Et Tu Que?

Barbeque, BBQ, que or simply Q; it all means the same thing. Cuts of meat cooked at a comparatively low temperature for long periods of time. The most common targets are beef brisket, chickens (whole or quartered) pork shoulder and of course ribs.

I picked up a rack of spare ribs at the store and made a dry rub

The rub has brown sugar, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, mustard powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper and white pepper. It provides a ton of flavor and just a bit of sweetness.

After trimming the membrane off the back side of the ribs, I rubbed them generously with the dry rub.

Notice there's no mention of sauce here. Since we're cooking for a very long time, any sauce we put on now would either burn or cook right off of the ribs. There will be sauce, just not right now.

The meat is rubbed, the grill is set up, there's only one thing left to do. Add some wood. Every wood has a different flavor in its smoke. Hardwoods are the only choice for smoking unless you happen to enjoy turpentine. For the ribs I used hickory.

I added about 4 ounces to the smoker, and then on went the meat. A rack and a half of ribs and half a chicken.

I put the lid on the grill, adjusted the vents and placed the thermometer, then went into the kitchen to make some sides.

First some barbecue sauce for later.

And some cornbread.

After a long time in the smoker (and eventually wrapped in foil) I had this

Notice how the meat has pulled away from the bone. There's a nice bark on the outside of the ribs as well. I served them with the corn bread and honey butter, mom's cole slaw, and the bourbon barbecue sauce.

They were also good for breakfast the next morning:

And for dinner the following night

 

 

Meat and Potatoes

I wanted to try something new this past weekend.  I'd never made a wine reduction sauce, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  What is a red wine reduction sauce good for?  Steak!  But you can't just serve a chunk of steak for dinner (our low carb days are long past).  Steak and potatoes became the order of the day.

I decided on a potato gratin to accompany the steak, and grill-roasted zucchini and yellow squash to go along side.

I sliced the potatoes thin on a mandoline.

I am the first person ever to make that joke.

I sliced about 3 lbs of potatoes.  They went into a pot with cream, garlic, salt, pepper and just a touch of nutmeg.

I put that on the stove top to heat up and in the mean time, grated a cup of Emmentaler cheese.  Emmentaler is a cheese from switzerland, but a bit stronger than the usual 'Swiss Cheese' we're used to.  When the cream started to boil I poured everything out of the pot and into a 13X9 baking dish, then topped with the cheese.

Into the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 35-40 minutes.

While that was in the oven, I tossed a bunch of aromatics into the pot (well, I washed and dried it first).  Garlic, onions, shallots, carrots, a tomato and some crimimi mushrooms.

They cooked until softened, and then I added a cup and a half of beef stock and a cup of merlot.

All of this reduced in the pot for about 20 minutes.  Then I strained the liquid into a smaller sauce pan, added another cup of wine, and reduced it again.  After it was reduced to about 1 cup in volume, I took it off the heat and whisked in about 2 tablespoons of butter, to thicken the sauce and give it a smooth texture. 

In the mean time, the steak got some salt and pepper on it.  The steak had been sitting out during all of the other prep work to come up to room temperature.  This is important, because it was a pretty thick steak, and by getting the whole thing up to room temperature first, we can get the center of the steak at a safe temperature (160 degrees F at minimum) without charring the heck out of the outside.

The steak went onto the grill.  3 minutes on side A, then 3 minutes on side B.  3 more minutes back on side A to create the hashmark grill pattern.   During that time the gratin came out of the oven.

It had to rest for 15 minutes or so to allow the sauce to thicken.

Then the steak came off the grill.  It also had to rest to allow the juices in the meat to redistribute.  When the meat is on the fire, all of the liquids get as far away from the heat as possible, which is the center of the cut.  By resting the steak, the whole cut equalizes in temperature, and the liquid redistributes throughout the meat as well.

Earlier in the day, I'd made a compound butter out of butter and chives.  Just mix them up, roll into a cylinder in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

The meat got sliced thin, a slice of the herb butter on it, and then some of the red wine sauce.  The gratin was simply sliced and put on the plate.  Served along side some roasted squash and onions and some caramelized onions and mushrooms, it looks something like this:

For the Steak

Steak

Salt

Pepper

For the Gratin

3 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes

3 cups cream

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

dash nutmeg

For the Sauce

 2 cups red wine

1.5 cups beef stock

1 lb carrots, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 large shallots, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 pound chopped crimimi mushrooms