Ribs Like Mom Used to Make

May 4, 2013

Menu

Grilled Glazed Baby Back Ribs

Broccoli Salad

White Sweet Corn

Crudité: jicama, celery, Nantes carrots

Newman's Own Virgin Lemonade

Vella Merlot
Strawberries with Angel Food Cake

Recipes

Grilled Glazed Baby Back Ribs from Cook's Illustrated

Broccoli Salad from Dena

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I don't recall my mom serving ribs until after I had grown up and moved away from home. While visiting one summer (we live in California and most of my family is in New York) my mom made ribs for one of her famous backyard picnics. Before having my dad cook them on the grill, she parboiled them to speed up the cooking time and to ensure they were cooked through. It would seem that the Test Kitchen is on to my mom's trick as they published a recipe using this same technique in their most recent issue of Cook's Illustrated.

This does indeed provide a fast way to cook ribs. The recipe was for baby back ribs, but I was unable to find any in the two markets I checked. The closest I could get was a frozen slab of "extra meaty pork loin back ribs", baby back ribs but with more meat on them. The ribs took only an hour or so to prepare, much less time than traditional barbecued ribs that cook low and slow, with smoke, for many hours. Without this process, these ribs did not have a smoky flavor, but they were cooked to perfection, tender but still requiring a little effort to pull the meat off of the bones. The lime sauce was interesting, more tart and less sweet than tomato-based sauces and not as sour as the vinegar-rich North Carolina style barbecue sauces. The Test Kitchen included recipes for two other sauces and also indicated you could use a supermarket sauce.

To accompany the ribs we had other fresh, summery dishes. We've had white sweet corn a few times this year. For so early in the season it is reasonably priced and, unlike many other years, quite good. I made a broccoli salad made using a recipe from my sister Dena which was included in a collection of family recipes we assembled a few years ago. I'm not a big fan of broccoli, but it's OK and I'll eat it when it is served to me. This salad may be my favorite way to eat it. Broccoli is mixed with cheese and bacon then mixed with a sweet dressing.  While making this I considered some modifications to the recipe but didn't use any of them: replace the distilled vinegar with a red wine vinegar, using honey instead of sugar to provide the sweetness, or fresh instead of packaged mozzarella.

It wasn't planned, but everything in this meal was sweet, it seemed. The tart, citrus-glazed ribs, fresh vegetables, sweet corn, and broccoli salad with its sweet dressing. I even had lemonade to drink with the meal while Diane had wine. We ate out on the deck as we do during the warmer months when it is light outside at dinner time. Who says you have to pack up your food and go to a park when you want to have a picnic?

Favorite Family Foods Connect the Generations

April 29, 2013

Menu

Peg's Sloppy Joe

Quick Easy Boston Beans

Potato Chips

Crudité

Gizdich Apple Juice

Vella Merlot

Recipes

Peg's Sloppy Joe from Aunt Peggy

Quick Easy Boston Beans from America's Test Kitchen

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I grew up in Central New York, surrounded by family. Most of my mother's and my father's many siblings lived nearby. Gatherings with with aunts and uncles and cousins were frequent. I remember a summer picnic at Green Lakes State Park when I couldn't have been more than 10 years old. I don't remember the occasion, if there was one, or what trouble we kids got into, but I remember my Aunt Peggy's Sloppy Joe. I'm sure there were many other traditional picnic foods: hot dogs and hamburgers and potato salad and potato chips and soda and Kool Aid. But for some reason I remember the Sloppy Joe, simmering in a sauce pan sitting on the charcoal fire underneath the trees.

When I moved away from home, after college, one of the recipes I was sure to take was for this simple, homey, comforting summer dish. I've made it many times over the years, and even experimented some with the ingredients. But for this Sunday Dinner (fixed on the Monday after the Big Sur International Marathon where, on Sunday, Diane and I did the 10.6 mile walk) I stuck with the original recipe.

