Musings on Life & Cooking

 

I don’t know if I have properly conveyed how excited I was at the prospect making barbecued ribs, but let me tell you folks, I was VERY EXCITED. If you’d ask E, he would tell you that most of the conversations we had last week, revolved around ribs, or the barbecuing thereof. Bless him for putting up with my food obsessions and going along on the wild ride that they sometimes entail. This weekend he cycled with me and all our groceries to the other side of town, so that I could visit Frank’s Smoke House in search of Hickory wood chips, because Duikelman only had Alder wood chips; and consoled me in the rain when I left Frank’s empty handed as they only carry Hickory sawdust.

The last minute search for wood chips (nothing to do with sleeping on Saturday morning, I swear) meant that using the brining method illustrated by Elise over at Simply Recipes as I had originally planed wouldn’t be possible due to time constraint. Instead of freaking out as I would normally would, I told myself “oh well, I’ll just use all that citrus fruit for something else,” and got on with finding a solution. The solution came in the form of a barbecued ribs recipe in The New Basics Cookbook that incorporated a braising method. Although I really wanted the ribs to spend most of their cooking time on the grill, I was out of time and braising them first seemed like the best idea.

I braised the ribs for one hour, which was 45 minutes short of the suggested cooking time, but in my case, the ribs tested done with a meat thermometer and were pulling away from the bone. I left them sitting in the braising liquid, but off the heat until I was ready to put them on the grill. E commendably tamed the grill to a temperature of about 300ºF-325ºF, as should be done if you follow Elise’s recipe in its entirety; but as the ribs were actually done cooking after the braising, such a low temperature was not necessary. I had him re-adjust the air vents to get the fire burning hotter again, once I’d put the ribs on. I glazed the ribs, turning them every 10 minutes or so, for about 45 minutes. Once they’d colored nicely and were almost falling off the bone, I set them in a warm oven covered in aluminum foil (silver side in) until serving.

My lovely friend Chris (the belated birthday boy) bought scallops, baby squid, curly little lovely red sweet peppers, fennel and zucchini, which he whipped up into delicious seafood and veggie skewers. Chris served the skewers with a sauce of olive, lime juice and zest, and some hand picked wild oregano from his girlfriend Maya’s native Bodrum. Scallops are one of my favorite types of shellfish and as I scarfed down one tender smoky grilled scallop after another, I berated myself for not thinking of grilling scallops before now.

In the end, my mish-mash of recipes and cooking methods, turned out the juiciest and tastiest barbecued ribs that I have ever tasted (and I’m not just patting my own back). When we finally set down for the second course of the birthday feast, I nearly cried from happiness as I slowly savored my first mouthful of spicy, sweet, savory and succulent pork ribs. Not bad at all for a first-timer! I’ve still got 3 racks in the freezer, and I’m looking forward to improving on my success, weather be damned!

 The boys manning the Weber in the dark & the rain...

Chris’ Birthday BBQ menu

Seafood & Veggie skewers

Barbecued Ribs with a Spicy Bourbon Glaze & Kansas City-style Barbecue Sauce

Sweet & Savory Potato Wedges

Spicy Radicchio Slaw with Pecans

Corn on the Cob

The Infamous Sex Cake

Braising Liquid

--- adapted from Jimmy Schmidt’s Rattlesnake Ribs recipe in The New Basics Cookbook

2 quarts (1,9 liters) beef stock

2 quarts (1,9 liters) onion stock

¾ cup (178ml) red wine vinegar

1 tbsp smoked hot paprika

1-1/2 tbsp ground cumin.

2 tbsp Sweet & Smoky barbecue sprinkler

6 whole cloves garlic, bruised

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 cup tomato paste

¼ cup honey

1 tbsp salt

Makes enough liquid to braise 4 slabs of baby back or country-style ribs (1 ¼ pounds / 560-570g each). Combine all the ingredients in a large pot. Stir well, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Add the ribs, and simmer until tender but not falling apart, about 1 hour and up to 1 hour and 45 minutes. Remove ribs carefully from the braising liquid and grill immediately, or remove from the heat and leave ribs in the braising liquid until you are ready to grill them.

 
 Sweet & Savory Potato Wedges

2 medium potatoes, cut in 8 wedges

2 small sweet potatoes, cut in 8 wedges

_1/3 cup (79ml) milk

_2/3 cup (41g) flour

1 tsp paprika

Salt & pepper

¼ cup (38g) butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400ºF/204ºC. In a shallow dish, whisk to combine, flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Dip potato wedges in milk and then coat with flour mixture, shake off any excess flour. Place wedges on a baking tray and drizzle with melted butter. Bake 40-50 minutes. Serve immediately.

 

Stay tuned for my sexy entry for the Stop the Traffik Chocolate Competition!