Slow Cooker Pork Ribs

Wow!  So easy and soooo good!  Here's an easy fall-off-the-bone way to prepare delicious pulled pork meat for a crazy good dinner.

Here's what you'll need:

1 rack of meaty bone-in pork ribs, cut into smaller sections so it will all fit in your crockpot
4 or 5 bottles of beer, or enough to cover the ribs once in the pot (I used Shiner Cheer - malty, peachy, cinnamon-y; but you can use whatever you choose - the original recipe called for PBR)
4 or 5 smashed garlic cloves
10 or so whole peppercorns
4 or 5 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 tsp or so of kosher salt
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce

Put everything except the BBQ sauce in the crockpot and cook for 8 hours on low.

Eight hours later, pull the ribs from the pot.  If the meat falls off the bone, you've succeeded!  Continue pulling the meat off (super easy) and cull through it with your fingers to find any other bone or marrow bits - finger licking is encouraged.

Place the meat in a shallow pan and toss with your favorite BBQ sauce.  Add a bit more salt and some pepper.  I also added a sliced fresh jalapeno and some jalapeno dusting salt.  Put the pan in a 350 oven for about 15 minutes until everything is hot and sizzling.

Put on hamburger buns for sandwiches or just eat in a big pile.  YUM!

Bayou Risotto

This is a recipe that I cut out of the Dallas Morning News on Thursday, August 14, 1986...no eidetic memory, here...the date's on the corner of the clipping.  The recipe is really pretty simple and totally delicious.  It's great for a dinner party or just for two - with plenty of leftovers the next day.

What you'll need:

6 slices of bacon, diced (I usually use big thick-slice smoked bacon)

1 cup of uncooked rice

3/4 cup chopped yellow onion

2 medium garlic cloves, crushed and minced

1 14 oz can chicken broth (you might need a second can - just in case)

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 tsp coarse black pepper

Hot pepper sauce, to taste (Texas Pete's or Louisiana Sunshine)

1 cup frozen whole okra, thawed, drained and cut into inch-long bits (discard stems and tips)

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 lb of cooked, cleaned shrimp (tails removed)

Here's what you do:

Cook bacon in large saucepan or stew pot (something with a lid) until crisp and golden.  Add rice, onion and garlic.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, 3-4 minutes or until rice is translucent and onion is tender.

Add enough water to broth to make 2 1/2 cups; add to saucepan with green pepper, black pepper and hot pepper sauce.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and cover tightly, simmering for about 20 minutes.   Check on the rice at about the 15 minute mark.  If the mixture is getting sticky, just add more liquid - I usually have to pop open another can of chicken broth and add about half of it.

When the rice is just tender, stir in the okra, shrimp, and tomato.  Remove from heat and let stand, covered, until the rest of the liquid is absorbed...about 5-8 minutes.

Makes about 6 servings.

YUM!!!

Colorado Hatch Green Chili Sauce

It's Fall, and hatch green chilies are all over the place - at least here in Colorado.  Little corner markets have big roasters out front, and the aroma is mouth-watering and really puts me in the mood for some homemade green chili sauce.

Colorado Hatch Green Chili Sauce

Five or six good sized hatch green chilies\
Two or three red Fresno peppers (just for color and extra flavor).
A small pre-cooked pork chop (a day or two in advance, I'll have Joe grill some pork chops, and I'll save a small one back for this recipe)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 can chicken broth
Big bowl of ice water

First, chop (or food process) the pork chop into tiny pieces.

Next, we're going to char the chilies.  You can do this on a sheet pan under the broiler (which until this year I've always done) or you can char them right on your gas cooktop.  Yay!, I have a gas stove so I tried it - sooooo easy.  Just make sure you have the vent/fan on, or at least the number to the fire department.

Whichever method you choose, leave the peppers on (or under) the heat until they're bubbly, charred, soft, and sizzling.

As you take them off the fire, plunge them into a bowl filled with ice water.  The cold shrinks up the pepper from the skin and makes them really easy to peel...and you won't have to visit the burn unit.

Peel the peppers with your fingers, leaving some of the char - for that good smoky flavor.  Cut off the tops and discard with most of the seeds.  The more seeds you leave, the hotter the final product.  Slice up the peppers and finely chop them; add them to the pork chop.

Now it's time for the roux.  

Place the butter and the flour in the pot and melt/mix on medium high heat.  Once all the butter has melted and mixed with the flour, slowly pour in the chicken broth while constantly stirring.  Patience. Patience.  The magic happens at about the 4-5 minute mark; the sauce begins to thicken.  When it's a lot like pancake batter, dump the chilies and pork chop into the pot and turn down the heat.  Mix everything together and let it cook down for about 20 minutes.

Once it's all heated through, bubbling and driving you mad with the aroma, you can remove from heat and let cool.  I served this with Mexican breaded chicken tenders and fresh sliced tomatoes.  Store in the fridge - if you have any leftovers.

Peachy Keen Green Chili Bacon Jam

Okay, here's one for you.

Remember the other day when I bought some green chili bacon?  Well a while back, BFF Cindy, was going on and on about a particular menu item at the Imperial Taproom in Canyon, Texas that came with bacon/peach jam.  Raved about it.  Made me drool a bit.  So I had an idea.  What if I used the green chili bacon to make bacon/peach jam.  BINGO!

Here's what you need:

4-5 strips of green chili bacon, cut into small pieces (if you can't find this bacon, I'm sure good quality smoked bacon and a bit of chipotle or green chili rub will get you close)
4 peaches, about a lb, peeled, pitted and chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
3 tbs green chili sauce (I use 505 brand)
About 5 hours of your time

Stir the peaches, sugars, and lemon juice together in a saucepan and let sit for an hour (no heat).  You want all the juice from the peaches to melt the sugars and form sort of a syrup.

