Chinese Barbecue Ribs

A busy, busy Sunday. Did a lot of cooking, sorry no sneak peaks for this upcoming week. Our day started with the most delicious Lemon and Blueberry Scones. Seriously these were amazing. The recipe was from Add A Pinch. I kept them in the oven a bit longer than the recipe said, my dough seemed a bit moist. The flavors were over the top. Nice start to the day.

Chris was busy today putting together our new grill. Yes, tomorrow the grill will officially be opened. Can't wait to try some recipes from my Pinterest board, The Grill Is Open.

 

Dinner. Well let's just say it received rave reviews. Chinese Barbecue Ribs. The recipe is from the Tasting Table. The meat fell off the bones. The sauce was literally finger licking good. Yes Julie, finger licking good.

Do you want to try the scone recipe? From Add A Pinch, Lemon and Blueberry Scones-

Ingredients-
 2 cups all-purpose flour½ cup sugar + more for topping
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) cold butter + more for topping
zest and juice of one lemon
¾ - 1 cup heavy cream
1 cup fresh blueberries, tossed in 1 tablespoon flour
Optional Glaze
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method-
Preheat oven to 400º F. Line a rimmed baking sheet pan with parchment paper or a nonstick baking sheet.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter to the bowl and cut into the flour with a pastry blender until the largest pieces of butter are about the size of a pea and the flour mixture resembles coarse meal. Add zest and juice of lemon. Stir in ¾ cup of heavy cream. Press dough together between the palms of your hands. If it doesn't just hold together, add more heavy cream until is just holds together. Add vanilla extract. Fold blueberries into the dough.
Pour dough onto a lightly floured counter top or a pastry board. Pat dough into a large round disc, about an inch thick. Cut dough into equal sized wedges and place onto prepared baking sheet pan.
Bake scones for 20-25 minutes or until they are just beginning to turn lightly brown. Remove from the oven and serve warm. You can also drizzle a warm glaze on top of the scones, if you'd like. Just whisk all of the glaze ingredients together in a medium sized bowl and then drizzle on top of each scone.


Yes, you want this Rib recipe. I made 1/2 the recipe. From the Tasting Table, Chinese Barbecue Ribs.

Ingredients-
8 cups chicken stock
¼ cup soy sauce
4 garlic cloves, peeled
One 6-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 4 pieces1 medium carrot, diced (about ½ cup)
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
2 stalks celery, diced (about ¾ cup)
2 racks baby back pork ribs, about 4 pounds total (racks cut in half if using a Dutch oven)

Glaze
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
¼ cup sliced scallions
¼ cup soy sauce
½ cup hoisin sauce
1 cup dark corn syrup (I used Light Corn Syrup)
¼ cup ketchup
1½ teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
1½ teaspoons sambal oelek chile paste

Method-
Preheat the oven to 375°. In a large Dutch oven or roasting pan, combine the chicken stock, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, carrot, onion and celery and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and nestle the ribs in the braising liquid.

Cover the Dutch oven (or cover the roasting pan tightly with foil) and bake until the meaty part of the ribs are tender when pierced with a paring knife, about 90 minutes.

While the ribs cook, prepare the glaze: Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add the garlic, ginger and scallions and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 4 minutes. Add the soy sauce, hoisin, corn syrup, ketchup, five-spice powder and chile paste; increase the heat the high and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the mixture has thickened slightly, about 20 to 25 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and reserve.

Line a baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on the baking sheet. Remove the ribs from the braising liquid and place them, meaty side up, on the rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°. Brush a thick coating of glaze on the top of the ribs. Bake for 45 minutes, brushing the ribs with additional glaze every 15 minutes. Transfer the ribs to a cutting board, let rest for 5 minutes, then cut into one- or two-rib portions and serve immediately.

 Meanwhile, a certain gray cat was being very fresh...

Grilled Skirt Steak, Tortellini Salad and Lemon Blueberry Scones

Today, the first day of my vacation, I started off baking Lemon Blueberry Scones. I used the Joy of Baking recipe as a starting point. But I had some plain Greek yogurt I wanted to finish up. And I did not want to make them with a Streusel topping.

Here is the Joy of Baking recipe with my variation -

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup  granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup  fresh blueberries
grated lemon peel from one lemon
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain Greek Yogurt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Gently fold in the blueberries and lemon zest. In a small bowl mix yogurt, beaten egg and vanilla. Add this mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix the dough or the scones will be tough.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 11/2 inches (4 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into four pie-shaped wedges (triangles).  Place the scones on the baking sheet that is lined with parchment paper.  Or put each piece in scone pan. Sprinkle the tops with sugar

Bake the scones until nicely browned, about 25- 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a scone comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly.

On to dinner.

I went to Whole Pay Check, oh sorry, Whole Foods, and picked up a piece of skirt steak that the butcher cut for me while I waited! Very cool. When I got home I Googled Skirt Steak and found this recipe on Epicurious.com. What an amazing marinate. I did not add the shallots, garlic or cilantro (just not a fan of cilantro).

The side dish was easy. Summer Tortellini Salad from 365 Great Barbecue & Grilling Recipes. I think I got my copy of this back in '93. It is the one cookbook I pull out every summer. If I find a recipe in a magazine or newspaper that is a summer recipe it gets tucked into this little paperback.

Summer Tortellini Salad

3/4 pound frozen tortellini, I used cheese filled
1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into thirds
1/2 pound cherry tomatoes, halved if large
Creamy Vinaigrette ( recipe follows) or salad dressing of choice.

Cook tortellini according to package direction until just tender. Drain in colander and rinse under cold running water; drain well.
Drop green beans into a large pot of rapidly boiling water. When water returns to a full boil, cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until beans are crisp-tender. Drain and rinse under cold running water; drain well.
Gently toss tortellini with beans, tomatoes and just enough Creamy Vinaigrette to moisten, about 1/2 cup.

Creamy Vinaigrette

1/4 c. white wine vinegar
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp. plain yogurt
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. garlic powder (no I did not add this!)
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. hot pepper sauce
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 c. vegetable oil

In a jar with a lid, mix vinegar, lemon juice, yogurt, mustard, garlic, sugar, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Add olive oil and vegetable oil, cover tightly and shade until blended. After use store any remaining vinaigrette in refrigerator for up to 5 days.