Barbeque

For all of you whol live in regions with four seasons now it is Spring time and that means get your grill out and start barbecuing 

Here is my recipe for killer baby back ribs.  It looks like alot but it is actually very simple, there are different steps, that's all.



Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
Baby back pork ribs, membrane removed 5.5 lbs

Rib rub (recipe follows) To coat ribs

Cider marinade To cover ribs

BBQ sauce (recipe follows) To coat ribs

BBQ mop (recipe follows) To coat ribs

Watered down Dijon or whole grain mustard To brush on ribs

Rib rub

Salt ¾ cup

Ground black pepper ¾ cup

Paprika, sweet ¾ cup

Garlic powder 1/8 cup

Cayenne pepper 3 T

Chili powder Pinch

Mix all ingredients together and set aside until ready for use.

Cider marinade

Apple cider vinegar 1.5 Cups

Olive oil 1.9 Cups

Fresh thyme, picked 2 sprigs

Garlic, chopped fine 5 cloves

Rosemary, chopped 1 sprig, large

Salt to taste

Fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients, set aside. Keep this marinade only as long as you would keep raw pork.

BBQ sauce

Ketchup 1 bottle

Smoked Tabasco (regular Tabasco is fine) dash

Worcestershire dash

White vinegar 4 T

Red vinegar 4 T

Dijon mustard 1 T

Brown sugar 3 T

Tomato juice ¼ C

Cayenne pepper dash

Honey- use a heated metal spoon 1 tsp

Garlic powder dash

Salt to taste

Fresh cracked black pepper to taste


Basic Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a S/S pot and bring to a boil.

Simmer for @ 1hr. Taste.

NOTE: While some of the ingredients may be in small quantity please remember that adjusting the quantities even slightly will change the flavor considerably.


BBQ Mop

2 parts BBQ sauce

1 part water, beer or other liquid

To complete:

-If smoking the ribs: Smoke the ribs at about 275F for two-two and a half hours

-Marinate the smoked or non-smoked ribs in the cider vinegar marinade for 90 minutes (this step can be omitted if desired)

-Remove the ribs from the marinade, brush with the mustard just to barely coat the outside of the ribs

-Sprinkle the ribs completely with spice rub

-Place the ribs on a grill with high heat, constantly basting with the mop and cook until the ribs have a nice grilled color and heated thoroughly

-If the ribs are not smoked than you will need to cook them longer to make sure they are done

Gnocchi

All,
Here is one of my favorite Italian things to eat: gnocchi.

For those of you who don't know, gnocchi are basically little potato dumplings.  They are incredibly easy to make and work with a number of different sauces and garnishes. 

Please note that while the recipe looks long, I always write recipes in bullet point form and I also like to write things out as simply as possible so it is easier for those who are not culinarily inclined.

Happy cooking



Gnocchi

Serves 4



Ingredients                                  Amount

Idaho potato                               1 ea

Whole egg                                  1 ea

Flour                                          @ ¾ cup....enought to make a dough not sticky

Salt and pepper                          to taste


Procedure:

-Preheat oven to 350F

-Wrap the potato in foil and bake for an hour or until tender

-Make sure you have a clean and dry counter with @ 3 feet of space to work on. A wooden counter is ideal but not a requirement

-While the potato is baking, put approximately 1 gallon of water on high heat to boil

-Place a food mill in a mixing bowl large enough to hold the food mill

-Once the potato is cooked, remove the foil, place a folded towel in your hand and peel the potato using a small knife and your thumb. If you are careful you will not burn your thumb.

-Slice the potato up and place in the food mill

NOTE: This must be made right after the potato comes out of the oven, don't let the potato cool

-Pass the potato through the food mill and mix in the egg and seasoning

-Place some flour on your work surface and add the potato-egg mixture, more flour and seasoning.

-Mix everything together as if you were kneading bread until all ingredients are incorporated.

