I unearthed my Onlyfire portable pellet grill today, probably for the first time since the couple of months following the initial purchase, last year.
From this, you might ask, “If you didn’t need it, why buy it?”
Good question. For a long time, I have had a large grill and a smaller transportable one, that came on holidays with me. My large grill is now a massive grill (that I love), while the smaller one (my old GMG) was getting fragile, and had intermittent power issues. So when I saw this portable grill, at a pretty cheap price (below £300), I couldn’t resist. It is a rip-off of the Traeger Ranger, which is double the price, list, and even heavily discounted is a good £100 more.
I tried it out, convinced myself it worked, then put it away for Winter. Meanwhile, the big beast is permanently set up outside my kitchen door, so that is what I have been using.
But the Onlyfire is getting an outing next weekend, so I thought I should refresh my memory – bloody hell, no Wi-Fi, no app! But – importantly – it will run off my Ecoflow power station, as we are going to be deep in the woods, with no 13A sockets.
I need to reheat a mess of pulled pork safely, and not take too long about it. I had an idea that I could run the grill with an open lid, as a hotplate, with a pot of food on top. But with a pan of water, as a test, it was a bit slow to respond, and a knock could send things flying.
So, knowing my existing oven pans were too big for the Onlyfire, I turned to the two magnificent 3lb loaf tins I bought the other day. They will fit side by side in the closed grill, and let me reheat the pulled pork 2kg at a time, or better. The whole thing will be locked down, and secure, as well.
For this test, I filled one of the pans with 1kg of minced lamb, kebab seasoning, bone broth, tomato paste, mixed chopped veg and some fresh cherry tomatoes. If it could cook this in a reasonable time, reheating pre-cooked pulled pork will be fine.
It’s come out perfect, in 45 minutes.
I know it looks a bit orange, but it tastes great, and I intend to slice it and grill for kebab wraps this week.
I was also persuaded by a pal on the pellet forum to buy a chafing dish, so that once reheated, food can be safely kept warm.
I actually used to use my old slow-cooker for this function, but I gave it away when I got my first Ninja Foodi.
Anyway, while not pro-kit, I found this one at a good price on Amazon, and it is pretty solid stainless steel – a double bowl, with water in the base, being heated by a spirit lamp and heating the food in the 8 litre inner bowl.
Super pleased with it.
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