Your Party Rib Guide

 Ribs and Super Bowl parties go hand in hand. Yet many don't know what kinds of ribs to get fir a gathering. What works , What doesn't? How do you cook them. Don;t worry .There is a guide to help.

There are fifteen (!) kinds of ribs to choose from. For  a hearty mix you can serve three or four different types. Most home chefs buy baby back ribs. These are what smokehouses serve and try seem to be the least fattiest. They're also the most popular thanks to chains like Chilis promoting them. Why are they called baby backs./They don;t come from pigletss but it's because of the size of the ribs.They're located further up on the rib cage and are shorter and smaller than their longer neighbors.They have more loin meat which makes them perfect for hungry party goers. You can use a dry or wet rub before you cook them low and slow. They should be the first dish that's cooking.Another popular cut is St. Louis ribs. They come from the same part of the rib cage as spare ribs,There is more marbling here which , although they're half fat, makes for a tastier bite.If you are firing up the grill for the big game then consider country style pork ribs.They come from the upper shoulder part of the loin so they 're not really ribs. They're mostly boneless so they should be eaten with a knife and fork. These are the most decadent.

If you want a beef cut then think of short ribs.They get the name because they're  a few inches shorter than regular ribs.Depending upon the cut these can be cooked quickly or slowly.Use these for an elegant rib dish. Try simmering them in red wine based sauce and serve with a side of mashed potatoes. You could also quick cook them for a tangy and sweet Korean barbecue style ribs.Another good beef choice are the beef back ribs. They're located behind the shoulders from the same fatty part as prime rib roast and ribeye steaks.They can be cooked as a whole rack or cut into individual pieces for faster cooking.They can benefit from both a dry or wet rub along with sauces. (although they probably taste the best with just salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon on them. For something entirely different think lamb riblets. Lamb is very flavorful and would be a different dish to serve.mThey do have a layer of unctuous fat but also are delicious.You can make them with Asian dishes or better yet Middle Eastern.Think a rub of cumin, coriander, ,turmeric and allspice, Serve with pita to stop up the juices.

Super Bowl parties need ribs. Pick any of these for a delicious dish. Everyone will enjoy whatever you'll be serving.

A Salad On A Winter's Day

Making a salad in winter is kind of like make a pitcher of frosty iced tea during a snowstorm. Why do it?.Because surprisingly you can create tasty bowls of flavorful greens that are refreshing. It's just treating the veggies differently to create a fresh , summery taste.

Regular contributor Melissa Clark wrote about then in today's New York Times Food section. Farmer's' markets sell slim pickings right now.. Many  veggies like tomatoes are frozen unlike their supermarket counterparts that travel halfway around the globe. However some winter veggies are better  as their flavors sweeten during this cold time.Mid winter is the perfect time for turnips and parsnips.According to New Paltz ,New York Ray Bradley says that leaving them in the ground makes tem sweeter and imrpoves their flavor.Veggies like Jerusalem artichokes need to freeze  because they'll otherwise taste like sawdust. The sugars in them act like a natural antifreeze , helping plants stay alove in cold climates according to Professor Lane Selman  who teaches horticulture at Oregon State University. She is also the director of Culinary Breeding Network. This affects their taste which makes them perfect for all sorts of dishes.Even a lettuce like radicchio mellows during the winter, giving the leaves a milder flavor instead of the usual sharp taste.

