Monday, July 21, 2008

Help Me Out Here!

So, more summer fun! It's time for Barbecue. I have been doing a bit in the yard now that we finally have stretches of perfect summer weather. I've been doing Maigret de Canard quite a bit for guests and last week we had a big dinner for a few other couples and made many brochettes on skewers. I have a lot of Jamaican Jerk seasoning and marinated chicken and also did tandoori Indian chicken brochettes. We had an assortment of merguez and pork with prunes....They are great because they cook fast and if you have a lots of side dishes, there really isn't any pressure on the chef.
On Sunday night, I tried to do traditional American style barbecue ribs. Here in France, American style barbecue sauce is considered an exotic inported speciality mystery ingredient. I have never seen it in a store.
So, I made my own. I started with a cup or so of ketchup. I jazzed that up with Worchester Sauce and a minced garlic. I used a good dollop of commercial caramel and some soy sauce. I tasted the results and thought it was in the right direction, but tame, so I added a few drops of my most lethal hot sauce: The very deadly Dave's Insanity Sauce. I tasted it and it made my nose run! This was a good sign......
So, I took my ribs...travers de porc in France and precooked them by boiling them in a pot with peppercorns, chopped up fresh bay leaves, fresh fennel and dill.
When I was ready to cook them, I fired up the grill and cooked them slowly with the sauce glaze and I have to admit that they were pretty good. We had them with sweet corn on the cob.
I need some guidance, though. My precooking comes from my years in the restaurant business. That's the way we did ribs at a big place in Toledo I was head chef at. We put the ribs in a big pot and dumped in a box of McCormicks Pickling Spice Mix. The ribs were always moist and tender and the only thing you worried about was the perfect glaze.
If you have any ideas about barbecuing ribs, let me know. I also would like any recipe regarding American style barbecue sauce. I cannot go to the Kroger and get a bottle of Hunts.........
I will keep y'all informed of my research and progress!
Thank you!!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

microdot:

I don't suppose you can get the Food Network in France.

Anyway, I do not precook ribs. In fact, I believe precooking ribs to be an abomination against God.

If we do them Chinese style, we marinate them and I dunk them back in th emarinade every time I turn them.

What you really need is a smoker. Google Ugly Drum Smoker for one--I only watched about 3 minutes of the video and the guy seemed to know what he was about even though I think he was hung over.

Anyway two chambered smokers are good and you can work wonders w/ a 55 gallon drum.

Slow smoke and you only use the sauce for dipping.

Anyway, my family spends most of the summer in the PRC and b/c I was left to my own devices, I became addicted to The Food Network or at least some of its programs. "Iron Chef" and later, "Iron Chef America" anything w/ Bobby Flay, but "Good Eats" w/ Alton Brown most of all. Alton Brown is a nerdy guy from near Atlanta who describes the basic science behind what goes on w/ cooking various things or more or less everything b/c the a zillion "Good Eats."

I used to e-mail the fam and describe in intricate detail the gourmet meals I was preparing in their absence. When my younger daughter Grace returned, she thought an intervention might be necessary. Don't worry. I managed to avoisd a 12 step program.

Go to www.foodnetwork.com.

When you do a search for whatever, put "good eats" into the box.

Alton Brown is a great fan of brining to enderize pork and turkeys. It works. Try his brine recipe on a pork belly.

Anyway, "Good Eats is available of DVD if you so choose.

Au revoir et "Bon Manger."

Regards.

The Loop Garoo Kid

microdot said...

Zank you very much, Monsieur Loop!
I learned the precooking technique working in restaurants but I would like to get away from it.
I would like to get into smoking pork. I have a big fireplace. In my old house there were shelves built into the chimney that obviously had been used at one time for smoking.

I have a very dangerous book, The Art Of Charcuterie by the late Jane Grigson.

Anonymous said...

Jack Carr's Barbecue Sauce

1 cup chopped onions
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups ketchup
1 cup chili sauce
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups light brown sugar
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons dry mustard
4 cloves fresh garlic – chopped
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste

Directions:
In a large pt, sauté the onions in the vegetable oil until golden brown.

Add in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning, cool and store in glass jar in refrigerator.

This sauce will keep for months and it also freezes well.
__________________________________

What's this stuff,,,

Some barbeque sauce, it's supposed to be good for you,,,

I'm not gonna try it,,,

Let's get Microdot,,,,

Yeah,,,,

He won't try it, he hates everything,,,,,

He likes it,,,,,,Hey Microdot

I scabbed this from a local tv station. Maybe it could be of use.

P

microdot said...

Thank you Mr. Politeness, perhaps that's my problem, I do like everything!
This looks pretty good!