Sunset!

Home Depot parking lot. Chicago, Il 8-18-2009

Ribs baby!

Who doesn't like ribs? Nobody, that's who. Everybody loves ribs - 'cepting the cow. So, how does one make fantastic ribs? It's actually very easy. I used some monstrously large St. Louis ribs. Very meaty and beefy. Also used a dry rub for the oven cooking part and a BBQ sauce for the grilling part.

Here's what you do:

Ribs

- preheat oven to 250.

- 1st, take a couple of pieces of thick gauge foil. Place the ribs on top of the foil. On both sides, sprinkle some garlic powder, onion powder, ground mustard, cayenne pepper and brown sugar. (Or, you could just use a pre-made rub too. I use the rub from my favorite rib joint, Rendezvous Ribs in Memphis TN all the time). Gently massage the rub onto both sides. Then, crimp the foil tightly over the slab. Leave a little hole or funnel at one end. Take a look at the picture below. See the slab on the right.? That's the funnel at the side closest to you.

- Now, for each slab, pour 1/2 can of coke, 1 cup orange juice and 1 cup of pineapple juice into the funnel. Gently lift the funnel end to evenly distribute the liquid and crimp up the funnel end to close it. Place the ribs on a cookie sheet (with sides). Stick them in the oven for 1 hour.




- After the hour is up, pull the ribs out of the oven and let cool. Preheat the grill to indirect medium heat if using charcoal or 300 if using gas (use only 1 burner). Then, cut a little hole at one end of the foil and drain out the liquid. Take the ribs out to the grill and place bone side down over the indirect part. Please don't cook them over the flame or else you will burn them and dry them out too much. Cook for about 15-20 min. and then flip over so that the meat side is down.

- Now it's time to sauce up the ribs. {You can just use more of your dry rub if you want to do that instead. I make them all the time this way. Just mop the ribs with some apple cider vinegar and pat more of the rub on both sides of the slab and cook 15-20 min a side longer on indirect heat.} But we're saucing tonight! Woo-hoo! And we ain't using just any old store bought BBQ sauce. We're bringing out the big guns. Yeah, that's right, we got the gallon jug of Hayward's!




Slather that on what is now the bone side up and cook for 15 min. Then, flip the slab over so that the meat side is up and slather some more on. Cook just a few minutes more so that a nice crust develops from the caramelized sugars in the BBQ sauce. Pull the ribs off and let them cool for a few minutes.

Now these are some bad-ass ribs!

Big Wednesday - Part II

Big Wednesday in Chicago continues... after Trattoria Isabella, Jenni & I then headed over to Flatwater Grill to a party. My co-worker, Jeff, retired and this was his send off. By the time we got there, some of the lads had been hitting the scotch and bourbon. Tried to play catch up - and the pours at Flatwater are generous.

Jimmy's boat parked at Flatwater Grill

and then over to Navy Pier for the fireworks.

ooohhhhh

aaahhhh

Restaurant Review - Trattoria Isabella

Big Wednesday we like to call it in Chicago. An evening in 3 parts. 1st was dinner at Trattoria Isabella. 2nd - a party at Flatwater Grill. And finally, fireworks at Navy Pier!

So, 1st up - a restaurant review! My mom and my niecey-pie #1 headed in to the big city for a day of celebration... mom's 39th birthday. They had a lovely time taking the water taxi to Navy pier and walking thru Millennium Park. Then, they and Jennie met me at the riverwalk near my office. We decided to go to Trattoria Isabella. I had never been there before but saw it while I was walking home from the office the night before. There was a big outdoor seating area with a maroon colored fence and awning with cute white clothed tables. It reminded me of the look of a restaurant I had enjoyed in Italy. I was a little concerned since there wasn't anyone seated in the patio when I walked by the night before. That concern was for naught as we will find out later.





I have to say that we all enjoyed the restaurant immensely. We were seated right away since there were only 4 other diners in the patio at the time. There was a cute little 10 seat bar underneath the awning with about 5 or 6 folks sitting there. We didn't have much time due to a departing train that mom and niecey-pie #1 had to catch back home so we ordered main courses right away.

Jenni and niecey-pie #1 wanted to try the pizzas but the waiter told us that the pizza oven was still being built. Too bad. Time for plan B. Mom had the Involtini di Pollo. It was a chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. It came with a vodka sauce. Mom had been saying that she would need a doggie bag since she wasn't very hungry at all. So delicate, that one. Needless to say she finished it all.


I had the Risotto al Funghi. It was rich, creamy and beefy. Fantastic. The mushroom flavor really came through. Loved it.



Jenni had the Rigatoni al Filo di Fumo. It had pancetta, mozerella and basil in a tomato sauce. She loved it. Niecy-pie #1 had a spaghetti bolognese. It wasn't too bad but not great. For dessert mom had an espresso and we split 2 lemon sorbets. They were to die for. Creamy and not too sweet.

By the time we left the rest of the outdoor seating area was packed so it looks to be here to stay.

Total bill including tax and tip was $104 for 4 people. Drinks not included.

The Verdict - loved it! The food was great. The waitstaff excellent. We will definitely come back to try the other delicious sounding dishes on the menu.

Michael Schumacher's F1 Comeback Called Off

I know. This is a food blog, right? What's the deal with a car racing post (and the sunset post)? Well, I really wanted an excuse to post this picture. It's of Michael Schumacher's '04 championship winning F1 Ferrari. I took it in Milan a couple of years ago - it is so cool in person. Michael was supposedly making his F1 comeback in Germany in 2 weeks to replace injured Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. But, the great one suffered some injuries of his own in a motorcycle race in February and hasn't recovered enough to withstand all of the G-forces that an F1 race car can dish out. So, this morning, the comeback was called off and instead of posting the picture for the race in 2 weeks, I'm posting it now just 'cause I want to.

