we celebrated labor day yesterday since diana had to go home to "study"

we bbqed some baby back ribs, made that peanutty cole slaw from years gone by, served also a warm bean and prosciutto salad, and had brownies and mint chocolate chGip ice cream for dessert.

here are the ribs: (we had about 3 lb of ribs and four people and we ate half of the ribs)

rilled Spicy Citrus Ribs Recipe

As any Southerner will tell you, the proper way to cook ribs is to barbecue them "low and slow" in a smoker built for that purpose. But not everyone has a smoker, and not all of us have the time or patience to watch over cooking ribs for several hours. The following is a recipe for spareribs that have been soaked in a spicy citrus brine and then grilled over indirect heat for about an hour. Brining is a useful technique in this case as it's easy to overcook pork ribs on a grill, but because the brine plumps up the meat with extra moisture, the ribs are still tender and don't get as dried out, even if you do end up overcooking them a little. This recipe is adapted from Andrew Schloss' and David Joachim's Mastering the Grill.

Ribs
2 racks of ribs (about 4 pounds), St. Louis-cut spareribs or baby back ribs*
2 1/2 cups spicy citrus brine
Oil for the grill grate
1 cup spicy bourbon syrup

* St. Louis Style ribs are spareribs that have been trimmed of skirt meat and excess cartilage. More meaty than baby back ribs. Baby back ribs are smaller and leaner than St. Louis Style ribs and may cook more quickly (and dry out more easily).

Spicy Citrus Brine
1 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 3 oranges)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (1-2 limes)
1/4 cup water

2 Tbsp Kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes

Spicy Bourbon Glaze
1 cup bourbon whiskey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 Tbsp butter

1 Prepare the brine. Combine the juices and water and measure in a measuring cup. You should have exactly 2 1/2 cups liquid. If you have less, add enough water so that you have 2 1/2 cups of liquid, if you have more, discard the excess. The correct ratio of liquid to salt is important for the brine to work properly. Place liquids in a medium sized bowl, add other brine ingredients - salt, thyme, and red pepper flakes. Stir for half a minute until the salt has completely dissolved.

2 Prepare the ribs. If you want, remove the thin membrane that lines the concave side of each rib rack. This will make it easier for the brine and spices to penetrate as well as easier to cut and eat when the ribs are done. Insert a dull knife edge between the membrane and ribs to loosen. Grip the loosened membrane and pull away to remove. Cut the racks in half. Put in a plastic ziplock freezer bag. Add the brine to the bag. Squeeze the excess air out of the bag and seal the bag. Massage the brine into the ribs. Place the bag of brine and ribs into a bowl (in case there is leakage) and place into the refrigerator. Refrigerate in the brine for 3-6 hours. Note that brining too long can over-saturate the meat with the brine. So stick within the 3-6 hour time frame.

3 Prepare bourbon glaze. Heat bourbon with sugar, peppers, and salt. Whisk in butter until melted. Set aside or refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Warm before using. You can also prepare while the meat is cooking in the next step.

4 Prepare the grill for indirect heat. On a gas grill, heat the grill to medium heat 300-325°F with the middle burners turned off (if a 3 or 4 burner grill) or one burner turned off (if a 2 burner grill). For a kettle grill with charcoal, use 3-4 pounds of briquets pushed to one side of the grill. An aluminum disposable drip pan set next to the briquets, underneath where the meat will be, will help keep your grill easier to clean. (I forgot this time, notice no drip pan in the photo, and now the grill's a mess.)

5 Remove the ribs from the brining bag. Pat dry the ribs with paper towels. Brush grill grates with olive oil or canola oil. Place the ribs on the side of the grill away from the source of heat, either gas or briquets. Cover the grill. If you are using a gas grill, lower the burners so that you are maintaining a temperature of about 300°F-325°F in the grill. If you are charcoal grilling, cover the grill so that the air vent on the kettle top is directly over the ribs. This way smoke from the charcoal will waft its way over the ribs on the way out of the grill. Adjust the vents so that the air flow is much reduced. Reducing the size of the air vents is a way to help control the temperature in the grill and keep it low. Fire lives off of oxygen, so if you reduce the oxygen, you reduce the amount of burning and heat. If you close the vents too much, the charcoals will put out too little heat, so the trick is to maintain a balance - enough air flow to keep the coals alive, but not too much or the grill will run too hot and your ribs will overcook. Try to maintain a temperature of about 300°F-325°F in the grill. If you are using a charcoal grill that doesn't have a built-in thermometer, you can put a meat thermometer through the grill air vent to take a reading of the temp.

6 After 20-25 minutes of cooking, use tongs to flip the rib racks over. If you are charcoal grilling, shift the ends of the ribs as well so that the end that was facing the coals now faces the edge of the grill. Check for doneness using a meat thermometer after 15-20 more minutes. They are done and ready to pull off at 155°F, but you want to get to them 10 minutes or so before they are done to apply the glaze. So at about 145°F start applying the spicy bourbon glaze. Brush the ribs with the glaze syrup, turning and basting the ribs until the syrup has been used up. When an instant read thermometer, inserted into the thickest part of the ribs reads 155°F, the ribs are ready to take off the grill.

