Here are some tips for grilling I’m sure we all can use now that the summer grilling season is upon us. I know I’ve been breaking out my grill more and more even if the weather is well always summer here in Los Angeles. I don’t know what it is but when June hits, it’s time for grilled meats and vegetables.

Source by JES Restaurant Equipment

Making a juicy grilled chicken is not an easy undertaking, even by someone with some serious grilling skills. It’s not difficult getting some great grill marks, but keeping the inside tender while the grill marks are forming often makes for a fairly dry chicken breast. This is where sous-vide cooking can add a guaranteed juiciness to your chicken grilling.

Sous-vide cooking is a French method that slowly cooks vacuum sealed meat or vegetables in a water bath. It keeps meat nice and tender plus it allows for a wide range of cooking time to so the food can cook while you carryon about your day.  This worked really well for me this weekend as I spent most of the day at work. To come home to most of my meal already done was a nice way to enjoy the rest of my Saturday.

The chicken and strawberries came from the South Pasadena Farmers’ Market. The strawberries are perfect right now full of rich redness and  I found an organic Fragaria Virginiana variety. These sweet, smaller species of strawberries have a much better flavor than what you find at most grocery stores.

This is my second dish using the SousVide Supreme and I really do like how tender everything is that comes of out of it. The slow cooking water bath technique is simple. Cutting into tonight’s chicken, even after putting it on the grill to get some nice grill marks, I could see the juices run down the chicken after slicing each bite.  Combined with the rich flavors of the balsamic strawberry sauce the meal was easy to make after a long unusual Saturday at work.

It only took about 20 minutes to sear the chicken and prepare the sauce. It looked like I spent a lot of time on the dish, but it didn’t take away time I want to spend with my wife and boys.

Later this month, I’m competing with several other BBQ bloggers at http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/sousvidebbq.htm. Check back after June 25 to see what recipe I decide to enter and send me a vote if you want. As a bonus, each person who casts a vote for their fan favorite will be entered to win a $200 gift certificate to www.sousvidesupreme.com.

DISCLAIMER: I was sent the SousVide Supreme to try as part of a blogger outreach program from the company.  The opinions are my own.

Balsamic Strawberry Chicken

Prep Time: 20 Mins Cooking Time: 6 Hours 30 Mins Total Time: 4 Hours 50 Mins

Ingredients:

• 4 bone-in chicken breasts, skinless
• 2 cups strawberries, halved
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 shallot, mined
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup red wine, Chianti or Cabernet work best
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Seal chicken breasts in vacuum bag. Heat the vacuumed chicken in a SousVide Supreme at 146 degrees for 4-6 hours. 
2. Heat the grill on high.
3. In a small sauce pan on medium-high heat add olive oil, garlic and shallot and cook for about 4 minutes, careful not to burn. Add 1 cup of strawberries, thyme, bay leaf and balsamic vinegar for about 3 minutes reducing vinegar by half. Add red wine and chicken stock and reduce by half for about 7 minutes. Smash the strawberries in the pan using a potato masher or fork to crush strawberries while leaving some small chunks. Reduce pan heat to low.
4. Remove chicken from SousVide Supreme and pour a small amount of balsamic strawberry sauce over breasts to coat before placing on grill.
5. Grill chicken on each side for about 7 minutes each side to get some nice grill marks.
6. While on grill, add the rest of the strawberries to the sauce and cook on medium heat for about 3 minutes before serving.
7. Plate the chicken adding the rest of the sauce to the chickens.

A conversation at home.

What are we going to do this long weekend?
How about picking blueberries?
Why? Can’t we just buy them already picked?
But It’s fun.
Really?
Let’s just do it. What else is there to do today?

And that is how we ended up at the Underwood Farm in Ventura County the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

I honestly was looking forward to the drive more than the farm. I had picked strawberries a long time ago when I was 13 years old in Gresham, Oregon.  We had a couple strawberry farms near our subdivision that kids would hear about how you could make money filling baskets of berries. With only a meager paper route at the time, yes I had a paper route – boy do  I feel ancient, making some extra dollars picking berries sounded like a great idea.  That is until a couple friends and I decided to do it one morning.

We went down to the field and were given large wooden buckets to fill with berries.  We were told what to look for and to be gentle placing them in so as not to bruise them.  I believe each bucket paid us 50 cents or some small amount like that.  Bending over and squatting to get each tiny berry off each plant was tedious.

