Quick and Easy Ribs

If you are looking for a quick game day meal, try serving some pork spareribs. This recipe is quick and easy.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 package spareribs (2 ribs)
• 1 bottle of beer (any type)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. sea salt
• 1 Tbsp. fresh cracked pepper
• 1 navel orange, sliced
• 1 cup(s) BBQ sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place ribs on a foiled shallow baking tray.
2. Rub with salt, pepper and garlic, and place sliced oranges on top of ribs.
3. Pour beer on bottom of the baking tray and cover tightly with foil.
4. Bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.
5. Uncover and baste with BBQ sauce, and then bake an additional 10 minutes.

Super Bowl Snacks: Pulled Pork Sandwiches

If you want to serve a hearty meal during the Super Bowl, make some great pulled pork sandwiches.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder roast, netted or tied
• 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed french onion soup
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 12 round sandwich rolls or hamburger rolls, split

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook until it's well browned on all sides.
2. Stir the soup, ketchup, vinegar and brown sugar in a 5-quart slow cooker. Add the pork and turn to coat.
3. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 9 hours or until the pork is fork-tender.
4. Remove the pork from the cooker to a cutting board and let stand for 10 minutes. Using 2 forks, shred the pork. Return the pork to the cooker.
5. Divide the pork and sauce mixture among the rolls.

Notes

• You can cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours. 

Recipe: Smoked Pork Butt Roast

The pork butt roast is sometimes called a cottage ham. It actually comes from the shoulder of the pig.

My family and friends love great pulled pork sandwiches. In order to have pulled pork sandwiches, you have to smoke a pork butt. Here's my cooking video on how to do a smoked pork butt. I hope you enjoy it.

Din Ho Chinese Bar-BQ: Yummy!

Today, I joined three of my best friends from work at Din Ho Chinese Bar-BQ. I had eaten there a long time and enjoyed it very much. Due to the distance from my old place of employment, I wasn't able to go there.

Since I'm unemployed, I had no excuse not to eat there. Plus, one of my friends, Scott, loves Din Ho and said that we had to go. He invited Robert, a guy who doesn't really like Chinese, and Ken, another one who would not chose Chinese as his first choice for dining.

We got there about 12:30PM and we had order a big bowl of Hot and Sour soup, 2 orders of the Bar-BQ pork, General Tzo's Chicken and Beef with Snow Peas. The soup was very hot (temperature hot) and very good once it cooled down a bit. Needless to say, I really enjoyed it a lot. The guys who normal aren't fans of Chinese enjoyed the soup. One of the things I enjoy about the soup is the spicy nature of it. I have noticed that most Chinese restaurants will not make the soup very spicy which is a disappointment to me. Well, Din Ho hit the mark in balancing spice and taste perfectly.

The rest of our meal came out quickly. The pork was absolutely great and had the classic Chinese Bar-BQ taste. Perfectly glazed with the sauce that you would die for. The General's Tsu's chicken was a little disappointing. Most of the time is served a little spicy, but this time it was off a bit. Good, but not great like it usually is. The beef and snow peas was absolutely delicious. Robert and Ken fought over the dish and they loved it.

The place has changed a bit since I have been there. It is bigger and looks great. We were seated near the seafood tanks and the kitchen. Not a great location, but still fairly comfortable. When you enter the restaurant, you see the ducks having in the window. This reminded me a lot of family-owned Chinese restaurants that I have eaten many a meal in New York.

The wait staff was on their toes today. They made sure that we were fully taken care of. My tea glass did not run empty and I didn't have to ask for anything. So, the wait staff gets an A for their hard work. Thanks, guys!

Well, I will definitely be back to enjoy another meal. I need a fix of duck and pork. With the enormous menu, I am sure you will find something wonderful to enjoy.

The address is
8557 Research Blvd # 116
Austin, TX 78758
(512) 832-8788

Glazed Ham for New Year's Day

As I had mentioned in a previous blog entry, we serve pork for your New Year's dinner. Typically, it is served with black-eyed peas, collard greens or green beans, baked sweet potatoes and sweet cornbread. One of my favorite pork recipes is a Apricot-Brandy glazed ham.

Apricot-Brandy glaze is very easy and very taste. I would even say that you could put this on a leather boot and it would taste delicious.

Ingredients
1 cup apricot preserves
3 tablespoons brandy (not brandy flavoring)
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (or spicy brown mustard for more flavor)

Directions
While ham is roasting, purée preserves in a blender.
In a sauce pan, whisk orange juice, apricot preserves, brown sugar and corn starch until well combined. Cook over medium low heat until slightly thickened, stirring frequently.
Add mustard and brandy, whisk. Continue cooking over low heat 1 to 2 additional minutes.
Remove from heat.
Spread glaze on ham during the last 30 minutes of oven baking. Reapply during the last 15 minutes if desired.
Serve extra glaze along side of ham.

I will using the Big Easy again for this ham. It will take about 10 minutes per pound to cook. During the last 15 minutes of cooking in the Big Easy, apply the glaze. Don't apply during the last 30 minutes of cooking in the Big Easy. If you do, you will burn the glaze. It gets very hot inside the cooking chamber.

Pork, the Other White Meat

One of the biggest things that people say about pork is that it is dry. In the past, most people cooked the living daylights out of a pork chop or use breadcrumbs. But, if you know what you are doing, then grilling a delicious pork chop is easy.

I look for thick pork chops. Cooking thin pork chops requires you to watch them very closely. The pork chop pictured here is about 1 inch thick. It also has its bone in. By keeping the bone in the chop, it stays moist. As for temperature, I take my chops to about 150 degrees F and use carryover heat to take it to its final temperature of a 160 degrees F. If you overcook, the chop will be dry and tough. Because of modern feeding practices, trichinosis is a no longer a concern. Although trichina is virtually nonexistent in pork, if it were present, it would be killed at 137 degrees F. That is well below the recommended end cooking temperature for pork, which is 160 degrees F. Many outdated cookbooks, commonly found in the home, were written many years ago, when trichinosis was a concern, and will instruct, even warn that pork must be cooked until there is absolutely no pink in the meat (to an internal temperature of 170 degrees to 185 degrees!); or as one popular cookbook put it, “The meat must be white or grayish throughout, without a trace of pink, even in the very center of a large roast.” This is not at all necessary today. Nor is it good.

Seasoning is simple. Salt, pepper and vegetable oil are the only things you need. Yes, simple and easy. Everyone loves them.