- Red Lettuce (Went to my grandfather)
- Escarole (Also went to my grandfather)
- Turnip Green Thinnings
- Looseleaf Chinese Cabbage
- Tomatoes
- Garlic Curls
- Herb of The Week: Basil & Chocolate Mint
The basil and chocolate mint sound interesting. Mojito's anyone?
After putting everything lovingly away I turned my attention to the dreaded basket ingredients which The Husband had the pleasure of bringing home to me. I wondered, briefly, what was in store for me. Bison? Quail eggs? Some unknown spice from the far east ::cue belly dancing music::. After my success last week I felt a little bit more confident, until I opened it up.
Yuca, Sun-dried chili peppers, pomegranate juice and... what's that? Babyback Ribs?
The first thing I did was set aside the Yuca. Although I've never worked with it before, I knew that it was a root vegetable and made the assumption that it was kind of like a potato (turns out more like a carrot or a parsnip but whatever). Therefore It was most certainly going to be used as a side dish and could be handled later.
Next I decided that I was going to make a dry rub for the ribs, followed by a sauce. For the dry rub I seeded and toasted up in a skillet 3 of the sun-dried chilies on the skillet, along with some mild chili powder, paprika, thyme and black pepper corns. I then promptly touched my face with my hands, unaware of the evil capsaicin lurking on my finger tips.
When I say I touched my face, I mean that part between your lip and your nose that is super sensitive. That's what I touched, and that is what promptly began to burn. And burn.... and BURN.
At this point I'm crying and I have what looks like a red mustache forming on my upper lip. The Husband, is frantically looking up more cures and I'm yelling instructions. I'm a mess... (sorry hunny, I do love you). he comes rushing in with one last cure...Milk.
And that seems to work? Oddly enough Milk worked. I mean it still burned a little but not as much as before, and a few more minutes with the ice cube my pain had subsided. I picked up where I left off and went back to roasting peppers, my pride knocked down a notch.
Once the peppers were roasted I ground them in my spice grinder and mixed it with all the other spices and some brown sugar and The Husband (finally done working) slathered it over the ribs. In they went into the preheated oven.
The next task was to make a sauce. In a sauce pan I combined the pomegranate juice, some ketchup (because for some reason I feel like BBQ sauce always has Ketchup as a base) and tomato paste (because it's delicious) and set it to simmer along with two whole sun-dried peppers (this time I did NOT touch my face).
At this point I took a break to clean up and get my bearings. The kitchen looked like it exploded, and the temperature was starting to rise (it was 90 degrees out side, putting on the oven was probably a bad idea). Once the beeper for the ribs went off I turned them over (meat side up) and had my first glance at my progress. Things actually seemed to be going well. So I set the timer for another 30 minutes, check on the thickness of my sauce (lookin good) and start to tackle the Yuca. Maybe a little early but whatever.
First thing I note, as I said above, is that Yuca is not like a potato. it's much harder, and much more annoying to cut. but the skin comes off nicely with a peeler (unlike kiwis). Underneath the skin is a layer of purple colored flesh (very thin) and under that is a hard white flesh. It kind of reminds me of coconut, but starchier.
After staring it down a bit I decided I was going to grate it up and make like, yuca pancakes. Now Yuca, is a very hard substance and does not like to grate. In hindsight I probably should have sued the food processor but instead I was working by hand. And it was taking a while, and it was hot in the kitchen and I was sweating and The Husband took pity on me and took over. With a burst of speed he made to break through that Yuca as quickly as possible. And he got it grated already, along with a nice chunk of his hand. I'ld laugh but I've been there. Fortunately his didn't warrant an emergency visit. This was not a good day in the kitchen for the two of us. I broke out my cut resistant glove and finished off the Yuca while he nursed his wound.
To the grated Yuca I added some onion, some salt, some pepper and a couple of eggs. I then decided I had started the whole process way too early and set the bowl aside. I focused back on my sauce and found it too tomatoey so I added some more of the pomegranate juice, I also took the peppers out and cut slits into them because I didn't find the sauce was really taking to the spice. All that remained was to let it reduce.
Wile I waited for the beeper on the ribs to go off, I grabbed from the farm box the turnip trimmings and tossed it in a dressing of pomegranate juice, a little cider vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil. You know, for that green element on the plate.
When the alarm sounded, I basted the ribs with half the sauce and left the remaining to thicken. while the Ribs cooked for another 15 minutes. I then went back to the Yuca.
I had decided that I was going to do one big pancake and cut them into wedges. So I tossed some oil into the cast iron pan and got to frying. I figured I could then throw the big pancake into the oven under the ribs as they finished up to brown. 15 minutes later the ribs were ready to come out of the oven and I coated them with another layer of Sauce. My yuca pancake had refused to brown so I brought it back to the stove top, removed the pancake from the pan, cut off the nicest pieces and fried up the other side in some extra oil. In hindsight I should have done this from the beginning.
