The other day I found myself wondering what I should make for lunch when it occurred to me i had half a baguette on the counter left from a pasta dinner courtesy of Pulling Weeds the night before, and one link of chorizo left over from my gumbo making last week. A quick check in the fridge revealed I also had a red pepper and half a spring onion. A sausage and pepper sandwich was in order.

I whipped out the cast iron pan, heated it to very hot with a touch of oil, and tossed in the chorizo (sliced in half lengthwise), a quarter of a red pepper sliced, and about a 1/4 cup of sliced spring onion. I fried this up for about 10 minutes, then added the sliced baguette to the pan to toast it up a bit. I served it with a healthy serving of spicy brown mustard and a handful of potato chips, alongside a shandy (lemonade/beer 50/50mix). 

Wonderful makeshift lunch out of leftovers from previous meals, and man, sometimes a shandy is just about the best thing one could ever drink on a hot afternoon. 

After last week's Gumbo-fest I was left with a healthy portion of gumbo, but no rice. It was lunchtime and I didn't want to go through with the effort of making rice (it's soooooo hard, after all)... But I did have a roll on hand, and presto! A gumbo sandwich was born. I should have toasted the roll and then panfried the whole thing under a brick, but aside from those missed opportunities this was one great sandwich. Leftovers!

I found myself at the market - not knowing what to make for dinner - when I spotted some shrimp in the fridge section. Shelled and deveined. Now that's appealing... but I'm in the middle of NY state, and this is a tiny market so I'm a bit hesitant, but once it occurs to me I could potentially make a big pot of gumbo, I throw caution to the wind and go for it. Now I just have to remember what is in gumbo. Hmmm. 

From a loose memory I'm thinking Okra, Red Bell Pepper, Chicken, Sausage, stock, onion, and rice. But they don't have okra, so i figure there's gotta be a gumbo to make without it and pick up everything else. I get home and begin scouring my cookbooks. HTCE doesn't have it. Sara Foster doesn't have it. The 10 bbq books i have don't have it. But good 'ole Joy of Cooking does, and I'm reminded of how often i neglect JoC and how typically spot-on it is when I do use it. And to my surprise, it does not call for okra, or filé. This one uses a roux, which i've never done...  but its worth a shot for sure. Oh, and JoC reports I forgot to pick up celery and scallion, and that it should be green bell pepper. Scallions are in the garden, but a quick trip to the market is needed for celery. As for the green pepper, who likes green bell pepper? I was sticking with the red. Now armed and ready, here was my approach: 

First up is to lightly coat chicken parts in a flour/spice mixture of cayenne, black pepper, salt, and of course, flour. JoC calls for a whole chicken in parts, but knowing i'm adding shrimp (which JoC does not), I opt for simply four thighs:

I pan fried these for about 8 minutes, and then remove the chicken from the cast-iron pan: After the chicken is removed (and i use every ounce of will power i have to not devour those thighs right then and there), I added some canola oil and flour to the now medium-hot pan to make a roux... first i added oil to scrape up all those tasty chicken drippings, and then whisked in the flour. I cooked this over a medium flame for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The goal is to get it to thicken up considerably, and turn a darker reddish brown color. Here's a few shots of that process: Once the roux seemed right to me (and i have no idea if it was), i added about a cup each of chopped celery, onion, and red bell pepper, removed the pan from the heat and stirred it around as it cooked and the pan cooled a bit for 2-3 minutes: I then transferred this mixture to a stock pot, added 8 cups of stock and returned the chicken (that I thankfully hadn't already consumed) to the pot. JoC calls for chicken stock, and we had some in the freezer, but we also had some clam broth from a winter's clam boil. So i ended up using 5 cups chicken stock and 3 cups clam broth.. which with the shrimp addition I think added a really nice flavor to the final gumbo. Here's it all in the pot after it came to a boil... I then simmered for 30 minutes, uncovered:  While that's going on I chopped up some local chorizo i found at the market. Though it was precisely at this moment I realized I meant to get andouille sausage, not chorizo. Whoops. So this is definitely going to be a bit different than your typical gumbo. But that chorizo does look damn tasty, even raw: So i dropped that in with some garlic and cooked for 10 minutes: Meanwhile I removed the chicken, and shredded the meat discarding the bones and skin: 

Hard to believe I've never grilled corn, but last week I gave it a shot. It tasted exactly like it tasted the night before when i boiled it, but when i grilled it I felt really really manly, so it's kinda worth it. Here's what i did:

• Pull down the husks leaving them attached
• Remove the silk
• Pull the husks back up and tie with some twine
• Soak in water for 10 minutes
• Toss 'em over some medium hot coals, and cook or 15 minutes, rotating every 3-4 minutes. 
• Discard husks, and eat

Lazy night meant Mexican take-out tonight... But I decided to try and freshen up the meal with a last minute salsa while Lori drove out to pick up our burritos. Salsa is such an easy and kinda fun thing to make. I hadn't planned on making it at all, but with a little scrounging around the kitchen and picking a few fresh items from the garden we were in great shape. Here's what I did:

• Chopped up about a cup fresh tomato and tossed into a bowl (2 of our 4th of july tomatoes, 1 purchased heirloom local tomato)
• Minced about 2 Tablespoons spring onion (red onion works well too), and tossed into the same bowl
• Minced 2/3rd of a jalapeno and tossed into the bowl
• Added 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• Added the juice from 1/2 lime
• Added 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped up cilantro (first pinches from our garden!)
• Added 2 teaspoons local honey
• Added 1 pinch of kosher salt
• Stirred this all up, and let it steep for 30 minutes. 

