I wanted a tender, flavorful, moist rib with a complex smokey flavor and a slight crust. Check, check, check and check. Mmmmm, baby these are goooood eatin’!

Preparation:
You’ll need to make the bbq sauce the day before. See the recipe.
Soak wood chips in water for at least 1 hour before use.
Make a fire in your grill for indirect cooking and make sure it is ready to go soon after the ribs are done simmering.

Ingredients:
1 slab of ribs
1 onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, smashed (see this video for easy peeling)
1 cinnamon stick, broken in two
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of nutmeg
1 tsp black pepper, roughly ground.
water
bbq sauce #2

Directions:
1. Place onion, garlic, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and pepper in bottom of large pan.
2. Place ribs on top of spices.
3. Cover ribs with water.
4. Simmer ribs in covered pan for 1-1/2 to two hours until tender. Meat should have pulled back from the bones about 1 inch.
5. Drain ribs and place directly over fire for a few minutes per side.
6. Move ribs to indirect heat in grill and coat with bbq sauce.
7. Drain wood chips and place on coals.
8. Allow to smoke for about 15 minutes.
9. Serve with bbq sauce for dippin’.

Notes:
Simmering can either be done on the stove top or in a 350 degree F. oven.
Simmering adds complex flavor to the meat itself and makes it tender and moist. Direct cooking on the grill gives it a slight crust.
For instructions on smoking with a gas grill, see this video.

Video:
How to smash garlic.

For more of my videos, including higher quality versions, visit my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/eatingSCD

Butter is the key to making this soup rich, warm and comforting. The tiny bits of spices add a complexity and earthiness that round out the feel good factor.

Ingredients:
1 lb. stew beef (my butcher regularly has this cut-up convenience ready to go)
1 lb. carrots, cut about 1/3 inch thick (or use baby carrots)
3/4 yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
1 quart hot water.
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, pressed (see this video for easy peeling)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp. ground mustard
1/16 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/16 tsp. ground clove
1/2 tsp. dried parsley

Preparation:
Before you begin, Set a quart of water on to boil (I use a tea kettle). If it boils before you are ready to use it, turn off the heat and leave it covered.

Instructions:

1. In a dutch oven over medium high heat, saute the carrots and onions in 4 Tbsps. butter for 5-10 minutes or until they begin to brown.
2. Remove carrots and onions from pan to a covered bowl.
3. Saute beef for 3-5 minutes, until it begins to brown. Turn once and cook for 3-5 more minutes.
4. Remove beef from pan and put with carrots and onions in covered bowl.
5. Add about 1/8 inch of water to pan, scraping bottom of pan to release all the brownings. This is where your soup gets much of it’s flavor and all of it’s color so do a good job.
6. Add garlic and spices to pan and cook for another minute. Don’t let pan go dry!
7. Return carrots, onion and beef to pan and cover with 1 quart of hot water.
8. Simmer on medium for 35 minutes or until carrots and beef are done.
9. Taste soup and salt to taste. Melt remaining 2 Tbsp. butter into soup.

Notes:
Yields about 6 cups.
Additional vegetables can be added such as mushroom. Just follow the same sauteing procedure.
Freezes well.

This gem was brought to me by my lovely wife. It’s fresh. It’s zingy. It sings a little song in your mouth. It’s a great cool meal for those hot summer days.

Ingredients:
2-3 lbs chicken breast, with bone and skin (important note)
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed (see this video for easy peeling)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 carrots, shredded (or shaved if your feeling fancy)
2 medium cucumbers, peeled and seeded
1 small bunch fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:
1. Rinse chicken and place, bones up, in large pot with garlic, salt and pepper. Add water until it’s one or two inches above chicken.
2. Cover pot and bring to a medium simmer for about 60 minutes or until meat easily falls from bone.
3. Remove chicken from pot and allow to cool 20 minutes.
4. Using two forks, remove the meat from the bones and skin and shred it.
5. Assemble your plate thusly: shredded chicken topped with peanut sauce, then cucumber and carrot. Lastly a generous capping of fresh cilantro leaves. Click on the image above for an example.