Final step was to plate and snap a picture, in my 400 degree kitchen. I may have added a little extra personal salt to the dishes if you get my drift. It was disgusting. But the Ribs were DELICIOUS, the only thing on the plate that I could have done without was the turnip turnip trimmings. Looking back they were probably more of a saute and serve green as opposed to eating them straight from the ground. Either that or I learned I don't like turnip trimmings.
Hello again, and welcome to my corner. This week I got to enjoy a wonderful rack of baby back ribs accompanied by yucca pancake and a turnip greens side salad.
Plating this week was good. As always I get to enjoy an array of colors on my dish. My only qualm was that some of my yucca pancake was kind of falling apart from its nice slice shape piece.
Overall usage of the basket ingredients was top notch this week. The sun dried peppers played beautifully in the spice rub opposite the sweet and tangy pomegranate juice sauce. And even though met with initial opposition, after a brief reprieve to part of the rules, the ribs were some of the best I’ve had. The yucca made a great tasting pancake, and the flavor wasn’t masked at all by its usage in that way.
I as always enjoyed every part of this meal and hope to bring an even bigger challenge next week.
After putting everything lovingly away I turned my attention to the dreaded basket ingredients which The Husband had the pleasure of bringing home to me. I wondered, briefly, what was in store for me. Bison? Quail eggs? Some unknown spice from the far east ::cue belly dancing music::. After my success last week I felt a little bit more confident, until I opened it up.
Yuca, Sun-dried chili peppers, pomegranate juice and... what's that? Babyback Ribs?
- "YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME," I screamed.
- "What?" Said The Husband, smiling like the proverbial cat with the missing Canary.
- "Baby Back ribs? SERIOUSLY? This is going to take me like 10 hours! I don't even BEGIN to know how to cook ribs. Much less do it so they get on to the table on time. THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE."
The first thing I did was set aside the Yuca. Although I've never worked with it before, I knew that it was a root vegetable and made the assumption that it was kind of like a potato (turns out more like a carrot or a parsnip but whatever). Therefore It was most certainly going to be used as a side dish and could be handled later.
Next I decided that I was going to make a dry rub for the ribs, followed by a sauce. For the dry rub I seeded and toasted up in a skillet 3 of the sun-dried chilies on the skillet, along with some mild chili powder, paprika, thyme and black pepper corns. I then promptly touched my face with my hands, unaware of the evil capsaicin lurking on my finger tips.
When I say I touched my face, I mean that part between your lip and your nose that is super sensitive. That's what I touched, and that is what promptly began to burn. And burn.... and BURN.
- "HELP ME" I said to The Husband as I ran to the fridge for an ice cube.
- "What's wrong?" He asked looking up from his work computer
- "I touched my face, and I had hot peppers on my hand and now it BURNS"
- He laughed
At this point I'm crying and I have what looks like a red mustache forming on my upper lip. The Husband, is frantically looking up more cures and I'm yelling instructions. I'm a mess... (sorry hunny, I do love you). he comes rushing in with one last cure...Milk.
And that seems to work? Oddly enough Milk worked. I mean it still burned a little but not as much as before, and a few more minutes with the ice cube my pain had subsided. I picked up where I left off and went back to roasting peppers, my pride knocked down a notch.
Once the peppers were roasted I ground them in my spice grinder and mixed it with all the other spices and some brown sugar and The Husband (finally done working) slathered it over the ribs. In they went into the preheated oven.
The next task was to make a sauce. In a sauce pan I combined the pomegranate juice, some ketchup (because for some reason I feel like BBQ sauce always has Ketchup as a base) and tomato paste (because it's delicious) and set it to simmer along with two whole sun-dried peppers (this time I did NOT touch my face).
At this point I took a break to clean up and get my bearings. The kitchen looked like it exploded, and the temperature was starting to rise (it was 90 degrees out side, putting on the oven was probably a bad idea). Once the beeper for the ribs went off I turned them over (meat side up) and had my first glance at my progress. Things actually seemed to be going well. So I set the timer for another 30 minutes, check on the thickness of my sauce (lookin good) and start to tackle the Yuca. Maybe a little early but whatever.
First thing I note, as I said above, is that Yuca is not like a potato. it's much harder, and much more annoying to cut. but the skin comes off nicely with a peeler (unlike kiwis). Underneath the skin is a layer of purple colored flesh (very thin) and under that is a hard white flesh. It kind of reminds me of coconut, but starchier.
After staring it down a bit I decided I was going to grate it up and make like, yuca pancakes. Now Yuca, is a very hard substance and does not like to grate. In hindsight I probably should have sued the food processor but instead I was working by hand. And it was taking a while, and it was hot in the kitchen and I was sweating and The Husband took pity on me and took over. With a burst of speed he made to break through that Yuca as quickly as possible. And he got it grated already, along with a nice chunk of his hand. I'ld laugh but I've been there. Fortunately his didn't warrant an emergency visit. This was not a good day in the kitchen for the two of us. I broke out my cut resistant glove and finished off the Yuca while he nursed his wound.
