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Cookie

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Everything posted by Cookie

  1. Congrats on the new addition. Just curious, do you live in the woods, or is that a camp site / cabin? Looks like nice surroundings and a perfect place for KKing. I grew up in Kentucky. When I was a kid, I lived with my Mom in Northern Kentucky during the school year (5 mins from downtown Cincinnati, OH). I lived with my Dad in the summers on a 100+ acre farm. I now live in a concrete jungle, Singapore. I miss the farm. My Dad is still there and I visit once a year, but your pics just took me home for a minute. Thanks.
  2. I don't know which you do better MacKenzie....KK food or pics of KK food. Both are excellent.
  3. Here is the final product...fish was stuffed with lemon and fresh dill, salt and pepper inside and out. I used mangrove charcoal at 400F direct; total cook time about 95 min. I use a formula I read in a cookbook a long time ago to determine cooking time. For every inch of circumference at the fattest part of the body, cook fish for 5 mins at 400F. This was 19 inches after stuffed with lemon and herbs. I use a piece of butchers twine and a tape measure.
  4. Only one jumped out at me....the only one that highlighted and high contrasted the word 'Komodo.' There are many Kamados in this world, but there is only one Komodo Kamado My two pennies.
  5. Yum....and love the menus you do. How are they presented to your guests?
  6. A political debate I did not intend.
  7. I encourage my USA brethren to smoke em' if you got em' this week. http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/03/17/lawmaker-calls-for-rebellion-against-epa-pollution-emissions-for-backyard/?intcmp=features
  8. I'm sure she is smiling from above....that is an impressive job, outstanding!
  9. I love pizza nights...those are great looking pizzas.
  10. Nice work. I just got the new stone over the weekend, a lot thicker than the previous model, looking forward to trying her out soon.
  11. Lawry's Seasoned Salt is a staple in my KK arsenal.
  12. Cook's Illustrated has a 75 minute pizza dough that is pretty good. If that is 'quick' enough, PM and I'll dig it out and get you a copy. It takes my KK at least 75 minutes to get heat soaked to 550F where I like to cook pizzas, so would think it'd work.
  13. Nice looking feast Tony, Happy Thanksgiving.
  14. Happy Thanksgiving Dennis. They say bad things come in threes, so you should be out of the woods soon.
  15. I have a 23" Metallic Bronze in Singapore if you'd like a viewing.
  16. I agree with what everyone has said here, but with regards to whether or not a certain amount of smoke wood is / is not enough, I tend to think it doesn't make a whole lot of difference if you are cooking at 350, which I agree is the ideal temp. I throw a couple of chunks on 10 mins before I start my cook to let the acrid stuff burn off. Ideally, I'd start at 400 for 45 mins, then lower the temp to 325 to finish the cook, but the KK is so damned efficient that you can't reduce the heat quickly enough, so 350 is the sweet spot (for me anyway). I have found that no matter how little or more smoking wood I use, I still only get maybe a 1/2" smoke ring in the turkey. It has to penetrate the skin first. Most of us are cooking at 350 - 400 for a reason -- to get that nice crispy skin. Once you crisp it up, you can't expect too much smoke penetration, although if you have an open wire vertical turkey setter, you can get some additional smoke penetration from the inside out, but I think that is negligible as well after the first 45 mins. Just my two pennies...