What was more frustrating was watching the berry pickers who did this all the time.  They picked a heck of a lot faster than us and it seemed like forever to fill the bucket meaning we were not going to make the money we had hoped for.

My time at Underwood Farms wasn’t about speed or making a few dollars.  It was all about getting outside and spending time with the family. Oscar and Theo had a great time walking through the fields finding blueberries and asking mom “is this one good? How about this one? Is this one blue enough?”

Underwood Farms takes you out to the blueberry bushes on a tractor train and then you fill large plastic containers.  They also have raspberries and strawberries you can pick too; though, Memorial Day was just blueberries and a small amount of raspberries.

The farm also has some barn animals you can feed where a small twenty-five cent vending machine will give your kids some food for the sheep, goats, chickens and alpacas. There is also a wooden play pickup truck that all of the kids were climbing on next to a small market full of fruits and vegetables.

It really was a fun excursion from the city, plus it’s less than a hour away. Most importantly we came home with some beautiful, tasty blueberries!

Learn more about Underwood Family Farm.

I’m a very lucky person. There are many reasons: a wonderful family, a loving wife, and once a week the Kogi Korean BBQ taco truck makes a stop right behind the building I work. An order of three short rib tacos makes any day better. It makes life better.

Now I love traditional Mexican street tacos, so much so I have written a ton of reviews on a particular kind of taco – the gas station taco. This passion has led me to appreciate what makes a great taco. The perfect taco combines the elements of a slightly oily handmade corn tortilla, perfectly cooked meat, and the right amount of spices with just enough cilantro and chopped onions to compliment, not overpower the meat, then topped with a smooth, spicy hot sauce. That’s the perfect Mexican street taco.

The Korean taco is an entirely different beast.

Fusion cooking is the mixing of various cultures and is something that can go massively wrong or massively right. The Korean BBQ Taco is fusion and Chef Roy who owns Kogi does it massively right.

Fresh made corn tortillas

If you’re unfamiliar with the Korean BBQ taco, you’re missing out. It’s sweet, spicy and crunchy. The meat is sauced with a good wet marinade that caramelizes the meat complimented by cilantro-onion-lime relish, topped with lightly pickled cabbage and hot sauce. It’s pure fusion. Combining the elements of Korea’s most famous food this decade – Korean BBQ – with Mexico’s most famous dish – tacos.

A stack of tortillas after they’ve being heated.

I have been meaning to attempt the Korean BBQ taco at home.  Not copying Kogi, but rather making my own version that’s inspired by the Kogi truck.

This recipe is just that. It’s my own creation of the Korean BBQ taco and to make the meat as tender and flavorful as possible I decided I’d try a new style of cooking while I’m at it. I was contacted by SousVide Supreme who wanted to see what I could do using the sous-vide method (translates to “under vacuum”.) This looked like an excellent opportunity to make a tough meat, I used flat iron steak instead of short ribs, into something tender and juicy. Plus how more fusion can you get then a Mexican taco + Korean BBQ + French cooking method.

SousVide Supreme with vacuum pouch sealer

Sous-vide involves cooking a vacuum sealed bag of meat or vegetables submerged in water at a consistent temperature. The method produces food that is cooked on the outside and inside at the same “doneness” without overcooking, while keeping the food juicy.  The consistent temperature of the water allows you to have the food ready in a large window of time. For example, the flat iron steak I made is ready anytime between 8 to 24 hours great for a long Memorial Day weekend when our family is running around having fun not knowing exactly when we’ll be home for dinner.

Marinated flat iron steak submerged in SousVide Supreme

We spent the afternoon at Santa Monica Beach enjoying the warm California sun and flying our kites.

When we came home and removed the flat iron steak from the SousVide Supreme I sliced off a small piece to try it. It was perfect.  It really was juicy and full of flavor. I placed it out on the grill to give it some grill marks and crunch.

Cooked flat iron steak in Korean BBQ marinade

Look how nicely cooked it was after cooking in the water at 140 degrees for 9 hours.

A perfect medium

I did make my own tortillas for this recipe, but you don’t have to go that extra step. Just be sure to find some good quality corn tortillas and revitalize them in a saute pan with a little oil.  Heat the oil on medium-high heat and place a tortilla in for 10 seconds and then flip for another 5 seconds remove and place on some paper towels, patting off the excess oil. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Later this month, I’m competing with several other BBQ bloggers at http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/sousvidebbq.htm. Check back after June 25 to see what recipe I decide to enter and send me a vote if you want. As a bonus, each person who casts a vote for their fan favorite will be entered to win a $200 gift certificate to www.sousvidesupreme.com.

