Ingredients

1/2 cup Butter
2/3 cup White Sugar
2 Eggs
1 cup Buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 cup Cornmeal (or corn flour, depending on what kind of texture you like)
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F (175C)
2. Grease 8″ pan (square or round)
3. Lightly beat the eggs
4. Melt butter in large skillet
5. Remove from heat and add Sugar (I like to use a whisk to mix it in)
6. Quickly add Eggs and whisk until well blended
7. Combine Buttermilk with Baking Soda and mix until well blended then stir into Butter mixture
8. Combine Cornmeal, Flour and Salt in a separate bowl
9. Stir Cornmeal mixture into Butter mixture and mix until well blended with few lumps
10. Pour batter into pan and bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean

Additions

I usually add about a tablespoon of both Vanilla Extract and Hot Sauce.

Enjoy!

BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups of Ketchup (Heinz - the mother sauce)
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp molasses
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tbsp pepper (fresh ground is best)
1 tbsp onion powder
1/2 tbsp mustard powder

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer and cook for 1.5 hours stirring frequently.

Rub

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup paprika
3/4 cup sugar
3 3/4 onion powder

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

5 cans (14 – 18oz) of pre-cooked beans (I use 3 navy beans and 2 white kidney)
1 Cup reserved bean juice (from the cans)
1/4 lb thick cut bacon (I use 1 pack, apple smoked or maple if you can get it)
1 cup diced onion (1 medium onion)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup (Heinz, there is no other kind)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup molasses
4 tablespoon mustard
2 cups BBQ sauce (I use a Memphis style sauce – see other post)
1 cup water

Directions:

Put all liquid ingredients into one container or bowl.
Cut bacon into small pieces (about 1/4″ or so) and cook in hot pan (cast iron if you have it) until brown.
Dice the onion and add to cooked bacon.
Add the liquid ingredients and stir thoroughly.
Cook uncovered for 1.5 hours on medium high (a controlled boil).
Reduce heat, cover and cook until desired doneness (approx. 1 hr.).

For best results, perform the uncovered portion of the recipe in the smoker with apple wood chunks.

Enjoy!

I made 3 types of BBQ sauce; for the wings, my own Monkey Juice and a standard buffalo wing sauce and for the beans, a Memphis style sauce and even with all of my tweaks they were very tasty. I even tweaked my baked beans recipe a fair bit and they turned out better than I had ever made them. The guacamole I whipped up without a recipe tasted fresh and delicious.

Even my smoker was participating. After setting up Newman (my Primo Oval XL smoker) for indirect heating, I lit my favourite lump charcoal “Dragon’s Breath” and set the upper and lower vents to what I thought would bring the heat close to 275F. Not only was it close, it was bang on. I didn’t have to play with the vents at all.

Everything was ready at the same time and on-time. Even after dinner when I was making coffee I lost count of the number of scoops I had put in the coffee maker so I went by feel and the coffee was delicious.

Overall it was an amazing day. The weather co-operated and the food, wine and company was great. The only drawback was that I was having such a good time I forgot to take some pictures. I’m hoping that I will have many more of these “Zen” moments in the future.

Just take a pack of your favourite whole wings and rinse them. Pre-heat kamado to 300 degrees with no d-plates or drip pan as this will be a direct heat cook. Throw in a couple of blocks of pre-soaked apple wood chips. Place the wings on the grill skin side down and just generously salt them. Close the lid and allow to smoke. After about  15 minutes, flip them so they are all skin side up and again generously salt. Close the lid and let cook for another 30 to 45 minutes. Put them into a bowl and that’s it, your done. No sauce, no rub, no nothing, just salt and the flavour from the apple wood smoke. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried. They were crispy and flavourful. Perfect for a Friday night after a long week.

  TheBigKamado

As the title suggests, I was looking for something really savoury. Well within arms reach was a nice slab of gorgonzola cheese. A few evenly spread chunks starts things off in the right direction. What’s an Italian sausage without some heat? Threw on some hot sliced bell peppers to do the trick. And for the grand finally, some old-fashioned grain mustard. Hence was born the “Nasty Dog”. Absolutely Delicious. You’ve just got to give this eclectic mix of flavours a try.

