Eat Your Veggies - Part 2

I suspect brussels sprouts are possibly the most hated vegetable on earth. And why not? On the rare occasions they were served they were presented as overcooked, mushy, smelly green things. Several years ago when I discovered the pleasures of roasted vegetables, brussels sprouts became more acceptable. But it was when I had dinner at Rivoli, in Berkeley, that the scales really fell from my eyes (and tastebuds.) These sprouts were shredded and caramelized in brown butter, with freshly squeezed lemon juice at the finish. On the way out I stuck my head into the pass-through and asked the line cooks how to make my own sprouts and they willingly gave me the scoop.

In order to take some pictures of the work in progress, I cooked you some
sprouts. I hope you enjoy them!

Ingredients: 4 oz or 6 brussels sprouts per person
About 1 tablespoon or so butter per serving
salt and pepper to taste
good squeeze of lemon juice

Slice your sprouts about 1/8" or so thick.

Brown your butter in the skillet over medium heat. Be very careful not to burn it. This photo shows how brown I let the butter get.

Let the sprouts caramelize, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to keep from burning. When the desired tenderness and caramelization have been reached, shake on salt and pepper to taste and off-heat, squeeze the lemon juice all over. Stir to delaze the pan and serve.

Eat Your Veggies, Part 1

Stockton is probably the asparagus capital of the world; at least that is the rumor. It has also been the home of the Asparagus Festival for over 20 years now, drawing large flocks of asparagus lovers. Ok, they love to eat deep fried asparagus and drink aspara-ritas. And beer. I have worked as a volunteer several times as well as lay my money down as a paying guest. I hadn't gone in a while, but this year The Tubes, a crazy band from the 70's and 80's (think White Punks on Dope) were coming to the festival and I had to be there, with Paul and Bob and Rita as my sidekicks. The show was great and I totally skipped the deep fried asparagus, while unfortunately buying a completely tasteless gyro sandwich. Just how does that happen??? I mean the tasteless part.

I do like asparagus, although the steamed variety, even with mayo on the side, is pretty boring. I like my spears roasted or grilled, with olive oil and whatever seasoning sounds good to me at the time.

The weather hasn't gotten hot yet here so warming up the oven isn't a problem for me. A nice hot oven, say 450°, will do the trick. Snap off the hard fibrous ends of the spears and put the asparagus in a baking pan with olive oil and salt and pepper or your favorite seasoning. Bake for 7 minutes, then shake the pan to flip the asparagus around and then bake another 5 minutes
or so, checking for tenderness with the tip of a sharp knife. There will be caramelized spots. This works best for thick spears, not pencil thin ones, which cook much faster. If you use the thin ones, just check them sooner.

You can grill asparagus also, but lay them across the grates so they don't fall through. Skewering 3 or 4 or 5 together crosswise, then oiling and seasoning your asparagus before placing them on the grill works nicely. I like to grill over indirect high heat to avoid flameups. Just check the veg progress in a few minutes.

Now these are Spears that can enhance your life! Enjoy.

Under Pressure, Part Dos

This morning I asked Paul to go to Kinder's and buy some peppered bacon. Kinder's is on a street nicknamed the Miracle Mile, and has a small meat case. Their bacon is thick sliced and flavorful. Their barbequed chicken quarters are smoky and heavenly. So after I got home from work he called to tell me he'd bought some ribs for us to throw on the grill.

It was a nice little rack, with just seven bones, and meaty. Now as we all know, real bbq is smoked low and slow. For hours. Endlessly. Grilled ribs are tough and not that much fun to eat. We wouldn't be eating real bbq tonight, and tough and stringy sounded bad. Here's what I did.

I haven't cooked ribs in several years, but what I used to do was simmer the ribs in water until they were tender and then throw the on the grill. What blasphemy! I actually got the idea from the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes," where they tended the big pot of meat simmering outside the cafe. I didn't want to leach the flavor of the meat out into the water, so I decided to use my pressure cooker, which doesn't entail submerging your food. My cooker has a steaming plate, so I placed the ribs on top of the plate and added just enought water to cover the plate. So easy! I closed up my cooker, brought it up to high pressure and kept it there for 30 minutes, then utilized the quick release by pressing down on the valve. The ribs were just tender, and one rib bone fell out. You can cook them a little longer if you want, but it's hard to wrestle a rack around on the grill when it's falling apart.

An old friend, Dr. Jack, used to grill his chicken by cooking on layer upon layer of bbq sauce after the pieces were done. Turning every few minutes after laying on the sauce built up loads of flavor. I used that trick with my ribs. I basted both sides with sauce (use your favorite kind) then laid the rack down over indirect heat. I turned it every 4 or 5 minutes, brushing on more sauce, about 6 times. Go wild if you want. I basically stopped when the rest of dinner was ready.

Now, is this method as good as ribs smoked for 12 hours or more? What a silly question! No way, now how! But they were tasty and if you have a pressure cooker the process is a snap!