GAMEDAY - Saints vs Eagles - 9/20/09

Slow Good Baby Back Ribs w/ Soo-Wee Sauce
                  Weber's - Way to Grill p.122

Chicken Wings
                  My own creation (MOC)

Ah Gameday...it's a beautiful thing isn't it?  The week long anticipation of a great Sunday filled with football and food.  I mean, it helps when your team is an offense juggernaut, but I could see myself feeling this way even if I was, say, a Lions fan..  It's the same feeling when you get when you slow grill something.  Just knowing that they meat is slowly cooking and absorbing the smoke and heat.  Knowing that the meal you are creating will be well worth the wait.   These ribs were the perfect way to accompany that feeling and kick off the Sunday ritual of me grilling for the family.

I found some baby back ribs at Fresh Market about 2 months ago.  They were on sale and perfect to put in the freezer for this exact purpose.  Admittedly I had never done ribs before so I was a little nervous.  Not sure why, I think I might have been intimidated by them.  I think there's this expectation that comes with ribs.  As it turned out, this recipe was perfect for a rib first timer with excellent grill skills.

/pats self on back.

I started the day at about 7:00 AM after the wake-up call from Noah and then Jake.  I knew I had a long cook ahead and wanted to time out eat at halftime.  The game started at noon and I figured 1:30 would be a good finish time.  I also knew I had the wings as an appetizer so I wasn't too concerned with a rush casue people would be hungry. I started by making the rub and then wrapping the ribs up in saran wrap.  The book doesn't say to do this it's just something I picked up along the way.  I think it sticks the rub to the meat and lets the spices do their job.

I found by stacking and re-stacking them several times I could be sure that enough pressure was applied to keep the rub pressed against the meat. 

After pre-heating the grill, adjusting the grates (in which I broke a piece of the grate off when I dropped it, off to a fantastic start), and getting a good smoke going I laid those racks down.  I think it was about 9:00 when I dropped them on the grill.  It's weird to have such a low temperature going and not hear a sizzle when you put something on the grill.  You just have to trust that the indirect heat it going to do it's job.

 Jake and Noah being fully engrossed in cartoons...and I mean fully engrossed...look at Noah...I began work on the wings.  I got a few hints and tips online and decided on a Rosemary and Garlic brine, then grill, then light toss in a sauce we've had for awhile - Justin Wilson's Chicken Wing Sauce.  For those that don't know a brine is when you soask a meat, usually a poultry, in a salt water solution with spices or other herbs added.  The salt "opens" the meat up and allows the flavored H2O to penetrate...keeping the meat moist while cooked - in other words d-lish-us)  Lena wisely suggested dropping the rosemary as it might clash with the hotness of the sauce, which I did...so one bag of wings went into the "drink" with 8 smashed cloves of garlic.

They sat submerged for one hour, which coincidentally was just enough time to make the Soo-Wee sauce and set it aside, then flip the ribs and mop the ribs with the other sauce I had to make (3/4 red wine vinegar, 3/4 H2O, and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce).  Here's a picture of what I had after one hour and after mopping.  Notice the smoke packets...its another little secret I've picked up...when slow grilling and smoking always overlap your the smoke cause it's tough to time it out to get one going right when the other burns out.

I also had the time to install this on the outside of the house...much to the chagrin to my football hating wife.

Hold on a moment here...let me clear my throat..."WHO DAT, WHO DAT, WHO DAT THINK THEY GONNA BEAT DEM SAINTS?!?!"

Okay, better...and back to the grill.  After the second hour and second mop here's what I had.

Still had two hours to go.  I guess this is the hard part.  The waiting...and not checking every 12 seconds.  Again, the trust here is that the meat is cooking and everything is moving along as it should.  It's all very Zen like.  I was doing all these other things around the kitchen and then even showered and changed and all the while the ribs were cooking long and slow.  Still the waiting is the hardest part.  With game an hour away it's time to suit up:

 

Uh, Who dat... and time to get the wings cooking.  I took the wings out of the brine solution, dried them and dropped them on the grill next to the ribs, but over direct, low, heat.

 

So, about 20 minutes on the wings (10 a side) and about 15 minutes to kickoff...I was giddy at this point.  I had also cracked open the first brew.  Just drinking a run of the mill Original Coors...but it tasted so sweet with standing over the grill flipping the wings and monitoring the ribs.  The odd things that for about an hour there I forgot that the ribs were even part of the equation.  After I pulled the wings off I checked in on the temperature three or four times but I really just left them to cook...which I suppose is the best way to do it.

The wings came off, and I tossed about half in the aforementioned sauce and plated the other half "naked".

They were really tasty, in fact Jake ate two or three of them...which shocked us cause he doesn't eat anything...ever.  But now the ribs came off the grill.  I used a technique called "the Texas crutch" to finish them.  Basically it involves wrapping the ribs in tin foil for 20 or 30 minutes to allow the humidity to cook the ribs once over again.  It gave Lena and Debbie time to prep the sides.  When the ribs were done...

Oh sweet sassy molassy...were they freakin good.  Cooked completely and smoky through-out if I hadn't prepped them and grilled them I would have thought we bought them in a store.

 

 

It was quite the festival of food and like I said earlier, the perfect way to kick off "Grill Season".  I'd recommend the baby back recipe to anyone.  The sauce was juuuust a smidge too vinegary for my tastes, but that's something that's easily taken care of next time, I've already made the notation in the book.  Here's a few more pictures from that day.

  

 

 

All in all the day turned out quite nicely...and these two pictures tell most of the story...an ass-whooping laid down on both the Eagles and the ribs.

One final thought...it tought working hard in the kitchen.  I have to thank Debbie for cleaning most of it up and leaving me to sack out onthe couch for the afternoon games.  Jake didn't make it to the Sunday night game...too tired from watching me work all day I guess...

Until next Sunday!