Archive for April 2010
Spicy Drunken Brussels Sprouts
April 10, 2010 | 
Author I love Brussels sprouts, and I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes with the Food Nuts community. This easy and flavorful recipe is a great side or even as a quick meal in itself. Starting out with farm fresh Brussels sprouts is key. It could probably also be done with frozen, thawed Brussels, but I have never tried it.
In addition to the Brussels sprouts, I use the following ingredients.
Mezzetta roasted red peppers (about 4 large pieces, chopped)
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 cup Spanish red wine, I used a Monastrell
3 tsp agave nectar
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp habanero oil
I combined all of the ingredients except for the Brussels sprouts and brought them up to a boil, then lowered to a simmer until the onions had softened substantially. Then I placed each sprout face down into the bubbling wine mixture, which smelled amazing, by the way!
Isn’t this festive looking?! I let everything simmer together, uncovered, until the sprouts were soft enough for me. Leaving it uncovered also helped the wine mixture to reduce to an almost syrupy, sweet and spicy glaze.
If you enjoy this recipe, please visit my blog, http://traveleatlove.com for more food and wine goodness!
Ay, there’s the rub
Memphis Style Dry Rub Ribs
I am a huge fan of ribs, but I don’t like the mess and the overwhelming flavor of BBQ sauce. Traveling in St. Louis, I came across what they called “Memphis” style ribs, done with a dry rub. I set out to make them on my own.
First, you need ribs. You can get them at any decent grocery store for $2.99 – $4.99 per pound. A full slab usually weights in around 3 pounds and can feed two (normal) people. I find that full slabs at the store are usually much larger than at a restaurant.
There are two kinds of ribs, Baby Back and St. Louis. Baby Back ribs are smaller and when cooked right will be the “fall-off-the-bone” kind of meat. St. Louis style ribs are thicker and have chewier meat. I prefer St. Louis, but have a harder time finding them.
Here’s a big half slab, 1.8 pounds.
And now for the rub. We have a store in Chicago called The Spice House. I buy of ton of different spices and rubs from them, usually just 4 ounces at a time and try as many as I can (until my heart stops). Today’s spice is Smoke House Seasoning.
Rub this all over the top of the ribs. I used about two teaspoons of rub. Any excess went on the sides. Shake off the excess. Excess can burn. Some people pull the bottom “skin” off, but I don’t. Before you cook, make yourself a drip catch out of tin foil. You can use you wife’s good cookie sheets, but you end up with discolored, burned in grease cookie sheets and an annoyed wife. Make sure you make sides to keep the grease from running off, if it hits the bottom of the oven, it will burn and smoke very badly, causing you to disable all of your home’s smoke detectors.
Set the drip tray on the bottom rack of the oven and set to 350. Place the ribs directly above. Cook for 90 minutes undisturbed.
Remove. Cut. Eat.
Coleslaw, slightly different
I was inspired by Michelle’s posting on Mac n’ Cheese. I commented that I would have to try it at the next rib bar-b-que. Then I thought harder (like Pooh bear) and said to myself “why not today”? Some Carolina ribs, Mac n’ Cheese and my wife’s (Melissa’s) famous Cole Slaw. Great meal, for a day that is, well, cool, but not raining.
I don’t know where she got this recipe, but it has become my most requested coleslaw. It goes well with almost anything. It gets better if you make it in advance and let the flavors marry, and the cabbage softens a bit. So, we’ll make it now and have it in a couple of days. That will give me time to marinate the ribs for bar-b-queing. And, of course, we’ll have it all with Michelle’s Mac n’ Cheese.
So, to begin, I’ll shred the cabbage head. I find that if I use a knife, I get a chunkier Cole Slaw. That’s ok, but this time I wanted to see how it would turn out using the cabbage shredder. We got one of these at a garage sale a couple of years ago, and it was a Godsend.
Shredding cabbage on the shredder
It gets a lot of use in the fall when we make sauerkraut (we made and canned over 70lbs last year). It shreds very fine, but don’t get your fingers too close to the blades, as it won’t be able to tell the difference between your fingers and cabbage.
Shred one small head of cabbage; place in a large mixing bowl. Shred or finely slice one half of a large onion. Thinly slice one small bell pepper. Add onion and pepper to the cabbage.
Shredded cabbage, onions and peppers await their fate
Place in a small saucepan the following ingredients:
½ cup white vinegar
6 Tbls safflower oil
6 Tbls white sugar
2 ½ tsp dry mustard (you can use Coleman’s, it will have a bit more of a bite to it)
1 tsp celery seed
Bring the above to a boil and cool; add salt and pepper to taste
When cool, toss on to the cabbage; let sit at least two hours before serving. Or in this case, till the pork ribs are ready.
The finished product
Very simply, and tastes great!
Nino’s Italian Restaurant: A Long Beach Favorite
Posted in Blogging, Dessert, Foodies, Restaurants, Wine | 
Tags: Italian, Long Beach, Wine | 
1 Comment »
Chocolate Bacon?
At the Iowa state fair this year the chocolate-covered bacon turned out to be my favorite treat!
Ed: Apparently they have it at the LA County Fair as well; click on pic for more info.