I think
@Idahawk has some kettle envy over my 18" redhead Happy Cooker
It was my girlfriend's great uncle's and is a really neat little kettle. It's in great shape complete with the internal ash pan.
A few observations about the HC. It only has 3 grate straps - not a fan of that. The cooking grate however is bad ass. It is THICK - almost as thick as a GBS grate - and I'm pretty sure it is stainless and not plated. I didn't measure but it seemed like there might be an extra quarter to half inch of distance between the charcoal grate and cooking grate. It seemed like I could get a lot of charcoal in there without pushing up the grate - something I regularly do on my 18" OTG with a hinge directly over the coals.
It's also the first time I have cooked on a three wheeler. This was a high heat cook so the bottom and top vents were wide the whole time. Next time I'll mess around with a lower heat cook and test out the ability to dial in low temps on the three wheeler.
I used a charcoal rail to separate half the grate. It worked fine but didn't fit snug like it does on the Weber grate. I dumped a full mini chimney of unlit and set a full mini chimney of lit on top. I went with Royal Oak lump - the lump always makes less ash and even though I have the internal ash pan it seems like the best way to go with a three wheeler.
First I got two small sweet potatoes going - they take about an hour. No foil, just straight on the grate. We even eat the skin when they are cooked naked on the grill.
I got a beautiful piece of swordfish - 1.3 pounds
I hit the fish with some salt and sugar and let it sit for about 15 minutes, then added a blackening seasoning I made. I used
this recipe as a guide but just eyeballed the spices into a small container.
When the sweet potatoes were almost done I threw some asparagus drizzled with lemon olive oil direct over the coals for a little char, then moved them indirect to finish.
Swordfish on
The flip
The cutting board
The plate - I like a little maple syrup drizzled over my sweet potato (I like butter too but I skipped it tonight as I'm trying to lose a little more weight)
The swordfish was fantastic. Just enough sweetness - the sugar also helps it blacken - with great flavor and a little spice.
Fun first cook on the redhead Happy Cooker! Thanks for looking!