Note that depending on the amount of heat in the grill and the size of your ribs, the ribs could be done in as little as 45 minutes or as long as 1 1/2 hours. If the grill temperature stays more at about 350°F, then the ribs will be done faster. It's hard to maintain a charcoal grill lower than 350°F, though ideally for these ribs you do want the temp lower, closer to 300°F. Also note again that baby backs are smaller than St. Louis style and will cook faster.

7 Remove the ribs to a large serving platter and cut into 1 or 2-rib sections.

Serves four.

a funny story about diana and me yesterday

i found this recipe online for mint chocolate chip ice cream and we have a ton a mint and diana loves that ice cream so we made this. unfortunately we made a couple of crucial errors (someone forgot to separate the eggs, and someone thought we should use the cold cream in the frigging newly purchased metal bowls to add to the eggs and heat....) and the custard turned into scrambled eggs. sweet, minty, sickly green little rice-sized ones. not a single bit attractive.

but we had already taken the HOUR to pick, clean, strip leaves and infuse the cream with the mint so we weren't starting over. so we strained the egg mess and then realized that you do need a ice cream freezer. yikes. couldn't find all of the parts for the cute cuisinart sorbet/ice cream maker,so again, we bunted. diana found a "kneading" method online if you don't have a freezer. we were not expected much, so we were glad we had decided to also make some inman park brownies (raspberry jam topping the brownies, all covered with melted chocolate chips)

Eureka! It worked! (we added some creme de menthe so that it wouldn't get rock hard IN CASE it ever froze)

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Recipe

We have a couple of mint patches growing in our yard, though I never thought to use the mint we grow for ice cream until now. The taste of the ice cream using fresh mint really is out of this world, so if you can get your hands on fresh mint, I highly recommend using it for this ice cream.

Note that if you do not have fresh mint, you can make this mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe with peppermint extract. Skip steps 1 and 2, instead heating 1 cup of milk with 1 cup of cream and the sugar and salt until steaming. Continue with step 3. Add 2 teaspoons of peppermint extract in with the chilled custard mixture in step 6.

• 3 cups of fresh mint leaves (not stems), rinsed, drained, packed
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups heavy cream (divided, 1 cup and 1 cup)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 6 egg yolks
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate or dark chocolate, chopped fine, keep in the freezer until used

1 Put the mint leaves in a heavy saucepan with the 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of the cream. Heat until just steaming (do not let boil), remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes. Reheat the mixture until steaming, remove from heat and let stand for 15 more minutes.

2 While the mint is infusing in step 1, prepare the remaining cream over an ice bath. Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a medium size metal bowl, set in ice water (with lots of ice) over a larger bowl. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowls. Set aside.

3 Strain the milk cream mixture into a bowl, pressing against the mint leaves with a rubber spatula in the sieve to get the most liquid out of them. Return the milk cream mixture to the saucepan. Add sugar and salt to the mixture. Heat until just steaming again, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.

4 Whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Slowly pour the heated milk cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm mixture, but not cooked by it. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

5 Return the saucepan to the stove, stirring the mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run. This can take about 10 minutes.

The custard base does not coat the back of the spoon, it is not ready.

The custard base coats the back of the spoon. You can run your finger across the coating and have it not run. It is ready and should be removed from heat immediately, and poured through the sieve over the ice bath to stop the cooking.

6 Pour the custard through the strainer (from step 2) and stir into the cold cream to stop the cooking.

7 Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (at least a couple of hours) or stir the mixture in the bowl placed over the ice bath until thoroughly chilled (20 minutes or so). Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

8 Once the ice cream has been made in the ice cream maker it should be pretty soft. Gently fold in the finely chopped chocolate. Put in an airtight container and place in the freezer for at least an hour, preferably several hours. If it has been frozen for more than a day, you may need to let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to soften it before serving.

Note that there is no alcohol in this recipe. A few teaspoons of some spirits such as rum or bourbon will help keep the ice cream soft over several days. Even the alcohol in vanilla extract will help. If you have no added alcohol in a homemade ice cream recipe, we recommend that you eat it up quickly, in a day or two; beyond that point the ice cream will quickly get very very hard.

Makes 1 quart.

bon appetit july 07 grilled tequila jalapeno chicken looks good too

1 1/2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds, coarsely ground in spice mill or mortar with pestle
1 3/4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 (3 1/2- to 4-pound) cut-up (best of fryer) chicken
1/3 cup orange juice or pineapple juice
1/4 cup gold or silver tequila
2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 to 2 red jalapeño chiles with seeds, finely chopped
1 shallot, minced
Nonstick vegetable oil spray

Mix coriander, salt, and red pepper. Sprinkle mixture all over chicken. Arrange chicken, skin side up, on baking sheet; cover and chill at least 6 hours or overnight.

