Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

The days are moving quickly this time of year.  We are packing up and organizing for our trip to Florida.  To be honest I haven’t been doing a lot of cooking.  There has been nothing “blog worthy” to write about.  I found these country style ribs in the freezer and after thawing them, David put a dry rub on them, slathered them with Sweet Baby Rays and put them in the crock pot to cook for seven hours.

We are leaving today to spend a few days with the family.  I love seeing the Grandkids dress up for Halloween.  Rachel is going to be the Statue of Liberty and Cameron will be a red hot chili pepper.

Happy Halloween everybody.  Maybe this “bloody” mess will put you in the spirit.

I have no pictures of the finished ribs.

CROCK POT RIBS

3 to 4 pounds Country Style Ribs
2 tbls Paprika
3 tbls Brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bottle Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue Sauce

Mix together the dry rub ingredients.  Massage them into the ribs.  Place the ribs in a crock pot.  Pour barbecue sauce over them.  Cover and cook on low for about 7 hours.

Remove ribs to foil lined sheet pan.  Pour barbecue sauce into a sauce pan.  Skim fat from surface and cook on medium high heat until sauce is slightly reduced and thickened.  Brush ribs with sauce and either put them under the broiler to brown for a few minutes or grill them briefly.

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Changes are coming.  Not only to the weather with the crisp, cool mornings and pleasant evenings that make me want to make comforting food like pork roast, but to my blog as well.  This weekend my Son Michael and his family will be coming to spend a week with us.  Michael is a computer engineer and software designer.  Michael and Kristen are bringing friends with them.  Cristobol is a well known wedding photographer.  Do you see where I am going with this?  Computer expert/ photograper.  It is time to redesign my blog.  Michael has assured me that all of my archived material will be saved.  The picture of my kitchen will be reshot and changed in size, because I feel that it is a distinctive part of what this blog is all about.  I have been studying my favorite blogs for ideas on what to include in my new format so if any of you have suggestions, I would welcome them.  Just comment or email me with your thoughts.

But back to this wonderful pork roast.  I love my Le Creuset braising pan.  I wrote about it here.  It is great for small roasts and the heavy lid keeps all of the juices inside.  The way to ensure a moist pork loin roast is not to overcook it.  The browned roast and onions go into the oven for only 45 minutes to an hour, depending on size.  The addition of white wine, red pepper jelly and sage leaves give it great flavor. 

PORK ROAST WITH RED PEPPER JELLY

1 2 to 3 pound boneless pork loin roast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion halved and sliced
1 cup white wine
3 tablespoons red pepper jelly
chopped sage leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in braising pan or iron skillet.  Season pork roast with salt and pepper.  Add roast and sliced onions to skillet and brown roast on both sides while tossing onions.  Add white wine, stir to deglaze pan.  Add red pepper jelly to pan.  Spread one of the tablespoons over the top of the roast.  Sprinkle sage leaves into pan.  Cover pan and put in a 350 degree oven.  Bake until roast is just cooked through, about 45 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Let rest for 10 minutes.  Slice and serve. 

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In season three of the Food Network’s The Next Food Network Star, Rory Schepisi won the Bon Appetit cover challenge for her tender and flavorful baby back ribs.  Even though she did not go on to win the contest, her ribs recipe is a winner.  Rory has a restaurant called BootHill in Vega, Texas and has appeared on TLC’s Homemade Simple.

We have been making these pork ribs since the first time they appeared in Bon Appetit.  The challenge she had in making them was the fact that they usually took her 4 to 5 hours to cook to achieve the tenderness she desired.  The Food Network challenge gave her only 2 hours.  She met the challenge by braising the ribs in the oven with a little chicken broth before she finished them on the grill.  This works to our advantage because I love any recipe that can be partially prepared ahead of time.

The homemade barbecue sauce is based on ketchup with a brown sugar and molasses component.  It also can be prepared ahead of time.

The original recipe calls for baby back pork ribs but we always substitute country style ribs because we like the meatiness.  Either cut would be great.

The grilled cantaloupe is a unique accompaniment to the ribs.  It is grilled briefly and brushed with honey and sprinkled with cayenne.

Now that warm weather has found us at Lake Lure, it is good to fire up the grill again.

RORY’S RIBS WITH GRILLED CANTALOUPE

Barbecue Sauce and Ribs:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 1/4 cups ketchup
1 3/4 cups low-salt chicken broth, divided
7 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
6 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
4 1/2 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

4 large racks baby back pork ribs (each about 2 1/2 pounds)
8 tablespoons chili powder, divided

Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium heat.  Press garlic through garlic press into pan.  Stir 30 seconds.  Mix in ketchup, 3/4 cup broth, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, brown sugar, molasses, and vinegar.  Bring sauce to simmer.  Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until reduced to 3 cups, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.  Transfer to bowl.  Can be made 1 week ahead.  Cover and chill.

