PVPAUL

So, I decided to try my hand at making sweet tamales. I have been making traditional tamales for years and upped my game once @Syzygies turned me on to nixtamilized Heirloom corn. I took our family recipe for masa and modified it for sweet tamales and added additional ingredients based on my research and taste I was looking for. Today was my second run at this after making a 1 pound Bach with a number of variables about 3 weeks ago. For this recipe I used Rosado Heirloom corn for the base masa. I added whipped butter crisco with powder sugar, cinnamon, cayenne and baking powder. Then I cooked some rice and added some milk to it after cooking and puréed it and added this to the masa and then blended it until it floats in tepid water. For the filling I whipped up some cream cheese and added maple syrup to it. I also fried up some home make KK bacon until crisp. After spreading the masa on the Hoja I added the cream cheese mixture, 4 blueberries and 2-3 pieces of bacon. I steamed in my steam over for about 1 hour and 20 minutes……….I think I have a winner and am looking forward to sharing with family and friends this Christmas!!! All the best, Paul

@poochie , hopefully this works. It’s a Joshua Weissman YouTube video on making chili oil.

I’ve been tempted to climb down the pepper sauce rabbit hole. I also have a friend that makes chili crisp oil, another hot sauce I’ve been thinking about making. Many years ago we went to Belize and when departing the airport I came across “Marie Sharps” Pepper sauce and bought some. This has a carrot base and has very good flavor, I use it in many applications, like kicking up the flavor of my tartar sauce. When we do fish fry’s (like good Wisconsin folks like to do) I’ll bring out at least 6 different pepper sauces as a condiment. If you are into Pepper Sauces I would say give Marie Sharp’s a try.

I’ve uncreated 2 each 32” KK’s by gently rocking them off the support underneath toward the ramp side. I had to replace the lid on one, it did not go well for me so I wouldn’t recommend this. Cheers

Yes, I’ll buy it. Please send me a email! Thanks

I tried the cast iron smoking pot with no success. I’ve had success with this same concept using the camping MSR stainless steel pot. For inside the pot I’ve used a stainless steel sink strainer that fits nicely into the 475ml pot. I drilled 3 each 1/8” holes in the bottom. I used this in both a 19” and 32” kk. The only drawback is the smoke only last about 2 hours. I also use this in conjunction with cold smoker attachment. good luck,

Dennis, I also really enjoyed the video. Very informative and look forward to your future post. For a future video I would like to suggest one on using the cold smoker successfully. I see many post on this subject with many people having issues / mixed results including myself. Also regarding a succession plan, there is nothing better than being able to bring family into this……Congratulations! Paul

All, just wanted to chime in on this topic. I understand @Tony8919 comments. Before I bought 2 KK’s I was in the market for a Pellet grill. Part of my buying decision was……is the company going to be there to service me years later? In this buying decision I already owned an electric (non-Pellet) smoker that I did have issues with and was able able to fix it because the company was still in business and this really pushed me in this direction on my Pellet grill purchase. It’s also important to understand that I’m not a handy fix it type guy so I rely on this. Fast forward to my KK experience. On my first KK purchase (32”) I ended up having problems and Dennis was true to his word and took care of me at no additional cost to myself. I ended us purchasing a second KK 21”. I have to say if you own a Cadillac or a Rolls Royce they still break down and you will eventually have problems…..in the case of the KK a wearable part is the gasket. When shipping out KK’s Dennis is great in including spare parts etc. I think the big question here is when our Kids all inherit our grills will they be able to get parts and service??? This is especially important to us owners that are not handy / fix it type people. Does Dennis have a succession plan in place??? I think this is the big question here and what @Tony8919 is getting at. In my purchasing decision I decided to take this risk and have not looked back…….but it is there. All the best, Paul

