Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff
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@shark said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
Dinner last night was an Italian beef mince ragut, with a rigatoni n cheese topping. I like to consider it an Italian cottage pie. Very similar ultimately to lasagne. The key is to slow cook the mince and vege mix for a couple of hours after sweating down the veg and browning the mince.
Veg base was finely diced carrot, onion and celery, roasted red peppers, cherry tomatoes and garlic. Soften in a crock pot on hob in olive oil, add herbs (i just used dried mix last night) then brown mince. Add jar of passata and chuck into the oven at 140 for a couple hours. The result is essentially a bolognese sauce or ragut. Cool a little so it thickens then put into a glass roasting dish, top with rigatoni n cheese (also partially cooled so it doesn't run into the meat sauce) and allow to warm through in the oven again before serving. The ratio i had was around 2:1 meat vs pasta and cheese sauce.
Rich, and perfect to eat from a bowl on the couch watching the Crusaders.
That sounded good right up until the very last bit.
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So, I had a financial windfall last week, and I'm looking to buy a proper grill.
What are you boys running? Should I just shell out for the Kamado Joe classic?
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@mariner4life love me some kamado action fella, just super versatile.
Big question is ceramic or insulated steel. Ceramic is more traditional, easier to learn, uses more fuel, and is goddamn heavy. Also can break. Steel is light, portable, skittish, cheaper to buy and doesn't break. But uses less fuel - so can have less smoke on things.
No bad option really. I rock a Bubba Keg, now called the Big Steel Keg... it has two bottle openers on it for southern american badassery. Have pushed a bunch of mates into Kamado Akorn by Char-Grillers... it's cheap, cheerful and bloody good fun
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@nzzp said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@Bones you're smarter than the rest of us. Admit it.
Why would you even say this, about anything...
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@mariner4life said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
So, I had a financial windfall last week, and I'm looking to buy a proper grill.
What are you boys running? Should I just shell out for the Kamado Joe classic?
Kamado Joe Ceramic! End of! You will not regret it. Not one day!
Get the big one if you like to entertain.
That is certainly my next BBQ when windfall comes along.
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@Hooroo said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
Get the big one if you like to entertain.
Get the big one only if you like to entertain a lot.
I made the mistake of getting too large a BBQ and as a result hardly ever use it because unless I'm roasting half a hog its simply too much of a ball ache.
Mind you almost everyone has more mates than I. In which case go for it. I did 2 whole sirloins in it for 30 people (once ) and apart from the nerve wracking 45 minute resting time it was awesome
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@dogmeat said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@Hooroo said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
Get the big one if you like to entertain.
Get the big one only if you like to entertain a lot.
Absolutely agree. People often fall into this trap - they over-spec their BBQ, and also their pizza oven, sleeping bag, etc.
Personally I use a combo of a baby weberQ, and the Kamado. WeberQ for wet winter nights where we just want to cook - and we cook on it probably 2-3 times a week through the year. Naan, steak, meatballs, etc - anything that would get fried can go into the bbq. Helps it is in a wee bbq house that's covered and well lit. Then the big charcoal for bigger cooks. Gas is inferior, but convenient, fast and reliable.
When it's a party, just run both at the same time. In fact, I borrowed my mate's bbq the last time we had 90 people around for a feed, and just ran three.
last suggestion - don't go nuts with accessories, particularly temp control units. You probably don't need it once you've got some practice. Start with dry runs, and forgiving pork shoulders until you have confidence. I crank up a brisket, and literally go to sleep at the regular time. Don't bother checking overnight unless I happen to wake up.
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@mariner4life said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
So, I had a financial windfall last week, and I'm looking to buy a proper grill.
What are you boys running? Should I just shell out for the Kamado Joe classic?
I love my akorn, easy to use, economical and the food is great. If you don't want gas you could buy an akorn junior to cut your teeth on, then decide what you want in a bigger version once you know more. Definitely buy a multi probe thermometer
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@mariner4life check this out for comparison - I don't know the cost of Kamado in Australia, but container door did some competitive pricing here in NZ
$799 for a ceramic - google it though, and get some reviews I suggest.
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@nzzp said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@mariner4life check this out for comparison - I don't know the cost of Kamado in Australia, but container door did some competitive pricing here in NZ
$799 for a ceramic - google it though, and get some reviews I suggest.
From what I've heard, those are very good
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@Bones I'm not an expert in them, and the tech moves on fast. When I played with some they were really easy, just dial up a temp and walk away.
But, as far from hands on BBQ as you can get. Some folk look down their nose at it, but frankly whatever works. Kind of like coffee machines, you lose some control with automation, but get convenience.
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@Bones said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@nzzp ah hah, I'd stumbled upon this the other day and was wondering what the opinion on here might be.
Pellet grills are for people who like BBQ meats but have little to no interest in doing the work to maintain the fire to cook it. You just have to work out who you are
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@shark said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
I can't be fucked tending to it, aside from making the rub. I'd ideally like to be able to put it on at say 6am and by 6pm have some approximate Franklin BBQ level brisket ready to slice up.
Sounds like you need to go with a pellet grill