Rainy Weather?? Deep Fry those Spare Ribs!!!

Well it's rainy season in Guam right now. We only have two seasons, rainy and dry. Typically, rainy season runs from July through December and the dry season runs from January through June. Of course there are plenty of dry and wet days in both seasons. But today we had on and off rain. My plans to BBQ pork spare ribs were sidelined. So I went to Plan B......Deep Fried Pork Spare Ribs!!!!

Deep Fried Pork Spare Ribs, Chicken Kelaguen, Red Rice and a Garden Salad.

Here is how I do it.....

Take the rack of spare ribs and remove the membrane on the bone side.

Separate all the ribs and cut up the rib tips into nice size two inch chunks.

I rub them down with my salt, black pepper, garlic and onion powders.

Give them a healthy coat of regular mustard. 

I let these sit and marinade for a couple of hours.

When it's time to cook, I pour the oil into a large, high sided pot, and bring the oil temp up to about 350 degrees F.

Coat the ribs with self-rising flour. This really gives a great, crispy coat to the ribs.

Fry them until they get a nice golden brown.

Remove them and set on a drip grate over a flat baking pan for 5 minutes.

And they are ready for serving.

You would not believe how tender, juicy, and crusty these ribs are and with such tremendous flavor!! This is a big winner in my book.

Hope you give it a try. My bet is you'll be glad you did!!!

Until next time....

BBQ'd Spare Ribs.....From Zero to Done in 3 Hours

Being in the semi-retirement mode has it benefits. Even my wife Lupe is cashing in on that action.

Here's the story. Lupe works for one of the local elementary schools, Harry S. Truman here in Santa Rita (Guam). As school was getting closer to the beginning of the new year, all hands have been on deck to clean everything up, give the school a new paint job and all else that goes with readying the school for the new year.

Well this past week all the employees brought in pot luck food to feed all the volunteer workers that were not employees of the school. She told me about 10 persons total from the outside. Well, I get this semi-frantic call from Lupe about 8:30 in the morning, about an hour after she left for work. She said that they had a whole lot more volunteers show up than was anticipated. A whole lot more. She asked for my help. No problem, what can I do, right?? Lupe says I need for you to BBQ!! Ahhh, that may be a problem!! I have no nothing on hand to feed the multitudes. She said and I need for you to BBQ Spare Ribs. Oh yeah right!!! Ha, even better yet. I asked her what time is feeding? Lupe says 11:30am. Great, that would mean that I would have to go to the store, buy a case of spare ribs, which will be frozen, come home, defrost them, prepare them, season them, build a fire, grill them and have all that ready by 11:15 so that she can deliver them to the school in time for lunch. Oh yeah, no problem I told her. Just be here to pick them up. I will try my best. Small order...right??

Well, I went to the store, which is 10 minutes away, and bought the case of ribs. Returned home, put them all in the sink filled with water, and defrosted the ribs. Not my #1 choice of defrosting meat, but in a pinch it works just fine. Remember, just like the old days when we didn't know any better. No one died or got sick back then. At least no one I know.

Anyway, while the ribs were defrosting in the sink, I went outside, cleaned out the ashes from my Santa Maria-style BBQ pit from the last BBQ and started the fire with a small bag of Match Light Charcoal. It's the rainy season on Guam and I had a lot of wet wood. But I had some dry stuff, though not enough for the BBQ. That is why I will use the Match Lite as a starter. Works great to start up wet wood, as it did on this day. I loaded up the pit with small kindling on top of the Match Lite and placed my dry stuff with a little of the wet wood on top of that. After about 10 minutes of burning it was all a go.

I went back inside, and started trimming the rib tips off the rib racks. Then I cut each rack in half just to expedite the defrosting. The rest of the rib prep was just rubbing them down with my basic salt, black pepper, onion and garlic powders. I placed the ribs in a large plastic bag to marinate until the fire was ready.

After the rib preparation, I went back out to the pit and spread the fire out, cleaned and oiled the grill down and readied everything for the ribs. Just before I slapped the ribs down on the hot grill, I oiled it one last time and starting cooking. 

Time was a little after 10am. I thought I would have plenty of time for this. Ribs are normally only about an hour long grill time for me. The case of ribs filled up my entire grill. The fire was still a little too hot so I raise up my grill just enough so that the right amount of heat was hitting my ribs. Love my grill. I basted my ribs with olive oil and freshly squeezed calamansi lemons as they cooked. We have the lemons in our garden.

