Hello from NYC! So now that much of my entire life has been picked up and relocated to the city (and that many of my kitchen utensils have been successfully unpacked) I can start to tell you about my culinary adventures over the past few weeks.
Our story begins in Cleveland for the Rib Burn Off 2007. The lovely Mrs. Lindsay Bierman and myself made up Team Delicious in the competition. But more about that in a few. Personally, I made a couple dishes for everyone to enjoy and one in particular for a single guest. The Texas Cole Slaw from the Memorial Day 2007 feast made a comeback appearance for the festivities because its a total crowd winner. Here's the basics of it:
SLAW:
1 head Napa cabbage, chopped
4 large carrots, shredded
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
8 oz toasted pecans, chopped
2 Granny Smith apples, thinly sliced
*the original recipe had a garnish of fresh mint...we didn't use it in this batch*
DRESSING:
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp hot water
1 tsp sugar
4 oz sour cream (you could use creme fraiche instead...my version used fat free sour cream)
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
1 orange, juiced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp caynenne pepper
kosher salt & pepper to taste
Super simple and really great all together. The dressing has just enough sweetness to balance the tart flavor of the apples and onion flavor and the cayenne pepper hits you at the right moment after swallowing each crisp clean bite!
I also ventured into the realm of Key Lime Pie. The couple that lives next door to my parents in Ohio, Sue & Denny...are absolutely amazing folks. The RBO '07 wouldn't have happened and the RBO tradition itself wouldn't have started if it wasn't for them. Sue's dad LOVES Key Lime Pie. So the last time I saw him, a couple weeks before the big party, I promised him his own pie. As the event drew closer and closer, I realized that it was was more feasible for me to make that pie rather than do the entire BBQ themed cake I was going to attempt. The time didn't allow for alot of fuss and it wasn't really worth it for me to unpack all of my kitchen supplies to make a cake at this point before the move. I actually ended up making this pie twice, because the first time it was with condensed milk that had been in the cabinets for a really long time. Now condensed milk doesn't 'go bad.' It just looks that way over time. So the milk from the old cans had a caramel color to it and so did the resulting pie filling. IT still tasted great, but just looked like a caramel custard as opposed to a Key Lime filling. So the second time through, new cans of of the Borden's were used and the filling was a lovely light yellow. The crust was a basic graham cracker:
1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs
1/2 c sugar
4 tsbp melted butter
This bakes in a 375 oven for about 15 minutes and will really brown up and make the whole kitchen smell like cookies.
The filling was quick to prepare as well:
2 14oz cans condensed milk (note: condensed milk always comes sweetened. I didn't know that)
1 c Key Lime juice
2 whole eggs
*You could have used regular lime juice as well, but I think the Key Lime juice is a bit more pungent and adds more of a punch overall to the pie. All you really need is elbow grease to whisk the condensed milk smooth with the eggs and lime juice. It is balanced out with the topping:
1 c sour cream (again, I used the fat free variety)
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsbp lime zest
This looked just as good as it tasted! I was going to use Splenda in the crust, but I'm glad I didn't because I don't think it would have held up as well as it did with regular sugar. The only wait time involved in it is the time you need to chill the baked crust before you put the filling (not the topping) the shell and the minimum of 2 hours the filled shell needs to chill in the refrigerator before putting the topping on. You are also supposed to chill the whole thing, topping and zest and all before serving, but I think its sturdy enough for you to go right from topping to table.
I gave Sue's dad the pie. He hid it from the rest of the party guests and took it home. I got the empty pie plate back about 2 days later. I think he liked it.
Onto the Ribs. The Missers and I took 3rd place in our debut year, so this year it was time to expand and improve our repertoire. This time around, we got a gorgeous rack of pork spare ribs at Rudy's Meats in Willowick. Thanks to the fast mind and hands of Lindsay, we had decided on a pineapple flavor for the ribs and we also went with a 24 hour brine of kosher salt, black pepper, and water. The sauce failed its first test run, we're not quite sure why, but it may have had something to do with eyeballed measurements and I'm thinking the addition of teriyaki sauce. No worries though, the second go round is what we went with.
1/4 c brown sugar
1/3 c flour
1/4 c white vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
14oz crushed canned pineapple (we used no added sugar pineapple chunks that we crushed in a food processor)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt (we used regular table salt)
1/8 tsp black pepper
It might have seemed disconcerting to the eye because it was more of a rose color as opposed to the deep hue of regular BBQ sauce. However, the sweet heat was super prevalent. Note to those of you who don't want to use the juice that's in the canned pineapple - 14oz is the entire amount of pineapple in the large can! Or 1 3/4 cup of fresh crushed pineapple. Who knew Ms Jones could do math!? The best thing about it was the peppery aftertaste that even just 1/8 tsp left you with!
We brined the meat overnight, then baked it for a little over 3 hours in a low heat oven. Missers added a bit of teriyaki in the bottom on the baking pan to aid the steaming process. The ribs were finished with the sauce on the grill, allowing the brown sugar and pineapple in it to slightly carmelize on the meat. They smelled insanely good and once again, were good enough to get 3rd place overall. Out of 7-8 competitors (seasoned professionals I might add) that's not too bad for us. At least we could go to bed knowing that we placed two years in a row. That doens't happen very often in this contest!Most of the time, those who place are first timers or regular participants who have a good year. We were pleased to take home another ribbon. But next year, we've got our eyes focused on the trophy and jacket!
The rest of the spread at the party was standard Eastlake Heights picnic fare. Lots of fresh salads and slaws (the Memphis style cole slaw my mom made was to DIE for! The heat was totally unexpected but hit like a ton of bricks), roasted potatoes, homemade baked beans, pulled pork sandwiches, Sac's egg rolls, a huge fruit tray, Lindsay's mom's 'Poke Cake' (which gets devoured the moment its put on the table), various cookies, brownies, finger desserts, and Tyler's mom sent him with an apple pie. And as usual, we were standing outside at around 1:30 am grilling burgers and hot dogs because the round 4 or 5 munchies had set in. At that point in the night it was raining and most people were feeling the effects of fatigue and alcohol, so there was alot of smoke and a lot of laughter surrounding the grill. I think my mom had to step away, American cheese in hand, because she was giggling uncontrollably. We all went to bed that night stuffed to our eyeballs. What a culinary note to end my residence in Ohio on.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this entry...live from New York...
