From Serious Eats: Acorn Squash, Shrimp, and Green Bean Stew

2010-09-15T08:09:16Z

Being the more non-traditional food inclined guy that I am I often discover recipes that sound really interesting to me but I know may meet with resistance when presented to my lovely wife. She's the most wonderful, caring girl you could ever meet but she's been raised on comfort foods. Things like string beans and ham, mac and cheese, fried porkchops were all staples in her house growing up. So you can see how things that are interesting to me as a foodie could be rather confusing and non-comforting to a traditionalist.

I discovered this dish on Serious Eats last year and debated on exactly how to present it to my wife. Eventually, I opted for the "Shock and Awe" approach. I had a day that I was off work with time to spare and the grocery store was right on the way home. By the time she arrived at home the coconut milk was bubbling merrily in the pot. Her suspicions where soon gone when the dish was finally complete and I presented her with another culture's comfort food.

Rich and thick, this stew behaves exactly like you would expect it to. It sticks to your ribs and warms you all over, wrapping you in the comfort of home. The flavor is an excellent compromise for me and my wife. She gets the familiarity of rice and a creamy sauce and I get the wonderful flavors of the ginger and coconut milk. I'm happy to whip up a batch of this as often as my wife requests it and she requests it regularly. So don't be put off by "interesting" ingredients this dish is truely comfort food.

Serious Eats: Acorn Squash, Shrimp, and Green Bean Stew (Ginataan Sitawa Kalabasa)

Country Style Ribs

2009-09-12T06:09:26Z

Some of my fondest BBQ memories are of my father (and later myself) grilling up a batch of country style ribs for a big family dinner. To this day they remain one of my favorite rib varieties. They're full of fat and have a delicious porkiness that really stands out when you put a char on them.

While visiting family this weekend I was asked to help cook up a batch for a family get-together. When visiting others who have grills I'm always extremely interested in being grill master because I'm currently without one. Apartment living creates a rather difficult choice: Let folks have gas grills or have an apartment that isn't on fire (because Bubba who lives downstairs decided to use the entire bottle of lighter fluid). While I can understand the State of Delaware's desire for there to be less apartment fires I can't help but feel disappointed that I have my basic grilling rights revoked.

Today I chose a very basic recipe mostly because lunch was planned on very quick notice and because I'm visiting relatives that lack the variety of spices that are readily found my spice cabinate. What does Dan's basic rib recipe entail? It's dead simple:

Ingredients

Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder

Apply liberally to the ribs and throw them on a hot grill. Be sure to stick around because you're certain to run into grease fires due to your hot grill. You'll want to put a good sear on the ribs while working damage control for the grease fires. Once this has been accomplished drop the heat at bit and continue to cook till they're donet, approximately 15-20 minutes. When the ribs are done they'll have an internal tempurature of 160ﾰF. If you so desire, coat with a nice layer of your favorite BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's is my family's standard) and bake it on during the last five minutes or so of cooking. Be sure to keep the heat low at this point because the sugar in BBQ sauce just loves to burn. Char is nice, charcoal isn't.

Danfusion Blog

From Serious Eats: Acorn Squash, Shrimp, and Green Bean Stew

Country Style Ribs