Saturday, July 28, 2012

faithless blogger

Well..
Haven't been a very faithful blogger have I?
I have had much peace. Not everything has gone the way I imagined,
But, almost everything is very nice.
The herbs have had to fight the near primitive
Conditions here, whenever my back is turned, the
weeds gain ground. It will be a few years before
I can have the beds I had before.
However, I baked oatmeal cookies today, cooked nice meal for my husband,
worked on my new kitchen chalkboard.
We just came in the from watching
the sunset, something we never got to do in town.
I love the sunsets....

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Prize Winning Ribs

This is for you Doc, thanks for helping me feel better today.

for the dry rub:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsps paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 TB kosher salt
1 tsp instant expresso powder (or any instant dark coffee)
1/4 tsp all spice
1 tsp chipotle powder (or your favorite dried ground-up hot pepper)
2 slabs of pork baby back ribs (3 to 3 1/2 pounds)

for the braising liquid
1 cup of sparkling white wine (prosecco is good. but I use Guiness stout sometimes)
2 TB apple cider vinegar
2 TB Worcestershire sauce
1 TB honey

Preheat oven to 250 degrees
Add all dry rub ingredients to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until ingredients are comined. Rub mixture evenly all over each rack of ribs, making sure to coat top and bottom. (sometimes I leave them overnight in the fridge) Place ribs, single layer on a rimmed baking sheet or in a roasting pan and let sit, covered, in the fridge for one hour.
Remove ribs from fridge, pour braising liquid over them, wrap very tightly with heavy aluminum foil and place in oven, side by side if possible. Cook for 2 1/2 hours.
Remove pans from oven, discard foil and pour or spoon the braising liquid into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce to a vigorous simmer and let cook until liquid reduces by half, 20 to 30 minutes.
(at this point, I discard the liquid and use Jack Daniel's barbeque sauce to baste the ribs. I use at least half the bottle. But, if you want to use the braising liquid instead, it makes a lighter sauce. I say, just use whatever barbeque sauce you like!)
Preheat the broiler, brush the glaze, or whatever sauce, over each rack of ribs. Place the ribs under the broiler until the glaze until it begins to carmelize, one to two minutes. (watch very carefully, or all your hard work will be spoiled by burned ribs!) Slice and serve after resting a few minutes. They will be falling off the bone...
What to drink? Well...any dark beer would do!
I like to serve jalapeno poppers and spicy sweet potato fries with them. (cilantro, sour cream dipping sauce is also good with the fries! But, that is another recipe that I will post later)
Enjoy!
If you do them on a pit, just make sure to temp the coals. It's important to cook them very slow! Ribs are ruined if they are rushed.