What's great about calamansi lemons is they are not as overpoweringly tart like the regular yellow lemons. Great flavor for BBQ and grilling.

My Santa Maria-style pit (B-Pit) by made by my Son-In-Law, Barry Quinata, Umatac, Guam

Ribs on and cooking nicely.

Ribs are just about done.

Well, when it was all said and done, the ribs were cooked, packaged and ready for delivery by 11:20am. Lupe was waiting and she made the delivery. 

Yep, BBQ'd Spare Ribs from Zero to Done in less than 3 hours!!! That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Just another beautiful and fun grilling day on Guam.

Until next time....

Rubbing Butts

My good buddy Bill, from Three Dogs BBQ, has a great blog site. He definitely has plenty of BBQ stuff to see and I go there often.

Smoking Butt. 

Photo from Three Dogs BBQ

His latest blog post really got my attention. The title is, "I rubbed my Butt for Two Minutes....". Now if that ain't an attention getter, I don't know what is. But it is a wonderful post showing you one of his low and slow cooking methods for Pork Butt. Here is the post link for you to check out:

http://threedogsbbq.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-rubbed-my-butt-for-at-least-two.html?showComment=1344469941049#c4993952752881608759

Doesn't reading his post make you want to rub your own butt??

Until next time....

BBQ'd Pork Country Ribs

Pork Country Style Rib Dinner

Pork is without a doubt my favorite BBQ meat. Spare ribs are my favorite. But running a close second are Pork Country Ribs. 

Pork Country Ribs are not true ribs. They are cut from the front end of the baby backs at the shoulder. They typically will have part of the shoulder blade bone in them. But they are short at around 5 to 6 inches long and about 1 1/2 inches square. They are meaty and grill fantastically. They are also excellent for low and slow cooking. But I also like them because they are about a 30 min. grill. So if you are in a hurry and want to chow on some great "ribs", this is the cut for you. Fat, Juicy and Tasty. A great "Triple Threat".

Typical package of County Ribs

Well, my wife Lupe had a long day at work. I asked her if she was up for some country ribs. She said she was definitely game. So I figured I would grill the ribs, heat up some fresh, garden picked long green beans in butter and serve with a little bit of butter/herb mashed potatoes.

Long beans (asparagus) harvested from our garden. Heated in butter with a little salt and pepper.

Well about 30 minutes later, dinner was served.

Viola!!!

BBQ'd Pork Country Ribs, Butter/Herb Mashed Potatoes and the Buttered Long Beans

Though this was a very simple menu, it was very tasty and quick to put on the table. We were more than satisfied.

Until next time.

BBQ'd Red Snapper and Trevally

When it's fishing season you know we are going to BBQ/Grill plenty of fish. And this past week I have done my share. My last grilling experience was grilling Red Snapper (Fafaet/Babui on Guam) and Trevally (Skipjack/Tarakito on Guam).

I recently went bottom fishing out to the Southern Banks of Guam about 50 miles out and that is where the snapper came from. The trevally was a result of kayak fishing in the Coco's Lagoon, located in Southern Guam. There is no short supply of fish on Guam.

My wife, Lupe, loves fresh fish. Especially when it's BBQ'd. So I fired up my Santa Maria style grill and got down to business.

Here is my grill made by my son-in-law Barry Quinata of Umatac, Guam.

It's a real simple process that turns out a fantastic flavor.

Here are the steps:

Scale and gut the fish.

Make two diagonal slices on each side of the fish so that the seasoning can permeate into the flesh a lot easier.

Olive oil the fish. This helps to "non-stick" the fish as well as add a little crispness to the skin.

Lightly salt, pepper and garlic powder the fish inside and out.

Make sure the grill is very clean and well oiled (just maintenance)

To add another layer of "non-stick" I cut a coconut tree branch, strip the leaves and cut up the main stalk into smaller pieces so that I can lay the fish on those to guarantee there will be no sticking to the grill. If there are no coconut trees around your area, any "green" branches will do, such as willow, etc. You can see this process here.

Grill the fish on one side, then the other, squeezing fresh calamansi lemon as it cooks.

