IN THE KITCHEN by Ann Harwood: A rainy-day barbecue menu that tastes just right for a hot summer day, and you don’t have to rely on the outdoor grill.
Some weekend cookouts this summer have required that the grill be moved under the garage-door opening while rain threatened and eventually came pouring down. Even though rain usually cools things off for a while, it is certainly not welcome when a good barbecue is planned.
!["Illustration]("/local/Z/ZWIRE1091/zwire/images/071801kitchen.gif")
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Illustration by Judy Martin
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Knowing this, I tried to plan a festive family dinner that would work indoors or out one with a summer barbecue feel, the other a meal that would not be a total bust if it rained.
My son Jonathan always wants corn on the cob and blueberry pie for Fourth of July celebrations. I think my mother started this tradition when we were little. It seems as though New Jersey blueberries, coming up from Hammonton, arrive just in time for the Fourth every year so blueberry pie it was.
The corn was problematic, as local corn is not in yet, but the Pennington Market had pretty good corn nonetheless. To go with it all, my daughter Kate volunteered to make an old-fashioned potato salad. As she is a terrific cook, I never turn down her offers.
We wanted cole slaw as well, but thought that more mayonnaise plus pie and ice cream was just too much. So I chose a lighter slaw made with Napa cabbage and an Asian-style dressing, just enough to lightly coat and season the vegetables.
I decided to try baby-back beef ribs, baked very slowly in the oven to render out the fat yet keep them juicy. My experiment worked out extremely well, we all thought.
Here is our summer rainy-day barbecue menu. It tastes just right for a hot summer day, and you don’t have to rely on the outdoor grill.
RAINY DAY BARBECUE FOR SIX
Bourbon "Barbecued" Beef Ribs*
Napa Slaw*
Corn on the Cob
Kate’s Old Fashioned Potato Salad*
Blueberry Pie/Crisp
BOURBON "BARBECUED "BABY BACK RIBS
½ cup spicy bottled barbecue sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons A-1 sauce
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
12 meaty baby back beef ribs
½ cup bourbon
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix first 5 ingredients in a large roasting pan no more than 3 inches deep. Add ribs and turn to coat each rib completely in sauce. Bake 1½ hours.
Add bourbon to pan and baste ribs. Bake one more hour, basting every 15 minutes.
NAPA SLAW
This should not be a spicy slaw. It is a pleasant foil to the spicy barbecue sauce on the ribs. If you decide to serve the slaw with something less spicy, you can add a few drops of Chinese hot pepper oil.
1 head Napa cabbage
2 large carrots, peeled and trimmed
¾ medium sweet red bell pepper, cored and thinly sliced lengthwise
1/3 cup good olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1½ tablespoons rice vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
Trim off any browned leaves from cabbage. Starting at top slice down, crosswise, cutting cabbage into thin slices, as for slaw. Place in large serving bowl.
Grate carrots on large holes of 4-sided grater or in food processor. Add to cabbage. Add bell pepper.
In 1 cup glass measuring cup, place next 4 ingredients and beat with fork. Drizzle over slaw. Toss slaw to coat in dressing. Taste to see if you want any more salt.
KATE’S OLD-FASHIONED POTATO SALAD
3 pounds small, red-skinned potatoes
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced
2 medium stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, peeled, trimmed and grated
good handful fresh parsley, minced
small bunch fresh chives, snipped
enough light mayonnaise to coat potatoes well
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Spike seasoning*
Bring large kettle half full of salted water to boil. Meanwhile, scrub potatoes and remove any eyes or brown spots. Boil potatoes until done but not mushy. Drain in colander and run cold water over potatoes to cool.
When cool enough to handle, slice about ¼-inch thick into a large bowl, making some slices smaller than others. (Kate says she likes some pieces to fall apart a little when she mixes in the dressing, but wants most of the pieces to remain whole.)
Add eggs, celery and carrots. In smaller bowl, mix mayonnaise with seasonings to taste. (Kate often adds cider vinegar to her potato-salad dressing, but this time she did not. We liked it just fine.) Fold into salad and correct seasoning.
* If you don’t have Spike on hand, try some finely chopped fresh basil or a little fresh thyme or dill not too much herb.
BLUEBERRY CRISP
For those who don’t have time for the pie crust, here is the pie’s filling and topping baked in a deep dish pie plate.
1 tablespoon butter, softened
6 cups blueberries
1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons cornstarch
¾ cup sugar
dash cinnamon
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Butter 9-inch round deep-dish pie plate or baking dish. In large bowl, mix blueberries with lemon juice. In smaller bowl, mix cornstarch, sugar and cinnamon.
Sprinkle sugar mixture over berries and toss to coat well. Scrape all into pie plate, mounding a little in the center. Bake 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake 15 minutes more.
Scatter topping over berries and bake 15-20 minutes more until topping is lightly browned and berry filling is puffing and bubbling. Let cool to room temperature and serve with ice cream.
Topping:
¼ cup softened butter
½ cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup rolled oats
handful sliced almonds (the kind with the brown edges)
several grindings fresh nutmeg
Cream butter and sugar together. Add in remaining ingredients and mix well.