Summer's Last Hurrah

During the week, primarily Daniel or myself prepare our meals separately, with very little help or input from the other. Either I’ll do most of the cooking at night before Daniel gets home, or if I’m working on something at the house, Daniel takes care of it. Saturday evenings are more or less our only opportunity to actually cook a meal together, so often when we do, it can get a little elaborate. However, with the beautiful weather we had this weekend, and with it being Labor Day weekend, we of course had to grill something. And seeing as how this was one of the few truly collaborative meals we’ve gotten to prepare together recently, we will be writing this post together!

Unlike the typical rib connoisseur, my tendency is not toward baby back, rib tip, or any other mainstream pork barbecue cut, instead leaning toward a meaty country-style pork loin rib. These are behemoths compared to the baby back, often served at your neighborhood barbecue joint, unless you happen to live in Memphis or some other barbecue haven which utilizes some variation. My idea for the sauce mixes a recent adventure of ours to the Jazz and Rib Fest here in Columbus, which I recommend if you are in the area next July, and a trip to a tiny barbecue joint in Mobile, Alabama, called Dreamland BBQ. It is one of those establishments that if there is no indicator within a mile of what that building is, you know it is a barbecue joint. The smoke wafts through the floorboards and around the room. From the chunks of fall-off-the-bone chicken to the stacks of white bread they serve it with, I can still envision the big guy sitting by the pit on a bar stool. Anyway, memories are strong entities and gave me something to think about when I was preparing the barbecue sauce.

3 Vinegar Barbecue Sauce

6 oz. can tomato puree

1 C. white vinegar

½ C. apple cider vinegar

2 T. balsamic vinegar

1 t. smoked paprika

1 t. liquid smoke

2 pieces of bacon chopped fine

3 T. canola oil

1 t. chili powder

3 garlic cloves

Salt and pepper to taste

Brown bacon and vinegar in saucepan for a couple minutes. Add vinegars, oil, liquid smoke, chili powder, paprika, and tomato paste stirring until combined. Simmer on low until thicken to desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Country Style Grilled Ribs

3 to 4 Servings

2 ½ # country style pork loin ribs

3 vinegar barbecue sauce (as mentioned above)

Soak ribs in barbecue sauce for at least an hour up to a day. Reserve some sauce for after cooking. Prepare grill for indirect cooking so ribs will not char too bad before being cooked through. Grill for approximately twenty minutes depending on grill’s temperature. Make sure ribs are 165 degrees near the bone before taking them off grill.

Although you can clearly see Daniel’s prowess at the grill, I remain unable to channel an inner Bobby Flay, which makes keeping the oven off difficult sometimes. When it came time to choose a side, all I really wanted to go with the ribs was a piece of corn bread or a biscuit. At first, I decide to give in and just use the oven, but as I pulled out the small cast iron skillet (the only real way to make corn bread), I had a flash back to a camping trip Daniel and I took for my birthday while we were living in Florida.

During the trip, we decided we were going to try to cook, and I had mixed up some corn bread before we left and put it in the cooler, with plans to cook it over the camp fire. It makes a nice mental image imagining the corn bread slowly cooking as the campfire flames lick the edges of the pan. What actually happened however, was that by the time we had pitched the tent, it was extremely dark and I had somehow managed to leave our flashlights behind….so we had to cook in the dark. I have no idea what the corn bread looked like, but judging from the taste, it was probably a black color. Smiling at this memory, I decided to use the iron skillet in a similar manner and try to grill the corn bread.

The result was much better than we anticipated. The sweetness from the red pepper and corn complimented the slight smoky flavor created by grilling, and as you can see from the picture, the corn bread turned out to be just slightly browned on the bottom giving a nice crispy sweet crust as we took our first bite.