Hello @tekobo, unfortunately my Mexican heritage is not helping me with Al Pastor, a slightly non-politically correct comment here…My father is Mexican and my mother is German……so I sometimes jokingly refer to myself as a “Beaner Schnitzel “ HaHa!!! I honestly loved the flavor of the Pastor. I was concerned with the quantity of achiote paste but decided to go with the recipe as outlined in the video @Troble posted. I think any bitterness that may have been present was offset by the pineapple in the tacos. I decided to put the patio pavers (haha) under the Trompo King as I thought this would make the base heat more consistent. I really didn’t know if I was going to leave the meat in the pan base as the rest of the pork cooked. I did stir it up the cut up meat in the base now and then and decided to leave it in there for the balance of the cook which worked out fine. We had both crispy and tender pieces in the mix. A couple of years ago we were in Sayulita Mexico and had Al Pastor tacos from the guy (Talivan) in the video……while the tacos were small they were only about 80 cents each!! If you watch the video after the guys slices off meat straight into the taco he knicks off a small piece of the pineapple into the taco too….Kind of like going to Benihana’s. I’m planning to cook Pastor next week when my sister and her family come to our home for a long weekend vacation and will post anything worthwhile to this thread. Today I’m cooking up 4 Pastrami’s with some corn beef briskets points I picked up on sale after St. Patty’s day!!! All the best, IMG_2290.mov

So the Al Pastor cook was definitely a success and enjoyed by everybody. I did one pork shoulder so about 7lbs and we had 8 adults and could have probably fed 16-20 persons easily. This was fun to make and will definitely be in the rotation for parties. One of our amigos brought over this tequila from their last vacation to Mexico and one of the best we’ve ever had and it complimented the meal. Tacos made with Nixtamalized blue corn along with cilantro, onions, radish, pineapple, homemade salsa and Pico de gallo along with Mexican street corn salad and some Spanish rice. All the best,

So tomorrow is the big day for my first Al Pastor cook. Made the Marinade about a week or two ago and divided it in half and froze it. Just got the pork marinating in the Pastor tonight so it should be marinating for about 18 hours before the start of cooking. Made the Nixtamal with blue heirloom corn masa today so fresh tortillas will be ready also. I will get some piics of the cook and post them tomorrow or Friday (maybe a few Margaritas deep during the cook tomorrow). I really appreciate the inspiration from @Troble, @tekobo and @Syzygies . Cheers, Paul

I’m doing my first ever Bacon smoke early next week. Following Meathead’s “Simple Bacon Recipe”. A friend of mine shared some with me and I thought it was very good so going to try this one out. Picked up a 8lb pork belly and started curing it yesterday. Before this I’m looking forward to smoking 3 racks of ribs on my 32” KK. Will use both the smoke pot and cold smoker until the ribs are cracking nicely on the bend test! Going to dry rub with Oakridge BBQ Dominator Sweet rib rub. Once cooled down going to vacuum seal and reheat via Sous Vide for a quick easy meal when in Canada on a fishing trip! If I think of it I will send pics to the KK forum. All the best,

Thanks much @tekobo . I have all of the ingredients so I’ll post results and pics to the forum / thread once I make this. All the best,

Hey @tony b, yes it is a shit ton. We have a family recipe that we multiply X10. We used a total of 14lbs of dried chiles (3 types) along with a bunch of other ingredients. A lot of prep work leading us to cook day. We started at 9am and finished up at 5:30 and pretty much worked straight through. We use mole in a number of recipes including enchiladas, tamales, pozole and chicken and mole. I make this with my cousin and we split it in half and this last us about 12-18 months. It turned out a little sweeter than previous batches and I’m attributing this to fresher sweeter currents than in the past. We package it up in hermetically sealed barrier freezer bags in 2&4 cup sizes. Mole works great for saucing up chicken wings cooked with sunny side up eggs! Adios,

So, after sitting on the sidelines for at least a year I’m getting ready to jump into making “Al Pastor” tacos. While I understand that taste is a preference and that coming out of the gate one will likely be tweaking the recipe. For this post. .I’m questioning the quantity of “Achiote Paste” in this specific recipe. I see that “Troble” in his initial post mentioned adjusting the sugar on future cooks. Also, I researched the quantity of “Achiote Paste” on a pretty large number of recipes on the web and I don’t see any that use as much as this recipe. In researching the flavor profile of “Achiote Paste” I see peppery and bitter associated with this. Like making beer there is a balance between sweetness and bitterness. I’m wondering if any of you out there who have made this recipe have decided to cut back on the Achiote paste or have increased the sugar content to offset the bitterness? If yes I would appreciate your feedback. My plan is to cut back on the Achiote Paste to start with and to just taste and adjust until it seems like I have the flavor profile that is pleasing to me. Thanks, PS, just including a picture of the meal we cooked ast Friday - Chicken and Mole Enchiladas, Cheese and onion Enchiladas, Mexican Frijoles y arroz…..everything is homemade including the tortillas and mole (made 9 gallons of mole the weekend before). The plates are simple peasant type my dad had made in El Salvador in 1976…..I treasure these.