I've really got to learn to slow my roll when it comes to cooking on the grill - especially pork. I'm sure many of us remember the pork chops from our childhood: gray, parched and floppy, I always thought pork tasted like an ashtray. I'm not trying to call out my Mom here, but suffice it to say that nobody ever asked for pork chops when I was growing up (Mom's lasagna, though, is a completely different story).
Watching Alton Brown extol the virtues of brining made me curious about exactly how much better brined meat actually is. An informal poll of some friends yielded mixed results - "too salty", "too salty", "too salty" and "oh my god, it was awesome". So I decided to try it for myself.
I had some boneless pork ribs that I picked up at Wegman's for something like $3, a great price for a really uninspired cut of meat. I filled a medium-sized bowl with about 3 cups of water, a healthy dose of kosher salt, and a few tablespoons of white sugar, and let my pork sit overnight. I admit that I probably went a little easy on the salt, as it was my first time and experience has shown me that overdoing things doesn't usually work to my benefit (see the hoisin sauce debacle below).
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I've been making my own barbecue sauce for months now. It's easy, quick, and best of all, you can make it the way YOU want it - like a healthy dose of honey? Done. Prefer thin and vinegary? You've got it.
I've been loyal to a recipe from Everyday Food, which makes a sweet and tangy sauce, but for some reason I decided to try an Ina Garten recipe this time around, which I found at Smitten Kitchen.
And I learned my first lesson of the day: I don't like hoisin sauce. and more to the point, I probably should have smelled it before I dumped a whole cup of it into my sauce, because even the smell of hoisin sauce makes me grimace and gag. Who knew? I have very rarely met an Asian ingredient that I didn't like.
So here is the BBQ sauce recipe I ended up using, and it's a good one, modified slightly to my taste:
Barbecue Sauce (adapted from Great Food Fast)
1/2 cup ketchup or chili sauce
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
3 minced garlic cloves (or a heaping spoonful of minced garlic in olive oil)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon sriracha (or any hot sauce)
Simmer all ingredients together in a small sauce pan until reduced to about 1 and 1/4 cups (about 5 to 7 minutes).
I turned one side of the grill to high, and the other to medium low, seasoned the pork with sea salt and pepper, and first got a nice sear on it on the hot side of the grill. Then moved it to the low side and let it cook for about 15-20 minutes before I started basting. Because of the high sugar content of the sauce, you don't want to baste too early because the sauce will burn.
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I came across purple potatoes at Wegman's the other day, and they instantly triggered a flashback to a purple potato recipe I saw at (again) Smitten Kitchen. The colors jumped out at me from the page (go check out her photos, they are to die for!), and I decided to go for it.
Here's the recipe:
Michael Anthony’s Fork-Crushed Purple Majesty Potatoes
New York Magazine
Serves 4
1 lb. Purple Majesty Potatoes, washed
4 small shallots, minced
2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
6 tablespoons good extra-virgin olive oil (we used half, and it was plenty for us)
Fleur de sel to taste
White pepper to taste
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
In a large pot, cook potatoes with skins on in heavily salted boiling water until tender, approximately 15 minutes. Remove potatoes from pot, and peel them while still warm. Place potatoes in a large bowl and, using a fork, gently smash them, maintaining a fairly chunky consistency. Fold in minced shallots, lemon juice, olive oil, fleur de sel, and white pepper. Finish with parsley.
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I served the ribs and the potatoes with sweet baby corn, a slice of crisp watermelon, and a side salad of heirloom tomatoes, baby english cucumber, red onion, crumbled blue cheese and my favorite salad dressing/marinade EVER: Garlic Expressions.
It may have been the most colorful meal ever. And I'm officially now a brining convert - that was some of the juiciest pork I've ever had! A perfect summer meal which went beautifully with an ice-cold Corona (then again, what DOESN'T?!).
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