Combine orange juice, tequila, brown sugar, honey, 1 jalapeño, and shallot in small saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until mixture thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Add 1 more jalapeño if more heat is desired. Cool glaze. Transfer 3 tablespoons glaze to small bowl and set aside for serving.

Spray grill with nonstick spray. Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Arrange chicken, skin side up, on grill. Grill 15 minutes, turning occasionally. Brush chicken with glaze in saucepan. Turn chicken over; brush with glaze. Grill until juices run clear when pierced with fork or until instant-read thermometer inserted into chicken registers 170°F, turning and brushing occasionally with glaze, about 10 minutes longer. Transfer to platter. Spoon reserved glaze over.

cambodian chicken

from nadsa de monteiro, exec chef of the elephant walk in boton, waitham and cambridge. the wsj on 9/2/07 was chock full of goodies. diana and i made this for dinner saturday. we halved the recipe and we were full, without leftovers (david ate too).

bai mouan (classic cambodian chicken and rice) yield:4

1 large clean whole chicken, 4-5 lbs.
1 large peeledwhole yellow onion
2 c jasmine rice
1 1/2 t vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, smashed and finely chopped
1/2 t each kosher salt and finely ground fresh black pepper

Kampot sauce:
2 1/2 limes, juiced and pulped
8 cloves garlic, grond to a paste with mortar and pestle or in minichopper
3-6 green and red bird's eye or serrano or japapeno peppers to taste, finely chopped
1/2 c fish sauce
3 T sugar

Garnishes:
1/2 small head bibb lettuce, separated, washed, dried, torn into small pieces
1/2 large Englis cucumber, thinly sliced on the bias
1 scallion, sliced diagonally into 1/4 inch
handful of fresh cilantro leaves, washed and dried
1/2 small onion, halved and sliced paper think crosswise
2 T preserved cabbage, called Tianjin (optional) (this we didn't have)

cover chicken with cold water plus one inch in stockpot. add onion, boil, skimming scum, reduce to simmer and cook 50-60 minutes till tender and NOT mushy. remove chicken from broth and store in tightly covered container. reserve and strain broth.

spray cold water over rice in strainer. drain a minute or two, and heat oil, sauteeing garlic till lightly brown, 2-3 minutes, stirring freq to avoid burning. add drained rice and toast, stirring softly to avoid breaking rice, for 3 minutes, till rice becomes mostly opaque. season with s and p, mix, and add 3 1/2 c chicken broth, stirring well. after it boils, reduce heat to minimum and let cook undisturbed for 20-22 minutes, covered tightly.

make the kampot sauce, stirring all ingredients till sugar is dissolved. cover and store in fridge.

reserve one chicken breast for another recipe. skin and debone rest of the chickie, shredding.

arrange garnishes, rice and chicken on a platter. serve with individual bowls of sauce, and bowls of hot broth garnished with thinly sliced onion and cabbage if desired.

With the reserved chicken breast go right ahead and make this next day:

hyuon peng pay (tomato salad with chicken)

finely shredded cooked chicken breast
1 pb fresh plum tomatoes, very thinkly sliced crosswise
1/2 English cucumber, thinkly sliced xwise
1/2 c loosely packed each mint and basil leaves, large leaves torn
1/3 c reserved kampot sauce
thinly sliced green and red bird's eye, serrano or jalapeno peppers, to taste
1/2 c unsalted roasted peanuts, coarsely ground

in large bowl, combine chicken, tomatoes, cukes, herbs. add sauce and chiles. sprinkle w nuts. toss and eat.

and another one she likes:

cha how lang tao nung b'kong (stir fried shrimp with snow peas)

1 lb med shrimp, shelled with tails on and deveined
3 T veg oil
4 garlic cloves, smashed
1 lb snow peas, stemmed and stringed (strung?)
3 T fish sauce
1 1/2 T sugar
1/4 t fresh bl pepper

butterfly the shrimp (cut down the back lengthwise so they will flare open when cooked)

heat oil in 12 in wok or skillet over med high, saute garlic 5-10 sec till golden.

stirring, add shrimp, stir, peas, stir, fish sauce, stir, and sugar. stir some more for 3-5 minutes till shrimp is cooked but not mushy. add pepper. eat.

whew i likey chickie.

book list

so many books to read
including perhaps: (re politics and religion, rec of mary ann glendon in wsj 9/2/07, prof harvard law sch)
antigones by george steiner, oxford, 1984. myth of antigone analysis.

The feast of the goats, by mario vargas llosa, 2001. trujillo regime in dominican republic.

barchester towers by anthony trollope, 1857. dying bishop, son successor, lib incoming gov.

sugar street, naguib mahfouz, 1992. last in nobel prize winner "cairo trilogy."

mont-saint-michel and chartres, henry adams, 1981.

and then, from the same issue, a review:

elvis is titanic, ian klaus, 2007. former chelsea clinton date teaches in kurdistan.