RokDok

Progressing nicely. Everything unpacked from the crate now. Baking stones etc in there garage. Did start to worry - thinking how is everything I ordered going to fit in here - have they forgotten the tables ? Of course they hadn't ! It's on a double pallet, so going to have to make a secondary ramp. It's not going to be slid off like this !

Haaa ! I did go out with the torch last night and I can see it from the bedroom window, so I am having a nice cup of tea with Mrs RokDok. I am going to savour the next couple of hours.

Thanks @jonjJon, I am just tucking into an adult beverage at the moment ( I love Tony's term) and am just going outside with a torch to check it's still there. Sunrise is at 7.08 tomorrow.

Thanks guys, It really is here !!! Scary bit here - the tailgate wobbles quite a bit. Sitting in front of the house now ...... As it's dark we're going to unwrap in the morning. Phew.

I know now what "blue balls" are - I had to google that one. It's not here yet - it's a couple of hours late and it's getting dark here. I've disconnected the gas bottles to the house and tucked them out of the way - the path is cleared, hedges trimmed, ply put on the gravel next to the path just in case we slip off. Had the oil tanker blocking the road for a bit but that has gone now. I did say this was a like waiting for the birth of my first child. This is torture - can't even get the forceps out to hurry things up a bit.

Tony, I am quite. The driver was really rattled by his boss on the phone and wouldn't wait for the crate to be put back on. I did ask him what the situation would be if it was damaged and he said it would be the responsibility of the delivery company. To be fair - it's not going to roll off the pallet and it is incredibly well protected with bubble wrap. I did feel a bit sorry for him. I wasn't cross with him at all - just a bit deflated.

Yes @tekobo, when I first saw it I thought - Great just the one pallet as I'd read that its easier to get it off a single pallet. The thing is, it would have been fork lifted on to the lorry - I don't think they even considered that their pallet trolley wouldn't work. Dave didn't tell them not to use second pallet- but he's telling them to use one now !! So absolutely no need for self-flagellation. Anyway, Mrs RokDok and I have got loads of on-line learning to do over the next few days as we are now both going to be brought back into harness to help- in a small way- with Covid. So in a way, it's not so bad... Still it would have been nice to have looked up from the laptop to see it on the patio. First impressions - Mrs RD : "it's big isn't it". Mine : the packing is amazingly well thought through, so cleverly done, I only saw a bare foot - but it is a really beautiful piece of work.

Thanks guys, Just one of those things. Seems ironic that I've tracked it half way across the world for this to happen. Anyway I'll have it on Monday....

....................................Oh no it's not 😐 So the lorry arrived, after a restless night dreaming about Wagyu beef, not being able to get mud off my arms and hands under the outside tap, and then I couldn't coil the garden hose without it springing up off the ground.... By which time my brother in law was trying to cook the beef in the microwave. Thank goodness that was just dream - this wasn't though ! Unfortunately the driver's pallet trolley wouldn't fit under the crate - its jaws were too narrow. I thought that if we lifted the crate off , we could roll the oven down and then roll it onto the tail gate and onto the drive, so having got the crate off we could see the oven was the wrong way round to do that. I called a local farmer friend and another friend who seems to have every tool under the sun - they came over but neither had a pallet trolley (we could have done it with two). The driver then started to get calls from his boss about further deliveries and was getting into trouble, so he had to leave PDQ. At least I've got a crate - albeit empty, and the crowbar, and the rotisserie cradle that was tied to the inside, but alas no oven. I've also seen a KK bare foot in the flesh. Such is life.

It's here !!! ...................

They'd agree !

At last ! It's coming today ! Just waiting for a call to say when ! Excited - haven't felt like this since Mrs RD was in labour with our first.

@Troble - Thats's exciting- great meat supplier and your KK arrival imminent ! You say : You say " bad boy" - is that a hint as to which one ?? Love to see pics of the arrival and the Waygu being cooked ! I was dreaming about Waygu in the early hours this morning - really bizarre.

No worries !! We'll have a great discussion once this wretched lockdown is over and you come down for a stout & cider fest !! I'll also let you into a little secret about the " Pig in a Day with Hugh and Ray " DVD ....... But you'll have to wait for the Stoutfest !! Best, RD

As usual @tekobo, I agree with you.

