Grilled Pork Loin Chop

It's time to start this blog back up again. I'm pretty sure that I can't commit to the daily posts like I used to be able to manage, but blogging seems like a better use of my time than checking out People.com multiple times a day. I am going to try hard to post photos of the dishes that I make, although I don't have one for today's post.

Sunday night, I followed a recipe from the Weber's Real Grilling cookbook. Ben got the book several years ago, and we've not used it much. We grilled the Pork Loin Chop with the Mephis Dry Rub and Sassy Barbecue Sauce. Oh...My...Goodness....delicious! While the pork was moist and tasted great, it was the barbecue sauce that really made the whole dish. The sauce, appropriately named "sassy", was served warm. I don't think I would have ever thought to do that on my own, but I will be heating up my barbecue sauces frequenly now. Here's the recipe:

PORK LOIN CHOP with MEMPHIS DRY RUB and SASSY BARBECUE SAUCE

Ingredients:
Sauce:

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tbs molasses
• 1 tbs white wine vinegar
• 1 tbs Dijon Mustard
• 1 tbs light brown
• 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
• 1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Rub:

• 1 1/2 Tsp whole black pepper corns
• 1 1/2 tsp mustard seed
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 1/2 tsp light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp granulated onion
• 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 6 bone in pork rib chops, 10 to 12 ounces each and about 1 inch thick
• Canola Oil

Directions:

1. To make the sauce: In a small heavy bottom saucepan, whisk the sauce ingredients with 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil over med heat, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. To make the rub: In a spice grinder, pulse the peppercorns and mustard seed until coarsely ground. Place in a small bowl and add the remaining rub ingredients, mixing well.
3. Allow the chops to stand at room temp for 20 to 30 min. before grilling. Lightly brush or spray the chops on both sides with oil and season with the rub, pressing the spices into the meat. Grill over Direct Med Heat until barely pink in the center of the meat, 8 to 10 minutes, turning once. Remove from the grill and let rest for 3 to 5 min. Serve with warm sauce on the side.

While I would love to report that my kids ate the pork chops too, they did not. Kyle doesn't eat meat very often. It seems crazy that Ben and I could have a child who doesn't like meat, but that is our reality. Katie had meatballs and peas. Kyle ate bread and peas.

Saturday, 3/19/2011

Our church potluck group, The Crock Pots, gathered tonight at Tom and Cherie's house.  Ben made BBQ country style pork ribs this afternoon for us to take.  While delicious, the pork was not as good as the first time he made it.  We think it had to do with the BBQ sauce.  We used Stubb's Spicy Bar-B-Q sauce, which was definitely spicy.  In fact, Tom and Cherie's daughter, Katie, was brought to tears when she tasted it.  We didn't know to warn her that it was spicy.  Tom made fantastic fondues tonight- cheese fondue for the appetizer and chocolate fondue for dessert.  Laura and David brought a tasty green salad.  It was a great meal:)

We had a small group tonight, just six adults, two kids, and one babysitter.  It was the perfect group size for carrying on one conversation.  When you get more than six people talking, the conversation splits into smaller groups.  We gathered at 5:30 and were sad to leave three hours later to take the babysitter home. 

Tuesday, 2/22/2011

Tonight Ben and I finished the BBQ country style ribs he prepared yesterday.  I put them into a foil-lined baking pan, covered them with foil, and baked for half an hour in the toaster over set to 375 degrees.  They were as delicious tonight as they were last night.  Definitely a recipe worth repeating over and over again.  YUM!!!

Katie wasn't at all interested in the pork.  She ate some cubed chicken and half of a banana instead.  The good thing about her not liking the pork was that there was more for us:)  I definitely didn't want to share. 

Monday, 2/21/2011 Guest Blogger

Ben prepared a delicious meal for us last night, the 19th, and has offered to blog about it.  Thanks Ben! 

In light of the fact that I was able to fully enjoy a three-day holiday weekend and Sarah was, shall we say, not so lucky, I was bestowed the responsibility of producing a fine family meal for dinner on Monday.  Adding to the challenge, Sarah requested I prepare a couple of pounds of country-style pork ribs she purchased several weeks ago and stored in the freezer.

I’ve never prepared country-style ribs before.  In fact, I can only think of two times previously I’ve every prepared ribs of any kind.  So, I needed to find a recipe.  I learned that country-style ribs, which aren’t really ribs at all, are marbleized such that slow cooking is the ideal preparation to render tender results.  I settled on starting with a recipe for BBQ Country Style Ribs I found on www.allrecipes.com.  But, that wasn’t enough for me.  I had to go and read the comments and learn more from others’ experience.  The original recipe calls for cooking the ribs for two hours uncovered with lemon slices on top.  It seemed the folks that were happiest with the recipe raised the temperature, sealed them in foil, and added a little water.  If I remember my Alton Brown training correctly, I believe this changes the process from baking to braising.  I liked that, so I ran with it.
 
