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.

Pork Spare Ribs BBQ

I did a little BBQ for my daughter, Naomi, because she had just graduated from Nail Technician class. This was a 3 month course to become certified for something that she has been doing for a long time, and that is nail art.

I just had to grill some pork spare ribs because that is what she likes to eat. Naomi prefers baby backs, but for some reason I just couldn't find any that I liked. But big, fat, juicy pork spare ribs are not too bad either.

Anyway I sparked up the grill with some local tangantangan wood and grilled a couple of slabs. Of course first I rubbed them down with Rib Rub (in recipes section) because I planned on saucing these puppies up. 

The sauce that I used on these is a great little concoction of 2/3 cup of Sweet Baby Ray's Award-Winning BBQ Sauce and 1/3 cup of Kraft's Catalina Dressing for a little more tang. Applied 2 coats. Bam!!!!! Sinimple and great tasting.

Anyway the final result was very tasty ribs.

I also grilled some chicken for added variety. Just used regular salt and pepper for seasoning.

Had plenty of meat for the party.

I had a blast!! They even got me to try that Wii Game, Dance Party 3. Those kids almost killed me.

Until next time....

Rain Stopped, So We've Got to BBQ

Guam Weather Graph courtesy of http://ns.gov.gu/index.html

It is the rainy season on Guam right now. You see, Guam only has 2 seasons, the dry season from January until June and the rainy season from July until December. Of course there is plenty of overlap and being that Guam is a tropical island, it rains every month. But the so called, Monsoon" season is upon us.

So it was with great pleasure that the weather turned for the better and gave us some sunshine. And you know what that means to me......that's right....BBQ!!!!

I jumped right on it, not paying attention to what day it was, and got the pit going. And the menu had to be one of my favorites, baby back pork ribs, and grilled veggies with a little shrimp thrown in. Spur of the moment type thing. You know how that goes. 

By special request, my daughter Naomi wanted me to sauce up the ribs. I usually just like my ribs with dry rub only but every now and then a little makeup never hurt anyone.

So here are photos of what I did and how I did it.....

Got a good lump charcoal fire going...

Baby Backs. Sometimes we have just got to show the backside of ribs.

Baby Backs with makeup!!

Grilled Shrimp

Grilled Veggies

Just off the grill and onto the dinner table.

Now some of you probably know that I usually use my Rueben's Rub seasoning and that I don't give out the recipe. And I'm still sticking to that, but it contains garlic powder, onion powder, celery salt, sea salt, Kosher salt, parsley, black pepper and MSG/Accent/Ajinamoto. But it is how much of each that is the kicker. Anyway I also spritzed everything down with my water/pineapple juice, honey and canola oil mix. I was very light on the honey. Imparts a subtle but noticeable flavor that seems to enhance the taste of the ribs. It makes those ribs "pop".

All of this was served with beans and rice.

Well, as usual, I forgot to take pictures of one thing or another and on this occasion it was of everyone eating. So unfortunately this post is lacking. I reserve the right to blame my age. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Hope you enjoyed this little impromptu BBQ.

BTW, you have probably noticed that it has been awhile since I have posted on this blog. That's because I was off island in the States. There are quite a number of blog posts that chronicled my activities over there. You can view those post at my sister blog site, Guam Firehouse Cook.

Until next time....

BBQ'd Beef Short Ribs

I'm not really a big beef eater anymore, but every once in a while I just gotta BBQ some. That's because I love to BBQ everything!!!


Well on this occasion I decided on something a little different. Beef ribs. I wanted the ribs to be somewhat bite sized so I had them cut into thirds. This cut also takes up the marinade a lot better than a whole rib. But as we say, it's all good.


Here are a few photos of what I did....

The ribs are marinated in our famous island soy/vinegar marinade.

Close up of these marbled ribs.They look so good.

Got my baked potatoes going on the coals.

Use lump charcoal and hickory chips for these ribs. 

Basic salt and pepper. Coming along real nice.

These puppies are ready.

Served on the table.

This was just an evening dinner for my wife Lupe and I. Accompanied by a simple green salad, beans, coal-baked potatoes and finadene. I like to say that this was sinimple (my word for simpler than simple).

The moral of the story.....change up that BBQ menu!!! We sometimes keep BBQing the same things over and over. I am glad I did because these ribs tasted great.

Until next time....

Can't BBQ your ribs...then bake them!!!!

Inclement weather sometimes gets in the way of our BBQing. When that happens, I resort to baking. It is not my first choice, but I can do some damage with the oven and broiler. I'm sure we all can.

Today I baked my pork spare ribs. Here is what I did....

Rinse off and lay out with bone side up.

Cut into these three pieces first. I later cut the upper piece again separating the thinner portion on the left from the heavy bony section on the right.

I then pull off the thin membrane that covers the bones. You want to do this so that your rub soaks into the meat easier.

Another view of separating the membrane from the ribs.

Photo of the slab rinsed, patted dry and ready for the olive oil and seasoning rubdown.

