Home Smoked Goodness

I have been dying to try the home smoking techniques I picked up at the CIA course 5 weeks back, and yesterday finally presented itself with enough time for my experiment.

So I had that big slab of spare ribs left over from the roast pork a couple of weeks back, which I had rubbed with a mixture of cumin, paprika, chilli powder, brown sugar, salt and pepper, and frozen. I decided that I would try to create a Southern style meal, complete with smoked bbq ribs, buffalo wings, coleslaw and fries.

Althought my outdoor grill runs on gas, and it was seemingly impossible to smoke anything with a gas grill, I had learnt from the CIA chef instructors that all it takes to permeate food with that smokey aroma is a few briquettes of charcoal (and wood chips if available) in a confined space. I made 2 foil parcels of charcoal briquettes, poked holes in the packs, and left these on top of the gas plate to heat up and smoke. When the grill was hot and ready, I placed the slab above the parcels, and shut the lid on the grill to keep the smoke in. Ribs have to be slow cooked for best results, so I shut the fire off on the side of the grill with the meat, and just left a low fire on at the other side. This I would turn every half hour or so for around 2 1/2 hours until the meat was tender and the bones could be moved from the meat if gently nudged.

The coleslaw called for mayonnaise thinned down with vinegar and sugar, and as I hate bottled mayonnaise, I decided to hand make a batch. I have made mayonnaise and other emulsion based sauces many times in the past, with varying degrees of success, and I have found the secret to a stable sauce is lots of wrist power, and a VERY slow addition of oil. Hand whipping always seems to give the best texture for me - I don't like the blender and mixer versions.With 2 yolks, one cup of oil (7/8 canola, 1/8 a very fruity olive oil), white wine vinegar, salt and pepper,I ended up with slightly more than a cup of mayo, plenty for one salad, so I used the remainder to make a chive aioli as well as a blue cheese dressing for the wings.

For the blue cheese dressing, I blended the mayo with sour cream, chopped parsley, chopped garlic, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, gorgonzola, salt, pepper and a dash of paprika. It turned out very nicely - smooth and tangy. It went well with the wings, which were ok, but not quite spicy (or red) enough. I only had spice in the last bit of preparation (the tabasco in the sauce used to toss the cooked wings), which was not quite sufficient for our South East Asian palates. Next time I will be adding paprika and chilli powder to the flour mix before frying.

I had also been really eager to try the technique for great fries as taught to me by a coursemate at the CIA. He said the secret to really good fries is to first blanch the fries in 160 deg c oil for 2 minutes until the splattering stops (basically removes some moisture from the potatoes), then lay them out on a tray and refridgerate until very cold. When ready to finish off the frying, heat the oil to 190 deg c, then take the potatoes out of the fridge and put them straight in the hot oil until golden brown. I have to say the technique worked pretty well.

To finish off the ribs, I made a batch of bbq sauce (I think most of my friends have figured out by now that I HATE using anything out of a jar). I did start with commercial ketchup (was not economical to brew my own..), which I cooked down with red wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, sugar, mustard, chili powder, garlic, ginger, oil, and lemon. 15 minutes before the ribs were done, I swabbed them with the sauce for the final cooking, and also served it on the side.

All in, I have to say dinner was a good result - the ribs were surprisingly flavoursome, the slaw was refreshing, the fries crispy and the wings not spicy enough, but tasty nonetheless. I was especially happy with the smoking - next time I will be adding apple or cedar wood to the foil parcels for more impact.