Offal is so Good!

I went to a pig roast on Saturday hosted by The Pathetic Suburban Males' Grilling Club. The pig was great, which was stuffed with two roasting chickens. Here's a few pictures of the pig and me enjoying freshly cooked pig brains.

The brains tasted and had a mouthfeel of sea urchin. Don't knock it until you try it ... I highly recommend it.

Homemade poppers also were offered made from homegrown peppers and stuffed with cream cheese and bacon; as well as homemade corn bread with Mexican four-cheese and roasted jalapeno.








Happy Eating! Mr. Foodie

BBQ Ribs: Boiling or No Boiling?

I contribute to another food blog called The Pathetic Suburban Males’ Grill Club (www.psmgc.com). Here’s a recent post I had discussing a recent rib dinner I made.

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Here's a no-brainer on how to make fall-off-the-bone barbecue pork ribs cooking the ribs in a crock pot first and then finishing them on your grill.. Use 5-6 pounds of pork loin back ribs or spareribs ... if you're not a fan of the fatty taste of pork then use beef ribs. Be sure to remove the silver skin from the backside of the ribs before cooking. If you leave it on it'll toughen up the ribs and you won't enjoy them. Take a sharp deboning knife and start working the silver skin off one end, use a paper towel or dry dish rag and grab hold of the silver skin and just pull it off ... it should peel off very easily.

Next, cut the ribs into portions of four bones each. Boil the ribs for 20 minutes in a mixture of apple juice and water (enough liquid so the ribs are covered). I added six cloves to the pot. Boiling the ribs first cooks off some of the excess fat. While the ribs are boiling prepare the barbecue braising sauce. In a bowl pour in the following ingredients: 1/2 cup of ketchup, 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce (mine is Sweet Baby's Ray), 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar, 3 tablespoons of yellow mustard, 1cup sweet onion (chopped), 14 oz. can of chopped tomatoes and its juice, and 2 cloves of fresh garlic (chopped).

Next, set up your crock pot. Pour just enough sauce in the bottom of the crock pot to cover the bottom. Start layering the ribs in the pot. Pour the rest of the sauce over the ribs. Make sure the ribs are covered completely. Just add water (or apple juice) if you need to add more liquid so the ribs are covered. Cook the ribs for about 4 or 5 hours ... until they are fork tender. When done, remove the rib portions carefully because you don't want them to fall apart ... they will be really tender. Let them cool completely ... put them in the frig when ready to grill.


While the ribs are cooling, strain the braising sauce from the crock pot, put the sauce in a sauce pan and reduce until the sauce turns into a thick barbecue sauce.

When you're ready to eat, fire up your grill, place the rib portions on the grill, mop on sauce and let the ribs get warmed through. Turn the ribs over and mop sauce. The sauce will caramelize and the ribs will get crusty and develop a deep red color.

Serve the ribs with a side of sauce, slaw, and sweet tea. Must be a southerner at heart.

The question the blog master posted along with my entry was if boiling ribs was a good thing or not. What do you think?

Happy Eating! Mr. Foodie

Pathetic Suburban Males' Grill Club

I discovered a new foodie/cooking blog that's sizzling: Pathetic Suburban Males' Grill Club (www.psmgc.com). It's a bunch of guys who live in and around the western suburbs of Chicago who love to cook and write about their cooking success stories, as well as their trials and tribulations. It's a fun site that's worth visiting.

Happy Eating! Mr. Foodie