Happy Monday to you!  I hope you had a fantastic weekend.  Let’s just say mine was action packed to say the least. From blog consulting, soccer registration, grocery shopping, house cleaning, deck designing, watching Masters Golf and of course eating some yummy food – the weekend was gone super fast.

On Friday, I had to work late into the night on a very big blog transformation.  I have to say it was quite exciting and maybe one of the biggest changes I have worked on recently. Choosing Raw was the blog and Gena was going for a more professional look to incorporate her counseling practice as well as her blog.  I have been working on the design and layout for quite some time and because of her “ONE” year blogiversary - she was ready for the switch.

Before Transformation

After Transformation

Friday Night Sunset

As I was sitting on the couch, I looked out the windows and noticed a pretty view of the sunset.

Masters Golf and Zesty In Law Delivers

OK, let’s be honest… the masters final round was exciting.  From great shots to missed putts – it was close until the last couple of holes.  Tiger woods struggled with the flat stick and Phil Mickelson seemed to make everything in sight.  Phil played great and really did deserve the “green jacket”.  Let’s rewind for a second to Saturday night.  As I was sitting on the couch watching the FOOD Network and eating some potato chips, the phone rang.  It was zesty in law inviting the family over to watch the golf and have some snacks.  I immediately signed up with a “Hell” yes and was excited to see what tomorrow would bring.  The mention of “ribs and stuff” on the phone was enough to get me itching to get there.   Did I mention I love ribs?

When you think of snacks and ribs – you think of small finger foods that are somewhat generic.  Well lets just say this extravaganza was not generic.  Here is a quick glance at the menu.

1. Spicy Thai Shrimp
2. Smokey BBQ Ribs with Molasses and Hoisin
3. Pasta with Cream and Bacon
4. Israel Couscous with Braised Lamb

There were other courses planned but everyone was so full.  The food was amazing.  The shrimp was so flavorful.  The coconut milk balanced with the hot chilies was superb.  I could have devoured this whole plate.

The ribs – well they are RIBS!!  Super flavor and great texture.

The pasta was really nice.  Can you really go wrong with cream and bacon?  I think not.  I took an extra large helping because I love this combination so much.  The fresh herbs included parsley and basil as well as a little dry thyme.  Delicious!

The final dish, I have to be honest I was excited to try as I have never tried Israel couscous and of course I adore lamb.  After testing it, I was thrilled.  Cleaned off the plate and kept smiling.

As you have already noticed, this post was not a traditional zesty post but I just felt  that it was necessary to recap some exciting things from the weekend just past.  Feel free to let me know your thoughts and comments.

Have a great Monday and I will see you all on Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Monday! Did anyone watch the super bowl? What did you think of it? I thought it was a pretty good game as far as entertainment went. I didn’t really have a favorite team playing so I was somewhat non biased as to who I was hoping to win. The only thing I was really hoping for is the “FOOD“.

Let’s just say that Zesty In-law delivers yet again.  It seems like time after time zesty in law delivers amazing food and it really doesn’t even matter if the TV is on for me.  Lats night’s line up was no different.  You can sum this up as MAN FOOD night.  Boy was it good.  Around 11:00 pm when I left to come home I could barely waddle my way out to the car.

Menu

• Pulled Pork Sliders on homemade rolls
• Fresh baked beans
• Pork Side Ribs from the Grill
• Beef Ribs with Brandy, Molasses and Coffee ( Check out the size of these things )

I was so excited to see what was on the menu and I knew I would not be disappointed.  The flavors of the food was amazing.  You cannot beat the grill no matter if it is snowing out or not.  I was really impressed with the pulled pork…. delicious and I am pretty sure I could have had 10 little sandwiches.  I stopped at 3 just so I would not look like a total PIG.

I have a couple of big announcements to make this week so stay tuned as one of them may be related to Valentine’s day.  Have a great Monday and be safe.

Take care

zesty

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It’s Friday again!  Thursday was somewhat of a different day where I was completely snowed in.  It has been snowing for about 30 hours with wind gusts of over 60 MPH.  Needless to say, it would be entertaining to show you the snow drifts in front of the house but I was not able to get out to do that.  Stay tuned for those pictures!

For our New Year’s Eve gathering I tried a new recipe for some pork ribs.  As you all know by now, ribs are one of my favorite things to eat.  I love them!  Although this recipe did take a long time to prepare, it was well worth the wait.  These were fall off the bone and the flavor was amazing.

Ingredients

• 2 Racks of Pork Ribs
• 1/3 Cup Molasses
• 1/2 Cup Hoisin Sauce
• 2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
• 2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
• 1/8 Cup Water
• 1/8 Cup Apple Juice
• Cracked Black Pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 250 Degrees.



2. Prepare ribs by cleaning the silver skin on the back if visible
3. Season with Cracked Black Pepper



4. Place ribs in a roasting pan.
5. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix together.
6. Pour sauce over the ribs and cover.  Cook for 3 hours.



