Back to School BBQ

These are unbelievable Back Back Ribs with home-grilled Bourbon Barbecue Sauce. It is back to school this week so we decided to send the 2010 Summer out with a big flavor bang. Dorothy and I are college professors and we teach year-round, so "back to school" does not have the same meaning it did when I our kids were young, but the start of school still feels like the end of Summer to me. There is nothing better than spending an summer afternoon watching some baseball, having a few really cold ones, listening to Kenny Chesney's "Summertime" and letting some Baby Backs slow roast for three hours on the grill. Here's how we did it. 

I started in the morning by making a dry-rub. In a small bowl I mixed to together paprika, coarse Kosher salt, Turbinado sugar, light brown sugar, with chipotle and chili powders. I stretched out the Baby Backs on a tray, peeled off the interior membrane (don't forget to do that!) and doused the ribs with some sweet Kentucky Bourbon. With the ribs wet with bourbon, I sprinkled on the rub - both sides. I started a three-hour clock in my head from grill light to first bite. When that clock started, I covered the ribs in foil and lit the grill. I set the grill on low and placed the ribs on an upper grill rack. This method really turns your grill into an oven. The ribs never are exposed to direct flame, so they roast low and slow. 

Remember one of the virtues of the grill is that it forces you to slow down and put yourself on the pace of the grill. This is one of the main reasons that you would want to grill on a week-night during a busy week for instance. Your first thought is that you would not have time - but that is the whole point. The grill forces you to make time and while the grill is doing its work you can talk to your family, listen to some music, open a bottle of wine, watch a ball game - the grill helps you do the things that matter. The stuff we fail to do when we are in a fast-food hurry. You can also use a long grill time to overlap your other preparations. I had the Kentucky Bourbon out, so I decided to make a Bourbon BBQ Sauce and Dorothy made Bourbon BBQ Beans and Skillet Cornbread - the aromas were making the neighbors crazy! I started the sauce by grilling some onions in a skillet with butter and some bacon drippings from Dorothy's beans. When the onions were ready I threw in tomato paste and tomato sauce (instead of ketchup), molasses, honey, dry mustard, chipotle chilies, and then I poured in the bourbon - a lot of bourbon. I have not provided any measurements because I never really measure anything. I keep track of proportions. I know I like equal portions of honey and molasses, but I couldn't tell you how many tablespoons or ounces or cups I use. I use what looks and feels like enough and I taste and make adjustments along the way. This sauce was blended together and placed on the grill under the ribs. The sauce simmered for at least two hours.

The sauce tasted more like bourdon during the first hour, but by the second hour all the flavors came together into a thick sweet sauce with a kick. Meanwhile, Dorothy soaked a combination of Great Northern Beans and Red Beans, then simmered them through several cycles. I don't know all the ingredients she used, but at one point she cooked up some super thick cut bacon and she had onions chopped and garlic from the press - and the rest of the bourbon. The beans were baking during the last hour that the ribs were on the grill. 

    

And if that were not enough she had cornmeal, buttermilk, sugar, honey and I don't know what else going into a cast iron skillet to make ranch-style Cornbread. When it was done it was almost like cake. It had great cornbread flavor, but it was also sweet. Those BBQ ribs and beans had some big flavors but the Skillet Cornbread cooled everything off and balanced the feast.

After three hours it was time for the big unveiling of the Baby Backs. The phrase "fall off the bone" is probably over-used but is the correct description here. I opened the foil and brushed on some of the Bourbon BBQ Sauce and let it sit and soak it in.

According to the planet's orbital mechanics, the end of summer does not occur until the Equinox - but that is still about a month away. For others, the end of summer happens when the kicker's toe hits the football on the first kickoff of the football season. Still others think that summer ends when the State Fair ends, or on Labor Day. For us, because we are teachers, we don't think of the new year as January 1st, but as the first day of classes in "the fall." That is when summer ends. Sadly, summer ends for some when they cover and/or put away the grill - but this, of course, is a mortal sin of the grill. Grill season never ends - not with summer or fall or Thanksgiving or the Super Bowl or the Final Four or when pitcher and catchers report to spring training. Covering your grill against the elements is allowed - but never put away your old friend. We have so much to grill - and the grill creates for us plenty of time to do it.

So keep your tongs at the ready. Don't put away your charcoal, your pepper mills, your grill gloves, and your secret recipes. It is the end of summer - the perfect time to Grill It! Paul


One last thing: The St. Francis Turn Up the Heat Contest is over in two days! My YouTube video entry into the contest to become the Sonoma Grillmaster has more views than any other. You can see that video and the entire collection at http://www.youtube.com/user/StFrancisContest#p/f/21/Gr1Y4MUFX_U. 
The judges start their deliberation on September 1st, with the finalist notified by September 15th. Wish me luck!

