BBQ!

I was going to wait until summer to publish this post - barbecue really is a summertime dish, I think - but Doc went and started a conversation about barbecue over at his place, and I threatened to start a fight by posting my recipe. Never let it be said that Chili doesn’t put up when she speaks up, so here it is.

Depending on the source, I either get a lot of crap or a lot of praise for my homemade barbecue sauce. My immediate family - up to and including the Bowyer clan - loves it. Those outside of my circle aren’t as easy a sell, though. Barbecue sauce is one of those highly personal preferences, I think; if it’s not exactly what you think “good” barbecue sauce is, then it’s just not good. I like a lot of barbecue sauces - mostly from restaurants; the stuff in bottles always tastes like I imagine burned plastic would taste - but I really do think my sauce is at least as good as any of those slathered on restaurant ribs. Of course, I’m a little biased, so take my opinion for what it’s worth.

I made this recipe up ENTIRELY out of my head; there is no place to lay credit for this as an original or an inspiration. Here it is:

Take half a pound of hickory smoked bacon and cut it into small pieces (I don’t bother peeling the rashers away from each other; there’s no need for that kind of fussiness). Drop the pieces into the bowl of a food processor and blitz them until they form a paste. Scrape this into a medium-large sauce pan, then drop a medium-to-large, quartered yellow onion into the food processor and blitz that until it’s mush. Scrape the onion into the bacon, turn the heat to medium, and cook the whole mess, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes (and trust me, it’s a mess - at this point, the recipe really resembles nothing so much as a pot full of vomit. Were it not for the gorgeous smell of bacon and onions - two of my favorite things - I literally might not be able to make it past this step).

Once the bacon is cooked through (it won’t get brown - or, rather, it shouldn’t - but after ten minutes over medium heat, it should be sufficiently cooked), upend a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup into the pot and turn the heat down; it’s going to blop and burble all over your stove if you don’t. I usually use most of a standard size bottle (and I’m sorry, but all I have in my fridge at this moment is a “family size” bottle, so I don’t really know what the “standard” size is. Besides, I do all this by eye (and tongue), anyway, if you’ve not already guessed from my oh-so-precise measurements). Scoop in a few tablespoons of brown sugar (more or less, depending on your fancy), a shake or two of cayenne pepper (more or less, depending on your fancy) and a few tablespoons of mustard (again, more or less…) into the sauce. Stir it all together and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, then go back and taste it again, adjusting for sweetness or spice as you see fit.

That’s it!!

This stuff freezes beautifully. Because of all the vinegar in the ketchup, it never really gets ice-cube hard - it settles into a consistency not unlike fruit sorbet - so I find I can spoon out just what I need without having to defrost the whole batch. My most common use for this is “pulled chicken” sandwiches: I poach a few chicken breasts, shred the meat with forks, then stir it around in a little too much sauce and serve it in toasted bulky rolls with chips and (if I’ve got some) cole slaw.

YUM!

Beanie’s Favorite Dinner

In honor of my younger daughter’s ninth birthday, I offer you the recipe for her favorite dinner; macaroni and cheese.

Once I figured out how yummy and stupid-easy it was to make mac-and-cheese from scratch, I’ve never since bought a box of the orange stuff. Seriously, you can have the sauce made in the time it takes the elbows to boil, and buying pre-grated cheese takes all of the “work” out of this process.

The recipe as it appears on the back of the Prince elbow macaroni box - my main inspiration for this dish - is as follows:

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Cook 8 oz of elbows according to package directions (boil in 3 quarts of water and 2 teaspoons of salt for 6-8 minutes, depending on desired firmness). Drain and set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons of butter, then stir in 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Carefully stir in 2 1/2 cups milk and cook, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens. Add 1/4 cup minced onions and 2 cups of shredded Cheddar cheese and stir until cheese melts. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper. Mix sauce into elbows, pour into a buttered 2-quart baking dish, top with 1/2 cup of bread crumbs and bake for 30 minutes.

I alter that recipe quite a bit, actually. For starters, I double the sauce; there’s really not enough sauce in the original, especially if you’re going to have leftovers the next day. I cook slightly less onion than is called for in a doubled batch, minced almost to invisibility, in the butter, then I stir in the flour and cook the mess together for a good 4 minutes or so, just to make sure the raw flour taste is cooked out. I heat the milk in the microwave for a bit, too, which makes its integration into the roux much easier. I leave the salt and pepper out altogether and add about half again as much cheese as is called for (and I use the good stuff, too; Cabot Hunter Cheddar). Finally, I toast the bread crumbs (a combination of Italian-seasoned and panko) in a little butter before putting them on top of the dish and popping it in the oven. I suppose one could also sprinkle shredded cheese on top of the crumbs, but any that I save over to do that gets eaten by passing children and husbands (and the occasional kitty cat).

For reasons I can’t explain, we almost always serve green beans with anything with Cheddar as its main component. The original recipe is supposed to make 4-6 servings, but the doubled version feeds the four of us with enough left over for a healthy lunch the next day.

YUM!