DISCLAIMER: I was sent the SousVide Supreme to try as part of a blogger outreach program from the company.  The opinions are my own.

Sous-Vide Korean BBQ Tacos

Prep Time: 20 Mins Cooking Time: 8 Hours Total Time: 8 Hours

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. flat iron steak

Marinade

• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sriracha sauce
• 1 tablespoon lime juice

Pickled Cabbage

• 1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon lime juice

Cilantro relish

• 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 red onion, diced
• juice from 1 lime

Directions:

1. Combine the marinade ingredients and whisk together. Place the meat in the marinade and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, remove the flat iron steak and place into a vacuum pouch pour in about 2 tablespoons of the marinade into the vacuum pouch. Seal the steak using a vacuum food sealer.
2. Fill up a SousVide Supreme with water and place the rack and sealed meat into the cooker. Set the heat to 140 degrees for medium doneness and let it cook for 8 hour or up to 24 hours. After 8 hours the meat is ready, the remaining time is just flex time that will keep the meat at the final cooked heat without over cooking.
3. Meanwhile before the meat is ready to be removed from the SousVide Supreme, make the pickled cabbage and cilantro relish.
4. For the cabbage, combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl and cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours for the flavors to combine.
5. The cilantro relish is made by simply combining the ingredients in a bowl and setting aside. This can be made right before taking the meat out.
6. When the meat is ready, remove from the water and cut the vacuum pouch open. Remove the flat iron steak and place on a hot grill for a few minutes to give it some char. Remove and slice into small cubes for the taco.
7. On each tortilla, place some meat followed by the cilantro relish and then the cabbage on top. Pour on some hot sauce too if you desire and serve.

Since adding vegetarian to about half our weekly meals several years ago, I have come to appreciate a casserole or in this case a “bake.”  There’s really no difference.  Combine a bunch of complimentary ingredients and top with some cheese.  So much right.

This dish can be altered by switching out lentils with couscous or quinoa.  Or you can replace swiss chard with any other green like spinach or kale. Some added cubed sweet potatoes would be a nice addition too.

It does feel more like a fall comfort dish than something to make on a 70 degree day in May. Even so, this dish has a lot of versatility and can be enjoyed anytime of year.

Swiss Chard, White Bean and Lentil Bake

Prep Time: 10 Mins Cooking Time: 35 Mins Total Time: 45 Mins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked lentils
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1bunch swiss chard, chopped
• 1 can cannelini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Heat onion and garlic in a small pot with olive oil on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes until onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes, beans, basil, salt, and pepper to the onions and cook together for another 3 minutes then add the swiss chard and cook for a couple minutes to soften.
2. In a small baking dish, add the cooked lentils and then fold in the pot of vegetables. Add the pine nuts mixing everything together in the baking dish then top with grated cheese and cover with aluminum foil.
3. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for 5 minutes uncovered. Remove and serve.

When I read this week’s SundaySupper theme was “Low & Slow” I knew exactly what I wanted to make and where I would get inspiration from.  As regular readers of my blog will know, this site has been taken over by a lot of slow cooking – cooking in a smoker to be exact. After returning from South by Southwest in Austin last March, I had a constant craving for barbecue. Smoked barbecue was constantly on my mind since I had my first and so far only taste of the most amazing brisket I’ve had in my life at Franklin Barbecue.

A coworker and I went to Franklin’s pretty late which was quite risky since the line is usually 3 hours and when they run out that’s it. No more and that time today was right around 1:15pm when we showed up and got behind a few people waiting outside the door.  About three minutes after getting in line someone from the restaurant comes out to put a “sold out today” sign on the door telling us they’re out, but they may have some scraps.

At this point, we are good with scraps.  We waited in line with about 6 other people and when we finally made it to the counter there was one last perfectly cooked brisket just for us. No scraps!  Instead we had some amazing brisket that day.

I still can’t get that meal out of my mind (or is it taste-buds?)  It was an unforgetable food experience similar to the first time I went to Mario Batali’s Babbo Restaurant in New York City back in the early 2000′s. That meal change my perspective on Italian food forever. Franklin Barbecue changed my perspective on Southern barbecue forever and I knew I had to find a way to make that experience come home, just like how I learned to cook a few dishes like Batali’s Mint Love Letters ravioli.