The calamansi are the smaller lemons in this photo.

When done to perfection, serve it up with white rice and lemon finadenne. But the sides are all up to you.

Again, here is the picture of the finished product that I served my wife. I poured the lemon finadenne' over the top.

Fish, cooked over a wood fire, is outstanding. Especially if it is not overcooked and still moist.

Until next time....

BBQ'd Grouper and Shrimp

Red Grouper (Lyretail)

Wednesday nights are burger nights at the Olivas household. I grilled up some Motsiyas Burgers. You can see that post here. But I also grilled some grouper and shrimp and that's what this post is all about.

Many of you know I love to go fishing. Our last trip out to the southern banks of Guam, we did pretty well. Most of the fish went to the local market. But every fisherman also takes home a bucket of fish. That amounts to about 30 pounds. My wife Lupe and I are big fish eaters. Here is a photo of my take-home fish..

I decided, with Lupe's recommendation, strongly I might add, that I would BBQ that nice red grouper in the middle. 

Here is a better picture of it.

Red Grouper (Lyretail Grouper)

It would be plenty for us. It's about a 16 inch, 3 lb. fish. It would make a nice meal.

My grandson Jacob was over and he did the cleaning honors. I cut two diagonal slices on each side of the fish, just so the lemon and lime could penetrate better as well as the sea salt.

I cut up some coconut branches to lay on the grill. This is a local non-stick method used for fish. Grilled the fish for about 45 minutes over medium heat on my wood-burning BBQ pit. 

At the same time that I was grilling the grouper I was also grilling some marinated shrimp. I marinated the shrimp for about 4 hours using calamansi lemon, lime and orange juice, canola oil and salt and black pepper. This was kept in the refrigerator until time came for it to be grilled.

Marinated grilled shrimp.

After slaving on the pit for about an hour, it was all served up for my wife Lupe. I still held out in order to eat my Motsiyas Burger first. Then I had a little fish and shrimp. 

Here is the spread for Lupe. 

With this Lupe ate boiled banana in coconut milk as her starch (super delicious) and the thick, corn tortillas made locally.

Here is a picture of the aftermath....

Well needless to say, we were all happy campers who ate more than we planned on. But it was so good we couldn't help ourselves.

Looking forward to the next BBQ. That would be tomorrow. I have chicken in the refer all thawed out.

Until next time....

What have we been BBQing lately???? Plenty

Been so busy cooking, both indoors and out, planting and fishing that I haven't posted in a while. So let me show you a few pics of what's been happening......

Grilled Firehouse Burger. You can read about it and see the rest of the pictures here.

Chamorro Burger.

Portobello/Chamorro Burger.

I wrote a blog post on both of these burgers. Read all about them here.

Even did a smoked Yellow-Fin Tuna Burger. Here is the photo.

Grilled some chicken...

Even Eggplant, Pork Chop Steaks and Portobellos went down on the grill..

And we mustn't forget the fresh bottom fish...

So as you can see, there has been a lot going on over here at our place. Planting, cooking and fishing has consumed most of my time. It gets so tiring living this boring life. But I don't have a choice.........I live on Guam. As my good buddy Rudy the Mechanic says, "It's just like that!!!"

Until next time....

What do you BBQ??

Chicken and Pork Loins

I get visitor's to my blog from all over the world. I so appreciate all the visits and comments. But every time I get a visit from another country, I can't help but wonder "What do you BBQ there?" So here is my request......

Roast Pig using "La Caja China".

I would ask that any of you please send to me, via my email attached to my profile "About Me" on my blog home page, your favorite dish to BBQ, smoke or cook outdoors. What is popular to cook using traditional methods in your area. 

Grilling soy marinated Cross-cut beef short ribs.

Please send me pictures of what you cook and all the action that goes with it, any recipe that you care to submit and a little brief about yourself and your area. Here is my email just in case you can't find it: rueben.olivas@gmail.com.

Wouldn't mind posting those either. Of course with your permission only!

Grilling Mahi Mahi (Dorado, Dolphin Fish).

Let's show the world how you throw down around a grill or smoker. I know everyone would like to know and see how you do it. I know I do!!!!

Until next time....

Pork Spare Ribs- Friday Night Dinner Date

My wife Lupe wanted to stay home this past Friday night so I planned a little dinner for our Friday night together. What better way to spend a Friday night than with my best friend and wife with a little BBQ at the same time.