The ribs and the other pieces are all rubbed down, on the rib rack and ready for baking. I bake for the first 4 hours at 225 degrees and the last hour at 425 for finishing. The last 10 minutes I slather on the rib sauce real thick.

The finished product. The ribs were juicy and quite tender.

One of our sides is an imitation crab salad with mixed vegetables. Great stuff and goes perfect with ribs. We prefer real crab which we make on occasion, but we have to be aware of shellfish allergies.

Well that was another simple dish that we do at the firehouse. So if you're not able to BBQ for whatever reason and want to eat some good ribs, this will work out every time. 

Hope it works out for you.

Until next time....

BBq'd Pork Spareribs Because It's Thursday

Just posted BBQ'd Pork Spareribs Because It's Thursday here:  http://bbqguam.blogspot.com/2011/05/bbqd-pork-spareribs-because-its.html

BBq'd Pork Spareribs Because It's Thursday

BBQ because it's Thursday. What more of a reason do you need. A person has got to eat ya know.

It was another gorgeous day on Guam. Yeah, it was a little warm. Temp in the mid 80's. The humidity was in the high 80's low 90's. It was another good day for an afternoon BBQ. So I called my wife at work and told her to be ready for some pork spare ribs. Then I called my oldest daughter and asked her to come on by the house after work on the way home and stop for some BBQ. She said she was game.

That was all I really needed anyway, encouragement....a man on a mission.

I grabbed my U55D (Ugly 55 gal. Drum) and started the fire. And  folks, my drum is ugly. No paint, no plugs, no makeup or anything. But it holds and burns all the fuel I can give her. And the drum was free.

Burning Tangantangan wood (local wood with oak type smoke flavor). Also used coconut for that great island flavor.

For the ribs, I took 2 slabs and removed the membrane on the bone side and rubbed those puppies down with some rib rub. Click here for the contents  http://guamfirehousecook.blogspot.com/2011/05/basic-rib-rub.html

All rubbed down and ready for the grill.

Ribs are on the grill. The fire at a medium heat for about a 2 hour grilling time. This will give the ribs enough time to cook within the thickest parts and caramelize the rub without burning the sugar.

My wife and I just enjoyed the time together watching the late afternoon sun go down.

And when it came time to take those ribs off, it was the cutting board for them.

I think they are ready...

My second most favorite thing to do is slicing BBQ'd ribs. My first most favorite thing to do is eating the ribs once they're sliced.

These were served with mashed baby red potatoes and buttered mixed vegetables. My daughter and her husband and my wife and I all needed help getting up from the table. You know the feeling.

Yeah.....BBQing because it's Thursday.

Until next time.... 

BBQing Baby Backs for old friends from Santa Maria, Ca.

You know, it truly is a small world. One of our former "across the street" neighbors from Santa Maria, Ca. from back in the 70s gave us a call and said she would be coming to Guam because her daughter, who is in the Air Force, is stationed at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam. She, Joyce, was coming for a visit.

Well, I told Joyce that would be fantastic since we hadn't seen each other since 1980. And of course I told her that we would have to BBQ for her and her family at our house when she came over for a visit.

And that's what we did.

Here are some of the photos that were taken of this occasion:

My wife Lupe (dark hair) and Joyce (former neighbor). You can tell old friends are never forgotten and they are very happy to see each other.

Party area. Outdoors where it is nice and relaxing.

This is where the food will be set up.

I decided on rubbed baby backs and marinaded chicken wings.

The baby backs were rubbed with my special "Rueben's Rub" which contains, garlic powder, sea salt, kosher salt, black pepper, celery salt, onion powder, Ajinamoto (Accent), and ground dry parsley flakes. And I topped this rub off with a liberal coating of Grill Mates Smokehouse Maple rub. Great stuff. Of course I rubbed it all down the night before and let it sit in the refer until the next day.

The chicken was marinated in my Guam soy-based marinade with fresh grated ginger. Click here for the recipe:  http://guamfirehousecook.blogspot.com/2011/04/guams-bbq-marinade-for-beef-chicken-and.html. The chicken was also marinated over night.

Here, Joyce is digging into the Red Rice. This is similar to spanish rice but the coloring comes from annato powder. We mix it in the water we use to cook the rice. Then it is seasoned with a little salt and garlic. You can also see the white rice (Jasmine), baby backs, and chicken in the upper left corner.

Joyce is now spooning into some potato salad. We use red potatoes (a little sweeter than russet) with the skin left on and cooked to a firm consistency, pimentos, green onions, eggs, a little yellow mustard, sliced olives, salt and fresh ground black pepper and of course mayo. Also on the table here is the fresh pico de gallo salsa,  soy based finadene, vegetable platter with ranch dressing and beans.

  

My wife offering beans to the little one.

More of the family and friends "chowing down".

At the end of the night, everyone had full stomachs and were happy campers. Can't you tell?

BBQs are fun but it really is all about who you have fun with. And I feel that it doesn't get any better than seeing everyone enjoying the heck out of themselves when you have a gathering. It makes all the prep worth it. 

Next time Joyce and family come for a visit, we are going to do it all over again, but I will change up the menu. Can't wait.

Until next time....