tekobo

Awesome pizza cook @Drew. I am going to get back to trying out the Ken Forkish doughs now that I have got my yeast quantity and measures right. I also watched a programme about Nancy Silverton in LA and subsequently bought her book, Mozza. Her pizza recipe is quite involved but I plan to try it to see how it compares. I'm loving home made pizza on the KK. A world away from store bought domestic oven versions!

What fun! London is a great city to visit. You must use buses when you can and sit on the top deck so you can look around. There are online apps that plot routes and the buses have screens on board that tell you the upcoming stop so you can get off at the right stop. So...food. @tony b is wrong about the boiled meat but right about curries and fish and chips. A Sunday roast with all the trimmings is also typically British - it's the continentals who boil their meat. You can combine a trip to a gastro pub for a roast with a chance to sample the ales. My favourite casual-ish eats in London are these: Konditor and Cook - great cake shop. German. Barrafina - fantastic tapas and you sit at the counter, watching them cook your food. No appointment system but if you turn up about 15 mins before they are due to open, the queues are very short and you get seated quickly. Spanish. Nandos - casual, grilled chicken chain. South African/Portugese. Oklava - fab upmarket Turkish restaurant. I love the food here. I have also asked a friend who knows more to tell me her favourite local Turkish restaurant. If your family like grilled meat I think a typical local Turkish restaurant will be a great thing to try. Dishoom - a chain of restaurants that do small plates. Surprisingly good. Modern Indian. Kulu kulu - revolving sushi bar in the heart of Soho. I haven't been there in a long time but used to love it. There are lots of other Japanese nearby so pick one of them if you like sushi and your guide says they are better. Well, as you can see, we embrace all nationalities' food here. If you make it to the South Bank there are lots of food trucks and lovely places to sit outdoors. There are wild gardens on the top of the National Theatre and Queen Elizabeth Hall. I live about 1.5hours' journey from London by the sea near Portsmouth. You would be very welcome to come down to see the sea, our historic sites and eat off our KKs if you have time. If not, and I happen to be visiting London when you are, I can bring you a KK care package. Brisket, anyone?

I love the way this is working: someone tells everyone what a good cook you are, then they choose what you cook and how you cook it, you cook it but are disappointed by the results and they just get the crap they have always eaten and wonder why anyone thought you were any good at cooking. Noooo. You know what is good on your KK, what you are good at and what people usually like. Challenge their tastes, mix it up and do what you think is right or don't do it at all. There is nothing worse than feeling crap after a cook when you were hoping to make people happy but it doesn't work out as planned. Of course you are also free to ignore bossy old me!

Your ribs look great @jonj. I notice you had a temperature probe in the ribs. Did that work? I remember reading that it was difficult to get a good read on doneness on things like ribs.

Impressive! And fun, I'm guessing. The pizzas look great. Looking forward to seeing your latest dough recipe. I think it should be called the 6 month prep pizza in honour of @Aussie Ora . For my part, I do like the doughs that take a few days to prove. The best bit is having some left over so you have can TWO pizza nights in a row. Diet? What diet??

Mouth...watering.

Oooh. That rub certainly looks interesting. Hard Core Carnivore Black is available in the UK but my first search on amazon.co.uk shows it at about £16. Will hunt a bit harder. Is it worth trying @Aussie Ora or would you rate the Dizzy Pig rubs higher?

Tee hee. That guy has got it made! Great pizzas. Thank you for starting this post, it's been fun.

@Shuley I think it depends on if you are set on tri-tips and ribs. It also depends on if everyone is going to arrive and be there at the same time, all waiting for food out of your magic KK. To reduce pressure on you and waiting time for them, I would have some food that you can cook in advance and hold e.g. brisket or pulled pork or something else that you think they will like. You can then have fun with other stuff that cooks quicker and can be little hot treats that they can add to their plates. Here I might do chicken pieces on skewers or home made sausages - both are always a hit and can be cooked up quickly as more people arrive. So they get the excitement of a BBQ without the anxiety of waiting too long or thinking they are going to miss out on the good stuff.

Lovely looking ribs @amusedtodeath. And great photography.

Of course! The pizzas were a bit square anyway because The Husband had put the dough balls into square containers to prove. He was pleased that that tied in with the square cutting directive. Engineers, eh? We are easily pleased.

Yes, your dad was right! Mother-in-law wasn't feeling well so the three of us worked our way through a sausage pizza and then a pepperoni, mushroom and chilli pizza (notice I cannot quite bring myself to call them pies). I thought the first pizza might have needed a bit more cooking on the crust so I left the second one in for the same time at a slightly higher temp. The verdict? Father-in-law: Liked both equally and was particularly complimentary about the crust. Me: Liked the sausage pizza for flavour but the crust on the pepperoni pizza better The Husband: Liked the pepperoni, mushroom and chilli pizza best and wanted more but settled for some extra wine instead. That leaves us with two balls and more sausage for lunch tomorrow. Hurrah! Thank you very much @Pequod. Best pizza night yet.

