caliking
is Blowin Smoke!
Experimented a little more with trying to use the BGE as a tandoor. Made some seekh kababs and stick naans last weekend= http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=151460.
So last night I came home with a mind to firing it up as hot as I could get it, to try a new seekh kabab recipe which was simpler than the one I did a few days ago.
Took 1.3lbs of ground turkey, added 3/4 tsp each of coriander powder, garam masala, cayenne, salt to taste, a dash of asafoetida, 1 tbsp of ginger paste. Also added a few springs of cilantro and 2 green chillies ground up in the blender. A tennis ball size onion was the last thing in the mix (not pictured) I drained and squeezed as much juice out of the grated onion as I could, then mixed it all up in the KitchenAid with a dough hook.
For the tandoori chicken, I used a store-bought mix, 1 tbsp ginger paste, 1 tbsp garlic paste, 2 tbsp yogurt, 1 tbsp mayo and let it all get friendly for an hour.
I have had issues getting my BGE up to max temp because I am still learning how to cook with it. Filled the firebox up with B&B oak lump and lit a chimney full of lump to get a big fire going. I was using the lower half of the bag of lump and so there were a lot of small pieces, which ended up being too tightly packed i think to get a really hot fire going. Temps got up to 500° max this time - I want to go higher for tandoor-style cooks.
Lit up the chimney and got a big fire going:
Tried sticking the skewers loaded with seek kabab down the top vent, and in theory it sort of worked. You just can't get too many skewers down through the top vent at one time since it is not very wide.
The good news was that the kababs stayed on the skewer!! I think the difference this time was that the mixing with the KitchenAid made the meat a little pasty, and helped them stay put on the skewer
I tried to place the skewers loaded with chicken down through the top vent too, but again there isn't a lot of room, so i switched to just laying them across like I did last time. They cooked evenly, and i just had to turn once to get even char on all sides. I have 4 different kinds of tandoor skewers- round ones of 2, 3, 4mm (I think) and square ones, all about 40"ish inches long. The square ones work best with the BGE since the lid keeps them from rolling and you can easily turn the skewers to cook whichever side of the meat you want.
I was running low on time so cooked the rest of the seekh kababs horizontally too.
Conclusions: Even though the seekh kabab recipe was simpler this time, I really liked the flavors. This will likely be my go-to seekh kabab recipe now. The chicken was not bad, but I didn't like the spice mix too much. This wasone I had lying around in the pantry and not the one I have used before. Next time, i will go back to making my own masala for chicken.
So the BGE can be used like a tandoor in theory, but it doesn't beat the UDT. For weeknight tandoori chicken, I'll light up the BGE, but for the real tandoor experience I won't be getting rid of my UDT!
I think I'm tandoor-ed out for now, so I might do a rack of pork or something this weekend to change things up a bit.
Thanks for looking.
So last night I came home with a mind to firing it up as hot as I could get it, to try a new seekh kabab recipe which was simpler than the one I did a few days ago.
Took 1.3lbs of ground turkey, added 3/4 tsp each of coriander powder, garam masala, cayenne, salt to taste, a dash of asafoetida, 1 tbsp of ginger paste. Also added a few springs of cilantro and 2 green chillies ground up in the blender. A tennis ball size onion was the last thing in the mix (not pictured) I drained and squeezed as much juice out of the grated onion as I could, then mixed it all up in the KitchenAid with a dough hook.
For the tandoori chicken, I used a store-bought mix, 1 tbsp ginger paste, 1 tbsp garlic paste, 2 tbsp yogurt, 1 tbsp mayo and let it all get friendly for an hour.
I have had issues getting my BGE up to max temp because I am still learning how to cook with it. Filled the firebox up with B&B oak lump and lit a chimney full of lump to get a big fire going. I was using the lower half of the bag of lump and so there were a lot of small pieces, which ended up being too tightly packed i think to get a really hot fire going. Temps got up to 500° max this time - I want to go higher for tandoor-style cooks.
Lit up the chimney and got a big fire going:
Tried sticking the skewers loaded with seek kabab down the top vent, and in theory it sort of worked. You just can't get too many skewers down through the top vent at one time since it is not very wide.
The good news was that the kababs stayed on the skewer!! I think the difference this time was that the mixing with the KitchenAid made the meat a little pasty, and helped them stay put on the skewer
I tried to place the skewers loaded with chicken down through the top vent too, but again there isn't a lot of room, so i switched to just laying them across like I did last time. They cooked evenly, and i just had to turn once to get even char on all sides. I have 4 different kinds of tandoor skewers- round ones of 2, 3, 4mm (I think) and square ones, all about 40"ish inches long. The square ones work best with the BGE since the lid keeps them from rolling and you can easily turn the skewers to cook whichever side of the meat you want.
I was running low on time so cooked the rest of the seekh kababs horizontally too.
Conclusions: Even though the seekh kabab recipe was simpler this time, I really liked the flavors. This will likely be my go-to seekh kabab recipe now. The chicken was not bad, but I didn't like the spice mix too much. This wasone I had lying around in the pantry and not the one I have used before. Next time, i will go back to making my own masala for chicken.
So the BGE can be used like a tandoor in theory, but it doesn't beat the UDT. For weeknight tandoori chicken, I'll light up the BGE, but for the real tandoor experience I won't be getting rid of my UDT!
I think I'm tandoor-ed out for now, so I might do a rack of pork or something this weekend to change things up a bit.
Thanks for looking.