For the next month I research smokers. Wood smokers. Ceramic smokers. Electric smokers. All kinds of options and read a ton of articles and message boards talking about perfect brisket and what it takes to get that great dark, Texas crunch and smoked flavor I had in Austin.

When it came down to a final decision between a CookShack electric smoker and a ceramic Big Green Egg smoker, I went electric.  Now I knew this sacrificed me ever fully replicating Franklin Barbecue, but I knew I could get close. Heck I’d probably only just get close and that would still be pretty amazing.

So here I am on my second attempt at brisket in my CookShack smoker.  The first attempt was great, but it was a little too complex in the steps and came out a little too dry.  Plus last time I made a rookie mistake when buying the meat and bought what’s called a “flat” brisket.  What you really want is a “point” brisket. The point is that extra flap of the beef shoulder that most butchers cut-off from the brisket. Fortunately, I’ve found a great local butcher who specializes in grass-fed beef and I called them last Tuesday, literally when the cow arrives, and asked for a point brisket that ended up being a little over 9 pounds.

I also found Aaron Franklin, the owner of Franklin Barbecue, in some YouTube videos talking about how he cooks brisket.

Here it is my second attempt. It was definitely an improvement, but I still have some work.  Mostly I left too much fat on.  Be sure to cut most of the fat off and watch Aaron’s video for some tips. I didn’t completely follow the instructions which I will next time. Basically, you want to remove most of the fat and keep some. Again, watch the video to learn more.

Don’t forget to check out the fabulous line up of recipes for today’s Low and Slow #SundaySupper

Low & Slow Breads & Starters:

• Asiago Meatballs from Daily Dish Recipes
• Slow Cooker Bread: Easy Dinner Rolls from Growing Up Gabel

Low & Slow Mains:

• Apricot-Mustard Baked Ham from Healthy.Delicious.
• Braniya {Lamb and Eggplant Tajine} from MarocMama
• Brisket from Sustainable Dad
• Brisket with Ale BBQ Sauce from Kudos Kitchen By Renee
• Carnitas from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Dairyfree Chicken and Mushroom Ragout from The Not So Cheesy Kitchen
• Dry Rubbed Smoked Back Ribs from Noshing With The Nolands
• French Dip Sandwiches from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Fried Beef Ribs from The Urban Mrs
• Italian Beef from Curious Cuisiniere
• Italian Sunday Gravy from The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen
• Jambalaya from Gourmet Drizzles
• Minestrone Soup from Peanut Butter and Peppers
• Osso Buco from Webicurean
• Pork and Sauerkraut Sandwiches from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Rice, Bean and Vegetable Casserole from Happy Baking Days
• Salsa Chicken from Momma’s Meals
• Sauerbraten from Magnolia Days
• Slow Cooker Chana Masala from Small Wallet, Big Appetite
• Slow-Cooker Mole from girlichef
• Slow Cooked Pork Sausage and Onions from Family Foodie
• Sweet Pork from Table for Seven

Low & Slow Sides:

• Caramelized Garlic in the Crock-Pot from Shockingly Delicious
• Slow Roasted Balsamic Tomatoes from The Wimpy Vegetarian

Low & Slow Desserts:

• 8-hour Cheesecake with Roasted Grapes (gluten free) from Vintage Kitchen
• Gluten Free Slow Cooker Glazed Cinnamon Coffee Cake from Blueberries and Blessings
• Slow-Cooked Gooey Pina Colada Cake from Juanita’s Cocina
• Slow Cooker Pineapple Coconut Rice Pudding from Sue’s Nutrition Buzz

Wine Pairing Recommendations for Low & Slow Food from ENOFYLZ Wine Blog

Don’t forget to join the #SundaySupper chat on Twitter Sunday to discuss cooking low and slow! We’ll tweet throughout the day and share our delicious recipes. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm EST. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag, and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. Check out our #SundaySupper Pinterest board for more delicious recipes and food photos.

