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Taming The Flame: 20 Meals From The Grill By Elizabeth Karmel
In this weekly column, grilling expert Elizabeth Karmel shares menus for full meals cooked on the grill (with occasional allowances for a no-cook or make-ahead dish that's not grilled). In this column, she shares recipes that she says are perfect for the 4th of July or any lazy summer day. They include The Cooks' Ribs (barbecued pork ribs), Fire-Roasted Corn with Smoked-Paprika Butter and Tumbled Tomatoes.About The Lazy Days Of Summer Menu
If someone asked me to capture summer in three words, the three words would be tomatoes, corn and ribs! So, it should come as no surprise that my favorite "lazy days of summer" menu features these three ingredients. This is a menu to make and to savor when time is on your side -- when you have nothing pressing and nothing better to do than spend the day in the backyard barbecuing The Cook's Ribs. Because the ribs need the luxury of time, the rest of the menu is quick and easy.An Easy Make-Ahead Dish: Tumbled Tomatoes
To make the Tumbled Tomatoes, I wash cherry tomatoes with cold water and grind a mixture of sea salt, dehydrated garlic and herbes de Provence over them as I tumble them -- hence the name -- in a bowl. The trick is put the herb mixture its own salt grinder. Grinding a fine layer of the seasoning over the tomatoes allows the mixture to dry easily and form the essential flavor crust on the outside of the tomato.The Tumbled Tomatoes are best made the day before you serve them because the longer they sit in the fridge, the better the salt and herb crust gets. They are at their best when the crust is completely dry on the outside skin of the tomatoes. In the summer, I buy heirloom cherry tomatoes so that my bowl has a rainbow of color and shapes. If you can't find them, the recipe is equally good made with any grape or cherry tomato. These tomatoes are addictive -- but, hey, it's a healthy addiction! They might look plain but they pack a flavor punch and every time I serve them, I am asked for the recipe. In fact, I suggest you make twice what you think you need because no one can eat just one.
Smokey-Paprika Butter Makes Grilled Corn Special
While you are in the kitchen tumbling the tomatoes, it's the perfect time to whip up the Smoked-Paprika Butter for the Fire-Roasted Corn. This three-ingredient compound butter is a perfect example of how a little effort can up your eating ante. We all put butter on our corn, and it is good. Add a little smoked paprika and garlic salt to the butter and it is GREAT! The butter can be mashed and mixed together the day before and stored in the fridge until ready to use.You can form the butter into a roll or put it in a small bowl -- or, if you are ambitious, shape it in a butter or candy mold. Anyway you serve it, once it melts on the fire-roasted corn, it will make the dish.Making Perfect Grilled Ribs
But the real reason for this menu is the ribs. You'll start the night before, seasoning the ribs and placing them in the refrigerator. Early the next day, you'll build your charcoal fire or preheat a gas grill. Yes, you can make these on a gas grill! I do it all the time with a smoker box and real wood chips. I like using apple or hickory wood but you can use whatever wood you like except for mesquite, which is too acrid for the long, slow smoking time. Once the chips are smoking, make sure the fire is low -- the temperature should be between 225° to 250° F. The ribs will take about six hours to make -- this is the original slow food and sooooo worth it. You can make baby-back ribs in a third of the time, and they are good, but these are really special.I learned to make these ribs when I was a member of the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest competition barbecue team "Swine and Dine." The two head "cooks" made these ribs for themselves -- thus the name. Once they'd fed their team with hundreds of racks of ribs, they'd sit back, pop a cold one and keep cooking "The Cooks' Ribs," until the magic of a marinade "bath," honey and two more hours produced mind-blowingly great 'cue. The ribs are smoked slowly and "bathed" in a hot marinade every hour to build up layers of flavor and create the most intense barbecued "bark" of any ribs that I have ever eaten. The outside bark will be very dark, almost black, and will be sweet and savory and slightly chewy with perfectly tender-to-the-bone, smoke-ring pink meat on the inside. About two hours before serving, the racks of ribs are drizzled with honey and sprinkled with a little more rub before being wrapped in heavy-duty aluminum foil for the final journey to rib nirvana. This wrapping step is crucial: As my barbecue buddy, Gary Pantlik, one of the former Swine and Dine head cooks says about competition barbecue, "If you aren't wrappin', you're either lyin' or losin!"
More from KitchenDaily:
Get more recipes for ribs.
See additional barbecue and grilling menus and tips.
Watch how-to grill videos.
This article was taken from their site and is a fail safe meal for the July 4th celebration.