The Sloppy Joe is very easy to make: mix together the ingredients and simmer for several hours. The recipe does not specify any particular kind of ground beef but I used 93% lean. I have made it with fattier beef and it came out a little greasy. The fat aids flavor but I gave that up to gain a meatier, less greasy, texture. I added additional water as the Sloppy Joe simmered and became too dry, perhaps as a result of the reduced fat. The result was a dish that was hearty and good and familiar. The meat was tender and well flavored. We served it on slider buns, rather than regular hamburger buns, as these fit our appetites better than full-sized buns.

The main side dish was a version of baked beans from the recent America's Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook.  Baked beans is one of those dishes where I am still searching for the perfect recipe. Much to my surprise, this recipe, which uses canned beans, is about as good as any that I have tried which use dry beans and hours of soaking and baking. It is easy to make, taking less than an hour, and produced a really tasty side dish. It was a little soupy, I probably should have simmered it a while longer, but that's a problem easily solved by using a slotted serving spoon. The beans only got better with time as we had then in subsequent meals.

I made a crudité with left over asparagus, jicama, carrots, cucumber, and celery which added crisp fresh flavors to the meal with no cooking. We had purchased a gallon of apple juice at Gizdich Ranch returning from Big Sur and it was a flavorful and refreshing beverage which went well with this meal.

It's probably been over 50 years since that picnic at Green Lakes and I still remember my aunt's Sloppy Joe. It's funny what you remember from long ago and how those memories can be triggered when you don't expect it. Taste, odors, and sounds often provide the key to unlock these pleasant memories from long ago. It is so important to hang on to your family's food traditions and to pass them along to the next generation so they, too, will have memories to cherish.

Grill Roasted Turkey Breast

April 21, 2013

Menu

Grill Roasted Turkey Breast

Oven Roasted Carrots

Mashed Potatoes

Cranberry Relish

Oak Leaf Pinot Grigio
 

 Recipe

Roasted Carrots from Cook's Illustrated

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I'd been thinking of having turkey for a while and finally it happened. I found a recipe for a grill-roasted turkey breast in my collection of saved recipes. Roasting a whole turkey for just the two of us was out of the question, but this would produce enough turkey for a good Sunday dinner and a generous amount of leftovers for the following week.

The recipe is for a full bone-in, skin-on turkey breast, 5-7 pounds worth. To prepare it you split the breast, remove the bones, and tie the halves together making a compact boneless roast. When I got to the butcher case at the market I found that for a $1 more a pound I could get a boneless turkey breast. I purchased one of the larger ones which weighed 2¾ pounds, a much better size and better deal when there are only the two of us to feed.

The turkey is easily prepared for grilling. It is first sprinkled with kosher salt and refrigerated for an hour. The roast is then rubbed with vegetable oil and seasoned with black pepper. It is roasted on indirect heat until it reaches an internal  temperature of 150°, which took about 75 minutes on our grill, but it could take much less time on a hotter grill. The meat is then put on direct heat for a few minutes and browned on all sides.

The biggest challenge was determining the temperature. I used a probe thermometer to get an initial reading then an instant read thermometer for more accuracy. The instant read thermometer met varying degrees of resistance when inserted into the roast and the temperature varied greatly from place to place. At one point I found temperatures ranging from 95° to 140°. After 60 minutes the roast was still not done and I turned the burner on the cool side of the grill on low to speed things up a little. This led to a flare-up which was easily controlled by moving the meat. I took the turkey off of the grill when the temperature reached 150° in the firmest part of the roast.

For side dishes we had mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, and something new: roasted carrots. The cranberry relish is a Thanksgiving tradition that my mom always made. Diane made the relish by grinding fresh cranberries that we had frozen together with a whole orange (peel and all) then adding sugar to taste. It's a wonderful condiment that brightens up the meal with a mix of sweet, sour, and bitter flavors all mixed together. In contrast, the carrots were less sweet than raw or glazed carrots, having an earthy flavor that worked well with the bright relish and mild-flavored turkey breast.

