tekobo

Happily, I gave in before you so mine will hopefully be with me in September/October. I gave up on the European company that was more expensive, didn't deliver when they said they would and wouldn't respond to any emails until I got PayPal on to them to get my money back. I still didn't get any emails from them but I did get my money AND one of those automatic survey emails telling me they cared about me and wanted to know about my experience of buying a konro from them.

Great timing, thanks @ckreef. I have had a few disappointing pizza cooks, saved only by the toppings, and can see evidence of what went wrong in this video. Having been almost moved to tears by some of my disasters I decided that I would hedge my bets and use three different pizza dough recipes for this Friday's pizza night. That way I will get to compare and build confidence in the recipes that work for my environment and ingredients. This week it will be The Pizza Bible Neopolitan (18hrs lead time), Forkish (10hrs) and Nancy Silverton (approx 4hrs). Looking forward to getting at least one of them right!

Fantastic! It's great when a new thing turns out to be a good thing. I look forward to your updated recipe. Am I right in assuming that the smoking did help to make it the best ever?

I thought I had hit the jackpot today. I was in London and happened upon a food court where suya was advertised. I dashed up to them and asked them what cut of meat they use. They looked at me blankly and said they don't serve suya at lunchtime. When they realised I was odd and genuinely wanted to know about their beef cuts, they told me "ribs". I am pretty certain they don't serve ribs and my Chinese friend guessed that they might mean skirt or flank i.e. flaps near(ish) the ribs. Anyway, I have now realised that I should not have bothered with all that internet "research". I asked my mother in Nigeria today and she is going to ask her friend's son, who has a suya business, a) what his rub recipe is and b) what cut of meat he uses. She recommended "fullay" but agreed there wouldn't be enough fillet to go round if that was the standard cut.

Yes it is. Keen to see if/how KK and fruit combo will work. I love gooseberries and rhubarb and always stock up in the summer, cooking and freezing packs for use in pies, crumbles and fools through the winter. This year's variations could well be smoked sauce for pork if @ckreef's experiment looks promising and sous vide berries. On the latter I am keen to see if I can keep the berries whole in the vac pack for freezing for later use in things like clafoutis. Yummmm.

Ah. Hopefully the urge to buy will have worn off by the time the get back in stock.

Looking forward to the result of the taste test. I've got a pile of gooseberries here and smoking before making a sauce for pork is a potential option if your blueberry experiment worked. All I can say is - good luck @ckreef!

@5698k's post about the Fireboard reminded me of this post about the Maverick. With no sign of the MEATER block, I thought I would take a look at the Maverick XR-50. Can't find it anywhere. Not on amazon.co.uk or amazon.com and the link that @Pequod posted says it is "sold out". Have you all been secretly buying up all their stock??

Smoked blueberries. Who'd have thunk it? Does the end result benefit from this extra stage or would you stick to the original recipe @ckreef? More to the point, what does Mrs @skreef think of this new innovation?

Ha ha. Pleased that Nigeria will be represented. Remember that old expression? Some of my best friends are black? Well, some of my best friends voted for Brexit and for Trump (not the same friends given the geographic challenges). What the current politics draws out is the differences between us. I think it is a good thing that we are more aware of those differences but I sure as hell have no idea how we reconcile them.

OK. There is a certain irony in the fact that the two most vociferous opponents of marmite @Pequod and @tony b have managed to trick me into hijacking my own thread. You evil mind benders you! Explaining my suya dilemma is difficult on this first world BBQ forum where we all know our meat. The issue is that I genuinely cannot remember talking about cuts of meat when I lived in Nigeria. Admittedly I was only a kid but I remember meat like beef was categorised as a) "meat" = joined up stuff, b) "shaki and lots of other names" = the fun world of offal and, if you were being particularly posh, c) "fullay" which I later discovered = fillet. I texted a friend from the north today to ask her if she knew what meat suya is made from and said "Hi. No sorry." When I explained that I needed to tell some weird Americans she said "I think it is just very thinly sliced meat from wherever". That pretty much sums up our approach to meat and explains why I have been struggling to settle on the right cut when the reality is any cut I like for barbecuing would be right. I remember raw suya as broad, thin, cross grain cuts of meat soaking in what looked like a marinade of oil and rub. I also remember there being the occasional, tasty bit of fat. My guess is that fillet or skirt would be good but, given the amount of suya that gets eaten it must also come from other parts of the animal. Photos on these sites approximate best to what I remember: https://www.dealdey.com/deals/special-beef-suya-sausages https://abbeywoodcashandcarry.com/shop/meat-fish-and-poultry/suya-takeaway/ I will go on researching but I suspect you should make it with what you have. In any case suya also gets made with all sorts of other meat - chicken gizzards, goat, liver, etc so feel free to experiment. The key is the rub and getting the right level of hot pepper heat without killing the other flavours is part of the Russian roulette of choosing your favourite suya spot.