Ms Clark includes some interesting recipes. These can be a side but also make for an interesting main meal. There is a roasted butternut  squash salad with a home made Green Goddess dressing. The squash is roasted with honey and black pepper. The dressing is a nice foil to that sweetnessIt's yogurt mixed with basil, parsley and scallions. Olive oil gives it body while mashed avocadoes gives it color and silkiness. Jalapeno is added for zing. The squash is mixed with crisp greens like baby Romaine and Little Gem lettuce. Another winter dalad is smoked roasted carrots. The carrots are first roasted, then smashed and  put under the broiler  for some nice  charring. The dressing is Asian influenced with soy sauce mixed with vinegar and sesame oil. Brown sugar, garlic and ginger is added to this. Add chopped peanuts and a drizzle fo chili oil to the dressed salad. Those who love Casesar salad will go mad for one made with Brussels sprouts. The sprouts are cut in half and then roasted as homemade croutons are also being baked . The dressing is classic Caesar with lemon garlic  oil and Parmesan cheese. Those who love the sweet taste fo fennel will appreciate the roasted fennel and farro one. Tis has a simple dressing zinged up with orange zest and juice.Its a spin on a Greek salad with the addtiion of dates, green olives feta cheese and almonds,. Scallions and herb like dill mint parsley and cilantro also amp up the flavor too.

There's nothing like a bright fresh salad to liven up a  winter's day. Try the veggies of the season roasted and then toassed with a flavorful dressing. It's a nice way to enjoy a taste of summer.

Your Community College The New Culinary School

 Let's face it - culinary schools are expensive. That's horrible for so many who want to be chefs and restaurant owners. However there's always community college. This staple of suburban life is stepping in and stepping up helping those to achieve those dreams.

Regular contributor, cookbook author and chef herself, Priya Krishna wrote about this new facet of American education in today's New York Times Food section. Thanks to their high tuition,  and pandemic many culinary schools are closing. The only ones still opened are the famous one like the CIA, the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde park and ICE The Institute of Culinary Education in the heart of the world's restaurant capitol, new York ity.Even the famed Johnson & Wales , a college with a culinary bent has closed their Denver and Miami campuses. Community colleges will always be open, offering a variety of majors from communications to nursing and now aspects of the food industry.They are also much cheaper. A student ca receive a certificate for only $6500 and $14,000 for a two year Associates Degree. One semester at the CIA is $20,000.There is already too much student debt and starting out line cooks can''t afford that on their beginning salaries. 

Many companies and local governments are realizing that the culinary departments are worth investing in . The state-of-the-art kitchens at North Essex Community College in Haverhill Massachusetts were built and equipped from funding from the state and Lupoli Companies. The last is a Massachusetts real estate developer that owns the culinary arts building.Graduates are then hired at Bosa, owned by Lupoli. There are also perks too such as breaking down meats at Haverhill Beef Company, a local butcher. Other have gardens planted on site such as Butler Community College in El Dorado Kansas. This allows students to cook in the farm to table method. At Mott Community School in Flint, Michigan run the student coffee shop that in turns  fund scholarships. Yet there is criticism despite all the good they do. Jeffrey Gardner , a consulting chef in Atlanta feel the community college grads have an outdated French  cuisine background along with teachers not having adequate restaurant backgrounds. There's also no ethnic diversity in the training either. None have backgrounds or classes in African and Asian cooking. Yet these courses and programs do fill a need. Local businesses need the grads and they are hard working according to Sussex Community College's superviser Martin Kestner. His grads help out the local restaurants in Newton, New Jertsey

Community colleges have a lot going for them. Their culinary programs are worth looking into. Young chefs can get a good education at a reasonable price.

What Will You Be Eating In 2022

 Predictions always come with the new year. What will be the latest trends? Who will be the latest stars?  What will we eat is so important. What spice will be the spice to use? Or what veggie or meat will be the darling of social media?

That the question that regular contributor Kim Severson posed today in New York Times Food section. There is a lot of uncertainty thanks to the Omnicron variant  which is adding to economic uncertainty. There are also social justice concerns along with pressure from a fast changing climate.Yet there are some fun and interesting trends out there.The environment is always on people's and restaurant owner's mind. Cups, plates and bowls along with utensils are going to be edible. That means no waste to wind up in landfills.Another trend that's good for the environment is faux meats. Consumers have literally gobbled up everything from Gardein to Moringstar Farms. Mushrooms which are the another good source of protein are going to be one of the top foods of the new year.There's an interest in psychedelics (!) along with ones that can stand in for scallops. They will also be used in packaging with their fibers filling in for cardboard.Seaweed is also going to be one of the biggest natural trends.It too is good for the environment as it reduces carbon dioxide.