Sunset Sail & Grill

Check out these bacon-wrapped Beef Filets with roasted peppers and Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Potato Salad! Best of all, this right-off-the-grill meal was prepared and eaten with Dorothy and Floyd on the Sailboat Allegre. 

The temperature topped 97 degrees today, so in an attempt to beat the heat we planned to sail and grill-out near sunset. We pushed off the dock at about 7:00 pm and sailed north toward Percy Priest Dam. There was only light winds - but enough to fill the jib as we turned southeast back toward the open water. After about an hour we sailed parallel to the lake's eastern edge and found a secluded cove. We guided Allegre into position at mid-channel and dropped the Danforth Anchor into about 12 feet of water. The sun disappeared over the cove's western shore and cast a silhouette of trees on the peninsula's horizon. It was time for the air to cool, the stars to come out and to light the grill.

Dorothy gave me a portable boat grill last year - but I had not used it yet. I first had to mount the grill support to the aft railing, then attached the grill itself. The grill has a small canister of propane (you can just see it attached under the grill and in front of the Merc outboard motor). My first attempt to get the propane flowing failed, but eventually the flames came alive hanging out over the water. Earlier in the day, Dorothy had prepared the Mesa Grill Potato Salad with sliced new potatoes, mayo, dijon mustard, fresh chopped poblano chili, green onion, red onion, cilantro and spiced with cayenne, chipotle, sea salt and ground black peppercorns. It is important to mix all the ingredients over the potatoes while they are still hot from cooking. This way all they flavors will absorb right into the potatoes. The dish is usually served cold, but mixing while its still hot makes all the difference! You can find the recipe in Bobby Flay's Boy Meets Grill. She put the complete potato salad in a large plastic container and into the cooler. I sliced up red, green and orange bell peppers and a Vidalia onion and threw them into a large mixing bowl. Over the peppers and onion went olive oil, salt and pepper. After mixing everything together well, I poured out approximately one third of the peppers and onion onto a sheet of foil and added more olive oil and seasoning. Then I folded the foil over and tucked in all sides to make a pouch. I made three pouches for the three sailors/diners on Allegre. Later on the boat, I just threw the pepper & onion filled foil pouches on the grill. You can see them in the photo hanging on to the stern of the boat. When they got good and hot, I pierced the foil so that steam/smoke could escape - this perfectly roasted the peppers and onions on the grill without ever actually touching them! Then came the bacon-wrapped beef filets

True grillers can bring excellent food off of any grill anywhere! These filets were seasoned with olive oil, sea salt and ground pepper and taken to the lake in a plastic container. The time spent in the container mixing with the olive oil before grilling made these guys almost fork-cut tender. And, as we know, everything goes better with bacon. Using bacon around steak is always a good idea. Not just because of the flavor, but as a thermometer - when the bacon is done on the outside, the steak is medium on the inside. By the time we got everything off the grill and onto the plates it was completely dark. We ate and toasted by the light of lantern hung from the boom, a candle and the stars. 

The wine came from Allegre's wine "cellar." It was a Cabernet from Black Opal that we were not sure would be good, since it had been on the sailboat all summer. Wine should not be agitated. It should not get vibration or frequent sloshing. The wine bottle should also lay on its side in a cool dark place. When the bottle is on its side the wine inside will come in contact with the cork and keep it moist. If the cork dries out, it will allow air in the bottle and ruin the wine. This is why standing a bottle of wine up on top of the refrigerator is the worst place to keep your wine because the cork will dry and the fridge constantly vibrates. Some people prefer a screw-top to avoid the whole cork-dry problem. Me, I like the ceremony of opening a bottle of wine with a cork. This Cab had been on its side in a cool dark place, but  had been rocking in the waves in the boat for months. But - the wine was terrific and paired well with those big grill flavors of steak, peppers and spices in the potato salad. Once in the glass, you do want the wine to swirl so that air mixes in and brings out the aroma and flavor. On the sailboat, the waves took care of the wine swirling for us. 

The prominent mid-summer stars are Altair, Deneb and Vega. These three form the "Summer Triangle." Altair is the one farthest South, Deneb is East and Vega is West. If you draw a line in your mind from Altair up between Deneb and Vega that line points to Polaris, the North Star. Knowing the direction of North is important to sailors and pilots. There was not a cloud in the sky as I turned off the grill fire. The Summer Triangle stood directly over the Allegre in the cove, so we named it The Summer Triangle Cove then I hoisted the Danforth from the bottom of the lake, kept the line through the triangle that points North on my right and sailed to the harbor lights on the horizon.

I grill on land and sea. I will have to figure out how it do it in the air as well! But no matter where you are - grill it! Paul

Please check out the St. Francis "Turn Up The Heat" contest and take a look at my video. I am trying to win a return trip to the St. Francis winery in Sonoma and the title of Grill Master - so follow this link to the website and let me know what you think.  

http://www.youtube.com/user/StFrancisContest#p/a/f/1/Gr1Y4MUFX_U