Cocktail Confessions

Good day all.  I’ve been a bit busy with work as of late and the heat the last few days has really drained me of energy to put a lot of thought into some good entries, and even more so when it comes to sitting down and doing my next podcast.

I’ve been thinking about doing a series of episodes concentrating on my love for BBQ’ing, because it’s one of my favorite leisurely and social activities (and it doesn’t hurt that I truly enjoy both cooking and eating), but I’m trying to think of the format and logistics.  It’s kinda hard to set up a mic outside near the grill, but now that I have my portable recorder (which I still haven’t broke in yet), maybe I’ll try it with some friends in the future.  It’d be fun to hear a few guys jawing away while pounding a few beers and learn a few grilling techniques as well.  If you ever get the chance, look for reruns of an older show starring Bobby Flay called “Grillin’ and Chillin’”.  It was fun to watch Bobby and the other guy banter back and forth, albeit no beer was involved.

Another idea was to have just a few smaller episodes, maybe 10-15 minutes each where I talk about preping a specific menu and maybe pair that menu with a beer or cocktail.  But I’ll really have to mull that idea over because I truly do think it’d lend more to have at least two, maybe three guys all kibitzing while cooking dead meat.

So this past weekend, I had an impromptu BBQ over at the house and invited the neighbor and his wife wife over to partake in my ribs.  The bummer of it all was I think I may have had one to many “Christmas’s” to drink, and I don’t really recall eating my ribs, although everyone else said they were great (and I even got the nice compliment that my ribs were the best on the street since a few of the guys have taken a spin down baby-back avenue).

I figure I’d share one of my simple techniques and recipe for ribs in a jiffy.  I have plenty of rib recipes and this is just one, and so far it hasn’t hasn’t failed me yet:

Initial prep-

• Take a nice meaty slab of baby back ribs, cut in half with a clean, sharp knife, and rub down with some oil.  Most people use canola oil as it has a much higher burning point, but I prefer the extra richeness of olive oil.  It’s important that the oil is relatively fresh (oil can go rancid if not stored properly).  Season both sides with slat and pepper, and please use kosher or sea salt, not table salt.  Pepper shoudl also be freshly milled and cracked.  Just a light smattering of both, the real seasoning comes next.
• Apply a liberal amount of your favorite dry rub to the meaty side and pat it in.  Not so much on the underside where the membrane resides, but enough to add color and some flavor.  Of course if you wanna mill your own spice rub, it’s gonna be really good, but since this is a no fuss recipe, I just grab a prepackaged gourment rub I tend to like with a little chipoltle, and I also sprinkle on a few fresh rosemary leaves from my herb garden (I love rosemary).
• Allow to dry-marinate in the fridge at least one hour, preferably longer to allow spices to penetrate and work their magic.
• In a microwave safe container mix the following ingredients- 1C white wine, 1.5 TBS white wine vinegar, 1 finely diced clove of garlic, 1-2 TBS of Worsteshire (for saltiness), 2-3 TBS of either honey or molasses (for sweet).  Give a slight whisking to, then nuke for 1 minute and set aside (it’ll be used momentarily).
• Preheat oven at 225 degrees and set rack to middle position.
• Wrap the spiced ribs length wise in a very long sheet of aluminum foil, shiny side facing meat, leaving a bit of room, yet crimping aluminum shut except on one end.  At open end  of foil, pour in your wet mix and slightly tilt to allow wet mix settle in, then crimp the open end shut.

Cooking

• Place ribs in oven, crimped side up so liquid won’t leak, and allow to cook at this low temperature undisturbed for at least 2.5 hours.  Possibly 2.75 hours.  This low temperature will break down the callogen in the ribs and baste the ribs in the liquid steam and keep them moist. At this time, go ahead and remove from oven and foil.
• Finish off ribs on BBQ over medium heat for another 15 minutes (7-10 minutes each side or longer depending on preferred wellness).  At this point you’ll start getting good grill marks.  (Optional) Near end of grilling if you want, go ahead and baste ribs with a wet sauce if you want for extra flavor.  Personally I think they are good just with the dry rub, but if you just have to add a BBQ sauce, go ahead and do lightly now.  But be careful not to burn ribs as some sauces have a tendancy to burn because of the high sugar content.
• Let ribs rest a good 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving as you want the internal juices to relax back into the meat.

Enjoy with your favorite sides and beer.  For me, it usually pinto style beans with jalepenos (instead of baked beans), a southwestern potato salad, fresh melon slices, or whatever you like.  Oh and did I mention a good beer?  Go for an amber ale or other medium bodied beer.