Peanut Sauce Ingredients:
1 cup natural, unsweetened peanut butter
5 Tbsp honey (1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp)
1/4 cup peanut oil
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1/8 tsp garlic powder (important note)
1/4 tsp ginger powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
salt (if your peanut butter doesn’t already have salt)

Directions for Peanut Sauce:
1. Combine all ingredients except for salt.
2. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Notes:
The peanut sauce is great on other things too. Try it on different meats and definitely try it on sauteed baby spinach.

Video:
How to remove the seeds from a cucumber.

For more of my videos, including higher quality versions, visit my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/eatingSCD

This is truly a treat. Even the people who don’t like fish, tend to like it! The smoking compliments the rich flavor of the salmon.

Ingredients:
fresh salmon fillet
extra virgin olive oil
salt
fresh ground black pepper
wood chips (hickory, mesquite, pecan, apple, etc.)

Preparations:

1. Soak wood chips is water for at least an hour. I like to use hickory or mesquite, but feel free to experiment. You’ll find wood chips next to the charcoal in many supermarkets.
2. Start your grill. You will use both direct and indirect cooking so keep your coals to one side.

Instructions:
1. Rinse salmon in cold water and pat dry with paper towel.2. Run your hands over the salmon and remove any bones you find.
3. Place salmon, skin side down, on heavy duty foil and then on a cookie sheet. The foil will eliminate any problems of sticking to the grill, while the cookie sheet gets the salmon to and from the grill easily.
4. Coat the salmon flesh with olive oil and liberally season with salt and pepper.
5. When coals are ready, place salmon on it’s foil directly over the coals. Close grill and cook for about 15 minutes.
6. Shift the salmon off the coals to a different part of the grill.
7. Drain wood chips and place a couple of handfuls on the coals.
8. Close grill and let it smoke for about 20 minutes, checking occasionally. If the smoke dies down, add more chips.
9. When salmon flakes easily with a fork, it is done. If you like a dryer fish, smoke longer. If you like an oilier fish, smoke shorter.

Ingredients:
mixed baby greens
asiago cheese, large shavings
strawberries, sliced

Family Favorite Dressing:
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 T water
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp black pepper, fresh ground
1 clove garlic, smashed (see this video for easy peeling)
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp mustard powder

Directions:
1. Combine all dressing ingredients in a shakable container.
2. Shake well, dress greens and toss to coat.
3. Top salad with strawberries and cheese.
4. Sit back and rake in the compliments.

This dressing naturally separates and will need shaking right before using.

Note that the large shred of asiago cheese is preferable to the small. The large pieces assert their character in a way that a small simply cannot and are vital to the experience.

If possible make this dressing a day ahead to give the garlic time to suffuse as the flavor will improve with time.

In my opinion, there is no need to refrigerate this dressing. However, an alert reader told me that garlic can cause botulism so I investigated. Read about it below.

Notes:
Smashing the garlic is important. Mincing the garlic will not give the same effect. Smashing will allow more of the essence of the garlic to infuse the dressing.

To add a little extra sparkle to this salad try topping with some chopped candied pecans.

Regarding garlic and botulism:
First it should be made clear that botulism is a very serious illness. If left untreated, it can quickly kill.

The first thing I discovered in my research is that while botulism is dangerous it is also rare, particularly the food-borne variety. The Center for Disease Control in the United States reports that the average number of cases reported each year is 145. Of that 145, approximately 15% are food-borne. So 145 times 15% equals about 22 cases of food-borne botulism per year in the U.S. The population of the U.S. in 2011 was about 311 million. Let’s eliminate persons under 5 years old just to lower that number a little. That would be 311 million minus 6.5% of 311 million (~20,000,000) for a total of 291 million. To calculate the percentage of that 291 million who get food-borne botulism we take 22 (average annual food-borne cases in the U.S.) and divide it by 291 million (adjusted population) which results in a very small number of approximately 0.00000008. To convert that to a percentage value we multiply 0.00000008 by 100 to get a grand total of a 0.000008% chance of getting botulism – pretty low. For a little context, the number of traffic fatalities in the U.S. in 2009 was 11 per 100,000 residents or approximately 0.01%.

The USDA fact sheet on botulism explicitly states that botulism has been linked to, among other foods, garlic in oil. The reason for this is that the botulism bacteria thrives in low acid, anaerobic (airless) conditions.