-Add more flour if necessary. You want the dough to be moist but not sticky

-Tear off a piece of the dough and cook it in boiling water until it floats and taste it. Adjust seasoning as necessary

-Take some of the dough and roll out the dough back and forth with the palm of your hands until it is the thickness of a thick cigar. Don't press down, let the motion of your hands form it

-Get a bowl of ice water ready that is large enough to accomodate a strainer or colander

-Cut the dough into pieces about and inch or two wide using a dry knife or dough cutter

-Put the dough pieces in the boiling water and cook until they are floating

-Remove them with a strainer and place in the ice water, repeat the process with remaining dough

-Remove the gnocchi from the ice water once cooled, drain and toss with a little olive oil so they don't stick. Keep in the refrigerator until ready for use.


To serve:

Either drop the gnocchi in boiling water or saute in a non-stick pan, finishing in the oven until hot and serve with your choice of sauce:



Here are some suggestions of what to serve with gnocchi

-Tomato sauce topped with ricotta and parmesan

-Parmesan cream sauce

-Cream sauce with gorgonzola

-Sauteed mushrooms, roasted garlic, smoked bacon and demi glace

-Use as a garnish to top beef, lamb or chicken stew

-Toss with any type of pesto

-Spicy tomato sauce with roasted peppers, caramelized onions and herbs

-Mushroom cream sauce with herbs

A Killer Thai soup broth

All
Here is a recipe I learned from one of my former Thai chefs.  This makes one of the best broths I have ever tasted. 

Thai soup stock


Ingredients                                                     Amount

Chicken bones                                              2 lbs

Cold water                                                   To cover chicken

Chinese five spice                                       1 Tablespoon

Leeks, washed and sliced                            ½ leek

Onions, peeled and sliced                            ½ small onion

Coriander seeds                                           pinch

Fresh garlic cloves                                       4 ea

Black peppercorns                                       8 cloves

Salt to                                                          taste

Palm sugar (honey subsitute)                         2 T

Powdered cinnamon                                     pinch

Whole star anise                                           4 ea

Oyster sauce                                                ¼ cup

Soy sauce                                                    ¼ cup



Procedure:

-Place all ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for one hour.

-Strain through a mesh strainer or cheesecloth

Variations:

-Poach chicken breasts in the stock and slice and serve in the soup

-Add cooked vegetables, lime, basil, bean sprouts and hot sauce for an Asian style soup

-Replace chicken with vegetables, beef, fish, shrimp, or other poultry

When to spend and when not to spend

All

Many times I see or hear of people spending money on top quality products but using them when the difference in the money spent will not be noticeable.

Depending on what you are doing with your products, you don't need to use the most expensive ingredients.  Spend your money wisely. It is true you can't make great food with inferior products but that doesn't mean you need to use a $35 bottle of olive oil when sauteeing beef for your stew.

I follow this general rule: I spend the money and use the best products when I am not cooking those products. Heating or cooking food products alters the flavor. Think sushi. If you want to make a tuna salad sandwich you don't need to spend the money to buy an expensive, sushi-grade tuna because you will be cooking the tuna completely. If you are making sushi, naturally the tuna will be raw so you want the buy the best quality tuna you can find because you will be able to taste it.

Here are some examples. If you are going to dress a salad, then use the best olive oil, vinegar and salt you can find because you are pouring those products right out of the bottle or container and consuming them.
Anytime you are making a liquid based dish such as a soup, sauce, stew or seasoning water for cooking food, then don't use the best, most expensive seasonings because you won't be able to taste the difference in those contexts anyway. 

Top quality food products like sea salt, oils, vinegars and mustards, just to name a few, can be expensive but remember a little goes a long way and they are not products you would most likely be using everday so keep them and use them when it counts.

The best Indian food

If you want to try the best food in any country, you don't do it by eating in five star hotels.  You need to have a native take you out and get some street food.  India is no different except you need to be a little more careful if you are not from there.  You don't want to go and just start eating street food everyday.  Try it a little at a time; your stomach needs to get used to it.

I used to work with a woman when I was in Bombay, and for the previous three years she was working in Singapore.  Well after a week of not seeing her, I asked her boss where she was. 
"Oh Thelma has a bad stomach problem." Her boss said.
It turns out that Thelma had been craving that Indian street food while she was living abroad and upon returning to Bombay, she just started eating it everyday. 