Grilled Corn Bread with Roasted Red Peppers

Makes 4 Servings

½ Cup Corn Meal

½ Cup All Purpose Flour

1 Tbsp Sugar

1 Tsp Baking Powder

¼ Tsp Garlic Salt

Dash Salt

1 Egg Yolk, beaten

½ Cup Milk

2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil, Plus 1 tbsp

¼ Cup Frozen Corn

1 Green Onion, Diced

½ Roasted Red Pepper, diced

To grill: Grease small cast iron skillet with 1 tablespoon oil, letting most sit in bottom of the pan. Once grill is ready, place skillet on grill rack and allow to preheat 3-5 minutes before placing batter in pan.

To bake: Grease small cast iron skilled with approx ½ tablespoon oil, wiping sides and bottom of pan with paper towel to remove excess. Place skillet in oven and preheat to 400 degrees.

Blend first six ingredients. Add egg yolk, milk, and vegetable oil and mix until just moistened. Add corn, red peppers, and green onion, and stir just until well distributed. Pour batter into greased pan.

To grill: Leave pan on bottom rack, direct heat, until top appears solid, 8-10 minutes. Remove immediately carefully handling iron skillet, and allow to cool.

To cook: Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove and allow to cool.

Optional: You could add shredded cheese while still warm to top of corn bread and allow to melt while still warm.

As a side with dinner, slaw was a logical pairing with the barbecue since the two go together like apple pie and ice cream. We found a nice big head of purple cabbage at the farmers market earlier that morning. After we got home, we added some vinegar and pickled sweet banana peppers to compliment the vinegary nature of the barbecue sauce and let it marinate until supper that night. It is not a traditional slaw without the mayonnaise, but has a cleaner more earthy taste to round out and complete our colorful tribute to summer.

So, now that we’ve taken you through most of our meal, now its time for my favorite part, dessert! There are few things more refreshing or rewarding over the summer than homemade ice cream, and with the end of peach season so close, I couldn’t resist making a peach ice cream. I could agonizingly describe the rich taste and luxurious texture of the ice cream, but instead I think Daniel put it best after one bite: “Greek yogurt is delicious on its own. With peaches, even better. Make it into ice cream…[takes another bite, closes his eyes].” I think that meant he approved. Enjoy!

Peach & Greek Yogurt Ice Cream

2 Cups Whipping Cream

1 / 2 Cup Sugar

1 Tsp Vanilla

8 Egg Yolks

2 Cup Greek Style Yogurt (whole)

2-3 lbs Peaches, peeled, pit removed, and diced.

First, whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Heat whipping cream and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, just until a gentle boil, stirring to prevent scalding.

Slowly pour cream and sugar mixture into egg yolks, whisking constantly to prevent eggs from cooking. Return mixture to stove, add vanilla and cook over low heat until custard thickens. Pour into bowl over diced peaches and mix well. Fold in yogurt until well combined. Refrigerate until cold. Once the mixture is chilled, add to your ice cream freezer. Follow manufacturer’s instructions & freeze until ready.

Ying's

One of the difficulties of moving to a new area is finding go-to restaurants that offer great food, ambiance, and price. Dawn and I had been in Columbus for eight or nine months and tried several Chinese carry outs , none of which appealed to our cravings, before we happened on a tiny Chinese joint a couple miles down the street from us called Ying’s Teahouse and Yum Yum. The first thing I tried were the San Xian dumplings. San Xian is a three stringed Chinese instrument reminiscent of a lute comparable to the three-sided dumpling. I thought somehow I had died and my soul had been transported to heaven. The pork was succulent and rich with herb notes from the green onions. Once dipped in the provided broth, the dumpling skins melt in your mouth and create a paradise between chopsticks. Now you know where my muse came from for this dish; they most likely use ginger and other spices, but ideas for meals must begin somewhere and those dumplings are where mine originated.

I contemplated making my own dumpling skins but opted for the skins from the Asain market. If you have ever made a batch of dumplings, you sympathize with the amount of time that goes into stuffing them and assuring the right ration of mixture goes into each small edible triangle. Triangles that in my case were drizzled with a spicier broth than the dumplings at Ying’s.

The ground pork used in the dumplings should be nice and fatty so as to emit plenty of liquid for the broth as well as added richness. A nice spritely bunch of green onions and several plump cloves of garlic transform the ground pork into something sublime. A sublimity that only becomes more layered goodness when the chili paste is added to the broth. Something as simple in appearance as a dumpling can become a kitchen epiphany after you realize that take-out may be your best option only as inspiration.