Never had Wagyu beef but the above comments remind me of something we did a few years ago (well maybe 15-20) We had a local butcher who was an old chap and who sourced his animals from local farms. Mrs RD & I really liked the steak - and always had rump. He'd say 'this is a Hereford from the Piddle Valley '- ( four or five miles away) you could poke your head around the counter and glimpse the carcasses as he went in and out of the cold room. He'd trim them beautifully - clearly enjoying his art. The steaks were gorgeous. Then, one day the old boy had gone and Mrs RD and I remarked on how the steaks had become tasteless. I went in once more to buy our steak for the weekend and a young lad threw up an amorphous vac packed lump of stuff onto the counter. He slit the vac pac - the meat was bright red and sodden with watery red fluid. He cut a slice off, carelessly, no trimming - and it was unceremoniously chucked into a plastic bag and given to me. It tasted as grim as the scene portrayed. We never went there again. But we really missed the steak.... The valley in which we live has several small farms - organic and, I think , but not sure, the largest contiguous bit of organic farmland in the UK - don't quote me on that though. Some friends are stewards / guardians of some land called SSI - this means a site of Special Scientific Interest. It's chalk upland and has its own biodiversity - you can't mess with it, but you can graze it as it has been for centuries, if not millennia. They had a few pure bred Hereford which were suckled by their mothers and were grazing on this SSI land, with it's grasses, herbs and flowers. So disappointing had the steak been that we decided to buy a whole cow. It was a Heiffer and it was hung at the local artisan abattoir for 5 weeks. Mr Farmer brought it round in four quarters in a horse box and we hung it from scaffold poles in the rafters of the garage for a few more days. Fortunately I'd got to know a chap called Ray Smith, a butcher. I'd worked with his wife. He was Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's butcher - probably only known to UK folk, a kind of alternative celebrity chef. One of his books is here : https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/river-cottage-meat-book/9780340826355?keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjrOtwqW67gIVjJntCh3-vAP5EAAYAiAAEgJ6__D_BwE I'd recommend it - it's just beautifully written. In there is a recipe for "Ray's liver pate" , which I'd made and then when I met Ray I said to him that it was a good recipe but that instead of mincing the mixture I squeezed it between my hands so that it farted out between my fingers and made the pate chunky ( and saved the cleaning of the mincer). We had an instant rapport and he came round to our house, we got some pigs and he taught me how to butcher them. I've realised this post is a bit long - sorry Troble - hope you don't mind, but my KK is not being delivered tomorrow as planned so I am ameliorating my distress with some adult beverage. Anyway Ray came over and over the course of the weekend we butchered the heifer He was really impressed with the quality - in fact we cut fine transparent slivers of sirloin, rump and fillet straight from the carcasses to taste the difference. The slivers of raw fat were like butter. Cooked, the taste was etherial. So, to : Couldn't agree more. I'd add provenance. RD

Cheers Mate !

Thanks @tekobo, but I'm afraid my hopes to cook these legs your method have been dashed. Mrs RD is going to put them in a roasting tray with some rootish vegetables. To that end we've just come back from the allotment with parsnip and leeks. I did wonder whether they might need a little more fat though and was going to put them in with some clarified butter. Our raised vegetable/salad bed outside the kitchen is made with oak sleepers which have rotted after only ten years, and I am going to need to remove the soil, the adjacent fencing, the sleepers and embedded lighting, lay concrete foundations and then build the walls in brick. Mrs RD had only just given me the benefit of her building experience and wisdom of what I should and should not be doing with this project when I opened the fridge door and took out the duck legs to season and score them only to be told that that was not the way they were going to be cooked today. I think she feels sorry for me now and is quietly doing her knitting by the fire and I haven't been told off for anything whatsoever for the last ten minutes. I have just shown her the pictures of your duck and have now been informed (verbally) that I may purchase some duck breasts next week and attempt to cook them as you have. All is serene in the RD household.

That looks a great method @tekobo. We are having duck thigh and leg joints tomorrow. I was going to fire up the Weber- but might decide to stay in the warm and dry and see how it goes with the joints - might need a little longer I guess... RD

ETA of Matt Black is Wednesday !!

Now, I thought that picture looked a bit familiar Tony ......

I initially read the final word of your post as mangoable ! That is impressive Tony. I'm glad you got your firkin with the mango in though ! I've drunk some mango beer - and very nice it was too. Historically all kinds of herbs and spices were used to add flavour to beer before hops were widely cultivated. Scotland has a beer called Fraoch still made with heather tips instead of hops- it is really lovely on draught. As I type this I am really hankering after a pint of hand pulled well kept live beer served at 12 C, standing around a log fires chatting with some friends in the pub. In fact I can see it, smell it and taste it. Pesky lockdown. I like pubs. My kids asked once why it was that the photos of them are in the downstairs cloakroom, whereas I have pictures and prints of my favourite pubs displayed more prominently in the house. I haven't yet thought of an answer that combines honesty with diplomacy. Cheers. RD

Well Tony - we can be more extravagant with the quality and diversity of our ingredients!

Ah @Tyrus, it's just my home-brew - I don't sell it and somehow it disappears - I give quite a bit away. I don't put a curse on the people who don't bring the bottles back - people are pretty good at returning them to me. As to these bottles : I gave a talk / beer tasting in the village hall a couple of years comparing Belgian 'Saison' beers with French ' Biere de Garde' - both "Farmhouse " beers. People brought their own food and had eight different beers to taste. When I found out that the wholesaler ( in France ) didn't have the beers that I wanted in sufficient quantity I nipped over on the ferry and went to the individual breweries to get supplies. I stayed the night at one brewery (Esquelbecq) and my poor Toyota Yaris was packed to the gunnels. The front of the car was pointing upwards a bit like a dragster. The customs officer pulled me over and said "That's a lot of wine you've got there sir", when I said it was all beer he laughed and waved me through. So, the bottle on the left (The Bronze) is from the French brewery " Brasserie de Duyk" and contained one of their Jenlain beers, the one on the right (The Matt Black) is from the "Brasserie St. Sylvester" and contained the beer "Trois Monts". My ship docked at Southampton last night - and needed five tugs : the KK must be really heavy.

Thanks to folk on the forum I've combined a little retail therapy with preparation - you'll know who gave me these ideas. I've got a couple of sheets of 18mm ply, and I have tongs etc. I've cleared a couple of 5' x 2' shelves in the garage to house the "extras". First, the reading list - the essentials - love Meathead's science. Next 110 Kg of coconut charcoal, plus some of my usual local charcoal. For lighting, a cordless leaf blower and Mapp torch, plus a popular pair of gauntlets. Xmas presents from Mrs RD and the RokDoklettes, a personalised grill apron with matching leather gloves, Meater (plus - thanks for that tip -I can monitor the cook from the pub next door), and a pair of bear claws. My stocking contained lots of spices. Last, but not least the 9.2 % Bronze Triple and 10.2 % Matt Black Stout, brewed to toast the arrival and of course essential (seriously) "Adult Beverage" for the burn in. Cheers RD