Within my first few months one of my new Indian friends invited me over for dinner.  He said, "Curt I will show you real Indian food." Being a chef I was naturally excited.  One thing that always drove me up a wall is when someone bastardizes food.

It was about 7 p.m. and as we turned onto the road that his apartment was on, a wonderful (sarcasm there) smell of sewage just penetrated the car.  For those of you who don't know, Bombay has open sewer lines that one would think is a stream or creek but it is not. Plus you have people living in makeshift shacks on the side of the road who just throw their trash anywhere and as you are driving down the road, one minute everything smells rosey and the next it just smells like toilet.

We parked on the side of the road and saw this little makeshit food stand.  There was a grill, deep fryer, couple other pieces of equipment that looked more like the guy went to the junkyard and grabbed scraps of metal and threw together this alleged "kitchen." If you have ever seen any of the Mad Max movies, do you remember how those cars looked?  Ok, imagine a kitchen version of that.

The guy cooking looked drastically malnourished, which is unusual for a cook, unless you are a cook in "The Empty Plate," the anorexics restaurant.  Sorry, I had to borrow that line from George Carlin.
Ok, back to the story.  The dude has this filthy, grease stained shirt, some scrawny, mangy looking cat was walking around the wooden counter where the cook was working and some other guy was standing there.  Maybe that other guy was the sous chef. LOL.
As I walked by all I could think was, "what Health Department?"

We approached the front door of the apartment building, rang the buzzer and our friend let us in. They are very nice people and the first few times we hung out, I could never understand why his wife would give me a puzzled look at times.  I later found out that I spoke too fast for her at times (which I have been told before) and she wouldn't be able to understand me.  I told them I would bring one of those Universal translators from Star Trek next time.

We started the night with an Indian cocktail called Feni, a cashew vodka.  My friend told me to just try it straight first, then we will give you the mixer. As I brought the glass to my face I thought I was going to faint from the smell.  It was a cross between urine and rancid peanuts.  "Holy shit, you drink this?" I asked.
"Of course. Curt, now add the mixer to it."
I did and tried it again and in all fairness, it was a little better but now it tasted like urine and rancid peanuts crossed with a Long Island iced tea.
"Dude, I will just stick to my vodka," I told him. I wanted to get some bleach and wash the taste of that shit out of my mouth. Even a couple hours later the taste of that stuff was just hanging around like some psycho ex-girlfriend that can't admit it is over.

There was a knock at the door and it was a delivery man.  Adrian (my friend) brought this paper bag to the table and pulled out a bunch of packages wrapped in newspaper.
"What is that?" I asked.
"Dinner."
There were about four different things.  There was a Kathi roll, which would kind of be like the equivalent to an Indian version of a burrito. (Very good.) There were fried cow's utters, samosas and something else I don't remember. The biggest surprise was the cow's utters; great flavor but strange texture. Imagine cutting the finger off a pair of dishwashing gloves and putting it betwen your teeth, rubbing it back and forth.  That is what it was like.  The samosas were ok and the other thing was not memorable.

"Where did you get this stuff, it is killer dude?" I asked.
"From that stand on the street."
At that moment I kind of froze and thought of that mangy cat and anorexic, dirty cook making my food.
I thought, "am I going to end up in the hospital?"
"Are you serious?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Wait, you mean we just ate food from the WHO stand outside your place?"
"Yes."
"I would have never guessed" I said.

So there you have it. Between a urine smelling and tasting drink to food made by "Mr. sanitary" I had my first experience with real, authentic Indian street food.  I was a bit worried after eating it, but then again, isn't the whole point of travelling to experience the culture?

An easy, quick way to spice up any sandwich

Go to your grocery store and get a can of chiptole peppers.  They will come in a kind of sauce.

Take a pepper out, remove the seeds and chop it fine.  Mix it with equal part of mayonnaise and use that on a sandwich.  Trust me it is killer.

Some fine chopped chiptole peppers are also great in chili con carne

Why America is soo fat?