After the peaches have juiced themselves, turn on the burner and get them to a full boil.  Reduce the heat and continue boiling for about 30 minutes.  You want the peaches to start breaking down and the syrup to start congealing.  At about 25 minutes, spoon in the green chilis.  Stir.

Meanwhile, render the fat from the bacon over medium low heat.  Rendering means cooking - but NOT crisping - the bacon.  You'll have to watch the skillet, but you can tell when the fat is rendered...it's not as sizzly and the fat begins to brown.

When you're comfortable with your bacon (although, I am always comfortable with bacon) drain it on a paper towel and pour off all but about a tablespoon of the fat in the skillet.  Add the now syrupy peaches to the skillet and turn the heat down to low.

Let this mixture cook on low for about 3.5 hours, stirring occasionally.

When the peaches are pretty much mush and the sticky syrups are like, well, jam, remove from the heat and pop into a blender for a quick pulse to smooth out the chunky bits.

I'm serving mine tonight with a chipotle-rubbed tenderloin.  Enjoy!

Green Chili Bacon Chipotle Sauced Shrimp

On a recent trip to Breckenridge, we four friends picked a chipotle shrimp appetizer.  It was fabulous.

They were delicious.  Plump, spicy, creamy...they ticked the boxes.

At the grocery store yesterday, I noticed some nice large in-shell shrimp in the case.  I thought, "Oh, hellz yes!"  As I was standing there, I heard someone - not too far away - in front of the butcher case ask for a pound of hatch green chili bacon. Whaaaaaaat?  I actually felt the light bulb go off.

I bought the shrimp, the bacon, a can of chipoltes, a tub of sour cream and some avocados.  Here's what I did with them:

Green Chili Bacon Chipotle Sauced Shrimp

1 lb large cleaned and shelled shrimp (I took the tails off because I'd rather eat than work)
5 strips hatch green chili bacon, diced and fried crisp (if you can't find the bacon, you could always just add some green chili into the skillet with regular bacon)
1 can chipotles with sauce
1 tbs lime juice
2 cups sour cream
salt and pepper

In a bowl, salt and pepper the shrimp (I also added a dash of onion powder and a few shakes of garlic salt, but that's just me.)

Dice and fry the bacon.

Drain on a paper towel and pour off all but about a tablespoon of the grease. Put the bacon in a bowl.  Add the shrimp to the skillet and cook until they've curled up their little tails, and they're nice and pink.  Drain the cooked shrimp on a paper towel and add them to the bacon, toss.

Pour the chipotles into a blender along with the sauce, the sour cream, the lime juice and some salt and blend until smooth.  I didn't quite have enough sour cream so I used some mayo and some ranch dressing...worked just as well.

Pour the mixture into a squeeze bottle.  Now here's the thing...if you want to, you can toss the bacon and the shrimp with the sauce, or you can drizzle it lightly on the shrimp and add more as you like from the squeeze bottle.

I topped the shrimp with some slices avocados and a handful of cotija cheese.

This checked ALL the boxes!

Best/Easiest Grilling Marinade...EVER

So simple.  So versatile.  Oh, so very good!  This easy marinade works on pork, beef, chicken, even fish.  Thirty minutes in a jumbo plastic baggie, and BAM, you're ready to cook!

One count (about an ounce) for every 3-4 ounces of meat/fish.  Four chicken breasts?  About a four count pour.  Two 10oz sirloins?   About a five or six count pour.

Place meat in the big baggie and add each of the following using the appropriate count:

vegetable oil
soy sauce
cooking sherry

Then for every piece of meat, shake in a couple of good shakes of garlic salt.

Seal bag and mix all together.  Pound - just a bit - on the meat to help work in the marinade and break down tendons/ligaments, etc.  Let sit at room temp for about 30 minutes, then grill.  That's it.  So simple.

Salmon Quinoa Salad

Recently while we were in Portland, Oregon, we had dinner at a lovely restaurant called Q. Their beer list was interesting; their menu was fabulous. Husband Joe and I shared a small plate of bacon-wrapped dates and a butter leaf lettuce salad. Frankly, I don’t remember what he had, but I had a spice-rubbed salmon over a quinoa salad that was to die for. The salad was so bright and tasty, I couldn’t wait to get my fork back in there for another bite.

Now, I’m not a huge fan of quinoa. And whenever I try to make it, it just doesn’t come out quite right. I failed again when I tried recreating this salad at home. But I got the rest of the salad right. Next time I make it, I think I’ll make it with pearl couscous. Fuck Quinoa!

So, while it’s kind of vague and fluid, here’s my recipe:

Cooked salmon from the deli section at the grocery store (you absolutely could grill it yourself). I think Honey Smoked Salmon would work just as well. It all depends on just how lazy you are.
2-3 cups cooked quinoa (if you can make it), or couscous, or whatever starch you want to use.
Dozen or so grape tomatoes, halved
½ cup sliced black olives
¾ cup chopped cucumber
½ chopped pecans or peanuts
¾ cup of sweet corn (I microwaved one cob and sliced the corn off of it). You could also use frozen corn or even roasted corn.
¼ cup thinly sliced yellow and orange bell peppers (I use the minis)
Just a few thin slices of fresh jalapenos and/or fresno peppers
2 teaspoons of lime juice
Enough of some kind of creamy vinaigrette to lightly coat ingredients
Dash of garlic salt
Salt and pepper to taste

Take the skin off of the salmon and shred into large salad bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss to coat. Ta-da! Salad can be served warm or cold.

Let me know if you come up with easy quinoa or any other ingredients that could go in this salad!