Braai-Q

Incredibly simple. A reminder that for all the kit I have, you can achieve great results with technique and motivation! I'm not sure what the gin scene is like in VA but the UK has a proliferation of gins and I've seen seen gin in everything from lurid green to neon pink. The gin we were drinking was actually infused with Rooibos which is a Fynbos species used to make tea. It literally translates from Afrikaans as 'Red (Rooi) Bush (Bos). Pronounced as Roy-e-boss. The colour comes from the infusion. It's a dry gin but is quite honeyed - Rooibos is particularly refreshing drunk as an ice tea and is popular as an afternoon refresher with a little orange juice or honey. It does have a slight sweetness, perhaps toward an acacia honey but not sickly sweet. I think it works really well with the juniper. Never tastes the same drunk in the UK though! This is the bottle if you're interested: New Harbour Distillery Rooisbos Gin. It's a middle to upper middle market gin.

My local butcher doesn't do mail order but I also use Thomas Joseph or Turner and George. Try these links: https://thomasjosephbutchery.co.uk/ https://www.turnerandgeorge.co.uk/packer-cut-brisket.html

I know this isn't a cook with a KK but I thought it might be of interest, particularly now that travel has become some form of fantasy. This is a meal I cooked in Namibia last year, around a year to the day. My iPhone helpfully reminded me with its memories feature and I remembered taking the pictures with the intent of sharing a few of them on here. We were in South Western Namibia in the Namib Rand Reserve which is also an International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) Dark Sky Reserve. Watching the night sky unfold with the smell of grilled meat and the anticipation of a meal while enjoying a gin and tonic does takes some beating. We managed to find some Karoo Lamb which I'll be honest, looks better than it tasted but it was surprising to have found Lamb at all given how arid Namibia is. We made up some sosaties - a type of Malay influenced South African kebab and cooked those alongside. The fire arrangement was very effective and the folding frame with multiple tiers to allow for temperature control can be had for about US$10-20 in most outdoor shops. I've got quite a few pictures of our commitment to BBQ (or Braai as it should be referred) in Namibia. Doing baked potatoes in the hot sand is incredibly effective until you realise two things: food competition and where you buried them. There were a couple of times where I would have quite cheerfully stayed up all night just to keep an eye on the food as an excuse to just enjoy the night sky and sounds of nature. Most of the wood that you cook with is camel thorn or rooikraans (a type of Acacia) and I've included a shot so you can see what it looks like. It burns incredibly well as you'd expect of any wood in such a dry climate.

I'd vote a brisket for the first cook or you could go the whole hog, literally.

Fabulous. Had you already agreed who was going to 'run into fire' and act as the human shield if the KK got away from you? Corner of the house and the garden wall would be my first thought. Particularly with the extra gradient offered by the additional pallet. I think the ominous skid tells a story....your son didn't ship with ABS from factory huh? 😀 Once you get it on the wheels and off the ply and on a horizontal surface, it makes it so much easier. You almost forget the suffering that preceded that moment of euphoria. When you get the second one to go with it, it's going to be a piece of cake. I remember one of the first things when my 32 turned up and I was putting the grills in - those grates are heavy, I can only imagine what the 42 must be like. Watch your fingers! Enjoy your unpacking and first cook.

I've had a busy week. Then I come on here and find out that you wrestled it from the Somali pirates! Looking forward to the grand reveal. I assume the goat is in the garden already?

It's like the Heathrow stack if it's going in circles... Not long to go now.

I shall take that as an endorsement and give it a go. I'm probably overthinking it because I read that book. Hit me up for a good dough when you get to it, I'll send you some snaps from the book to help you. Think a pizza steel is the way forward for this type of pizza.

Geez. That's a long time. Did you remember what you ordered? Given the new model development cycle on a new car is 3-5 years. Morgan is better than 'Plus Four'. Please tell me that you didn't call her 'Plus Four' (or whatever other model designation existed at the time). 😁 I interviewed someone today, about the same age as your RokDoklette as it happens. Her name was Eva Brown. Her parents had to have known.

Looks great Tony. I must share the conversation I had with the Meater engineer, it'll answer your question on temperature.

No judgement @Troble, I was just interested as to the difference in taste. I'm not sure if you saw earlier on this thread that I'd bought a book on Neapolitan Pizza and what I found interesting was that for such a simple recipe, the level of variation through what appear to be very small changes. The book goes into the chemistry and food science so you understand why making it easier to adjust with a much lower failure rate. It's more of a scientific dissertation but invaluable. I like sweetness on certain pizzas, particularly on a margarita but try and achieve this using sweeter tomatoes. But sometimes, I really can't be bothered with the amount of effort it takes.

Out of interest @Troble is the dough quite sweet or salty? I ask because I've not had NY style dough or pizza so it's a blind spot with my palette. Looking at the proportion of sugar and salt, I get that the sugar is necessary for proving up to a point with instant yeast but it still feels like a lot and by volume that looks like a lot of salt. I use 2 level teaspoons which is about 8g but my volume is a third greater. Mine is a classic Italian that I've tweaked slightly so a different style.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the screen, this is me: They look awesome. I just dropped that picture to my wife and I can tell when she opened the picture as I just heard 'Oh come on....'. Last seen finding somewhere to deliver.

