tony b

Got Summer written all over it!

Ya'll got me thinking!

Tonight's dinner was a double experiment - a second try at the Japanese charcoal on the yakitori grill and another side-by-side of my recipe and tekobo's on some suya skewers, with some ponzu shrimp thrown in for a palate cleanser! First, ckreef gets a shout out for his tip on getting this Japanese charcoal to stay lit on the yakitori grill. Pictures? Of course there's pictures! Skewers prep'ed and ready to go - my suya recipe is on the left, tekobo's on the right. On the yakitori grill. Had to stagger the cooks to fit. Tekobo's suya on the left, shrimp on the right. Each side had a different charcoal. Both worked very well and produced a nice steady heat. They are still going a couple of hours later. This stuff compares favorably to Dennis' cocochar - albeit a bit more pricey! Plated, with a nice side salad, crisp rose wine and some Caribbean yellow rice (done in the donabe). It was such a nice day, that I had to eat outside on the deck. Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up! My rub on the left and tekobo's on the right, with extra sprinkles after cooking. By the end of the meal, I was hitting that rose hard! Thankfully there was a salad at the end. But, I do have to say that my recipe had a tad more heat than tekobo's. Gonna have to work on it a bit more. I like the peanut in mine, but the earthy flavors in tekobo's are nice.

Can't wait to hear the results of both of your trials guys.

Nice tuna and asparagus plate! @Bruce Pearson - Aleppo is about the same as a Hungarian hot paprika, maybe a tad spicier?Definitely not as hot as cayenne. They are my "go to" when a recipe calls for "red pepper flakes."

OOPS - no pic, Aussie??

@Aussie Ora How you doing on Uncle Dougie's and other stuff? I have a couple of things to send you, including a new bourbon glass that I picked up on my last trip to KY.

You're not that far from me and the weather here was brutal up until Thursday night. Very nice now. Hope it stays this way for a few more days, as I have lots of weed pulling to catch up on, as it was way too hot to do that this past week.

Making me jones for some nice grilled corn, but our roadside stands aren't out yet - soon, hopefully very soon!!

That's how I grew up eating it - pan fried with gravy.

Is it supposed to be similar to a granite plancha?

Game on!

Me, too, until I saw the pedestal.

Nicely done, ckreef - that's how you do "surf & turf!" I went into full blown depression when our Fresh Market closed here. Talk about Manic-Depression, as I was on Cloud 9 when it opened here, only to have it close a little over a year later! Now I have to bootleg my Duke's mayo back every time I visit the South.

Yummy.

If it's a big turkey (20+ lbs), then I'd go with the rotisserie basket. Smaller birds (12 - 14 lbs) would do fine on the regular roti rod/forks or the Octo's.

I've never been that hardcore to cook it ASAP after picking, but I understand that time is of the essence - at least 50% of the sugar is converted to starch within 24 hours of picking (you can slow this reaction down a bit by putting the ears in the fridge.) I buy it in the morning from the roadside stand - picked fresh daily, then put it into a slightly salted water bath when I get home until tossing on the grill, in the husks, for dinner. If it's early season corn, so not at peak sweetness, I'll peel the shucks back, remove the silk, slather butter, S&P and the "secret ingredient" - fresh tarragon, on it, then tie the shucks back up with butcher's twine, then onto the grill. The tarragon adds some perceived sweetness to the corn. But once the "good stuff" starts coming in, I do nothing to it until it hits the plate, then it's just butter and S&P.

I'm looking forward to what everyone comes up with using this nice rub. I'm going to keep working on my recipe - which is taking some direction from tekobo's. @MacKenzie - any fried potato would likely benefit from a sprinkle of this rub! I've used busted up pieces of cocochar to use in my yakitori grill. Works great. But, as you all know that have it, it's a PITA to start on its own. The benefit is the clean smoke - similar to binchotan; and both have high heat and are long burning.

Tasty looking ribs!

Same here - heat wave is supposed to break tomorrow! About a third of the folks at this party were from my homebrewing club, including the host, so yeah, lots of tasty beers! I took a nap when I got home - LOL!!

Bruce, I have that same grill. Don't use it often, but it does a nice job on any skewers - shrimp, veggie, meat. Haven't done any suya on it yet, but now I have my "authentic" rub, it won't be long. Got some good tips from ckreef on how to start my "B grade" binchotan charcoal, so I'm eager to try again. BTW - Dennis' cocochar is a good substitute for Japanese charcoal. I did a side-by-side taste test of the "authentic" version and my recipe of the rub - very different. I've already made a couple of tweaks to mine - added ginger and going to back off on the peanuts a tad. Made up a 1.5 lb batch of suya skewers for yesterday's 4th of July cookout at a friend's place. They were a big hit. Held back a bit on the chile spices so as to not hurt anyone! This is Iowa after all - LOL!!

Very nice and happy to hear that the pooches got some snacks, too!

Do a search on the Forum for posts from @Syzygies. He's posted his paella pics before.

Very nice setup indeed!! I always tell folks that ceramic grills make the moistest chicken, and the KK is the top of the heap of ceramics. Everything else will be better than on the BGE, too. btw - love Asheville (grew up in Greenville, SC) - beer scene in Asheville is just stoopid! And, Curate is just amazing!