Monday, September 2, 2013

Labor Day Ribs

Queen Bee and I had promised to host a neighborhood party this summer so we used the extended Labor Day weekend to have the event.

I took off Friday so we could get supplies.  Costco makes cooking for large crowds easy.  24 Brats and 10 pounds of back ribs, beer, wine, bottled water, chips, etc...

For the main course I was going to iterate on the ribs recipe I had used twice when we entertained my work group a couple years ago.  It worked pretty well but I overshot on the spice rub the second time.  This time I promised myself I would actually measure the ingredients and write it down.  So here it is...

Ingredients:
9.5 pounds of back ribs
3 teaspoons of chili powder
3 teaspoons of salt
3 teaspoons of thyme
3 teaspoons of rosemary
3 large cloves of garlic
3 cups of wine
3 ziplock bags
1 12 oz bottle of BBQ sauce

Start with brining the ribs...
Put about 3 pounds of ribs in each of the ziplock bags.
To each bag, add 1 cup of wine 1 teaspoon of each of the salt, herbs  and spices above.  Also add one diced garlic clove to each bag.  Let these bags of ribs sit overnight in the fridge.

4 hours before serving, remove the ribs from the ziplock bags and place the ribs and the liquid in a covered roasting pan and place in an oven preheated to 350 F.  Roast for 75 minutes at 350 F then reduce heat to 250 F and continue to roast 2 and 1/2 hours.

With about 30 minutes remaining before serving, drain about 12 oz of the roasting liquid in a saucepan and combine with BBQ sauce. Simmer the mixture to reduce slightly.

With 15 minutes remaining remove the roasting pan from the oven and turn the temperature back up to 350 F.  Drain away the rest of the liquid from roasting pan.  Then spoon the BBQ sauce mixture over the ribs to coat them evenly.  Return the ribs to the oven uncovered for the remaining 15 minute to brown.

...turned out great this time:)

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Brief Return

I had a business trip back to Torino this past week.  It was great to see everyone again.  I got lots of friendly greetings.

I stayed in the Holiday Inn at the Massaua Metro stop.  It was pretty good as business hotels go.  But the best part is its convenience to the Metro to get around.  I arrived on the June 24 local holiday (St John's day I believe) so I had the afternoon free to do a bit of a Torino tour.  I stopped at the book store at Porta Nouva to pick up some books in Italian for Queen Bee.  I also grabbed a Piemontese  cook book to replace the one that seems to have been lost in the move.  From there up Via Roma with the rest of the residents strolling up the main shopping street.  From there to Grom for a lemon and strawberry gelato (yum!).   Then to the old Roman district for a beer before I returned to my room to get ready for dinner.  It was nice to see the city again.  It was perfect weather for a holiday stroll and the streets were full of people with the same idea.

The first morning I was back to my "normal" routine.  Proceed to work and stopped along the way for a proper breakfast of cappuccino and a brioche.  

The week ended with dinner at friends.  Two couples I know well from my days in Italy.  There was a long opportunity for apperitivo and chat on the balcony facing the Alps.  Followed by a wonderful  French meal and more good conversation.  A perfect ending to a week in Torino.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Pomodori Ripieni con Aglio

Queen Bee and I were driving around southern Michigan most of the day today on various errands (all very cool actually but that is another story...).  We got home late with little in the house for dinner.  I thought about the stuffed tomatoes Johhny had the last time were were at the Spaghetti House in Aviliangna and I decided to do something similar. The result was pretty good (sorry no photo's)...

One half small onion
One clove of garlic
Course sea salt
Dried parsley.
Olive oil
Mayonnaise
One tin of white albacore tuna in water (Costco tuna is pretty good)
Two medium tomatoes

Dice the half onion very small.

Dice the garlic clove very fine as well and combine with the diced onion.

Add some olive oil (maybe one table spoon or a little more).   Add salt and parsley as desired.  Add two table spoons mayonnaise and stir the mixture very well.

Drain the tin of tuna very well and add to the mixture.  Mash and mix it all together very well.

Slice the two tomatoes in half.  Cut and scoop out the entire inner portion of each tomato half, making them int "bowls".  Fill each tomato with the tuna mixture.  Sprinkle a little parsley on top of each for a little color.  Serve.

Comments:

Typical American tuna, packed in water, has amazingly little flavor.  This is probably why we alway mix it with mayonnaise.   The tuna packed in oil we got in Italy was very flavorful and didn't need anything added to be useful.  Unfortunately, with few exceptions, American tuna in oil is pretty nasty.

The raw garlic will give a relatively strong garlic flavor even if it is only one clove.  Keep this in mind regarding you taste for garlic.  But it is there to give some flavor the the water packed tuna.