Ferrari F1 car - Milan, Italy

Fried Chickpeas with Sage and Ham

We love chickpeas. We really, really do. And I'm talking the canned stuff too. Nobody has time to soak a bunch of peas overnight. Whenever I do, I forget about the stupid things and by the time I remember them they look like they would be better suited for Alexander Fleming's petri dish. So canned it is! I love fried chickpeas especially. This recipe is very simple and can be done on a weeknight easily. Feel free to substitute pancetta or prosciutto for the ham if you want. Or leave the ham out altogether for a vegetarian meal.

Fried Chickpeas with Sage and Ham

2 cans chickpeas
1/2 cup ham chunks
4 fresh sage leaves (roughly chopped)
sm. red onion (chopped)
olive oil
salt
pepper
fresh parsley
red wine vinegar
lemon juice


Drain the chickpeas and give them a quick rinse in a colander. Then pat them dry on paper towels. In a medium sautee pan, heat 2 tblspns of olive oil on med. high. Add chickpeas. Let them sit in the pan for a while before stirring so that they get nice and brown. Be careful as the oil may splatter a little - use a splatter guard. Then stir them around so that you get as much of the other side brown as you can. Move the peas to the sides and add the ham chunks to the center. When one side of the ham is brown, add the chopped red onion and the sage. Don't be afraid to let this cook a while. You are trying to fry it! Give it a stir every so often. When the sage is nice and crisp, you are done. Right at the end of the cooking, add the parsley and cook 30 secs. more to release the oils. Add a splash of red wine vinegar and a little lemon juice (start with a little juice and add more depending on your taste). Salt and pepper. Stir and serve.

I cooked this recipe on the grill outside with some yummy grilled pizza!

How 'bout a sunset!

Key West sunset. Taken from my cell phone.

Gorgonzola Shallot Mushroom Lime Sauce

This is the sauce that we used for the Chipotle Lime Pork Tenderloin. It was originally intended for steak - and some may find it too strong for pork - but we felt that it was a perfect counterpoint for the strong chipotle flavor of the pork. This is another Food Network recipe, from Everyday Italian. I changed a couple of things from the original due to pantry restrictions. And Jenni says it tastes better the 2nd day.

Gorgonzola Shallot Mushroom Lime Sauce

olive oil
1 shallot sliced thinly
8oz. cremeni mushrooms (sliced)
1 cup white wine
2 tblspn reserved pork/bacon juices (from prior recipe)
5oz. Gorgonzola cheese
splash of milk
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme
juice of 1 lime
salt
pepper

Sautee the shallots in a little olive oil on med. heat until starting to get soft. Add the mushrooms. While they are sauteeing, combine the gorgonzola, milk and mustard in a small food processor. Blend until smooth. You can add more milk if needed to smooth out the cheese. Add the white wine & reserved pork juices to the pan and simmer until almost all reduced. Then, add the cheese mixture to the pan and gentley heat thru. Add thyme and lime juice right at the end. Stir. Salt and pepper to taste.Spoon over pork and asparagus.

Chipotle Lime Pork Tenderloin

OK. Here we go! 1st recipe! Yea!

Now, this one is a mix of a stolen Food Network recipe with a little made up stuff too. I was originally going to make a pork tenderloin stuffed with dried apples but kinda messed up my carving. Got up a little early this hot Saturday morning in Chicago to start some prep work and may not have been quite awake yet. I wanted to make a couple of small incisions in the tenderloin to butterfly it to make it nice and thin for stuffing. But - as those of you who know me - I ain't too sharp when I don't have a belly full of coffee. I decided to cut all the way through the tenderloin - not once, but twice! So now I have some lovely pork strips. Well... now we gotta fix us some pork. Whipped up a little smokey, hot and citrusy marinade and played a quick 9 holes with my boy. Turned out great. Jennie-pie loved it. I served it with a Gorgonzola Shallot Mushroom Lime sauce (recipe in the next post), roasted sweet potato rounds and roasted asparagus. A nice Pinot Grigio went well with this dish.

Here's what I did:

Chipotle Lime Pork Tenderloin

1 3-4lb pork tenderloin
1 sm. can of chipotle chilies with adobo sauce
garlic powder
onion powder
salt
pepper
juice of 3 limes
juice of 1 orange
honey
fresh rosemary
fresh cilantro
4 slices of maple bacon
olive oil

Marinade: In an extra large zip lock bag, combine the lime juice (2 only - save 1 for later), orange juice, chilies with adobo sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, honey, salt and pepper. Add the pork tenderloin. Shake it up nicely, squeeze out the air, seal it up and stick it in the fridge. An hour minimum will do the trick. I left it in there, turning it once, for about 8 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat a large cast iron skillet and, when hot, add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. When the oil is hot, sear the tenderloin until golden brown on all sides, about 2 minutes per side. Remove from stove top. Take the maple bacon slices and lay over the top of the tenderloins. Add a little chopped rosemary and cilantro over the top. Carefully tent with aluminum foil. Transfer to the oven and continue to cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees F, 10 to 12 minutes longer. Pull it out of the oven & set aside to rest for about 5 minutes before slicing to serve.

Reserve 2 tablespoons of fat/juices for the accompanying sauce. Drain the fat off before placing on cutting board to rest.

Crisp up the bacon in the oven on broil for 2 minutes.

Slice thinly. Chop up the bacon and sprinkle it with the juice of the remaining lime over the top of the roasts.

Spoon a little of the sauce over the top of the pork and the asparagus.