 

 

There is a daily question during our morning coffee and breakfast making for the kids: what should we do for dinner? On Saturday morning, my thinking was oyster po' boys or ribs... and checking the fridge for our current stock we had chipotle peppers, cilantro, and an unreasonable number of limes on hand... so Pineapple/Chipotle Babyback Ribs was the clear winner. 

These ribs have become a staple of mine over the last few years.... they are a tremendous combination of savory pork rib with a fruit-sweetened glaze backed with smokey and spicy chipotle and then freshened up with lime and cilantro. Really an amazing combo for which I cannot take credit. I picked up the sauce recipe from "Let the Flames Begin" by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby (great book btw), though they suggest it for country ribs. I prefer it on babybacks, but its wonderful on either. As for my babybacks, here's my story this time around:

I picked up two slabs of babybacks from Guido's in Great Barrington. On sale too, how about that! I rolled them out to find two perfectly trimmed slabs, just waiting to be prepped. I rubbed them with freshly cracked black pepper, kosher salt, and crushed coriander, making sure to cover both sides thoroughly: 

I then got the Weber kettle going with a mega-chimney of hardwood coal. While the coal was going, I made the sauce. You start with reducing a combo of pineapple and orange juice with minced chipotle and cumin. Takes about 30 minutes on low heat to thicken it up, at which point you take off the heat, cool, and add in fresh lime juice and freshly minced cilantro: These ribs need to be slowly cooked over an indirect heat. In a kettle grill I deal with this by laying some rocks at the halfway point of the grill, and bank all the coals on one side. I never want the ribs to be directly over the coals:
I then tossed on the ribs bone side down, and cooked covered for 15 minutes. I placed the smoke vent of the cover (fully open) over the ribs themselves in an effort to draw smoke from the coals across the kettle encasing the ribs with smoke on its way out the vent. Here are the slabs positioned opposite the coals:  After 15 minutes I came back to see this: I then swapped the slabs position so that the slab closest to the coals was now farthest from them, closed the lid again and cooked for another 15 minutes. When i cam back, I found this: I then flipped the ribs meat-side down, covered and smoked for 15 more minutes after which I was treated to this: I swapped position of the slabs again to make sure each slab got its fair share of time next to the coals, closed the lid and cooked for another 15 minutes, when I came back to find:  I then brushed each side the slabs with the sauce, and let it "candy up" on there for about 3 minutes per side. Here's what it looked like, but as is typical for me it had gotten dark. Dear Santa, please find it in your heart to furnish yours truly with a grilling light this holiday season. Here they are on the grill, lit by a crappy flashlight: And back inside under ample light, here's what my efforts had produced: I then let them set for 5 minutes, and sliced them into individual ribs: These ribs are incredibly tasty, and amazingly "light" for a chipotle laden pork fest. They are nothing like a true "bbq'd" rib, and are always a welcomed dinner for my wife and I even when I've forced days and days of powerful meat dinners onto the table. The sauce itself is very spicy when tasted alone, but on top of the ribs the pork's savory quality tones it down considerably. I always serve a bowl of sauce alongside, and usually about half the ribs get dunked in there throughout dinner. We served these with some grilled corn on the cob and more of those jalapeno cornbread muffins lori had in the freezer (those things freeze insanely well. Lori made them seven months ago and they tasted as if she made them that morning. Amazing!).

So, while I can't claim these entirely as my own, I've made these ribs so many times they feel like they are mine. They are a great option for a weekend warrior bbq, as they only take about  an hour and 30 to prepare, and will easily feed and please a crowd. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups pineapple juice
• 1 cup orange juice
• 3 tablespoons minced chipotle peppers in adobo (less if you don't like a lot of heat)
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• juice from two-three limes (about 1/3 cup)
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
• Kosher (or sea) salt & Fresh cracked pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons toasted & crushed coriander seeds (powder is fine if you don't want to deal with toasting & crushing)
• 3 slabs of baby back ribs (i used 2 slabs above, but you're making enough sauce for 3 slabs)

For the sauce:

Combine the pineapple, orange, chipotles, and cumin in a sauce pan. bring to boil, then simmer for 30-45 minutes uncovered to reduce volume by half. stir frequently. Let cool. Stir in lime juice and cilantro. Its ready!

For the Ribs:

Rinse the ribs and pat dry. Sprinkle generously with the coriander, kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. i like the pepper to be really coarse but thats a personal taste. let stand for 20 minutes or so as they come to room temperature

For the grill:

Get a fire going and stack coals to one side so you have plenty of room without coals under the grate. This method is indirect grilling, so you don't want the ribs over hot coals. I use a few rocks or bricks to keep the coals onto one side. You can adjust placement of the ribs and rotate throughout so occasionally they are over coals to get a little crispness to the exterior, but generally this is a slow cooking process.

Working in 15 minute increments, cook the ribs bone-side down on the side of the grill without coals, with the grill cover closed and a fully open vent over the ribs (1st 15 minutes), then swap position of the slabs to locate the slab farthest away from the coals to closest, and close the cover to cook more (2nd 15 minutes). Flip the ribs to meat-side down, close the cover and cook more (3rd 15 minutes), then swap position of the slabs to locate the slab farthest away from the coals to closest and close the cover to cook more (4th 15 minutes).

You know they are done when you can see a 1/2 inch or more of the bone as the meat has shrunk up. This usually takes an hour total, but it may take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half... just keep an eye on things throughout to confirm you aren't overcooking. Once you've hit that point of shrinkage, mop some of the sauce on the meat side, let it set on the grill for 2-3 minutes, do the same to the bone side, and you're done! Be careful with leaving the sauce on the ribs for too long on the grill though as there's a lot of sugar from the fruit juices which can burn easily.

Serve:

Cut 'em up into individual ribs, and serve with more sauce on the side for dipping. Goes great with corn on the cob, baked beans, corn bread, and an ice cold miller high life - the champagne of beers.