Smoked tamarind ribs

Update: Edited quantities after second run with this recipe.

Tamarind is not a flavour often exploited in Western cooking. As it turns out, it goes great with bbq, and we recently used it in our New Year's Eve extravaganza. This is a flavour you want to add to your cooking profile.

7 oz tamarind
6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
6 tbsp soy
6 tbsp hoisin
3 tbsp sriracha
½ cup water
kosher salt (yeah, you're gonna use kosher salt on pork ribs - sue me)
1 rack pork ribs

Mix all the ingredients (save the ribs and salt) and bring to a boil, mixing to break up the tamarind chunks.



Cool over an hour, and sieve out the tamarind. Pour into a ziploc bag and add the ribs. Place in the fridge overnight, moving around periodically to ensure that the marinade covers all portions of the ribs.

Remove the ribs, and bring to room temperature. Meanwhile, bring your smoker to 200°F with hickory or cherry wood. You'll want lots of wet wood chunks, as these ribs can take a ton of smoke. Liber



Liberally salt the ribs. Place on the smoker, and close it up. Meanwhile, bring the marinade to a boil. Boil at least five minutes, but long enough to thicken the marinade into a glaze. Remove from heat.



Smoke the ribs for 4ish hours.



Paint on the glaze.



Smoke for one more hour at 200°F.



Remove, slice and serve.



This is a flavour you won't normally encounter on smoked ribs. But the flavour is rich and delicious, and was a huge hit the night of our New Year's Party. Delish.

Marrow bones

Here's an appetizer that'll blow people away. And it's crazy easy. As best as I can tell, there's only one disadvantage to this one. It's kinda nasty looking. So serve this by candlelight.

Marrow bones. You can either carve them off a beef shank, or special order them from your butcher. Either way, you shouldn't have to pay much for them. My recipe is modified from Bones.

4 shank bones
salt
bread

Yep, that's it. Simplest. Recipe. Ever.



In a small container, cover the bones with water. Add 2 tsp of salt. Soak for 12 to 24 hours in the fridge.



Remove your brined (and what looks like bleached) bones from the water, pat them dry and place them on an oiled cookie sheet.

Pre-heat your oven to 450°F. Bake the bones in the oven for 15 to 25 minutes. Until the marrow is bubbling slightly and it leaves goo on a tester inserted all the way through.



Spread the roasted marrow on a piece of toasted homemade bread. Sprinkle with fleur de sel. Serve.



You're really gonna want to serve this in a dimly lit room. It's, um, kinda grotey lookin'. But rich and delicious. I mentioned bone marrow to a colleague at work today, and he said, "Yeah. Bone marrow is rich and lusty." Well, I wouldn't say it that way. But I guess I don't disagree.

Smoke, tobacco and blackberry

I've been rather enamoured of Grant Achatz' Alinea cookbook since it came out over a year ago.  His cooking is quite novel, and for someone like me who is interested in smoked food, he incorporates smoke in some pretty interesting ways. The most interesting dish in the book, in my humble opinion, is Smoke, tobacco and blackberry (perhaps not surprising for a smoked meat fiend):

1 ½ cups cream
½ cup milk
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp kosher salt
5 g cigar (about ½ of a short cigar)
10 blackberries
5 gelatin sheets
1 tsp long thai peppercorns (as described here)
1 tsp smoked salt
mint leaves

This dish uses the flavour of a cigar in the dish. What can I say? It's a novel use of smoke in food...



Chop up the cigar.



We're going to steep the cigar in cream, milk, sugar and salt to get the flavour of it out.



Bring the mixture to a boil.



When it comes to a boil, turn off the heat, and cover the mixture. Allow to steep for twenty minutes. Meanwhile, put the gelatin sheets into ice water to hydrate.



I prefer gelatin sheets over powder simply because they go into solution more easily, and you're less likely to find a chunk of non-dissolved gelatin later.

After twenty minutes have elapsed, remove the gelatin from the ice water and squeeze out the excess water. Stir the gelatin into the steeped cigar mixture, then pour the whole thing through a sieve, to remove the cigar chunks.



Line a half cookie sheet with cling wrap, and pour a thin layer of the gelatin mixture into the pan. Cover and reserve the rest of the mixture. And put a layer of cling wrap over the gelatin in the cookie sheet, being careful to keep it tight enough that it doesn't touch the cream.



Now, finding a perfectly level place in your fridge to solidify the gelatin can be challenging. Having failed at this on more than one occasion, I use the following technique: Put some ice cubes on one end of a large cookie sheet. Gently place the smaller cookie sheet in that pan, and pour some water over the ice, being careful not to get water into the smaller pan. Basically, you're creating a chilling space under the pan, so you can harden the gelatin on your level countertop.

While it is chilling, prepare the blackberries.

Surgically remove the base of the blackberries so that they are perfectly level. Gently set the blackberries onto a piece of paper towel, cut side down.



After the gelatin has solidified, remove the small pan from your chilling apparatus, and uncover. Pour the remaining liquid gelatin over the solidified gelatin, and immediately place the blackberries cut side down into the gelatin.



Cover, and place back in your chilling apparatus until the gelatin sets (after that, you can store in the fridge). Before serving, combine the smoked salt and thai peppercorns in a mortar, and grind into dust.



Using a small round, cut out each blackberry, surrounded by cream. Gently place on a plate, sprinkle with the salt and pepper mixture, and set a mint leaf on it.



Serve. What a unique flavour. Smoky and salty, with a bright blast from the blackberry. This is delicious, and much like Achatz' other dishes, best served one per person, as just a single bite.

Smoked salt

Whole foods charges a lot for smoked salt. Everyone charges a lot for smoked salt. And commercial smoked salt is, quite frankly, awful. The flavour is rather like licking the inside of an ashtray.

If you smoke meat, it's not hard to smoke salt. We start with:

10 tbsp salt (roughly)

Place salt in a non-reactive container. Like Pyrex or Le Creuset. Place in your smoker, while smoking something else. I always smoke my salt while smoking some other source of meat. Like pulled pork. Or brisket.

Smoke your salt at 200-225 °F, in the low-and-slow range for your brisket or pulled pork. 4-9 hours, until it reaches the smokiness that you prefer. You'll notice it picks up colour.



Smoke until you're delighted by the colour and the smell. Remove and cool. Remove any chunks of crud that have managed to land in your salt. Tightly seal the salt in a container. Smoked salt will add smoky, salty flavour to whatever you add it to (for example, chili or the outside of fish or chicken).