Check out the Food & Wine Conference sponsored by Sunday Supper! Being held July 19th – 21st in beautiful, sunny Orlando, FL. It’s a must for food bloggers. Find out more here ? Food & Wine Conference

Texas Brisket

Prep Time: 15 Mins Cooking Time: 11 Hours Total Time: 11 Hours 15 Mins

Ingredients:

• 9-10 lb point brisket
• 1/2 cup ground pepper
• 1/2 cup sea salt
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper

Directions:

1. Trim the brisket removing most of the fat, but keeping some about a 1/4″ thick.
2. Mix the rub ingredients together in a small bowl or shaker. Coat the brisket and let it refrigerate overnight.
3. Heat smoker to 225 degrees. Place brisket in smoker.
4. About 2 hours spray quickly with apple juice in a spray bottle.
5. Remove brisket in 4 hours and wrap in butcher paper or aluminum foil. Spray apple juice and cover.
6. Remove foil in last hour of cooking when meat temperature reaches 185 degrees. Spray with apple juice and place back in smoker until meat reaches 195 degree internal temperature.
7. Serve.

It’s been a good month plus since I’ve participated in a Sunday Supper event with my fellow food bloggers. The theme this week is Mother’s Day. I had the perfect recipe picked out after asking my wife what she wanted me to make for her this weekend. She had her eye, or is it stomach, on a vegetable tart she found on Pinterest placed on her aptly named “Cook (or things Chris needs to make because I don’t cook)” board. I gathered the ingredients and was going to make it Saturday so we could enjoy Sunday spending time throughout southern California.

Saturday came and went pretty quickly. We spent the day at the Long Beach Queen Mary Barbecue Festival and ended a long day enjoying some taco truck tacos in Pasadena.  The vegetable tart had to wait until Sunday lunch.  Fortunately this is a fairly quick recipe, helped by my already having a finished pie crust in the freeze that was thawed out for this weekend.

I added some asparagus to the recipe and the pie crust is Martha Stewart’s Pate Brisee recipe. The pie crust makes for buttery, flaky “tart.”  It’s good, but I think I prefer a basic tart recipe or perhaps some filo dough. That said, this is still a great recipe with the pie crust and makes for a great way to use some leftover pie dough.

Full Recipe: [...Spring Vegetable Tart]

While I didn’t get to do Sunday Supper this weekend, I definitely will make my return next weekend with the group’s Slow Cooking theme. For now, be sure to checkout all of the excellent Mother’s Day recipes from the other food bloggers.

Mother’s Day Brunch:

• Blueberry Coffee Cake from Peanut Butter and Peppers 
• Cornbread Pancakes with Blackberries from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Crepes from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks 
• Hot N Sweet Mango Chutney from Sue’s Nutrition Buzz
• Lemon Glazed Raspberry Scones from Juanita’s Cocina
• Quiche Lorraine from Supper for a Steal
• Seafood Quiche from The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
• Strawberry Rhubarb Compote from Noshing with the Nolands
•  Sweet French Breakfast Crepes from Curious Cuisiniere
• Vidalia Onion Quiche from Comfy Cuisine

Mother’s Day Entrees:

• Cod with Stewed Tomatoes from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings 
• Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches with Herbed Goat Cheesefrom Foxes Love Lemons
• Lemon Risotto from Healthy. Delicious.
• Lobster Ravioli with Shrimp Caper Sauce from Family Foodie
• Pork dumpling (Shumai) from The Urban Mrs.

Mother’s Day Sides:

• Spaetzle from Magnolia Days

Mother’s Day Desserts and Drinks:

• Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls from Gotta Get Baked
• Chocolate Kahlua Cream Pie from Ruffles & Truffles 
• Espresso Brownies from What Smells So Good?
• Fresh Blackberry Elderflower Sorbet from Shockingly Delicious
• Fresh Fig and Walnut Pie from Vintage Kitchen 
•  Gluten Free Coconut Cake with Chocolate Ganache, Berries, and Fresh Whipped Cream from Neighborfood
• Lavender Shortbread Cookies from girlichef
• Lemon Meringue Pie from Pies and Plots
• Lemon Petit Fours from Home Cooking Memories
• Lemon Sorbet in Prosecco from The Not So Cheesy Kitchen
• Milky Way Brownies from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Mini Coconut Pies from La Cocina de Leslie
• Mini Strawberry and Cheese Pies from Basic N Delicious
• Mom’s Apple Crisp from Cravings of a Lunatic 
• Mom’s Texas Sheetcake from Daily Dish Recipes
• Raspberry and Hazlenut Friands from Happy Baking Days
• Semolina Balls (Suji Laddoo) from Soni’s Food
• Too-Good-to-Be-Lowfat Chocolate Eclair Icebox Dessert from The Weekend Gourmet

Don’t forget to join the #SundaySupper chat on Twitter today to celebrate Mother’s Day! We’ll tweet throughout the day and share our delicious recipes. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm EST. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag, and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. Check out our #SundaySupper Pinterest board for more delicious recipes and food photos.

