Ribs: 300 for 3, yes please!

Every so often, while browsing the meat aisle in the grocery store, a miracle happens; ribs go on sale. 

It is at this point I notice that my cart is already over-flowing and I've gone well past what I "told myself" I was going to spend.  But the chef in me kicks in and throws caution to the wind and I snag up those ribs and toss them on top of the pile.  I'll just close my eyes at the register.  But, they're on SALE I reaffirm myself with, so it's OK!  I get home, toss the receipt aside and put my ribs in the freezer.   Yeah, they're such an impulse buy that I don't have time to make them that night, and probably won't have time the next, or the next after that, so they are stashed in the basement freezer for another week.

The first time I did this, I really had no idea what I was doing.  Ribs.. right, you just cook them, don't you?  So I had slathered them in BBQ sauce and dropped them on a hot grill.  25 minutes later I had "ribs."  Yeah, they were edible, but they weren't mouth watering, finger licking good.  They were sub-par at best and kinda tough.

Every rib eater has their own style of ribs.  Some like 'em dry, some like 'em wet.  Some like 'em to fall off the bone, others want to play T-rex and rip 'em down.

I grew up in a house-hold where all pork was par-boiled first.  What does this mean?  Well, the pork chops were placed in a big pan, filled with water, covered and simmered for about an hour or so.  When they came out, they were shreddable.  Yum, right?  Yeah, well, I love my mom, she's a GREAT cook, but pork in our house, was a night of pure misery for my sister and me.  That's all we got on those chops, no flavor.  You got a spoonful of applesauce, while she delightfully covered hers in saurkrap (aka sauerkraut), I shudder today at the thought of saurkrap.  My sister and I went through almost a whole jar of applesauce to choke those chops down, and I can remember sitting at the table for hours trying to get the chops down with milk in my glass.  My mom's a great cook, but this is very German, and it's how her mother did it, and her mother before that.  Not.. my... style. 

So then, my next introduction to pork chops was actually through my husband, then boyfriend.  Fast forward to college, where he's cooking for himself.  He would skillet fry his, with salt and pepper and other things.  This would result in a tougher piece of pork, yet flavorful.  So, experimentation began once we were married and I have found a happy medium between these two methods for pork chops that allows them to tenderize but not shred, and also have a massive amount of flavor.  They key, is the CUT.  I tend to now purchase more dark meat pork than white and I've changed up my cooking methods.  But I digress, we're talking about ribs, not chops.  Chops is another blog for another time.

I like my ribs to be tender and fall off in pieces, but still be chewable enough you have to rip them from the bone.  Here's how I accomplish that.  Let's play.

Like any meat, you want ribs that have some fat on them.  That's what makes them juicy and keeps them that way.  So, select your rack, large or small, doesn't matter, the timing is all the same.

I like to give mine a nice rub down and let them marinate all day.  I use a dry rub.  I vary this rub from time to time and use store bought this or store bought that.  Emeril's line of seasonings make a good Southern style spice rub.  Right now I'm actually using a rib rub I purchased at an Amish Country Store in Branson, MO.  I like my rib rub spicy, and then I slather it in sweet BBQ, so your end result is a sweet lips and a zesty tongue.  So give your ribs a good rub (you did remember to defrost them in the fridge overnight, right?), massage those spices right in.  Get your hands dirty and rub that rub right into every crevice of those ribs.  Place on a plate and cover with plastic wrap.  Let them sit from morning until afternoon in the fridge.  Take them out 3 hours before you want to eat.  That's your cooking time.  Hey, I never said this was a quick one!

• Pre-heat your oven to just 300 degrees
• You're going to need a roasting pan, with a lid.  If you don't have a roaster with a lid, use a deep baking dish, and heavy duty tin foil that you can press on tight and seal really well, let no steam out.
• I prefer to lay my ribs on a rack inside the pan so they're not touching the bottom.  Not required.  So remove your ribs from the fridge and place them into your pan
• Cover, put into oven.  Set timer for 2.5 hours.  They're actually going to be in there for a full 3 hours, but 2.5 will remind you that you have to make sides and start finishing the rest of dinner.  If you're doing these not as dinner, then set for 3 hours.

Ok, now you wait and let the oven and rib rub work their magic.  Go make a cocktail, or have a beer.

When the ribs are done, take them out of the oven.  If you like them dry, let them sit for about 15 minutes for the juices to redistribute.  Slice them up, and serve.  If you used a spicy rub, oooohhh yum, look out!

If you like them wet, fire up your grill.  Get the grill going at about the same 300-350 degrees.  Grab your favorite BBQ sauce.  Put ribs down on grill top up, slather in your BBQ sauce.  Close the lid, let them sit 10-15 minutes.  Turn, slather with more sauce.  Let sit 10-15 minutes.  Turn, slather with more sauce, let sit 10 minutes.  Remove from grill.  Let them sit on your cutting board for another 10 minutes to let the juices redistribute.  Slice them up, and serve.

