First cook on the new 18.5" OTG !

[austin87]

I was really excited to cook for the first time on an 18.5" kettle. I've used 22.5" extensively but often feel like I'm using a little more charcoal than I need and have a little too much empty space On the grill.



Here it goes firing up a mini-chimney of Kingford Comp - I got the big deal at Costco and I really like this stuff.



Poblano peppers slit on the side and seeded next to shredded Monterey Jack and diced Serrano pepper for grilled chile rellenos.



Here's the corn roasting and peppers blistering so the skin can be scraped off the flesh (egg wash and breading won't stick to the shiny skin).



Peppers in a bowl with plastic wrap to steam, blackened corn wrapped in foil to cook a little more off the direct flame.



It's really easy to scrape the skin off after 10 minutes in the bowl, and the peppers are still closer to raw than cooked in texture at this point.



Stuffed with cheese and peppers, egg wash, flour, egg wash, panko bread crumbs, ready for the grill.



Roasted corn, black bean, and tomato salad with homemade dressing of avocado oil, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, Serrano pepper, and a touch of agave syrup to cut the acid, but not enough to make it sweet.



Topped with crumbled cotija cheese (it's hard, crumbly, and salty.... Kind of like Mexican Parmesan)



Peppers are done and crispy with warmed avocado halves to put on top of the salad (these cooked indirect next to the tri-tip for about 25 minutes, the meat was already pulled at 135* foiled for 15 minutes, it took about an hour).



Tri-tip rubbed with salt, a little sugar (it helps get a nice crust when searing but nit enough to taste sweet), cumin, chile powder, cayenne, black pepper, paprika.



All plated!



And grilled nectarines over vanilla ice cream with a little liquer poured over the top.

I needed to add some coals over the course of the cook but everything was done with one charcoal basket off the side of the grill. I'm really excited to make this little kettle a regular cooker!

[Jeff]

Wow, there's a lot of flavors going on there.  It looked really good.  Something I might have to give a try.  Nice photos and writeup!

[1buckie]

Those are great fixups !!!!

Esp. the chile rellenos.......

If you go to do up a bunch of corn, here's a little trick.....



We just got an old bundt pan from the 2nd hand store so the new one doesn't get goofed up....

[WNC]

Nice first cook in that 18!

[austin87]

Those are great fixups !!!!

Esp. the chile rellenos.......

If you go to do up a bunch of corn, here's a little trick.....



We just got an old bundt pan from the 2nd hand store so the new one doesn't get goofed up....

If you don't have a bundt pan you can also cut the corn on a kitchen towel on top of the cutting board and it keeps the kernels from bouncing around. I thought you might like those rellenos

[LightningBoldtz]

the 18 OTG is a cool little cooker, the price point of making it $20 less than a 22 OTG was not appealing.  I think if they had made them$40 less they would have sold more.

[BBcue-Z]

Awesome cook on an awesome cooker