BBQ COUNTRY STYLE RIBS

Ingredients:
4 Country-style pork ribs
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 lemons, thinly sliced
Barbeque sauce
 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Line a shallow baking pan with aluminum foil up and around the edge of the pan to keep water contained. Place the ribs in the pan.
3. Spread minced garlic over the ribs.  I used the minced garlic you can buy in a jar at the grocery store. 
4. Cover the ribs with the lemon slices.
5. Pour about 1/16 of an inch of water in the pan.

6. Cover with aluminum foil and seal tightly to hold in the steam as the ribs braise.
7. Bake for two hours.
8. Remove from the oven and remove the foil cover, carefully, to avoid getting burned by the trapped steam.  

9. Remove the lemon slices and poor off the liquid.
10. Coat the ribs, liberally, on all sides with your preferred barbeque sauce.

11. Reseal the ribs in foil.
12. Bake at 275 degrees F for forty minutes.

After the second bake, I put the ribs back in the oven with the broiler on in an attempt to carmelize the barbeque sauce to give it a little crispiness and better presentation.  It didn’t work.  Instead, it made them look dry.  So, I flipped them over before I served.  I’d recommend skipping the broiling.
 

I served the ribs with a wedge salad with chopped bacon and blue cheese dressing for me and chipotle ranch dressing for Sarah.

The ribs were absolutely delicious.  It takes a while to cook them, but the actual time put into preparation is no more than 15 minutes.  Plus, country-style ribs are super cheap.  With the low prep-time, low cost, and excellent results, I’ll definitely be serving these again.  I think they’ll scale up well to large groups.  So, the next time we host a potluck, I think we have our meal.

Sunday, 2/6/2011

We had BBQ pork sandwiches for dinner tonight.  I reheated some pork roast, and then Ben added delicious habanero BBQ sauce I bought last fall at the Woodinville Farmers Market.  The sauce is a local brand: Kolander Grubb's.  The pork and sauce were placed on toasted Sandwich Thin buns. 

I gave Katie some couscous, pork, and a few slices of pear.  She ate the pears no problem, but only played with the pork and couscous.  Oh well. 

Monday, 11/29/2010

Tonight we used Thanksgiving left overs, with a twist.  I wrapped some of the turkey and BBQ sauce in foil.  Then I cooked it in the toaster oven for 30 minutes or so on low heat.  I put too much BBQ sauce on the turkey, but it was still good.  I had one sweet potato that I didn't use for Thanksgiving.  I cubed it and then tossed the cubes in olive oil, salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary.  I baked the potatoes on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for about a half hour.  They had the nice flavor of the potatoes we grilled for Thanksgiving, without having to use the grill.  

For our salad, I used bitter greens and made a lemon and olive oil dressing to go with it.  I made it on a whim; so, I don't have the exact amounts for the ingredients.  I know I started with the juice from half a lemon, then I whisked in olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little sugar.  It ended up being a fine salad:)

Sunday, 4/25/2010

A couple years ago Ben bought "How to Grill" by Steven Raichelen. We haven't tried very many of the recipes in it, but we love the Basic Barbecue Rub recipe (see below). We actually gave jars of it as Christmas gifts a couple years ago along with the recipe. What I like about this rub is that it is easy to put together, keeps for a long time, and doesn't need to go on the meat for very long to give it good flavor.

Tonight we grilled chicken drumsticks rubbed in this good stuff, finished off with a coating of Jack Daniels bbq sauce. The drumsticks cooked on indirect medium heat for 40-50 minutes- turning at 25 minutes. And before finishing, they were coated with bbq sauce, flipped, the other side was coated, flipped, and then cooked for two minutes. Finger lickin' good:)

BASIC BARBECUE RUB

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sweet paprika
3 tablespoons black pepper
3 tablespoons coarse salt
1 tablespoon hickory-smoked salt or more coarse salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir to mix. Store in an airtight jar away from heat or light; it will keep for at least 6 months.

A couple notes:
* We have never had the hickory-smoked salt, so have always opted to use more coarse salt.
* The published recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of celery seeds. We didn't have this ingredient the first time I made it and it was great. I bought the seeds later on and tried it again. We definitely DID NOT like it. So, no more celery seeds for us. But, if you find you like them, give it a try.