7. Remove lid, baste ribs and cook for 40 minutes without lid



8. Let sit for 15 minutes, cut ribs.





9. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: To ensure tender ribs regardless of the method of cooking, cook them slowly.  Ribs are very fibrous so you need the slow temperature cooking to break the meat down.  In addition, always check the back of the ribs for the silver skin.  If visible make a small cut in the skin and pull it off with your hand.

The flavor of these ribs were very rich and dynamic.  They were not too sweet despite all the sugar in the sauce.  By cooking them for the last 40 minutes with no lid – the crust formed on the outside paired with the juicy tender inside was a match made in heaven.

I hope you have a great Friday!  Any big plans for the weekend? It looks like I will be shoveling for a while.

Take care

zesty

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Yes it’s true!!  Slow Roasted Cajun Ribs were on the menu last night.  I was going to do them in the slow cooker but I totally forgot in the morning to put them in so I decided we would have a late supper and I would slow roast them after work.  This process takes a bit of time but like anything…. good things are worth the wait! I have a previous post sharing tips while cooking ribs, all the tips still apply however these ribs will utilize the oven as well as a two step basting process.

Ingredients ( Dry Rub)

• 3 Tbsp Dried Thyme
• 2 Tbsp Paprika
• 2 Tbsp Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Ground Cumin
• 1 Tbsp Dry Mustard
• 1 Tbsp Hot Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 Tsp Salt

Ingredients ( Sauce)

• 1/4 Cup Molasses
• 1 Tbsp, Soy Sauce
• 1 Tsp. Sweet Chili Sauce

Method

1. Prepare the meat and remove any silver skin to allow the meat to breakdown and become tender while cooking. Preheat oven at 250 degrees.



2. Add dry rub mixture all over and meat and ensure you rub it in well. This will allow the flavours to penetrate the meat as it cooks. If you have time you can leave the rub on all day or even over night. I just let it sit about 20 minutes.



3. After 90 minutes of cooking – I add the sauce to the top of the meat. Brush the glaze all over the meat and make sure that it is evenly distributed over the meat. This will form a nice crust to the top of the ribs.



4. After 2 hours and 20 minutes in the oven at the low tempreature. I like to blast the heat to 450 degrees for about 10-15 minutes and really build the crust on the meat. By this time the meat has already pulled away from the bone and is very juicy. The higher tempreature for the short burst just adds more flavor to the surface of the ribs.

Once out of the oven – I like to let the ribs sit there for about 10-15 minutes so that the juices will travel back to the center of the meat and ensure the succulent flavor you come to expect from pork ribs.

A great side dish with ribs is a nice coleslaw. I just grated some cabbage and some carrot then sprinkled in some cracked black pepper and red pepper flakes and used a store bought dressing and called it a coleslaw. Yesterday’s french fries would also be a nice treat beside this ribs. Now the only thing left to do is grab your favorite drink, a handful of napkins and ENJOY. Let me know your favorite sauce that you use when you make ribs.

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How to make great BBQ ribs. Easy tips and tricks for great ribs.

The following tips and techniques are things I have learned in the past from trial and error as well as reading alot of great cookbooks and watching alot of chefs on TV.  This is not new information but i hope I can summaraize alot of the major tips to making your next batch of ribs simply sensational.

It’s not hard to make great BBQ, and I hope to help you understand the how’s and why’s of BBQ, so your next batch of BBQ ribs will be unbeatable.

5 Tips for great BBQ ribs

1. No boiling of your ribs! Although it works I find the ribs much blander and more one dimensional when cooked this way. What you really want to do is sort of roast the meat. BBQ is a low heat method of roasting, and by dry roasting will concentrate the great flavors of the meat.

2. Low and slow! The secret to tender BBQ ribs is a long cooking time over a low temperature. You want to keep the heat between 250 and 300. Lower than 250 and you risk drying the meat, and higher than 300 is getting too hot for tenderizing cooking.

3. Take off the silver skin. The silver skin is a membrane that is attached to the underside of the bones. You can’t chew it and marinades, rubs and sauces can’t penetrate it. It’s got to go. Take a knife to slice it then grab it with your fingers and peel the rest. Season the ribs the night before you plan on cooking them. Rub whatever spice rub you’re using on the meat the night before, to give it enough time to penetrate and flavor the meat.  One of my favorite rubs as I have mentioned earlier can be found here.

4. Cook them over indirect smoky heat. I don’t have anything very fancy so I just put some wood chips in a homemade tin foil pouch adding 2 parts dry and 1 part wet to start the smoking process and then sealing the pouch and placing it directly on the fire.  The real key is indirect heat at the right tempreature.  There are often times when I don’t have smoke – they are just not quite as flavorful but don’t get me wrong – they are still yummy!

5. Don’t sauce until the ribs are done. When they are done, heat the grill up to medium and grill the sauced ribs for a few minutes.  If you do it any earlier the sugar from the sauce is just going to cause the ribs to burn – and we don’t do that!

Follow these steps and let me know if you have better tasting ribs or if you have other ideas that I may have missed – i would love to know about them.  Send me email or add a comment. Or send me some ribs in the mail.

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