This was a nice meal which we both enjoyed. (Our cats enjoyed it too, one of them, Shenzi by name, stole a slice of the turkey without our noticing until it was gone.) The meat tasted good but it was a little dry, probably overdone as a result of the problems getting an accurate temperature. The turkey was easy to roast on the grill. To add more flavor I should have added a packet of wood chips to produce some flavorful smoke. And like the ham from the previous week, we now have some really good leftover meals to anticipate.

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Leftovers
We had leftover turkey prepared several different ways during the week. We had turkey slices served with mashed potatoes, peas, cranberry relish, and gravy from a mix (which helped the dry turkey) and open-faced hot turkey sandwiches. Diane fixed one of our favorite leftover turkey recipes: Almond Turkey with Peas from our old copy of the Sunset Wok Cookbook which features chunks of turkey with fresh snow peas and crisp, crunchy water chestnuts.

What to have with Butternut Squash?

April 14, 2013

Menu

Ham

Roasted Butternut Squash with Yogurt and Sesame Seeds

Baked Potatoes

Challah

2011 Forest Ville Gewürtzraminer

Recipe

Challah from Cook's Illustrated

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Menu planning usually starts with choosing a main dish. Side dishes are then chosen to complement the entreé. Not so for this Sunday dinner as I started with butternut squash, and only then selected the protein and other sides. Spring isn't the season for squash, but I received a request from America's Test Kitchen to test a recipe they are preparing to publish later this year,  presumably when squash is in season. I had recently seen squash at the store and was interested enough to give this recipe a go. The only way I've had butternut squash is boiled and mashed–my mom served it this way almost every Thanksgiving–and I was interested in learning a new way to prepare it.

The choice for the entreé was between roast ham and turkey and I ended up selecting ham, which we hadn’t had in a while. Since the oven would be on to cook both the squash and the ham I thought baked potatoes would be good, too. I hadn’t made bread in a while so I also decided to try my hand at challah which I had never made before. 

Needing to have three items in the oven at the same time led to come compromises in temperature and timing. (The bread was baked before the other dishes were started.)  I set the temperature at 400°; this is the temperature specified in the squash recipe I was testing, and higher than the recommended temperature for heating the ham and baking the potatoes. When the squash was done the ham was still cool in the center (I had this same experience the last time I fixed ham) and the potatoes were not quite done. We ate the warm ham and finished the potatoes in the microwave.

The baked squash was good to eat and easy to fix: it is peeled, the seeds are removed, and the squash is halved lengthwise before being cut into ½-inch thick slices. These are tossed with melted butter and put on a baking sheet and roasted, being turned once about half way through. The garnish really set off the earthy flavor of the squash. It was with Greek yogurt, extra-virgin olive oil, sesame seeds, and coriander.

We also enjoyed the challah. The braided loaf was beautiful to look at, fun to make, and good to eat. Like brioche it is an enriched bread with egg and butter added to the dough. The tender, rich-tasting bread went well with the ham and squash.

This was more of Fall/Winter meal than a Spring/Summer dinner. However, it was a chilly, windy Spring day as we ate our dinner outdoors. In retrospect it was probably too cold outside for dining and we would have enjoyed the meal more inside where the food would have stayed hot longer. So the menu was not as out of step with the season as it would seem. I was able to provide feedback on the new squash recipe and we have leftover ham and squash to look forward to.

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Leftovers
 The challah makes very good toast and was enjoyed with butter and cinnamon sugar for breakfast. 

The squash was served, with the garnish, at two additional meals,  reheated in the microwave, and this worked out well.

Ham is a wonderful leftover, just as good reheated or cold as when it was first served, and very versatile. We had breakfast for dinner one night: pan-fried ham slices with challah French toast. We also had reheated ham, scalloped potatoes with ham, and ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Finally we had a delicious Grilled Cheese with Roasted Pineapple, Ham, and Swiss. Sandwiches are beautiful.