Because it was only the two of us, I dry rubbed a half slab of pork spare ribs with a simple salt, pepper and garlic powder rub. I let this sit in the refer for 6 hours. 

When it came time to grill, due to the rainy weather, I used my little 2 burner gas grill and took care of the ribs muy pronto!! Then I proceeded to grill the cut yard long green beans, sliced eggplants and red hot peppers. Used a little olive oil and salt and pepper on those and added a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on the eggplants.

Lupe prepared her grilled chicken and mango garden salad. 

Here are a couple pictures of our meal...

Grilled pork spare ribs, green beans, sliced eggplant with Parmesan, and red pepper.

Lupe's awesome grilled chicken and mango garden salad topped off with Asian Sesame dressing.

We had a wonderful time and we really enjoyed our meal. 

We always look forward to our Friday nights together.

Another fabulous Friday evening on Guam!!

Until the next time....

Taco Burger....Talk About Flavorrrrr!!!!

I love a good grilled burger as much as the next guy. I just don't get around to grilling them as much as I do steaks and ribs. But a great burger is hard to beat. 

Wednesday night's has been dedicated as Burger Night at the Olivas household. I vowed to grill up a different burger every Wednesday night. No duplication. I also vowed that I would try my best to come up with a different fry or onions ring recipe to go along with those burgers. I love a good challenge.

Well, this past Wednesday I decided to grill Taco Burgers served up with wedge-cut fries made from red potatoes. I was inspired by the recipe from Food.com. You can view the original Taco Burger recipe from that site here.

Now I modified the recipe just a tad. Here is the recipe I used:

1 lb lean ground beef

1 sausage link of Johnsonville Chorizo (removed from casing)

1/2 cup of my home-made salsa

1 large egg

1 package (1 1/4 ounce) taco seasoning mix

Here's the burger....

I topped off my burger with the regular fixings of lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo/ketchup spread and one slice of Swiss cheese. My wife, Lupe's burger had an extra level of "heat " applied with a spread of hot pepper paste. Here is the recipe for that:

1 cup of hot peppers with stems removed 

1 medium sized bulb of garlic, peeled and cleaned 

4 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

1/4 tsp of fine grain sea salt 

1/2 tsp of onion powder (optional) 

Using a small blender like a "Bullet Blender", add the garlic, salt, onion powder and vinegar and blend until liquefied; 

Add the hot pepper and blend until all the ingredients are evenly reduced to a paste.

My first bite of this burger told me one is not enough. I ate two!!!

So if you want a great burger with a tender, juicy, mellow spicy flavor, this is the burger for you...

Don't forget to check out the Food.com site and the other 14 burgers part of the same article. You'll be glad you did.

Read more:

http://www.food.com/summer-grilling/burgers/package

Until next time....

2012 Mango Festival, Agat, Guam

The Agat Mango Festival is a very special event here on Guam. This year's installment is the 6th year for the festival. Click here to learn more about this festival on their official site page. 

There is some BBQing going on here, so I am keeping with my BBQGuam theme, but I just had to share these pictures with everyone...

Here is the entryway to the Festival grounds.

Right off the bat you will see a beautiful display of tropical plants and flowers.

Pickled mango is so popular and super tasty.

I tried this homemade jam and it is fantastic!!! I bought a jar.

My wife, Lupe, showing off the goods.

Serving out the mango slushes.

Making the mango bonelos (donuts, fritters)

These were so delicious, people were waiting in line for them. They just couldn't keep them "on the tray".

Open air stage.

This "Slushie" was a total winner.

Lupe with vegetable lumpia (spring rolls)

Are we hungry yet???

My wife, Lupe, enjoying one of her favorites....banana lumpia.

A carved piece of Ifit wood and a coconut crab.

A "kamyo". This is used to grate coconut. The seal is where one sits and the little blade (covered with a small coconut) is where you grate the coconut.

Guam's Master wood carver, Senot Robert Taitano.

Display of the largest mangoes for judging.

Diplay of the most beautiful mangoes for judging.

Agat Bay adjacent to the festival grounds.

Guess who came to party!!!!

Yea Mon!!!

Hope you enjoyed....we did!!!

Until next time....