I’ve been eating this dressing and feeding it to friends and family on a regular basis for about eight years as of this writing. I do not refrigerate it and sometimes have it on my counter for a month at a time. So what can I conclude from this research and my experience? I think it’s one of two things either: 1) I’ve been lucky or 2) the red wine vinegar makes the dressing sufficiently acidic to dissuade botulism. Since the statistical risk is so low, I have no way to tell, but I’m glad the vinegar is in there.

Fortunately the extension office at Colorado State University has published specific guidelines for safe garlic-infused oils:

• Wash all soil-contaminated produce before adding it to an oil infusion,
• Add an acidifying agent such as lemon juice or vinegar to the recipe at the rate of one tablespoon per cup of oil,
• Keep oil infusions refrigerated in order to retard the growth of any microbes,
• Discard infusions after one week, or sooner if apparent cloudiness, gas bubbles, or foul odor develop and,
• When in doubt, throw it out.

Videos:
How to smash garlic:

How to shave cheese and why you’d bother to do it:

For more of my videos, including higher quality versions, visit my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/eatingSCD

Ingredients:
2 lbs. flank steak, cut into thin strips, about 1/8 inch thick. (see note below)
Marinade
2 tsp liquid smoke (see note below)

Marinade:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup pineapple juice (see notes below)
2 tsp toasted sesame oil (dark color)
2 Tbsp honey
6 cloves garlic, flattened (see this video for easy peeling)
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp salt
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 tsp ginger, ground
1/8 tsp cloves, ground

Directions:
1. Combine marinade ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Remove from heat, add 2-1/2 cups of cold water and liquid smoke.
3. Cool marinade completely before adding to meat in a 1 gallon freezer zip bag.
4. Remove as much air as possible from bag before sealing.
5. Refrigerate for 2-3 days before drying, kneading the bag once or twice a day.
6. Drain the meat in a colander for about 5 minutes.
7. Dry for 6-8 hours in your dehydrator on the meat setting.
8. Let cool completely then store in airtight container.

Will keep at room temperature for weeks.

Notes:
It is important to use the leanest meat possible as fat can lead to spoilage. Trim as much fat from your meat as possible before cutting into strips.

If you don’t drain your meat before putting it in the dehydrator, you will end up with a mess under your dehydrator as it drys.

Regarding pineapple juice: Commercial pineapple juice used to be legal, but is no longer so. See this post. Either make your own pineapple juice, substitute fresh orange juice or eliminate all together.

Regarding liquid smoke: I covered this somewhat controversial topic in my Barbecue Sauce #2 recipe notes. Be sure to review.

This is a useful mix for a variety of recipes. I use it with hamburger to make a sort of taco filling. I also use it in chicken khorma and refried beans. It has a pleasantly hot, but well rounded flavor.

Ingredients:
4 Ancho chilies, dried and stems removed
8 Guajillos chilies, dried and stems removed
4 Thai chilies, dried and stems removed (see notes)
4 Tbs cumin seed
4 Tbs coriander seed
1/2 Tbs black peppercorn
9 Tbs oregano, preferably Mexican

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 300° F.
2. Put all ingredients except for oregano on large flat pan.
3. Roast for 7-10 minutes or until you begin to smell the spices.
4. Cool completely.
5. Remove stems from chilies
6. Add oregano to cooled spices and grind to a fine powder.

Notes:
Any small, hot pepper can be substituted for the Thai chili.

Yields about 1-1/2 cup.

I use a food processor first to coarsely grind then a coffee grinder to make it fine.I use a coffee grinder that I have reserved for spices only. If you use your grinder for both coffee and spices, you will contaminate both. The coffee will taste funny and so will your spices.

Ingredients:
3 tsp (13g) whole black peppercorn
3 tsp (5.0g) whole coriander
1 tsp (1.0g) whole pink peppercorn
1 tsp (3.0g) whole white peppercorn
1 tsp (0.5g) cracked allspice (just small enough for mill)
1-1/8 tsp (1.0g) whole green peppercorn

Instructions:
1. Mix spices together and put in pepper mill.

Notes:
Yield: 1/4 cup. Doubles well.
If possible, make this mix by weight, as that is most accurate. If you don’t have a digital scale, just use your trusty measuring spoons.

This mix need to go into a pepper mill as the at-the-moment grinding releases the best flavor. If your allspice is a lot bigger than your peppercorns, crack them down to size so they go through the mill.

I like to use Penzeys for buying my spices. The prices are reasonable, and the quality is much better than what I can get at my local grocery.