San Xian Dumplings
1 # ground pork
20 dumpling skins
1 bunch green onions finely chopped (only using white and light green section)
3 cloves garlic
3 T. canola oil
1 T. chili paste
1 C. water for sealing dumplings plus water for boiling dumplings

Sauté garlic and onions in skillet with oil until tender. Add ground pork and chili paste and cook until pork is partially cooked. Allow mixture to fall to room temperature. Add 1 ½ teaspoon mixture to each skin. Wet edges of skins and seal pressing all air out of dumplings folding to form triangle shapes. Boil dumplings in batches for three minutes and remove to drain.

Broth
Juice from cooked ground pork
2 T. chili paste
3 green onions finely chopped (only using white and light green section)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat broth until flavors meld. Drizzle on top of dumplings or toss dumplings in broth after dumplings are cooked.

Optional: if ground pork does not render enough juice, beef broth can be added.

Clinging to Summer with Soup

While explaining my last post to my family as they leered hesitantly at the quart of ice cream I brought over, I found myself thinking about my grandfather, primarily because the ice cream combined his two favorite things, crispy bacon and ice cream. We’re a lot alike in our preferences. I decided that for my next post though I would write about something that reminded me of my grandmother, something bright and fun, and pink. Beets.

My grandmother introduced a love for beets to my family through her infamous Pennsylvania Dutch dish, red beets and eggs. The dish is simple enough, canned beets and boiled eggs, marinated in a mixture composed of the juice from the can, vinegar, sugar, and water. Despite its simplicity, we consider it a milestone event when someone is inducted into our family and tries it for the first time. Everyone pauses and watches as someone takes a bite of their first neon pink egg. Until very recently, this was the only way I would eat beets. I quite honestly could not conceive of another more delicious way to eat them. And then we moved here, and found these at the farmers market:

Aren’t they pretty? Since spring, we have been bringing home fresh beets every other week or so and have tried a few different dishes featuring this bright root. I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed each one from a beet ravioli dish to beet chips, and this week’s creation, a Chilled Roasted Beet Soup. The soup fit perfectly for the weird Columbus weather this week (sweatshirts already?!). The roasted beets impart a rich savory taste that screams fall, while the chilled and simple delicate puree of vegetables sits well on a crisp light summer palate. As most of my recipes go, the soup itself is simple enough although it takes a little bit of time to achieve the rich, savory taste I was going for. Although I’m sure you could forego roasting the beets and just allow them to simmer until tender with the other vegetables if you don’t have the extra hour or if you’re fortunate to still have some summer weather left and don’t want to heat up the kitchen, but I highly recommend it. Enjoy!

Chilled Roasted Beet Soup

3 Medium sized beets; washed, trimmed.

1-2 Tbsp Olive Oil to coat beets

1 / 4 Cup Sweet Onions Chopped in Large Chunks

1 Large Carrot Chopped in Large Chunks

1 Garlic Clove

Approx 2 Cups Chicken Stock (Enough to cover vegetables).

Salt & Pepper to Taste

Splash of White Wine Vinegar & Dill for Garnish

First, preheat the oven to 400. Coat the beets in olive oil and cover in foil. Place on baking sheet or roasting pan and allow to cook for 45 minutes, until fork tender. Allow to cool. (This could be done before you leave for work or even the night before and allowed to rest in the fridge).

Next, peel and quarter roasted beets. Place in medium saucepan with remaining vegetables. Add enough chicken stock (beef would probably work well too) to almost cover the vegetables. Allow vegetables to simmer until all are fork tender. Once tender, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Place all vegetables in blender with at least 1 / 2 cup broth. Puree until smooth. Continue adding broth until reaching desired consistency (I used most of mine). Season with Salt & Pepper to taste. Allow to cool in refrigerator before serving (3-4 hours). Before serving, add a splash of vinegar (1-2 tablespoons), and dill for garnish.