Winging it's way on a boat? Is this a SpaceX edition? 😆 Talking of cars, I had to wait nearly 2 years for a car I ordered a few years back. I had a bespoke colour and a whole lot of customisation done at factory so it's the very definition of a first world problem and one that if I sought any sympathy for would get me mercilessly pilloried by my friends so I had to suffer quietly. But the emotional torment of constantly changing delivery dates and the timescale drove me insane. It only had to leave the dock in Hamburg and the dealer gave me the ship number but by the time I received the information, the ship had already docked, off loaded and was somewhere near the horn of Africa. Captain Philips was still far too fresh in mind having only been released a few years earlier! Hanging around on this forum is a good coping strategy and builds anticipation and we all understand. I only recently realised that @tekobo was sans KK which is akin to losing a limb in her world. However, she is probably one of the few people on the forum who can claim to having owned the entire range...

Had a craving for a proper burger yesterday. UK is now in lockdown so we decided to embark on a homemade adventure involving the KK. We also decided to try 'tater tots', never had them and only ever heard mention of them on US television. So, we went to the cookbooks and found what looked like a good recipe. Had to make buffalo sauce and ranch sauce from scratch and also made garlic aioli and a quick pickle to go in the burger. Results below. Tasted good. Tater tots are like gnocchi meets a dirty nachos via American style spicy wings. We added pan fried bacon and chives. I realise that we need to get a burger press. We don't often do burgers from scratch but I could have done with the uniformity for cooking. Mrs BQ was the maker and the shaper. It made them a bit more awkward to eat but didn't impact the flavour. Now slobbed on the sofa arguing over whose turn it is to go and get another beer....

I think he was including gentlewomen in there Mackenzie! 😀

That sounds pretty amazing. It's a pity about the view but sometimes you can't have everything....

I've always been surprised by how much moisture the skin carries and the difference that letting it sit out uncovered for 10-12 hours or so makes to the crispiness of the skin. I then pat dry with paper towel to ensure it is as dry as possible before it goes on the rotisserie. Then cook it at about 150°C. I find you get it much crispier if you have it directly over coal but you have to watch for flare ups and it makes a bit of a mess unless you put a container under the coals. I have been known to put foil at the bottom of the KK to make clean up less awful. It's a fabulous dish on the KK, particularly when you can impart some smoke from flavoured wood. This is what it should look like:

That was always my understanding.

Thanks Mac, yeah, it ate better today funnily enough. My complaint was that it felt a little fatty last night but the flavours developed and it firmed up. Had it in sandwiches with the balance of Caponata. I managed to stop myself drifting past the fridge with a spoon too often to ensure there was enough left for lunch!

Excellent thinking. Do you remember the predominant flavour in the one you tried? In my experience, wild fennel or rosemary are the key ingredients (depending on region). You've got to use fresh Thyme as well, it makes a huge difference. It's one of those recipes that I tweak every time I do it and I think I have about 10 very good recipes that I've pulled elements from but I'm always interested in tweaks and variations. There are all sorts of nuances to the cook - like leaving the meat out overnight and drying the skin with paper towel to make sure it doesn't have any excess moisture. I bought mine from the butcher yesterday and while the flavour profile is good, I didn't have time to draw moisture from the skin sufficiently. The skin is more chewy plastic than crispy as a result.

Did a Porchetta on the KK last night with Apple and Pear wood. Came out fine but it was a bit fattier than I like. Served up with Sicilian Caponata as I got a bit carried away and bought a few too many aubergines at the local farm shop when I was there the other day. I just did a drive by on the dish while in the fridge (Caponata is superb cold as well) on the way to getting milk out for my morning coffee. Had to make myself stop at one large spoonful. Breakfast of champions! 😆

I generally work back to the most common or most likely use case when an answer eludes me and I think in this instance, more people than not will probably pack out the side with the three faceplates. People generally want more options than less (I think we all embrace the over-engineered aspect of the KK) so I'd be surprised if Dennis hadn't made the assumption that most will fit the three plates with the 50lb motor. Not sure what the quality or manufacturing tolerances on OneGrill motors are but it could be an expansion opportunity for @DennisLinkletterand he could start making his own motors. I'm generally not a fan of interventions with a Dremel or any 'destructive' power tool until I'm 150% confident that I've exhausted all other options and would probably prototype it with a dowel rod before committing to it. If you have a lathe, that would give a much neater finish. The joy of printer connectivity and things like IRQ conflicts. I remember those and the heady days of SCSI or System Can't See It. I think this is less painful with more upside when you get cooking.

The staff were character actors and when people asked what the parts were made of, they refused to break character which added tremendously to the theatre. It was a lot of sausage meat and bacon from what I could tell! You could have some real fun with an Alien shop - having them all set in KY Jelly (which is what the special FX team used for the slime in the film).