Hi @jarraa, how did you find the Nancy Silverton dough? I have bought the ingredients but have not got around to cooking from her book. I loved the look of your meaty/porky pizza.

Oooh. What a lot of lovely cooks! By the magic of the internet I have been able to start my day with sausage, chook, burger, pizza and rice. All really nice. No wonder I am not losing any weight...

Way cool!!! I am so glad you like it. They have the authentic dry rub look. It would be good to start a new thread with your recipe and method if you want. I can then add to it when I try it too. My dad is still here on holiday and he's been giving me the jeebies: "getting the right piece of meat is important, that is what the suya man said in Lagos. Ask a butcher who knows about suya". I had to remind him that he was in England and that the butchers here have never heard of suya. He is also insistent that any internet research includes making sure that the writer is a northerner. We are from southern Nigeria and suya is traditionally made by northerners so he thinks it won't be right unless I do it their way. As you can guess, the weight of expectation is even greater with dad here to judge the authenticity! Super pumped and happy that you enjoyed it so much Tony. Thanks for trying it.

Way hay! The best way to go - all in! Good luck. Looking forward to seeing the results.

The typical beef suya is my dream KK cook. My fear of disappointment if I don't get it to taste like the street bought original has held me back from trying this cook. Happily, you have no such expectations to hinder you @tony b. I look forward to seeing the results!

Naa no heating up, just the warm balmy climate we have here in England Something for you: I read that there was an aged version of Marmite called Marmite XO. Looked on shelves in my local supermarket, no sign of such a thing. Searched online and found a "limited edition collectable" jar of XO on sale on ebay for, wait for it, £60. You learn something new every day and it is not always useful!

The interesting thing @tony b, is that I never knew there were groundnuts in the suya rub mix. That is why I was so dismissive of your comparison with satay! I don't think the rub actually tastes of nuts. The primary flavours that I get are of ginger and hot peppers. From my perspective, suya is delicious street food from my childhood and teens. The rub and how it was marinaded were trade secrets and your only job was to decide which stand's product was your favourite and then get there before they ran out or before an impossible queue built up. The good news for me is that my Dad has brought me what looks like a year's supply of rub from my favourite stand. They do a particular cross grain cut on the meat that makes it easy to eat and the cook makes the thin(ish) slices really juicy and never dry. I have to figure that all out. May then move on to trying out rub recipes online to see if any are better than the one that I love.

Hi Tony, the only similarity is that they are both served on skewers! Suya is very spicy and much drier than satay. It is super good and I just need to figure out how the meat is cut and marinaded to get the authentic chewy juiciness that i remember so well.

Some people think it tastes like a dried bug crushed up!!

Thanks @amusedtodeath. Further incentive to try the Franklin method. I got into a discussion with a local who is married to a Texan and he was pretty sure that there was no way I knew how to cook a brisket right. He said words like "dry" and "tough". I showed his wife a picture of my cooked brisket and I think she would have divorced him and married me if she could. After all that build up, I will need to make sure that the brisket comes out great when I finally invite them round. I'm putting my money on Mr Franklin for that one. Thanks!

My marmite is relatively runny so I was able to mix it in with the other ingredients without too much trouble. See photo below. The old marmite was black and sticky but it mixed in OK with the other ingredients for the ribs, as you saw from the first picture. So, no special technique to pass on I am afraid.

Hi BonFire, I went with @Aussie Ora's advice about the fact that Vegemite/Marmite never goes off and so I used an old jar from the back of the cupboard for my first cook. It was sticky and black but dissolved OK. After the first success I thought I would splash out on a new jar. The difference was significant. The marmite was a much lighter brown and was soft and much easier to mix in. I still refuse to eat it neat but I think I will try marmite butter next.

Ahhh. That Nigerian rub is indeed a secret. I still have work to do a) to research it and b) to try to cook authentic "suya" on a KK. If I achieve the latter, I think I will cry with joy. Will post if/when that happens. The chicken wings were a good substitute and, happily, I have a few left in the fridge to try today. I might even see if I can wash the marmite off the others and re-coat them in a nicer rub. I chucked out the Korean stuff some months ago because I found it overpowering but it could be just the thing to mask the marmite marinade.

Funny you should mention brisket @alimac23. I had confirmation yesterday that my supplier is going to put some dairy cow brisket aside to age for me. Receipt is at least two months away but I was already thinking about how I would cook it. @5698k pointed me at the Franklin method a few months ago and I was thinking that I ought to have the courage to move from my standard rub to their simple salt and pepper treatment. It will probably take even more courage to risk putting marmite on a brisket given how long they take to cook and how much I love them! Will do a trial run with some other beef first. Thanks for the tip. Funny, yours is the first vegemite/marmite option that has, finally, drawn @tony b to the dark side!