To the grated Yuca I added some onion, some salt, some pepper and a couple of eggs. I then decided I had started the whole process way too early and set the bowl aside. I focused back on my sauce and found it too tomatoey so I added some more of the pomegranate juice, I also took the peppers out and cut slits into them because I didn't find the sauce was really taking to the spice. All that remained was to let it reduce.
Wile I waited for the beeper on the ribs to go off, I grabbed from the farm box the turnip trimmings and tossed it in a dressing of pomegranate juice, a little cider vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil. You know, for that green element on the plate.
When the alarm sounded, I basted the ribs with half the sauce and left the remaining to thicken. while the Ribs cooked for another 15 minutes. I then went back to the Yuca.
I had decided that I was going to do one big pancake and cut them into wedges. So I tossed some oil into the cast iron pan and got to frying. I figured I could then throw the big pancake into the oven under the ribs as they finished up to brown. 15 minutes later the ribs were ready to come out of the oven and I coated them with another layer of Sauce. My yuca pancake had refused to brown so I brought it back to the stove top, removed the pancake from the pan, cut off the nicest pieces and fried up the other side in some extra oil. In hindsight I should have done this from the beginning.
Final step was to plate and snap a picture, in my 400 degree kitchen. I may have added a little extra personal salt to the dishes if you get my drift. It was disgusting. But the Ribs were DELICIOUS, the only thing on the plate that I could have done without was the turnip turnip trimmings. Looking back they were probably more of a saute and serve green as opposed to eating them straight from the ground. Either that or I learned I don't like turnip trimmings.
Judge's Corner
Hello again, and welcome to my corner. This week I got to enjoy a wonderful rack of baby back ribs accompanied by yucca pancake and a turnip greens side salad.
Plating this week was good. As always I get to enjoy an array of colors on my dish. My only qualm was that some of my yucca pancake was kind of falling apart from its nice slice shape piece.
The baby
back ribs were nothing short of fantastic. The spicy dry rub that coated the
ribs balanced wonderfully with the sweet tangy barbeque sauce that drenched the
top. The turnip green salad I didn’t find quite as offensive as she did,
however they were a creating kind of a wet though tasty blob of greens
due to some overdressing. I was excited to find that though the yucca pancakes
are not potatoes, they still create a great tasting pancake. I had hoped to
have them with a bit more crunch around the edges, though a smaller nitpick
then the salad.
Overall usage of the basket ingredients was top notch this week. The sun dried peppers played beautifully in the spice rub opposite the sweet and tangy pomegranate juice sauce. And even though met with initial opposition, after a brief reprieve to part of the rules, the ribs were some of the best I’ve had. The yucca made a great tasting pancake, and the flavor wasn’t masked at all by its usage in that way.
I as always enjoyed every part of this meal and hope to bring an even bigger challenge next week.
The Recipes
The Ribs
- 1 full rack of ribs
- 5-8 Sun dried Chilies
- 1.5 tsp mild chili powder
- 2 tsp Paprika
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 1.5 tsp black pepper (freshly ground)
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar, packed.
- 2.5 Cups of pomegranate juice
- 1/3 cup Ketchup
- 4 tbsp Tomato Paste
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a small fry pan toast 3-4 sun dried chilies, stems removed, seeded and ribs removed, mild chili powder, Paprika and dried thyme. Heat until barely fragrant, tossing as necessary to keep from burning. Remove from pan into a small bowl and then grind the hot peppers in to a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Do not breath in the air that comes out of the spice grinder. You should get about a tsp or so of powder. Combine with the other spices and the brown sugar.
- Pat dry the ribs and apply salt and black pepper onto the ribs on both sides. Then cover with the spice rub. Allow to rest if you have time 1-2 hours in the fridge. If not, place meat side down on a baking sheet and into the oven for 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, In a saucepan add the pomegranate juice, ketchup and tomato sauce along with 2-3 whole sun dried peppers with slits cut into them. Bring to a simmer and allow to reduce while the meat cooks. (about an hour, make sure it doesn't cook down to far. You are looking for it to be thick enough to coat, but not yet thick like a jarred sauce)
- Once the ribs have cooked for 45 minutes remove from the oven and turn the ribs meat side up. Place back into the oven for another 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, baste the top of the ribs with 1/2 of the sauce. Leave the remaining sauce to thicken down for another 15 minutes, which is nicely all your ribs should need at this point.
- After 15 minutes, remove the ribs from the oven, cover with the remaining of the sauce and serve!
Yuca Cakes
- 3 cups of grated Yuca
- 1/2 medium onion, grated
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 3tbsp oil
- Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl.
- Heat the oil over high heat in a skillet until it starts to simmer and smoke slightly.
- Add with a 1/3 cup measure add 3-4 mounds of the mixture into the skillet to make the Pancake. Fry until GBD on one side, then flip and continue to fry until GBD.
- Move to a plate covered with a paper towel to drain.
- Serve while hot by itself, as a side, or with some sour cream and apple sauce!
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