  17. We did pizzas: http://komodokamado.com/forum/topic/5019-pizza-parties/
  18. After a few years of testing various dough and sauce recipes, I have settled in on this combination for a happy medium between flavor, consistency, and easy of use with the dough. We host a lot of parties where we let our friends build and make their own pizzas. My favorite dough recipe, from Nancy Silverton at Pizzeria Mozza (Mario Batali's pizza joint), is too wet and sticky for your average weekend pizza warrior, so I've borrowed some of her ideas and mixed them in with my dough recipe. I've also provided a link to Nancy's chopped salad, which is a great compliment to the pizzas. Pizza Sauce (Enough For 6 or more medium pizzas) Ingredients •28-oz can of whole peeled tomatoes (preferably San Marzano, but plum tomatoes will also work) •1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil •1 tsp. dried basil •1 tsp garlic powder (or 2 cloves minced) •2 tsp onion powder (or 1/2 onion finely minced) •salt and pepper to taste Instructions To make the sauce, put all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until slightly chunkier than puree. Note: I find an uncooked sauce provides a brighter more fresh taste. Dough (Makes 3 Medium Pizzas) Ingredients •1/2 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees) •1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) rapid-rise yeast •1 1/4 cups water at room temperature •2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil •1 1/2 tablespoons honey •4 1/4 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting work surfaces and hands •1 1/2 teaspoons salt • Olive oil or nonstick cooking spray for oiling the bowl Instructions 1. Measure the warm water into a large liquid measuring cup that you can pour from later. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add the room-temperature water, oil , honey and stir to combine. 2. Place the flour and salt in the deep bowl of a standing mixer. With a paddle attachment, briefly combine the dry ingredients at low speed. Slowly add the liquid ingredients and continue to mix at low speed until a cohesive mass forms. Stop the mixer and replace the paddle with the dough hook. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a ball, put it in a deep oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Cooker Instructions 1. Full basket of lump lit in several places 2. Pizza stone goes on main grate (grate closest to where lid meets base); no heat deflector, direct heat 3. Bottom vent open all the way; Top vent open 3/4 turn (may be slightly different on yours) 4. It will take about an hour to come up to temp; target temp 550F - 600F. Anything hotter and the top tends to cook faster than the base of the pizza and the cheese burns. Pulling It Together 1. Separate the dough into three equal pieces 2. Dust a clean surface with flour and press / hand stretch to about 12-14 inches; If the dough is hard to work with, you can cheat with a roller, but you won't get as many nice big air bubbles in your cooked dough (which I really like). 3. Generously (tons) dust a pizza peel with semolina four so that your dough will slide off easy onto the stone 4. Lay your dough on the peel, brush the outside inch of the crust with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt (don't skip this step, especially the salt, this really makes the crust something special) 5. Put your sauce down and spread to the olive oil rim, dress your pizza, top with cheese, cook until desired doneness, usually 3-5 minutes at 550F-600F. Comments: 1. We frequently have "BYOPT" parties where we provide the dough, sauce and cheese, and let guests bring their favorite pizza toppings. We then assist them to build their own pizza. We make enough batches of dough that everyone can make one of their own. 2. We usually setup one or two of those white folding banquet tables from Costco as the prep / work stations with all of the ingredients set out, and a large four dusted space to work, they clean up easy and give you a lot of room. 3. I would do a practice run at home a couple of times before having a party. You have to learn to work with the dough and get to a point where you are confident it won't stick to the peel. If it sticks, you end up making a mess and often a mess on the pizza stone that slows everything down as you have to wait for it to burn off / scrape the stone. 4. I cheat with a couple of these peels that are awesome once you learn how to use them, again, practice makes perfect: http://www.amazon.com/EXO-Super-Peel-X-tra-Set/dp/B002PFRXG2/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1416051217&sr=1-3&keywords=pizza+peel Finally, we serve the pizza with this salad) which is awesome: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2014/06/nancys-chopped-salad/ We usually cheat and pick up some tiramisu for dessert from one of our favorite local Italian joints. If you feel like splurging on wine, pick up a bottle or two of Amarone. I love their cheaper / lighter Ripasso as well -- which is currently a daily drinker: http://www.tommasiwine.it/en/the-amarone/ Pictures The pictures below are from a recent cook. This pizza is actually a little thicker than I prefer, I must have grabbed too much dough. Remember that your pizza size is going to be limited by the size of your pizza peel. What happened here is I was too lazy to reduce the amount of dough to get a slightly thinner pizza, which I prefer. This pizza was still great.
  19. That is a great lookin' meal. Nice work!
  20. I store mine in large plastic bags with the tops tied. The wood from fruita is not dried out at all like the stuff you buy in your local stores. I've never had a problem with it molding or anything like that, it isn't that 'wet,' it is just really fresh / good smelling stuff. My personal favorite (currently) = peach. I was recently home in Kentucky for a visit. My parents bought me some wood chunks that were recently cut from real barrels used at Jim Beam. I can't wait to try those on some beef.
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