Some of the more fun trends will be a return to those ultra boozy , ultra tasty drinks that defined the Eighties. See an uptick in orders for Long Island Ice Tea, Blue Lagoons and Tequila Sunsets. These will be different from the originals in the sense that there will be more fresh juices and a better sort of alcohol.Another drink that will be popular with be the Vietnamese coffee Robusta. It may be bitter tasting and heavily caffeinated but it's less expensive than Arabica and better to cultivate. Candy from China and Korea will also find its' way into American mouth, thanks to a show like Squid Games. Korea also brings us the fusion word swicy - a combination of sweet and spicy  along with swalty  - sweet and salty , This marries savory with sweet or spicy with sweet. Indian food is also going to be very popular, especially dishes from such regions as Kashmir and Kerala, along with from Tamil. Food history will make foodies dive into Wikipedia and old cookbooks. Rudeness will be out as patience takes over.. Other trends include high tea, olives , Taiwanese breakfast dishes and the strange potato milk!

The New Year is going to be an interesting one. We'll be exploring and clamoring for Asian foods along with good for us and good for the environment foods. We'll practice kinds as we revive old cocktails and explore new flavor fusions like swalty and swicy. Here's to the future!

My Mochi An New Take On Ice Cream

Can pastry and ice cream exist together? Yes, if it's My Mo Mochi ice cream. It's an interesting take on an Asian treat, combining a world favorite with an old concept.

The idea starts with enrobing blobs of ice cream around the Japanese rice dough mochi  .It's a gooey, chewy dough.The company My Mo takes this recipe and expands on this.They have a variety of different flavors from the appropriate green tea to the trendy dulce de Leche. 

Of course I had to try it.

It was different.The dulce de leche was creamy and  flavorful.I liked the surprise of caramel in the middle.What was a bit off putting was the mochi.The texture, with the ice cream was a bit gooey and even saggy in texture.Maybe I should have tried the chocolate instead..Maybe if My Mochi had put the mochi  in the middle, it would have tasted better.Again, it's an acquired taste.

If you're into mochi hybrids, then try this.It's different and flavorful.Try My mochi today for a marriage of two classics.

The Vegan Chicken Franchese

Julia Moskin's chicken franchese recipe in last week's New York Time's Food section intrigued me. I wanted to try the vegan version not hers - which could be vegan patties or cauliflower - but mine.

Since I couldn't use chicken stock,I subbed in veggie instead. I used three of HerbOx's vegetable bouillon cubes.

I microwaved it with two cups of water as directed. Then it was onto the base of the franchese sauce. , dry white wine, the juice of one whole lemon and six tablespoons of butter.

Of course I used Miyoko's vegan butter that I ordered from Vegan Essentials. The wine was Piot Grigio from DaVinci. These are cooked together in a medium saucepan  until the liquid becomes syrupy.

It didn't. It just became bubbly and soupy even though I cooked it for the required four minutes over a medium flame. I added the broth which was guaranteed to also thicken it. Nope.

Then it was time to cook the chicken. I used Morningstar's chicken strips I couldn;t get Gardein's chicken cutlets).

They have to be steamed in two tablespoons of water.I used half a cup.

They would up being burned and sticking to the frying pan ( the burned bits were more delicious, especially with a sprinkling of sea salt.) I served it with angel hair pasta,  a variation of Ms. Moskin's recommendation of pasta. I used Stop and Shop's angel hair.

I also added green beans  however the finished product looked like something vaguely Asian.

It either looks like a hearty Rmen soup or a vegan version of pho, the Vietnamese eefsoup.

What I learned was after research, the vegan chicken franchese is a lot different than the original recipe.

One, I should have used tofu filets,

Two. I should have used cornstarch as a sauce thickener.

Oh well, next time I'll know better.

