The weather and my work schedule have not been cooperating as of late. Today was a rare opportunity, it seems, to do some grilling. I was in the mood for ribs for some reason, and as I perused the recipes for these tasty treats, I ended up picking out the Country-Style Pork Ribs With Red Wine Vinegar Sauce on page 165.
This recipe called for "country-style" ribs, something with which I have no experience. I went down to Findlay Market this morning to investigate this matter. The butcher explained to me that these ribs come from the loin end, and are cut so that there are two small sets of bones separated by a sizeable chunk of meat. He had two left, and I asked for one, as I'm only cooking for one. The price was $3.50, and the butcher offered the second one for only and additional $1.50. This, I figured, was a solid five dollar investment. If you look in the picture below, you can see in the top piece one set of the small rib bones and just how much meat there is otherwise.
This recipe also calls for a high percentage of your cooking fuel to be water-soaked wood chunks, as opposed to charcoal. This will lend a lot of smoke to the cooking process, as well as lower the cooking temperature in the grill, as you want "low and slow" with ribs.
With the ribs on grill for an hour and fifteen minutes, I started the basting/dipping sauce.
As the sauce simmered, I started in on my side for the evening, the Gold Rush Potato Salad on page 355. For this recipe I did make a little substitution. The recipe calls for Yukon Gold potatoes, but at the market I came across an interesting tri-color blend of potatoes. They looked delicious, so I made the executive decision to make the swap.
Similar to most of The Guide's recipes, I started by making the dressing. It was simple enough, consisting of only mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, parsley, and seasoning.
Have you ever had a purple potato? I never have. Not only is the skin purple, but all of the flesh inside is purple as well. The red and yellow potatoes were both a dull yellow on the inside.
To keep them from falling through, rolling around, and in general cooking unevenly, I skewered them.
After just over 15 minutes, I pulled them off and let them cool a bit before adding them to the bowl. They smelled amazing, having been slightly smoked by the water-soaked hickory chunks. I sampled one to make sure they were properly cooked; they were crispy and smoky on the outside, and perfectly cooked on the inside.
Pleased with myself, I began pulling them off the skewers and slicing them up even smaller for the salad.
The onions only take about ten minutes, and the salad was nearing completion.
Last to go in was the raw celery, with only a gentle tossing to bring everything together required.
YUM!
In the final twenty minutes, you have to lightly baste the ribs with the sauce you made earlier. This will caramelize on the ribs, deepening the color and adding texture and flavor.
I took one part of one of the country ribs, some potato salad (still warm, per directions), and some of the dipping sauce.
This was another successful evening. The ribs were a little different in texture and flavor than the traditional spareribs or babyback ribs, but were still delicious. The benefit of the country ribs is a higher ratio of meat to bone, but it seems a little leaner (read: less fat so less flavor). A cross section revealed the dark and crusty exterior, a lovely pink smoke ring just underneath, and delicious and juicy white meat underneath. A quick dip in the sauce and you have a rather wide spectrum of textures and flavors. In short, everyone should try these at least once. As for the potatoes, these were a big surprise. My call to substitute in the tri-color potato mix was a good one, as it widened the flavor and texture profile. I can't explain why, but for some reason I kept smelling and tasting bacon notes, which both thoroughly pleased and perplexed me. I think adding some smoked bacon to this dish would really take it to the next level. This recipe will be seen by friends before the year is out.
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