Hey, I NEVER said this was a quick recipe.  Yes, total cooking time is just about 4 hours from the time you put them into the oven to when you can put them on your plate.

And you know, I'm pretty sure if you opt out of the oven, you could put them in the slow cooker/crock pot on Low for 4 hours and they'd be just as good, for those of you who enjoy using your crock pot.  And no grill?  No problem, place them back in your pan, no lid and turn on the broiler on high.

AND, this recipe works for both PORK and BEEF ribs.  Beef ribs come out AMAZING this way.
My sides were peas and garlic/cheesy mashed potatoes.  Also good are home made steak fries.  Hmm.. yet another blog.

Got Dough? Make stromboli!

Tuesday night was pizza night in our house this past week.  I took dough out of the freezer, was all excited that I already had the necessary ingredients and was feeling ready to go.  It was 4:30, the dough should be defrosted by 6:30/7:00, this was great.  WRONG.  Pizza dough does not defrost in just 2 hours.  By the time Rob got home and we decided what to do, the dough balls were still frozen solid.  So the great husband that he is, he went to the grocery store and bought two fresh balls for pizza night.

This however, left me with 2 extra balls of dough and what to do with them....Didn't have time to do anything Wednesday night and who really wants pizza two nights in a row?  There was no time on Thursday, and Friday we went to the Topsfield Fair.  So there the balls of dough sat in my fridge exploding inside their bag they were rising so much.

Well, conveniently Saturday night, I had invited neighbors over for food and drinks, so it was time to play.  I've been craving an Italian Sub recently, so I thought an Italian cold cuts calzone or stromboli would fit the bill, just right.  But I've never actually made one.  Can't be too hard, roll up the meats, add some cheese, bake it, slice it.  Alright, let's play.

Ingredients: (makes 2)

• Mortadella - 1/2 pound sliced
• Salami - 1/2 pound sliced
• Hot Capicola - 1/2 pound sliced
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• Now, I opted for Mozzarella because it's the cheesiest and I like things to be ooey and gooey.  My husband also prefers this cheese.  If I were making this for just me, I would be using sliced of provolone, since that's what really goes into an Italian sub.
• And of course, dough, 2 balls

Let's Play:

• Preheat oven to 475 degrees, place rack in center
• Roll out the dough, using flour so it doesn't stick.  You want it in a rectangle shape.  I made mine probably 12" x 18" - didn't really measure it, just guessing.
• Once rolled out start with the mortadella, lay it out, one slice on the other the long way, use half of your stash
• Then layer on the salami, i do a double row so it's the same width as the mortadella
• Then layer on the capicola
• Top it with some mozzarella cheese.
• Fold the left and right sides of the dough in on top of the meat
• This will prevent the cheese from seeping out the sides.  It should all start to look like this:

 

• Start at the bottom and now roll it, like you would a swiss roll.
• Once rolled, place it on a cookie sheet, or a pizza pan, that you've lightly dusted with corn meal so it doesn't stick.
• Repeat this and make a 2nd one. (providing you purchased ingredients enough)
• Place them in the oven for 10 minutes.  At 10 minutes, watch them to make sure they're not burning too much.  Start to gauge whether you "think they are done" - and just cook them maybe 2 minutes longer if you don't believe it's cooked through.

Sauce:

• While the stromboli is cooking there for 10 minutes  you may find yourself bored, so make this quick dipping sauce for them.
• 4oz can of plain tomato sauce
• Dump into a small sauce pan
• Add to it - garlic salt, basil, oregano - be generous here, it's a  flavorful sauce so you want them to really come through. 
• Bring to simmer and let simmer for the 10 minutes.  Taste, if not flavorful enough, add more Basil and garlic salt.

Slice the stromboli with a serrated  knife, not pressing down too hard, let the knife do its cutting.
Put sauce in a bowl, place stromboli around the bowl on your plate.
This makes a great appetizer for a party, it even makes a good meal if it's just 4 of you.

Peking Ravioli Cravings

So, last week was my sister's birthday.  Happy Birthday 'lil 'sis!  We celebrated at my parents' house yesterday.  Tradition states you get whatever you want for dinner.  She chose Lasagna.  My mom makes THE BEST.  I've played around with her recipe, I've made her recipe exact, I still can't duplicate it.  I make a mean lasagna, but hers wins hands down every time. 

Anyhow, 'sis asked for appetizers, etc.  That was my job.  I never know what I'm going to make until I start at the grocery store.  I was planing on making some kind of Italian sausage dumpling/pot sticker.  I made these spinach/garlic/mushroom ones once that were to die for and now that I know how to use Wonton Wrappers, I think that everything... let me repeat,  EVERYTHING should be wrapped in wonton and fried/sauteed/steamed in them.  But as I walked around the store I remembered the Lean Cuisine commercials I've seen lately, they make a Peking ravioli.  And I've been craving Peking Ravioli.  So I thought to myself... "self, you can do that!"  So I whipped out the iPhone did a quick Google search, looked at one recipe to find out what kind of meat went in Peking ravioli, and what spices.  Retrieved said ingredients and went to my parents' house and proceeded to cook, from memory of aforementioned" recipe".  Partly becauseI couldn't find it again, and partly because it's more challenging and fun to just toss things into a pan!
 

