Author: -N-

Smokin! – ii

Yesterday’s dinner was a raging success!  We smoked the ribs for about 8 hours.  About half way in, the coals were burnt down, and needed replenishing.  More hickory chips were added at this point, and the water pan refilled.  We took this time to move the upper rack of ribs to the lower position, and the lower to the upper.  Mopping continued.  While continuing to smoke, biscuits and honey butter were made, the salad created and a complementary vinaigrette.  The beans continued to cook in a very slow oven until it came time to up the heat for the biscuits.

Baked Beans
1 lb. small white beans or navy beans
2/3 c. maple syrup, dark amber
1 onion, diced fine
6 strips thick cut bacon, chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 T. brown sugar
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1/4 c. ketchup
pinch salt
water

Soak beans overnight. Rinse, pick through. Put into ovenproof Dutch oven with lid, Add all the rest of the ingredients, and enough water to cover the beans by about an inch. Mix it all together. Place in oven, bake at 350 for about 4 hours. Check periodically to ensure adequate liquid in pot to prevent burning. Drop temperature to 300 to continue cooking, or to keep warm until dinner time (if you don’t need the oven for something else!). Beans should be firm, but tender. You can also cook them ahead of time, and warm them up on the stove top.

Honey Butter

1/2 lb. sweet butter
1/4 c. honey
pinch sweet cinnamon
1/4 t. vanilla

Let butter come to room temperature. Beat in other ingredients until well blended. Butter will be rather soft. Return to refrigerator to chill. Serve on biscuits, or use on toast, or whatever needs it.

Subtle use of the cinnamon and vanilla will enhance the delicacy of the honey – I used orange blossom from a local farmer – too much will overwhelm the honey.

Buttermilk Biscuits

3 c. flour (I used King Arthur unbleached white)
1/2 lb (2 sticks) cold, sweet butter
2 T. baking powder
2 T. sugar
1 1/2 c. buttermilk
pinch salt
gourmet sea salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 F. Line large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combine pinch salt, sugar, powder and flour together in a large bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Pour in buttermilk, stir together briefly with fork until liquid incorporated. Turn out onto floured board and knead 10 times until smooth. Roll out to about 1/2-3/4 inch in height. Cut biscuits with 2-3″ cutter, or use a tumbler dipped in flour. Be efficient in cutting your biscuits to get the most use out of dough. Reshape leftover dough into ball, roll out again, and cut more biscuits. Repeat as necessary.

Place biscuits on cookie sheet. Brush milk or cream onto tops. If you want, sprinkle gourmet sea salt on top of biscuits – this is a nice counterpoint in taste to the honey butter.

Bake 12-15 minutes; cool on wire rack, or place in towel-lined bowl and bring to table for serving. Yield – 12-15 biscuits, depending on thickness of rolled dough.

Altogether, it took a couple of days to put this meal together, but the actual labor was not a lot.

Beans are easiest to soak overnight, but you can also do a quick soak method by cooking them about an hour before baking them. I cooked them Friday night for a few hours, and then finished them off on Saturday.

Our baby back ribs were frozen, so we took them out of the freezer, still wrapped, to defrost, and on the morning before smoking began, we put the rub on them. That was on Friday morning for the Saturday morning smoking. We started smoking around 9, and ended at 5 that evening.

Biscuits and honey butter took very little time. I made the honey butter a few hours before dinner so it could chill and become a bit more solid before dinner. The biscuits I started about an hour before serving, as prep time needed to be considered. I use a pastry cutter for the cutting, or sometimes just my fingers, rubbing the chilly butter into the flour.  

We had leftovers – some biscuits, honey butter, some beans, and some ribs. More than enough for us four, but if you have voracious eaters, consider upping the amounts.  Home brew (from another brew day) was enjoyed before, during, and after dinner.

Oh, forgot to add – we had root beer floats for dessert (but I would have preferred a black cow myself!).

Smokin! – i

Today is “supposed” to be up near 80 F.  Doesn’t feel like it will.  Windy, damp, cold; the house is 64 F.  Despite that, we are busy today, brewing beer and smoking baby back ribs for tonight’s guests.  (We invited ourselves, too.)  Menu is smoked baby back ribs, home made maple syrup baked beans, salad, and buttermilk biscuits.

Yesterday morning we mixed together a rub – about 2 cupsworth.  Today is smoking day.  And time enough to make the barbecue sauce and the mop.

Baby Back Ribs

For 4 people we have 8.5 pounds of ribs.  About 2.5 – 3.0 lbs. is usually good for the average person.

Rub

1/2 – 3/4 c. paprkia
2-4 T. fresh ground black pepper
1 t. salt (more or less to taste)
2-4 T. white sugar
2 T. dried chili powder
2-4 T. garlic powder
2-4 T. onion powder
1-2 t. cayenne

Rub thawed ribs with about half of total mixture. Let sit overnight in refrigerator. Pull out before setting up smoker and add more rub to both sides of ribs and sit at room temperature.

Set up smoker as required. We use a water smoker with briquets. Soaked hickory chips are sprinkled over the briquets prior to setting on water pan and positioning ribs in smoker. Two levels of ribs are set up in the smoker. Only the top one is going to have the mop placed on it. Anticipated cooking time is 6-8 hours, with a bit of time spent checking coals, chips, and water levels, along with mopping the ribs and flipping them over.

