Postmodern Barbecue

Do you think Kansas City has more fountains or barbecue joints?

Kansas City has many claims to fame (especially as of late), but good ol’ BBQ may be one of the most enduring.

(By the way, it’s fountains if you were wondering. Thanks, Google.)

Of course in any barbecue town (as if there were any others), locals have fierce opinions over their favorites. While I wouldn’t call my opinions fierce, here’s my list:

Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue

Bates City Bar-B-Que

Houston’s (ribs)

There’s something wrong with this list though. As of last week, I’d never been to Joe’s KC, which may be the current reigning king in Kansas City.

I smell a field trip.

So, I assembled the troops. Tipped off by Joy that the Nelson Atkins (another Kansas City gem) was running a special exhibit related to food, it was clear that barbecue and art would make the perfect pair (duh). 

So the day began. And a humid day it was. Maybe the most humid day ever. Joy, Robert, Dane, Jack, Damen, and I met for lunch at Joe’s KC where we waited for about an hour in a line that ran outside the length of the building.

But don’t feel bad for us. It doesn’t feel like an hour if A.) you’re with friends and B.) you get to eat this after.

Behold, the Z-Man.

Truly the best sandwich I’ve ever had. Excuse me while I amend my list.

Robert had burnt ends, another KC fav. 

We're all here, even if you can only see the top of Jack's head.

After launching ourselves into a food coma, Joy, Robert, Dane, and I stumbled our way into the Nelson.

Thank goodness they had these nifty camping chairs you could just haul around for whenever you need a good sit. 

There was a lot of sitting. And pondering.

I didn’t know what to expect in regards to the exhibit (it's called Ferran Adria’s Notes on Creativity), but I was both baffled and pleased by it. Prepare yourself. We’re about to philosophize.

The long of short of it is this: famed chef Ferran Adria has shut the doors to his equally famed restaurant elBulli and reopened it as aculinary foundation of sorts with the mission of inspiring creativity through the discovery of new recipes and cataloguing them for everyone’s use and further inspiration. When I say creativity, I mean this: the guy makes vanishing ravioli. Like the ravioli wrapper dissolves within seconds after it’s dipped in its special sauce. Eat quickly.

Vanishing ravioli, folks.

 The exhibit was his body of work from the restaurant—footage, notes, tools, more notes, drawings—his process of creating new dishes.

Here is Adria’s pyramid of creativity. “What do you see?”

At the end of the exhibit, I came to the conclusion that in my blog, I am a food curator. The text of the recipe is sometimes simply reproduced, sometimes layered upon with new text in the form of notes and pictures, and sometimes my recipes are original, though they of course are inspired by something I’ve made before.

That’s a lot of thinking for a food blog. Let’s cook.

(If you’re wondering, this recipe is in the 2^nd tier of the creativity pyramid . . . I think).

Faux Joe’s KC Barbecue Ribs  

Recipe for 2 large servings

1 Rack of St. Louis Style Spare Ribs (about 3 lbs)

Rub:

1 c. brown sugar

¼ c. dry mustard

1.5 tsp cayenne pepper

1.5 tsp smoked paprika

1.5 tsp garlic powder

1.5 tsp onion powder

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Sauce: 

Joe’s KC BBQ sauce (or your favorite BBQ sauce)

Follow the directions here for preparing the ribs and seasoning them with rub. You could use any rub you like. Removing the membrane was a bit slippery and challenging, but that is the most work you will have to do. At this point, you might want to cut your rack of ribs into smaller sections to make them more manageable.

Peeling back the membrane. Use a knife as needed.

I let my ribs sit with the rub all wrapped up in foil on a baking sheet in my fridge. I didn’t plan ahead too well, so mine only sat for 2 hours, but they were fine.

Let your ribs come to room temperature for about 30 minutes before cooking them, and preheat your oven to 350.

To prep your roasting pan, line it with foil and then insert a cooling rack if your roasting pan doesn’t have its own wire rack. I forgot to line my pan with foil; I’ll let you imagine how fun it was to clean that up afterwards. So fun.

Slather the ribs with BBQ sauce and place them meat side up in the pan. Cover the pan with foil and cook them for 3 hours or until the meat falls off the bone. At the last 30 minutes of cooking time, take the foil off and baste the ribs with sauce.

Let the ribs rest 10 minutes before you dig in. This will be hard.

They came right apart.

Notes:  The Neely’s recipe, which I followed for the rub, instructed me to turn the ribs and baste them every 30 minutes, but I didn’t find this common in other oven rib recipes, so I stopped doing that about half way through the cooking time. I honestly don’t think the constant turning and basting did a whole lot because every time I turned the ribs, juices just fell to the bottom of the pan. To baste often or to not baste often--your call. If you are concerned about the ribs staying moist, I think you could make a case for 'frequent basting' being a wash, since each time you do, you're letting out all of the steam from your foil covered pan. 

Conclusion:  BBQ happened! It was delicious, but I’m no pro yet. The best ribs in KC are not in my kitchen, but this is pretty good fix in the meantime. In fact, writing this had made me hungry, and I’m about to go raid my fridge for leftovers.

Enjoy!

-Madison

First Fridays, Fish Tacos, & Key Lime Pie

Lately I’ve been asking myself, “What do I need to go see/do to be a true KC food blogger?”

