Ya know, you ever do one of those last minute things, seems like a good idea at the time….
Well, I’m at the local diy store for 08:30, tin of paint was needed, plans had been made, so far so good.
So I get’s the paint, then whilst standing at the till, I notice a sale rack, and on it just happened to be a fire starter, not a weber, but for a princely sum of £5 I could not resist, I have not got one anyway so good score.
On the way home the plans all of a sudden begin to change, I just happen to pop into the butcher and pick up some wings, lamb chops, a couple of pork chops and a bird.
By the time I get home, the original painting plans are a distant memory, the weather is ok so it would simply be rude not to.
Bird spatched, wings chopped, both into brine, lamb chops covered with a garlic, herb and rosemary butter, the pork chops were covered with the rub I’m still playing with.
The wings are getting sauced.
Now, this has got to be planned, kick off is at 3, so, lighter started at 2, ready for half past, onto grill, another half hour and away I go, food on for kick off.
Yeh right, maybe with the sj I would have got that right, but cos I got a new starter, I have obviously got to use it, and it’s too big for the sj, that only leaves my 57 which is not quite ready yet, oh well, it’s gotta be done, let’s call it a test run.
So, meat is sorted and ready to go, beer is cold and open, footy is on inside and out, kettle has been sorted, I’m sticking with the coals over to one side for now, I did ok with that on the sj so I’m happy with it now.
So, paper in starter and off we go, except we didn’t, the blinkin thing started well, then died on me, that’s when I totally screwed things up, with a capital S.
I had watched various vid’s about using the fire starter, went with 3 rings of paper which went out, but then in a moment of madness, after only watching a vid this morning, I put 2½ firelighters under the starter.
Sure they worked, but they gave off the most horrible black smoke, I had to stand with the lid to try and prevent it from blowing over to my neighbours, once the flames had died I put the lighters out, the coal were lit but I’ll never use lighters again, big lesson learned but now I’m not really in the mood anymore, so I go inside, crack another beer, then we score, yeeeessss, get in.
So I go back out after 15 minutes to find my coals glowing like a good un, it’s game on again, the mood has been lifted so let’s play.
It’s smokin
the heat was the first thing that took me by surprise, seriously a lot hotter than my sj, but then it would be, I knew that but the games on and we are now 2-0 up so those facts don’t seem to matter….at the time.
Wings went on first, the first lot I over cooked, should have learned from the extra heat, but when covered in sauce they were still blinkin lovely, albeit a bit “charred”, another lesson learned, the second lot turned out good, I’ll learn the timings as I go.
Both lots of chops were started in foil, as was the bird, then finished over the coals.
Chops commin off, bird just on.
They turned out pretty ok, for my first time with a big kettle. The chops were certainly juicy enough, but just over charred a touch on the ends, they went down well enough and that’s all what counts I s’pose.
The bird turned out good but that’s going to be stripped and put on wraps with a salad tomorrow.
Over all, I am seriously impressed with the kettle, why have I waited so long.
till next time.
Topic: it had to be done (Read 2630 times)
