Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Food, Drink and Cooking Another "general" food thread

me too on the heat and eating thing, Joe. Lordy it's hard to eat much in this heat!

I've got fresh vegetables I need to use up in preparation of company coming (we'll be eating out a lot) so I think I'll just cook the corn along with fresh greens beans and garlic mashed potatoes with sage gravy and sliced tomatoes all gotten from the farmers market yesterday. Add fresh fruit and bread from the local bakery too.

Barbecue sounds good!
I finally broke down and had some recently (festival downtown) but it was too fatty.

I've been making a Pork Vindaloo for several years using a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey. It's my wife's favorite treat! (I love it, also!) Here's a link to a copy: Pork Vindaloo

Vindaloo comes from the Goa region of India, which was colonized by the Portuguese. Catholicism is the predominant religion, so there is no taboo on the consumption of pork. The use of vinegar came from the Portuguese influence, but the hot spices are native Indian.

Even though yesterday was the first day of summer, I had the craving for a big pot of thick, rich soup. I harvested our first crop of Swiss Chard from our community garden plot and made a wonderful Curried Red Lentil and Swiss Chard soup. It was fantastic!

Curried Red Lentil & Swiss Chard Soup

Snargle, thanks for the history on the Vindaloo! Indian Pork struck me as not quite "Kosher", now I know how it works


Welp, just for the hell of it I used a hotel pan the same size as the one I roast the ribs in and soaked pecan chips and put them under the ribs. The ribs came out dryer than usual, steam has a tendency to pull moisture from the meat, I have no idea how that chemistry works, but I wont try it again in that oven.
It's a totally unvented wall oven out in my summer kitchen. I will definitely try it again in a regular oven though.

Joe, I don't eat veal either but lambs are not abused the way veal calves are. Most New Zealand Lamb is range reared, they get to see the sunshine, feel the rain, and eat the flowers. Even though their lives are not long they get to enjoy them. A veal barn is an abomination.

Greger,
The soaked wood chips go on the white hot BBQ coals to add flavor. I've never heard of anyone using them in an indoor oven before. I can assure you that water in the drip pan in a BBQ will make both beef and pork ribs juicer than just using indirect heat. When you mentioned that you prefer to prepare them in an oven as opposed to a BBQ, I wondered if placing a pan of water- like when you bake a cheesecake- on the lowest rack would make the ribs moist. I imagine that placing soaked wood chips in an oven would dry out the meat. For a hickory smoked flavor using an indoor range oven, I'd suggest liquid smoke.
Joe

I saw a America's test Kitchen show on ribs...
nearly as I can remember, they did a spice rub
cooked on indirect heat on the BBQ for maybe 1.5 hour
and then tightly wrapped it in aluminum foil and stuck it in a medium heat oven Maybe another 1.5 hours.... where the steam that was kept in by the foil did it's job of tenderizing the meat.

Joe, it's not exactly an indoor oven, it's out in the summer kitchen. Most restaurants that serve ribs use the Alto Sham ovens I linked to on the previous page. They are a very low heat unvented professional oven. They use trays of soaked woodchips and probably operate right at 200 degrees, You don't actually have to create smoke to achieve a smoked flavor. For "real" barbecuing I use natural lump charcoal and a Big Green Egg, I just thought I'd give the waterpan a try yesterday but I wasn't exactly thrilled with the results. Roasting meat is best done with dry heat.
I would never use a chemical concoction like liquid smoke!

Greger,
Thanks for educating me. I was a little bit worried there for a moment. I didn't know that anyone put soaked wood chips in any oven. My bad. The Alto Sham ovens are out of this peasant's price range, but if I hit "Power Ball," you know what's on top of my list. I'm used to the open pit BBQ. East of the Mississippi it's pork, and west it's beef. Most of the east of the Miss use an open pit BBQ's and a vinegar tomato baste. BBQ is BBQ. A drop or two or liquid smoke in the mix isn't going to effect the statistics significantly, but it will impart a hickory taste. I used it once or twice, but prefer hickory or mesquite wood. I never thought about pecan. Thanks. I've smoked trout with apple wood, however. No one ever complained, including the ones that don't like fish. Bottom line: it has to taste good and people enjoy it. We're talking BBQ, and not poetry here.
Joe

Ardy,
I don't watch TV. I like spice rubs and use them, but the TV guys got it half-ess backwards. BBQ follows for flavor- BBQ flavor.
Joe

LOL Joe like you said it aint poetry. Heavy smoke for an hour then into the oven works as well as the other way around. Don't knock it til you try it!
Sham ovens are pricey but if you toy with times and temps you can achieve the same thing in any oven. The whole idea is that collagen breaks down at 200 degrees so you want to bring the internal temp up to exactly 200 degrees as slowly as possible without overcooking the outside of the meat. That's why the indirect heat with the ribs. The only cut of beef that really lends itself to this method is the brisket, pork shoulder works best from the pig. I kept having trouble getting my ribs tender with gas and charcoal, I like them falling off the bone, so I switched to the oven completely.

In the hardwood lumber business there is NO difference between Hickory and Pecan. They don't even separate them at the sawmill. There is a big difference in the flavor of the smoke though. Buy a bag of Pecan Chips and you'll see.