However the greater lesson is  never be afraid to try.The recipe may turn out a disaster but you can learn from it as I did. Maybe that's the best thing about cooking this meal.

Be The Adventurer

One of the best resolution a home chef or home baker can make for the New Year is to be more adventurous. It's time to learn new techniques or try new ingedients. It's a fun learning experience that has some tasty rewards.

One of the best experience for any home chef is signing up for any kind of cooking or baking classes. It pays to learn from experts. They can show you how to expertly hold knives or use a sous-vide.They can introduce you to such sophisticated cuisines as French and Vietnamese or how to make a pizza or expertly frost a cake.

Make 2017 the year you try new one ingredients. Experiment. Go to Asian markets to sample exotic spices. Taste a fish, poultry or any type of exotic red meat .Go for emu or bison.Or go healthy. Go vegan.It's not only healthy but also tests your creativity as a cook.

This new year be adventurous.Be brave.Be curious. All this will make you grow as a home chef and baker.

A Trip To The Tropics

Saturday's monster snowstorm has us all longing for balmy breezes with a pina colada in hand or a plate full of chicken jerk under a Caribbean moon. Even though we can't visit Hawaii or Jamaica, we can certainly take a culinary trip to their foods. In fact , there could even be a luau planned despite the snow!

Many think Polynesian and Hawaiian is just pineapple and poi.Its much more than that, we have the Hawaiians to thank for sea salt. They were the first to use it along with various fish and seafood. European settlers brought in pork and chicken which are the backbones of the cuisine.Try the Khal Bi an Asian (the cuisine is also heavily influenced by Chinese, Japanese and Korean settlers to the islands) dish of marinated short ribs. Butterfly short ribs and then let them soak for four hours in a marinade of soy sauce and honey , spiced up with garlic and ginger root. Sesame oil gives it its's smoothness Serve with a variation of somen salad, using the ultra thin  Japanese noodles (vermicelli can be subbed in) mixed with kamaboko, processed white fish  and shredded lettuce. You could also add pepper and tomatoes - yes they're grown in paradise too - and dress wit rice wine vinegar  and sesame oil. Torikatsu is another Hawaiian specialty that uses panko breaded chicken breasts served with a tangy side sauce made with A-1, catsup, along with soy sauce and sugar. You can add a dash of hot sauce for true tradition or omit it for a milder dip.

The Caribbean is another great winter destination. It gives us tongue searing jerks and spicy callaloos. Jerks are a blend of the super hot Scotch bonnet pepper, allspice and thyme. It's easy to make at home,however due to the pepper's fieriness, It's highly recommended to use rubber gloves.. Home chefs can sub in a pepper with lesser heat. Lime or orange juice is added to make it into a paste. For a true island zing  use a slug of rum for some kick and sweetness. Jerks can be used on everything from beef to chicken but it is a standard with pork.Some Jamaican recipes call for lamb and even fish.
Callaloo is a type of spinach, popular in Trinidad and Tobago along with Guyana.Luckily it's now found in markets every where and made with garlic and thyme. Scotch bonnet can be added to give it enough heat for a fireplace along with lemon juice. Try it Virgin Island style with eggplant , okra and sweet potato for a kind of veggie stew.For quick snack food , make Jamaican patties.It's a curry flavored crust surrounding a spicy chopped beef or chicken filling. It's a great weekend dish to  make and have with a chilled ginger beer.

Foodies can turn their kitchens into culinary getaways  by cooking foods of the tropics Try a sweet Hawaiian dish or a fiery jerk to remind one of balmy nights  and warm turquoise seas.It's almost like a vacation to your favorite island!

Our Changing Food Demographics.

Our food demographics are changing. It's evident in our supermarkets and shopping carts. Companies are taking how we eat as well as our passions into consideration. What is happening is  new food trends are emerging and it's heading towards more exotic fare becoming ordinary.