Do you have your ticket to the Food and Wine Conference yet? If not, there will be a special $100 discount available tonight only on the full conference pass if you participate in the #SundaySupper twitter chat from 7 to 8pm Eastern Time, and purchase your ticket during the chat. The discount code is: SundaySupper.  We hope to see you there!

It’s this perspective that makes me appreciate how fantastic our boys’ lives are. See they get to do cool things like go to Manhattan Beach for a field trip. Blue skies, sand, and starfish. Life is good.

I missed out on all this fun while at work, but my wife went this past Tuesday with Oscar and yesterday with Theo. The weather was perfect and I was told when I came home, “we were going to call you to pick us up since we didn’t want to come back yet.”

Great ribs are simple with the right equipment. In my case, that’s putting my recent electric smoker purchase to work.  So far I’ve made brisket, pulled pork and now baby back ribs. It’s so easy it doesn’t even feel like cooking.  Though the brisket did take a lot of work, the pulled pork and ribs were pretty much put them in the smoker, forget about them and come back when they should be ready.

The ribs only took the small effort of coating them with some BBQ rub the night before. Also, the removing of the thin membrane under the rib bones is good too so the rub coats all the meat you’ll be eating.

The ribs I bought came from my favorite butcher in Los Angeles, Lindy & Grundy. They’re from ReRide Ranch in Lake Hughes, California. The ribs were already perfectly trimmed so I had little prep to do.

Baby Back Ribs

Prep Time: 15 Mins Cooking Time: 3 Hours 30 Mins

Ingredients:

• 3 lb baby back ribs
• BBQ Rub
• 2 oz. apple wood

Directions:

1. Trim any excess fat on ribs and remove membrane layer on back of rib bones. Rub ribs the night before with a layer of BBQ rub and put in refrigerator until cooking time.
2. Using 2 ounces of wood, a dry apple wood is best, place ribs in smoker at 225 degrees.* Leave in smoker for 3 1/2 hours.
3. Serve.
4. I use a CookShack electric smoker. Times may need to be adjusted for other smokers.

Thank you Meat God.

When we moved out of Texas last year to come back to my home state California, one thing I knew I’d miss was Burgundy Pasture Beef.  The ranch in Grandview, Texas was a gem in where I sourced my meats. We would drive to the ranch about every 6 weeks (it was a hour drive south of Dallas) and get $300-$400 of meat while enjoying some of the best burgers in my life. Life was good. I had found an amazing small ranch, grass-fed beef place I loved going to visit and support with my dollars.

Los Angeles is not Dallas. Or is it California is not Texas?

LA is not full of ranches within a hour drive and the area is known more for vegetarian, raw food which I love too, but it just isn’t a mecca for beef like Texas.  So I went around the local Farmers’ Markets and bought from a couple good grass-fed vendors.  Nothing was that impressive and at least I found some sources outside of the supermarkets or mail order.

That’s when fate intervened.  We were interviewing some interns for a open position we had where I work and one of the interns mentioned she was doing social media for an organic, grass-fed butcher in Los Angeles called Lindy and Grundy. My ears perked up and I asked her to tell us more about the place, where it was and what she was learning about grass-fed meat. I noted the place and went to it that Saturday when the weekend arrived. I’ve been back since about four times.

Lindy & Grundy sells local, pastured raised, organic meats including beef, pork, chicken and a few other options. I had the pleasure this week of finally meeting one of the two owners Amelia Posada. She was great sharing how she spent some of her time growing up in Pasadena just like myself. I bought some beautiful baby back ribs, chicken, and Amelia’s family recipe pork carnitas.

We had the carnitas tonight. Oh. My. God. They were delicious. The lard, oranges, garlic and spices brought out so much wonderful flavor I couldn’t stop eating. The shop was also selling fresh tortillas today from the Boyle Heights location of Guisados Tacos. Writing about this I’m now thinking of raiding the refrigerator to make another taco.

So while I love doing vegetarian/vegan meals every 3 to 4 times a week, having a great place to get high quality, sustainable, grass-fed meats is a blessing to my meat quest. Amen.