Woo hoo!!!!

This made me laugh A LOT. The key thing a totalitarian regime needs is threat of violence in the event of non-compliance. As a programme director I am skilled at this and do not have to issue any actual threats. This is my white board. It gets refreshed once a month and stuff stays where it should.

Naaa, dodgy operators are the worst. Particularly an arrogant one like me who hates measures in teaspoons and cups. At least if I had been measuring in teaspoons I would have realised I wasn't using nearly enough yeast. Instead, I relied on a scale and didn't check it was measuring in the right units. Boo.

Ha ha. Just back from London. The Husband's pizza balls are looking good and the 21" is warming up. Hoping mushrooms are in one of the approved columns because we've got a whole load: Ooh, they look a bit fuzzy in the picture but I think that is because of the cling film over the top. Will report back much later...

Tyrus, oh my Tyrus, wherefore art thou? Hast thou forsaken me? Awww, come on....come back, you are amongst friends. @Tyrus, @Tyrus, @Tyrus

No pressure then! I am all in. I have enough for four balls of dough in the fridge. Off to London shortly so The Husband will be in charge of turning them into balls later today. His parents will be joining us for pizza night tomorrow so even more pressure to get this right. I remember making Yorkshire puddings for my Yorkshire mother-in-law and getting them sooo disappointingly wrong . Happily she can't be from Yorkshire and Chicago at the same time so I won't have those expectations to satisfy. Heretical question: are there any other toppings allowed on this type of pizza? I might need some back up or light relief if my sausage turns out to be just that little bit too fatty in spite of pre-cooking.

Instructions received loud and clear. Will transmit to The Husband too, in case he tries to vary. Ha! I ordered half a pig from a local farmer because I didn't have any pork shoulder, that is how weird/particular/cheap I am. I cannot bear to buy sub-standard pork at inflated prices from the supermarket. The downside is that you actually have to wait for the animal to be killed and hung and so I won't be getting the shoulder (and all of the rest of the half pig) until next Friday. In the meantime I cut up a pork belly that I had, cutting out a lot of fat, to make the sausage as directed. Probably still too fatty but I hope it will turn out OK.

Welcome @mwerner89, your KK is indeed a beauty. Terra blue. Lovely.

Thanks for posting your pizza dough recipe @Aussie Ora. I asked for it because I was puzzling about why my more recent dough balls were not quite as plump. Since asking for your recipe I have tried out the South Side Thin recipe that @Pequod includes in his post here. It is more dense/has less hydration than the Ken Forkish recipes that I have tried so far - more work when kneading. More importantly, I discovered two things as I prepared my ingredients for this recipe. 1. I should have been multiplying my yeast quantities by 1.25 because I was using dried yeast and not instant dried yeast and 2. my drug dealer scales for measuring small quantities had somehow changed mode from grams to carats and I was using far too small quantities of yeast in my more recent tries. Dough with right amount of yeast and sausage with right amount of wine are now in fridge waiting for pizza night tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Looking forward to the authentic Chicago experience, with or without the paper delivery bags.

Hey Tyrus. As someone who encouraged you to post about your new toy I am sorry that you feel we have not engaged. But - I'm going to paraphrase crudely here - telling me I am in a close minded cult and taking your toys home won't increase my desire to engage. Yeah, sometimes stuff goes off topic and sometimes people completely ignore a post because there is lots else going on that they are more interested in but if you want an ongoing conversation you have to post some more stuff too. I have seen a few offset cookers on TV and I am not going to get more interested in yours unless you tell me more about the set up that you are building, show me more food porn or tell me how you beat that smart arse down the road in a competition. Peace, mate. I've got to get out there and clean some windows before the sun gets too high in the sky.

That dough looks nice and plump @Aussie Ora. Would you share the recipe?

A box of change indeed. I walked up to the bank yesterday carrying my piggy bank. I was very proud. They took me down a peg or two. Apparently they don't just get out a scale and weigh it all. No. You have to pack it into bags of £20 and then they will weigh them. So I had to go and stand at a counter to sort myself, and my money, out. I am still excited. This lot came to £464 and, thanks to the power of modern technology, a couple of online clicks mean that I am now the proud owner of 464 more premium bonds. I won't earn any interest but each month I will have the chance of a small win or maybe even the £1m jackpot. Much better than storing them in a cupboard and I still have the rarer coins sitting in the cupboard appreciating in value. Cash is cool.