This was the subject of a very interesting article in today's New York Times Tuesday Business section, The piece, written by Stephanie Strom tracks what American consumers are buying for their meals and snacks. It turns out that sales of ethnic foods rose 4.5 percent and will increase in the upcoming years. We are moving away from traditional comfort foods and Yankee classics and buying more Mediterranean and Middle Eastern foods. This could be because of our longing for healthier diets. Both consist of more grains and produce than the usual diet of burgers and fried or sugary foods.

Other emerging trends are Asian and Latino influenced. The more traditional Campbell's Soup is adding such exotic ingredients like lemongrass and coconut to its' tomato soup while noodles in some of  their soups are being replaced with the hipper and healthier quinoa. Younger consumers are also shying away form classic soda brands like Coke and Pepsi and embracing the brightly colored Jarritos soda. This is a more natural brand that features more fruitier taste in traditional glass bottles. Other trends include combining snacks and dinner to create a tastier and more fun meal.

How we eat influences who and what we are. We also influence what companies make and sell too. That translates to a varied and tasty American palate.

The Intrigue of Malaysian Cooking

Malaysia has always been  one of the world's most exotic places.With it comes a variety of food just as exotic.There are chilies and spices along with different ways of prepping food. It creates a new way of eating and cooking Southeastern Asian.

Malaysia is covers the southernmost part of the Thai peninsula and the northernmost part of Indonesia.Its' influence is Chinese and Indian with other countries thrown in Malaysian cooking has influences of both its' major cultures..Rice is a huge staple there and it's usually steamed with coconut milk and then served with  fried anchovies, peanuts, eggs sliced cucumber and a spicy chili pate. this is called sambai and is one of the country's  national dishes.Noodles and the Indian breads are also popular and are served with a variety of meats. Unless other Asian countries, the Malaysians use every kind of fish and fowl along with beef and goat available. Spices are generously used here and thy are usually turmeric , chiles and garlic. along with tamarind and aromatic herbs.

Malaysians have also give the world's best exotic fruits. They're responsible for lychees and mangos along with guavas along with the mangosteen or the "Queen of Fruits".Coconuts is also widely used both in main meals and desserts.Both India and Java influence the pastries,There is an Indian dish that involves  jaggery ,unrefined brown sugar and mixed with coconut and rice noodles.Malaysians celebrate holidays and probably their birthdays with sticky rice cakes in brown sugar.They also have moon cakes which are big in the Chinese Moon festival.

Malaysian cooking is as varied and delicious and the groups of people who make up the area.it can be spicy and sweet or savory and herbed.It represents a whole range of cultures that blend together beautifully.

New Slaw Laws

Summer is the time for all sorts of salads. The best and probably most beloved is cole slaw,  shredded green cabbage heaped with mayo and various herbs and spices. Yet there is a change in the air. Cole slaw is not that boring relic from mid century American picnics,. In fact's its' being shaken up and tossed in the forefront of American barbecue fare.

Traditional cole slaw is made with shredded cabbage, mayo, vinegar along with sugar to bring out the cabbage's sweetness, This is fine if you want to have a classic picnic or outdoor grill dinner. After all it does make a wonderful side to any burger or ribs. Some people add shredded carrot to give a boost of color, Amp up the flavor with adding chopped cilantro or even freshly picked shredded mint leaves.Another idea is tossing in a tablespoon of celery seeds or dried tarragon. This imparts a mellow flavor and compliments the cabbage quite well.

Of course there's mixing up the recipe completely. Instead of using green cabbage try red. You can then make a tangy vinaigrette dressing instead of going the traditional mayo route. Again toss in cilantro for bite but sweeten it with honey or maple syrup in the oil and vinegar mix. Try a  sliced or chopped red onion to give the slaw more depth,Many use red cabbage in an Asian style slaw that includes ginger and scallions along with sesame oil and fresh hot ginger. Brown sugar is also thrown in to soothe down the fieriness. This is the perfect side to ribs or even a juicy fire grilled steak.

Cole slaw is the classic American barbecue or picnic side. Amp it up a bit by going wild with the ingredients. A new version of slaw will add zing to your outdoor eating!