Pork Ribs

WHAT TO DO WHEN IT RAINS

There are 1000 or more ways to cook pork ribs.....here is one of mine. With pork you always want to make sure your meat is cooked all the way thru as medium well pork IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU! If you have a meat thermometer you can make sure it gets to 155 degrees.

SEASONING

You may have walked by these containers and had no idea what they were. From left to right on the picture SAZON (with culantro and achiote) and ADOBO. SAZON has a very noticeable reddish tint which will give your food the desired color you want. Adobo is basically a mixture of salt, granulated garlic, oregano, black pepper, turmeric and onion powder. The delightful mixture gives a different dimension to your food's because of it's distinctive flavor.

PORK RIBS

You can make these in the oven and in a cooking sheet but I have come to find out if you use a cooling tray(low profile wire grate) and cook the meat on it, it does not allow the meat to suck up all unwanted extra oil. As seen in the picture below you can fit a rack cut in half. As long as it is above the cooking area your ribs will not become oily.

1 Pork Rib Slab
1 tablespoon of adobo
4 packets of sazon
2 teaspoons of dry oregano
1 tablespoon of oil

Pre-heat oven to 350 and prepare you meat like above. Turn ribs bone side up and sprinkle half of the adobo 2 packets of sazon and a teaspoon of oregano along the bone side. Drizzle the oil and rub all the mix in to make sure it gets on the pork. Turn the meat over and repeat on the top. Add a cup of water to the bottom of the cooking sheet since this will help the meat be moist. After you wash your hands which by know should be red, place in the middle rack bone down. After cooking for 45 minutes flip the meat over so now your bone is up and add water if most of it has evaporated. Cook for another 20 minutes and then flip the meat back up, bone down and cook until you reach the desired temperature. Total cooking time should be 1 hour 30 minutes(to 1 hour 45 depending on the thickness of the meat). Your final product should be juicy like bellow and crusty on the outside.

Thank you for taking your time to read this. If you have any comments please post them. Questions, suggestions, hate mail, fan mail or anything you can write to me CookingMyBrain@hotmail.com.

See you Friday

Leo

Roasted and Stuffed Peppers

Most but not everything in my life is carnivorous style of cooking. Today we are going into my vegetarian version style of cooking. Well vegetarian in my eyes. I enjoy a good pepper but nothing like a very good roasted or stuffed pepper. You have to be very vigilant in the way you prep peppers since the skin tends to be tough and you really don't want a whole mouth full of seeds.

ROASTED

Sweet roasted red peppers are a very simple recipe to follow. Where you can make the "mixture" and use it for different applications. All our purposes today we will only use it as an oil mix.

PEPPERS

8 to 10 whole red peppers

Preheat the oven to 450 and place pepper on a cooking sheet. Roast for about 30 minutes turning ever so often so all sides are roasted.TIP once peppers are roasted place them on a bowl or deep skillet (like bellow) and cover so the steam will make the skin separate from the pulp. Separate the seeds and stem and discard. The pulp could now be hand cut into portions or left in large pieces.

LIQUID

4 cups of olive oil

1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of minced garlic

2 tablespoons of diced fresh parsley

1/4 lb of grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

In large bowl mix ingredients with salt and pepper to taste. Take roasted peppers and place in plastic or container with a lid. Make sure liquid covers all the peppers keep refrigerated and ENJOY. Once all peppers are done DO NOT TROW AWAY LIQUID make more peppers and repeat.

STUFFED

PEPPERS

8 to 10 whole red peppers

1/2 cup of Tomato Sauce

FILLING 

1 lb of Bread crumbs

1/2 lb of grated cheese

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon pepper

Half all peppers (Top to bottom). Take all seeds and stems off the halves and place in 1/2 in deep cooking sheet. Fill up 1/4 of the way up with sauce and then the rest of the way with the FILLING.

DO NOT PACK DOWN because you want this to be bright and airy in feeling and putting too much FILLING will make it heavy. Once all the peppers have been filled fill up the cooking sheet with enough water to cover the bottom. Drizzle some oil over the FILLING so they don't burn. Preheat oven to 400 and bake for 20 minutes or until skins begin to roast. Then serve and ENJOY.

Thank you for taking your time to read this any comments post them. Questions, suggestions, hate mail, fan mail or anything you can write to me CookingMyBrain@hotmail.com.

See you Wednesday

Leo