Mop

1/3 c. canola oil
2 c. apple cider vinegar
1 c. water
3 T. ground black pepper
2 T. paprika
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. aleppo pepper flakes

Place all ingredients into pan; warm up. Use to mop ribs every 1-2 hours, mopping both sides.

I keep this on the stove top, and warm it a bit with each application.

Mustard BBQ Sauce

1 6-oz. jar of Grey Poupon Country Dijon Mustard
1/3 c. water
3/4 small can tomato paste
2 T. aleppo pepper flakes
1 t. fresh black pepper
1 c. white vinegar
1 small onion, diced fine
2 T. garlic powder
1/4 c. agave syrup
1/4 c. brown sugar
pinch salt

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan; bring to simmer on medium heat. Once simmering, drop to very low flame, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens. Adjust seasoning. Refrigerate until ready for use; warm just before serving. Or, you may bring sauce to room temperature by removing from refrigerator about an hour before serving.

You may like a more vinegary sauce – if you do, decrease the sugar. I added sugar to the original sauce because the bite of the vinegar was pretty sharp.

Dilemma

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears
Night and morning with my tears,
And I sunned it with smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright,
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine – 

And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning, glad, I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

 –William Blake

Toward the Horizon

The past work year has been very high stress because of the people involved.  I don’t handle stress well from a physical perspective.  I internalize everything, and the result is a chronically upset stomach and labile hypertension.  The fact that I could work 20 hours a day and still be behind does not help.  This makes me feel guilty.  And that just kicks off another cycle of stress and anxiety.  Other people’s horrific behavior doesn’t help.  Needless to say, all of this is wreaking havoc.

This morning some newspaper had an article about the fact the brain is hardwired to look toward the future, giving us a sense of hope and belief that things will be better.  Optimists do not tend to die from illnesses which kill the pessimist.  (That was good news!)  All my life, I have been an optimist, much to the disgust of some people.  I do not see black where others might – I’ll see a shade of grey.  This is the key to my survival.

The other day, a very close friend read me the riot act about how I should not let all these things affect me.  It really pissed me off!  And the truth, is I know I should not, but the fact is, it is impossible to not be affected by it.  For some people, it is easy to let things go.  Not me.  I chew things over, mull, stew, intellectualize, think about my feelings, feel my thoughts.  That is my process.  It is slow and tedious, but it works.  I’m still here.

Nonetheless, the proverbial kick in the ass was a catalyst.  You see, I respect this person’s perspectives.  In my mind, I know I should not let these people upset me so much, but in my heart, they do.  I have been drowning in this mess, and now it is time to swim toward shore.

Visually, I love pictures with paths.  Paths down to the beach.  Paths leading to a corner.  Paths leading up a hill.  Paths lead places, and what awaits around the corner is always exciting and new.  Yeah, you may not like it when you get there, but c’est la vie.  The key is knowing that if a path leads in, a path leads out.

So, I’ve reminded myself of that one fact.  I’m trudging up a path, away from where I am now, and heading in a new direction.  I’m short of breath and winded, but not dead.  My mind still functions, my emotions are intact.  I’m still an optimist, still looking for a new adventure, even if a bit nervous about it.  I may not be able to control the external events, but the internal ones I can rein in, and remember this as I head toward another horizon.

A Dish of Ice Cream

Brrr!  We have had a wet spring here in California, but summer is coming along.  The hills are filled with wild grasses and flowers, clouds roll by, the wind is alternately chilly and warm.

And what more traditional way to greet summer’s approach than with home made ice cream?  Our first ice cream of the season, this year, is coffee.

Give yourself a couple of days to make this.  The first day is to set up the ice cream custard.  We have a Krups ice cream machine, which has a freezer bowl that needs 24 hours before it can be used in the machine.  Our Krups ice cream machine makes a quart at a time.  Of course, your methods may be different than mine!

I cobbled this together from different recipes, but you can do whatever you like!

Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients

3/4 c. sugar
3 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
3 c. half-and-half
1/2 c. strong coffee
2 T. finely ground coffee

Technique

Beat together in a bowl the eggs and sugar. Beat for 5 minutes. The eggs become light and airy with a pale lemon color. Set aside.

Heat the half-and-half in a 2 quart pan until it is very hot – watch it carefully to avoid scorching. Stir as needed. Turn off heat and set on another burner.

After liquid is very hot, take 1 c. of the hot liquid and rapidly beat it into the egg-sugar mixture. Now take the liquid-egg-sugar mixture and return to remainder of half-and-half. Turn heat back on, to medium low. Stir constantly. Because so much air is incorporated into the eggs and sugar, this liquid will have a quality lighter in texture than a standard egg custard. Continue stirring, occasionally lifting spoon from mixture and allowing some to roll over the back of the spoon. It will have a light coat to it when it is ready. Be careful not to let custard bubble up and boil over.

When custard has cooked (took about 10 minutes), it will still be rather thin. Turn off heat, pour in the coffee and finely ground coffee. Place in container to be refrigerated overnight. Place plastic wrap directly onto surface of coffee custard to prevent skin formation.

Freezing

Stir chilled coffee custard.  Make in ice cream maker per manufacturer’s directions.  Add more ground coffee or other solids during the last 2-3 minutes of the freezing cycle.  Remove from machine, place in airtight container in the freezer for at least two hours before serving.  Eat plain, or with a chocolate cookie!