Sprinkle each side of each rib rack with salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon  chili powder.  Arrange 2 rack on each of 2 large roasting pans.  Position 1 oven rack in top third of oven and 1 rack in bottom third; preheat to 450 degrees F.  Pour 1/2 cup of remaining broth and 2 tablespoon of re3maining soy sauce around ribs in each pan;  cover each with foil.  Bake ribs 30 minutes; reverse sheets.  Bake ribs until tender, about 45 minutes longer.  Uncover; cool slightly.  Cut each rib rack between bones into individual servings.  Brush ribs generously with sauce.  Can be made 2 hours ahead.  Let stand at room temperature.

Prepare BBQs (medium-high heat).  Grill ribs until heated through and slightly charred, turning occasionally and brushing with more sauce, about 10 minutes.  Pile ribs on platter.

GRILLED CANTALOUPE

1 whole cantaloupe, rinsed, cut in half, seeded, each half cut into 1/2-inch slices
Honey
Cayenne pepper

Grill cantaloupe slices on 1 side until showing grill marks, about 3 minutes.  Mound, grilled side up, on platter.  Brush with honey, sprinkle with cayenne.

Here is a picture of the ribs dinner from The Food Network.

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This is a great dish to serve on New Year’s Day with collard greens and black-eyed peas.  It is easy to double if you are expecting a crowd and bubbles away on top of the stove as you are busying yourself with other pursuits.

The recipe was in an issue of Bon Appetit.  The only changes I made were in the type of ribs I used and eliminating the turnips.  My supermarket had boneless country style ribs, but they were cut from the rib end of the loin.  They were leaner than ribs from the shoulder or butt.  I liked them and they were very tender and moist.  The recipe called for 3/4 pound of carrots and 3/4 pound of turnips.  Believe it or not, there were no turnips in the produce section.

We are on our way back to Florida via Hilton Head.  We are celebrating New Year’s with our good friends.  It is a tradition and every year the food is a tradition also.  Slow roasted pork butt, potato casserole, black-eye peas, collard greens and corn bread.  I hosted the get together last year.  For a recap and the recipes go here.

Happy New Year everyone.  I consider every one of you a friend and I wish the very best for you in 2011.

SOY-BRAISED PORK COUNTRY RIBS WITH CARROTS

1/3 cup low-salt chicken broth
3 tablespoons dry Sherry
3 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon (packed) golden brown sugar
1 teaspoon hot chili paste
2 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), cut into 5 x 1 1/2 inch strips (sometimes called boneless country-style pork ribs.  See text of my post to see what I used.
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 green onions; white and pale green parts finely chopped, green parts thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
3 whole star anise ( I omitted this)
3 long strips orange peel removed from orange with vegetable peeler
1 pound carrots, peeled, cut into 1 inch pieces

Whisk chicken broth, Sherry, soy sauce, brown sugar, and hot chili paste in small bowl to blend; set aside.  Sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper.  Heat peanut oil in heavy large deep skillet over medium-high heat.  Working in batches, cook ribs until browned, about 4 minutes per side.  Transfer ribs to plate.  Reduce heat to medium.  Add chopped onion to skillet and saute until soft, about 4 minutes.  Add white parts of green onions, garlic, and ginger; saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Add chicken broth mixture, stirring to scrape up any browned bits.  Add star anise and orange peel; bring to simmer.

Return ribs to same skillet.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 30 minutes.  Add carrots to skillet, pushing to submerge in sauce.  Cover and simmer until vegetables and ribs are tender, gently stirring mixture occasionally, about 30 minutes longer.  Transfer mixture to platter.  Serve with steamed rice.

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After spending the day Christmas shopping, I returned home, brought in all of the potted plants and herbs, and turned on the oven to cook a meal to usher in the coldest night of the year in Florida.  The wind chill factor was supposed to be in the teens; not what I had anticipated when we decided to spend the Winters in the Sunshine State.  But it was a good excuse to cook a pork roast.

One of my favorite cuts of pork is a rib end, bone in roast.  Say what we will about boneless pork loins, there is nothing better than a cut with the bones included.  The roast I got from my local Publix was a 6 bone roast and when cooked, sliced easily into 6 large chops.  They were moist, tender and with the pan juices and cooked onions scattered over the top, worthy of company.  This is an easy preparation so I am not detailing a recipe.  I brown the roast on all sides in an iron skillet with a sliced onion in the pan, add herbs and wine, cover it with foil and bake it in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

With the roast I served a Paula Deen recipe that was worth passing on to you.  It is Spinach and Black-Eyed Peas. I love the combination and it goes together quickly using frozen black-eyed peas and fresh baby spinach.  I am considering this as a side dish for the traditional New Years Day dinner.  The whole meal, including mashed potatoes was on the table in no time at all.  It made me wish we had invited company to share it with us.

SPINACH AND BLACK-EYED PEAS

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 cups chicken broth
1 ham hock
2 (16 oz) packages frozen black-eyed peas, thawed
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 (10 ox.) package fresh baby spinach
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat.  Add onion and garlic; cook for 4 minutes, or until onion is tender.  Add chicken broth and ham hock; bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 6 minutes.  I cooked it for 15 minutes.  Stir in black-eyed peas, hot sauce, and sugar; cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until peas are tender.  Add spinach and salt; cook for 4 minutes.  Remove ham hock and shred any meat that is on the bone and return it to the pot.  Serve hot. (I strained off some of the liquid.

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