TheBigKamado

I have a small tear in my eye as I write this because the pizza turned out absolutely awesome. First I made the dough fresh myself which I had never done before but it was actually really simple. The recipe was very basic. The only thing I did differently was use honey instead of sugar. I’m not sure that it made much of a difference but the crust turned out thin and crispy and delicious just the way I like it. For toppings, I fried off some Italian sausage (got another of my favourite food groups in on this one), cut up some red bell pepper, roasted garlic, grated asiago cheese, hot pepper flakes and the usual sea salt and pepper.

On the grill I did not use a pizza stone or the d-plates. Pure grill baby. I fired up Newman to 350F and for good measure I tossed some apple wood chips into my cast iron smoke box and threw it on the coals.

After rolling out the dough into the semblance of a circle (see picture – no that’s not a bite taken out of it) I put it on the grill to start cooking.

TIP 1: Once the pizza dough hits the grill things move really fast so be sure to have all your ingredients cut up, chopped, sliced, whatever needs to be done ready before you start. I forget to prepare the cheese and I nearly burned the dough while I grated it.

Once the first side got slightly brown I flipped the crust over and brushed the top with olive oil before adding the toppings. I prefer putting the cheese first (unless I use tomato sauce then that goes first) then all the toppings so that they cook nicely. I closed the lid for a few more minutes and then (insert trumpets sounding)… pizza nirvana. It had a hint of smoky flavour that was really incredible.

Grilling pizza is definitely the way to go. Thanks Newman!

Finally, get home, still a beautiful 25 degree (celsius) day outside and ready to tear in. Run to the garage, get the tool box and grab a hammer. Carefully remove all crating and whammo, exposed is something that looks like the egg Mork arrived in on his trip from Ork. (Oh oh, I think I just dated myself). Anyway, now the fun part. Take the carefully located instruction manual off the cover and toss it behind me. Open the lid and remove everything from inside including several bits of cardboard, a large oval firebox, a firebox middle thingy and a box with a bunch of stuff in it to be uncovered later.  But wait, oh no, I don’t have a table. If you read my last post you’ll know that I went for the stainless steel table from the BBQ guys which hasn’t yet arrived. So back to the garage to look for something, anything that will elevate this thing of the ground. Aha, I knew I kept that old wrought iron end table for something. Through a patio slab over it a voila, a perfect yet temporary Primo Kamado table. 

So now lesson number 1, when something shows up packed in a crate, it generally means its heavy. Which further generally means, don’t try lifting this behemoth by yourself. Ok, tried it anyway, still suffering from hernia. Quickly call a buddy over and entice him with beer. Ok, so my buddy and I lift Chucky (I’ll explain later) up but we need someone to place the feet under him as moving afterword will require additional hernia operations. The feet by the way are just these little ceramic things that look like miniature solid Dutch clogs. Call wife and have her place feet in approximately the right place as she goes into a rant about why I need to purchase Chucky when I had a perfectly good Weber in the corner. Ahhh, the joys. OK enough about lesson one, I think you get the picture, this sucker is sick heavy. Plan ahead and invite over a couple of buddies to help.

Lesson 2, remember that manual thing I threw over my shoulder, don’t, it has an important tip. I’ll explain. So I put the firebox back in and the ceramic firebox middle thingy (anyone know what the right name for that thing is?) put in the cast iron charcoal grate and dump in a bunch of charcoal to about the height of the breather holes. Then back to the garage to look for the electric charcoal starter loop that I haven’t used in years. Can’t find it so stick my hand in, move the charcoal to one side and crumple up a bunch of newspaper and cover it with the charcoal again. Light the paper, close the lid, open the top and bottom air vents and firmly cross fingers. Weeeww, it’s hard work BBQ’ing and I haven’t even started yet

