come in handy for making a hot powder during the year and seem to keep their heat better for not having been ground straight away.

Really interesting @MacKenzie. Looks like an egg white pizza. I have never been a fan of "healthy" but I do have a load of egg whites left over from making pasta and your egg white base could be a good way to use them up.