I put a question mark at the end of the title because I feel I only have part of the answer.  I would like to do some thorough research and get some figures and statistics for you all in a future blog.

I have lived in seven countries, including the United States and travelled to many more.  I have found that while living abroad and coming back to the U.S. for a visit, I always ate like a pig.  I would eat even when I wasn't hungry.  I never understood why until I returned to the U.S. last year.

I know part of it is because there is a lot of food you can get in the U.S. that you can't get or is very limited overseas so whenever I would return to America for a visit I would eat everything I couldn't eat abroad.  For one thing, Mexican food is virtually non-existent in the countries I have been overseas.  I don't understand it really; everyone likes rice, tortillas, tacos and burritos but for some reason that cuisine just doesn't work. Italian food works in every country.

A sandwich overseas just doesn't compare to what is available here in the U.S.  Go to Katz's deli in New York and you will see what I mean.    There used to be a place in Washington D.C. on M street that had killer steak and cheese sandwiches and I would always make that one of my first stops when I visited D.C.

One of the most noticeable things about living abroad is there is less processed food available.  You can find potato chips, sodas, frozen food and other convenience items but it is nothing compared to here.  Christ man, you go down the snack food aisle at any grocery store in America and the selection takes up an entire aisle. 

Overseas you may have three to four flavors of potato chips but here.....Holy Shit! Ranch flavored, BBQ, Cajun spiced, sour cream and onion, mesquite smoked, jalapeno, black pepper, baked, oh and of course, regular flaovred.  Did I leave any flavors out?  Then there are different cuts of potato chips too.  Thick, crinkle cut, thin, shoestring cut, etc. That is just potato chips I am talking about. I haven't even gotten into the countless varieties of cereals, frozen dinners, granola bars, candy, etc.

I have also noticed that some companies change the flavor of their product to suit different tastes in different countries.  Mountain Dew is my favorite soft drink but in every country I have been it tastes like medicine so I never drank it abroad.  Coca Cola seems to be the most consistent, however in the Maldives it tastes funny.  Sometimes things you may not expect or be aware of come into play.  I knew one dude who worked in the Seychelles and he told me that the Sprite had a cloudy, muddy type color.  Come to find out, the Seychelles had run out of white sugar so they substituted brown sugar when bottling the Sprite.  Can you believe that?  How funny is that? An entire country ran out of white sugar.  Hilarious!

I also noticed that processed junk food is not so prevelant overseas as well.  I just never noticed it before.  I went to the auto store a few weeks ago and what did I see on a rack right as I walked in?  A rack of candy and other junk food. I mean, this is a friggin' auto store for Christ sake.  There should be oil filters and spark plugs there, not junk food.  That got me thinking about how in the U.S. we are constantly surrounded and bombarded by junk food and processed food.  Think about it.  Junk food is everywhere. Gas stations now are more like a supermarket.  It is almost like the gas is an amenity to the supermarket. You can eat a complete meal in a supermarket nowadays. I had a pizza from one last week and I must say, it rivaled Domino's. Go to your local video store and the checkout aisles are filled with junkfood. I went to the bookstore yesterday and again, junkfood lined the checkout aisles.  Watch TV and all the food commercials are for junk food.

Unfortunately it is also cheaper to eat junk food than heating natural food. Have you ever noticed that in your average supermarket about 90% of the stock in the store is processed food?

Our nation's children: What is also unfortunate is that some of these food companies that serve and sell this unhealthy, processed food pay schools to serve it. Yes, the shools make money by having junk food vending machines in their schools. How would you like your kids eating some processed, unhealthy food day in and day out over the course of each year they are in school? Plus, with the hormones some of these companies are injecting into their meat it is no wonder boys are starting to grow tits during puberty and teenage girls are filling out more quickly.

I was watching a documentary on this very subject and at the time, Governor Schwarzenneger of California signed a bill banning junk food vending machines in all schools in California. This documentary showed parents protesting and even handing their kids junk food through the school fence since they couldn't get it in the school.  Maybe in america we want to be fat.

In America we are lucky to have such an abundance of readily available healthy food, but we are some of the most obese peole on the planet.  Something just doesn't add up.