August Dinner

1 August 2011

""Learn to cook--try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!"

— Julia Child (My Life in France)

Well, July's dinner was yummy, but quite a marathon cooking ordeal for me, living in Germany. First of all, baby back ribs aren't sold by that name here in the Munich area, so I wasn't entirely sure that I was buying the right cut of meat. Then, what's margarita mix, anyway? I don't drink margaritas. In the supermarket I was looking for something dried, couldn't find it. When I asked about it, a youthful employee (was he really old enough to know?) directed me to a large bottle of iridescent green liquid. Was that what I needed? In the end, I just Googled a recipe for homemade and made the margarita mix myself with agave syrup. Since we don't have a grill, I had to cook the ribs under the broiler, just estimating the time needed and never having cooked ribs in my life... Really nerve racking to know whether I'd got it right after the hours of time it took to get the meat to this final grilling stage! But it turned out fall off the bone, melt in your mouth heavenly...

For the cake, I had to make my own lime concentrate from scratch since they don't sell juice concentrate here in Germany. In fact, I had to do it twice, since, misunderstanding the German, the first time I put very finely ground corn meal, instead of corn starch into it by mistake. The end result was delicious and I ended up making the cake and cole slaw for a party last weekend. My neighbors loved it.




But I guess I'm still recovering as this month I decided to to go to the other extreme and choose one of Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals...The chicken and potatoes look really good...not sure about the dessert, but what's probably key is the good quality vanilla ice cream. I'll probably make my own this week so if the dessert's not great the ice cream will stand on its own. Here's the link to Jamie's recipe:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/mustard-chicken-quick-dauphinoise-greens

and for homemade vanilla ice cream...

http://pickyin.blogspot.com/2010/08/french-vanilla-ice-cream-with-cherries.html


Have fun and...Guten Appetit!

Jeanne

Finger Lickin' Good!!!

YUM - Those ribs were so delicious. They just melted off the bones. The sauce was great. I had to make a few changes. Less cayenne in the rub and a bit less chili powder ( I ran out.) I didn't have margarita mix, so I subbed in some limeade. That's what I usually use as a base for my margarita's. Margie was the one who gave me that recipe. We will have to get her to post it here.

Back to the ribs....I rubbed them on Thursday - baked them Friday night and then packed them up (it killed me when I had to cut the racks to fit them in the cooler...) for the trip to Saranac Lake. I kept them cold until we cooked them on Sunday. The wait was worth it! We threw them on the grill to heat and give a quick char and then dumped them into a pan and slathered the sauce over all.

The slaw was also very good. I took out the peppers, Bob doesn't like them and added carrots instead. I remember reading a comment that suggested draining the liquid out of the slaw before adding the dressing and I wish I had done that. The dressing on its own was delicious but it was lost a bit due to the moisture in the cabbage and carrots. I will make it again but will make sure to drain the liquids.

The fruit tart was eaten so fast I barely grabbed a taste. This was so easy and will become a favorite of mine to share at dinner parties and potluck events.

More pics from Liz