Barbecue sauce by halves

It's a glorious Spring day today.  After being surprised by snow a couple of weeks ago, 10C with the odd peek of sun is most welcome.  It wasn't that I was surprised that we got snow in mid-March; this is Southern Ontario after all.  It was how long it stuck around that surprised me.  There are still a few small patches of it in the yard!

Now that (I've declared) Spring is here, my thoughts turn naturally to... grilling and barbecue.  Of course.  Not that we don't use the grill in the winter, but now we start using it way more often.  It's right off the kitchen, just outside the back door, for maximum convenience.  And what has fired my flame kissed cooking fever today?  Burgers?  Not this time.  Steak?  Always, but not today.  Today it's ribs.  I found some on sale yesterday.  Big, meaty side ribs.  I bought two racks, had them split in two between the bones, seasoned them with an all purpose rub that I had made a while back for another pork application and popped them into the fridge overnight.

The rub is a simple blend of Kosher salt, brown sugar and various spices.  For pork I almost always use allspice.  Then there's garlic, onion, smoked paprika, a little ancho powder, fresh ground black pepper, dry mustard and cumin.  And maybe chili powder.  I forget.  It's balanced, flavourful, but not too complex or spicy (Little Mister doesn't care for spicy food yet).  I don't know that I ever make it the same way twice, as I tend to not really measure.

What I did measure was the ingredients for the sauce.  I took a look at a book by barbecue guru Steven Raichlen and found a simple ketchup based recipe for a Jack Daniel's sauce.  I don't have any J.D right now, but I do have dark rum.  So I used that, substituted molasses for the dark brown sugar, omitted the Worcestershire sauce (because I'm out of it), and of course, added allspice and a few other things to echo the flavours in the rub.  And the halves of this blog title?  Take a look at the recipe... 

1/2 C dark rum

1/2 C cider vinegar

1/2 C ketchup

1/2 C molasses

1/2 T dried onion flakes

1/2 t allspice

1/2 t granulated garlic

1/2 t liquid smoke (optional)

salt to taste

Combine everything in a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer until reduced by... you guessed it - HALF.  It will keep for a few months in the fridge.

It's not bad.  If I had the time and ingredients I would have maybe tried something a bit more complex, but for a simple sauce I quite like it.  It's not too sweet, not too tangy and not overwhelmingly tomatoey either (is that a word?)  It's not as spicy as I'd like, but again, deferring to the palates of the children it's just fine.  I think I'll be playing with it as the year goes on, changing the alcohol or the sweetener (whiskey maple maybe, or a nice strong beer and local honey) and the spices.  I love how versatile barbecue sauces are.  A little change here, a tweak there and suddenly you've got a whole new creation.

I love marinades

I had a pork tenderloin in the fridge for supper, and I decided that I wanted to find a marinade recipe that interested me. Something beyond basic Asian flavours, or barbecue. Google lead me to this recipe, which sounded interesting. But I can't resist adding my own spin to things, so here is what I came up with.

(I used the mini-chopper attachment for my stick blender to mix this together)

zest and juice of a small orange (think clementine or mandarin)
1/4 C olive oil
3 T soy sauce
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 t grated ginger or galangal (I keep them in the freezer and grate them on a microplane)
4 cloves of garlic (minced or grated if you aren't mixing all of this in a mini chopper)
1/4 C brown sugar
3 T dark rum
3 T Dijon mustard
generous grind of coarse black pepper (or use hot peppers to taste - I would if it weren't for the wee ones)

Combine everything and mix together well. Reserve 1/4 cup for basting and pour the rest over a pork tenderloin and let marinate for 6-8 hours. Roast at 400F or grill (directly or indirectly) until a thermometre reads 160F in the thickest part. Baste occasionally with the reserved marinade.

This marinade is sweeter than it is salty. If you're grilling it directly, keep an eye on it so that it doesn't burn.

I'll update later with how it turned out.

*UPDATE*

Well that was a hit. My husband liked it enough to ask what was in it, and both kids ate it without complaint at all, which is huge when it comes to my 5 year old and meat. He didn't protest once about it and ate every bit I gave him.

Personally I liked it, but felt that it wouldn't have done any harm to sprinkle it with a little salt before popping it in the oven. The orange was nice without being overpowering, and the rest of the ingredients complemented each other quite well. It's a make again recipe.