Go inside wash charcoal off hands and grab more beer. Come back outside to find temperature is already up to 200 degrees. Wa hoo that was easy. Wait about 5 more minutes and its hitting 350. Open lid and evenly stir the coals flat, put the grill on with the extender racks to burn off any bad stuff and let’s see how hot we can get this baby on it’s Virgin run. Close the lid and make sure vents are wide open. 400, 500, 600, 700 ladies and gentlemen we have reached cruising altitude, lean back and enjoy the ride. I find myself strutting around, chest fully extended, the odd grunt here and there, after all, I am man, I have made fire, very very hot fire. Ok boys, lets open the lid and see inside. Word of warning, carefull when opening that lid at high temp, my forearm needed a good waxing anyway, that’s where the name Chucky came from. Less then a second with the lid open and oh no, the felt gasket surrounding the lid just slowly falls into the firebox. The one around the bottom is blackened and slightly peeled forward so I think it must be some sort of packing material and I just peel the rest of it off. Hmmm, better check that manual, you know the one I threw over my shoulder. Seems like a proper burn in requires you to bring this bad boy up to temp and then let it cool without opening the lid so the gasket can set. Gotta say, bit of a downer. Close lid, close vents, let this baby cool, apply some aloe to forearm. Let’s get some more beer and get some meat on this thing.

Lesson 3, I figure I’ll throw some chicken wings on for a quick test run. So I remove the extender racks, remove the grill, drop the drip pan racks in, throw the deflector plates on top, followed by the aluminum drip pan, then put the grill back on and close the lid to set the temp to a fairly quick cooking 300 degrees. Get the seasoned chicken wings out, open the lid and DAMN I forgot to put in the applewood chips and there’s no little access panel like there is on my Weber for the smoker box. Yup, you got it, put the wings down, take the grill off, take the drip pan out, take the d-plates out and drop in some soaked applewood chips and do it all over again.

Finally got the wings on, closed the lid at 300 degrees and kept checking it the whole time. That needle didn’t move. This thing is amazing at holding a consistent temperature. It barely moved the entire time. An hour later I had perfectly crisp, deliciously smoked wings. Totally worth all the effort. 

And that my friends was day 1 with the Primo. Some wings, lots of beer, a hernia, and some good lessons learned.

TheBigKamado

About the only thing we didn’t like on the Primo was the wooden tables for the Primo. Anyone who lives in a Canadian climate know that wood tables and winter just don’t mix. So the search for stainless steel began. We finally found a perfect stainless steel unit at BBQGuys.com. If you’re interested the link is http://www.bbqguys.com/item_name_BBQ-Guys-Stainless-Steel-Grill-Cart-For-Extra-Large-Primo-Ceramic-Grills_path__item_2524671.html. The best part of these carts is that not only are they stainless steel but they give you a cabinet and drawers to put all your stuff in. With all the accessories that are available with the Primo, this is an absolute must in my opinion.

I just want to be absolutely clear that in no way do I think that Primo is the be all and end all of smokers and that all others are no good. In fact I’m sure that everyone can find something that makes their smoker just right for them. The reasons I listed above suited CoalMan and I which is why we made the choice and I thought I would share those here.

TheBigKamado

Two years ago I bought a couple of cedar planks with the intention of trying them out because I had heard that cooking salmon on them in the BBQ worked. Well, I never got around to using them, until now. I had read a bunch of recipes for how to do this and some said to soak the plank for 45 minutes another for 4 hours and yet another for 12 hours. I went with the 12 hour one because I figured the wood’s been sittin’ around a long time and it must be pretty dried out by now. As for the salmon, I didn’t follow any recipe (at least that I know of), I just wanted to do it simply so a smeared it with olive oil and maple syrup (the real stuff, I wouldn’t recommend cutting back here), sea salt, pepper, and then covered it with slices of lemon.

I pre-heated the Primo to 500F and put some apple wood chips in a smoker box for a little extra kick. I put the plank on the grill for a few minutes before the fish just to get the smoke started. The salmon cooked for about 15 – 20 minutes and man where has this been all my life! That was the best salmon I have ever had. It was unbelievably moist with a nice lemony, smokey flavour. If there is a better way to grill this fishy I’d like to hear about it.