Answer: it’s a long list. But it so happened as I was making this list that, that the date was Wednesday, July 1^st, and we suddenly had no big weekend plans for the 4^th of July.

You know what this means right? Right?

First off the list: First Fridays.

And now, I feel like I need to tell you this, though I’d like to just skip over it and have you go on believing that I’m some fount of local culinary wisdom; in fact, maybe I’ll shrink the font here . . . but, for reasons mostly relating to forgetfulness and busyness, I had never been to a First Fridays. 

People, I have found my Mecca.

All the food. All the drinks. All the trendy tees and accessories.

And all the people! Good friends Joy and Robert went along with us, and we serendipitously met up with even more. It was wonderful to reconnect with Jack, Kara, and Alyssa (and let’s be honest, Kara and Alyssa knew the way to Christopher Elbow, so they were invaluable). 

I fell asleep at the wheel and only got a picture of Joy and me, but it's a good one!

Getting down to brass tacks: the food.

 Standing in the arena of food trucks, I was drawn to Taco Republic. When I think street food, I think tacos, and they did not disappoint.  I had the Tecate barbacoa taco (beer and chili braised beef brisket). Dane had a taco as well, and then went back to the Jerusalem Café truck for this giant gyro.

And we successfully made it into Christopher Elbow for dollar chocolates before they ran out. My picks were maple whiskey (for Dane), lime cardamom (surprising & delicious), coconut almond (can’t go wrong), and rosemary caramel (my favorite).

This is heaven.

Clearly after all of that, I’ve got to learn how to make some killer tacos. Fish tacos. Fish means these tacos are decently healthy and quick to cook—there’s no babysitting, say a big brisket, all day long.

Here is the recipe I used: blackened fish tacos with avocado cilantro sauce. I’ve posted it here as it originally appears on Host the Toast and added my notes in italics.

Here we go!

Blackened Fish Tacos with Avocado Cilantro Sauce

(from Host the Toast)

Serves 6

For the Blackened Fish:

1.5 lbs tilapia fillets (about 5 fillets)

1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon brown sugar

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons canola oil

12 corn tortillas

For the Slaw:

½ red cabbage, sliced thin

¼ green cabbage, sliced thin

½ medium-sized onion, diced

½ cup cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

For the Avocado-Cilantro Sauce:

½ cup sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt!)

1 ripe avocado, pitted and skinned

¼ cup cilantro, chopped

Juice of 1 lime

1 jalapeno, chopped and seeded (I used a ½ a jalapeno for a milder sauce)

Salt, to taste

1. In a small bowl, combine the smoked paprika, garlic powder, dried oregano, onion powder, cumin, salt, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper. Sprinkle the mixture over both sides of your tilapia fillets, and then rub the seasonings in. 

I really love the blackening seasoning and will probably start keeping a jar of it around.

These little jars are everywhere in my kitchen.

2. Combine all of the Avocado-Cilantro Sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender. Pulse until well-combined. 

The big hit was the avocado cilantro sauce—it is a must for these tacos.

3. Combine all of the Slaw ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. 

When I make these again, I will only use a ½ a head of red cabbage (the recipe makes a ton of slaw) and will turn it into a pico de gallo/slaw love child. The tacos need the crunch of the cabbage, but the lime and cilantro flavors are redundant because they’re already the stars in the avocado cilantro sauce. They just need a little help in turning things up. Instead I’d keep the onion and red cabbage, add diced Roma tomatoes and add the other half of that jalapeno from the avocado cilantro sauce. And okay, fine, add a little lime juice and cilantro to bring it together, but now they’re have some other flavor friends to play with besides cabbage.

4. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Once heated, add in the tilapia (a few at a time if you can't fit them all at once). Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until the outside is blackened and the fish flakes apart easily.

Host the Toast also suggests turning on your fan at this point--do this.

5. Remove the fish from the heat, and if desired, warm the corn tortillas in the same skillet over medium heat, cooking for about 30 seconds on each side. 

I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with a clever way to warm the tortillas and keep the fish warm while my taste testers arrived. Place a cooling rack on a cookie sheet and set your oven to about 180 degrees (or whatever its lowest temperature is). Place your cooked fish and/or tortillas on the cooling rack and pop them in the oven. I kind of wish I would have warmed the tortillas in the pan I cooked the fish in, just so they’d pick up some of that flavor. Also, if you don’t like corn tortillas, use flour.

Ta-da!

6. Break up the tilapia into 2-3" pieces. Stack the tortillas in twos. Distribute the fish evenly between the 6 sets of tortillas, and top with Slaw and Avocado-Cilantro Sauce. Serve.

Time to feast! Complete with strawberry margaritas. 

Bonus recipe: Chipotle's cilantro lime rice.

Key Lime Pie

On to dessert! If you haven’t figured out already, I am a die-hard Pioneer Woman follower. I’ve never found a bad recipe of hers. So of course her key lime pie is perfect. I’ve no notes for this recipe besides 1) I used about 3-4 limes and 2) eat as much of this pie as you can. So I’ll just leave these here . . .

Easiest way to press & shape graham cracker crust: a fork.

 Enjoy! (I know I did!)

-Madison