The ingredients are basic enough, I know what it's supposed to taste like, I'm just going to toss stuff in and play.

Ingredients:

• 1lb of ground pork (PORK!  Who knew!  I had no idea that Peking ravioli was pork)
• Sesame Oil
• Soy Sauce
• Fresh Ginger root (get the tiniest piece you can find, mine cost just 3cents!  if you can't get a little one, it DOES freeze)
• Fresh Garlic, 1 clove
• Scallions (fresh, not dried)
• 1 package of Wonton Wrappers - found in the cold aisle near the veggies, usually near bagged salad and sprouts

Now before I continue, I should state, that this isn't going to be REAL Peking Ravioli like what you get if you were to order Chinese food, but it's a damn fine substitute!  Also, these can be done 2 ways, I'll give you exactly how I made them yesterday, and then give you the slightly longer and more delicate way of how they probably should have been done as options at the end.

Steps:

• Making the Meat
• About 1/4 cup of scallions, finely chopped across the board
• 1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped into a fine "mush" so you have approx. 1T
•  1 piece of ginger, the diameter of a quarter and at a 1 centimeter thickness, sliced, smashed and chopped into a fine "mush" so you also have about 1-2T
• Non-Stick frying pan, large enough for your ground pork.
• Drizzle generously with the sesame oil, this isn't for non-stick purposes, it's for flavor infusing
• Drizzle even more generously with soy sauce
• combined, if you NEED to measure, you want the soy sauce AND sesame oil to both add up together to about 1/4 cup
• Add the pork, add the scallions, add the ginger, add the garlic
• Take a wooden spoon and start mashing and stirring all ingredients together
• Turn on Med-High Heat and fry up until cooked through, remove from heat and put aside so it can cool enough that your fingers can touch the meat without burning you.
• Making the Ravioli
• You need a small bowl of water to wet your finger with for the wontons
• Now, some might call these pot-stickers, some might call them dumplings, others ravioli.  Whatever you want to call them, they were yummy and this recipe worked.
• Prep a cookie sheet by spraying it with cooking spray, this is just an area where you can put your prepped ravioli before cooking them. The spray prevents them from sticking.
• Lay out your wontons.  I do 6 at a time.
• Put small amount of meat mixture in the center of the wonton.  Not so little that you hardly have any meat, but also not too much that you can't close and seal it.  It'll take you a couple to get the right amount and then you'll start cruising through them.
• Wet your finger and moisten 1/2 the border of the wonton.  If it's a square (usually is) then moisten just 2 sides of it, finger width. 
• Fold over the dry side onto the wet and press them together really well to seal them up
• You can leave them like this in the triangle shape or you can fold the corners back or around, or whatever.  I fold the corners back to make it look like a house with flaps.
• Anyhow, work through and finish off the pack, or the pork, whichever comes first.
• Pan Frying:
• Non-stick pan - generous drizzle of sesame oil - heat up nice and hot
• Start placing your ravioli into the pan one at a time and fill the pan, but don't fill it so much that they can't breathe and you can't get a spatula in there, you need to be able to turn them
• This is going to be a look and feel thing, you need to keep watching them.  Let them saute in the pan until golden brown on both sides.
• Once golden brown, take them out and put aside, do another batch, and repeat until they're all cooked.
• Sauce:
• I did not make my own sauce.  Next time.  
• The "Ethnic Foods" aisle actually had a "pot sticker dipping sauce" so I grabbd that.  Otherwise, I believe that Soy Sauce, Scallions, Hoison Sauce and Dark Rice Vinegar in some combo make up this sauce.  
• I did however quickly chop a few scallions and toss them into the store bought sauce.
• Put everything on a plate and serve.  Be sure you put a few aside for yourself, because as soon as you drop them to the table, they're going to disappear!!

Optional Cooking Method:
I pan fried mine because I wanted them quick, and I wanted to make sure this first time around that the pork was definitely cooked through.

• Option 1:  Rather than fry up the ground pork, put it in a bowl and mix the ingredients in like you would for meatloaf or meatballs.  Place raw meat onto wrappers and seal up.  When you seal the wontons for these, make sure there are no holes or tears, or I believe this doesn't work.  Boil water.  Drop them into the boiling water and let cook.  When they're done and cooked through, THEN pan fry them for color.
• Option 2:  Prep the raw meat the same way as option 1, but rather than boil, prep a double boiler and steam them.  Once cooked through via steam, THEN pan fry them for color.