What’s in Season: Apple Butter

You don't have to love fruits and vegetables to take advantage of the local farmer's market. Do it to support local business and farmers; do it if reducing your carbon footprint is a concern to you, or do it to try a new recipe using produce you can certain of its freshness and quality. This month's featured ingredient is the teacher's favourite the apple. Around since prehistoric times, apples are grown all around the world and have been cultivated for over 3000 years. There are 15 different main varieties of apples are grown in Ontario, with the McIntosh, Gala, Empire, Red Delicious, and Northern Spy varieties the most popular. If you're planning an apple-picking trip in the near future, a great recipe to try is for apple butter, a cooked-down version of applesauce that is sweeter and richer in flavour. Great on toast, pancakes or fruit parfaits, apple butter can be also used as a fat substitute in reduced-fat or fat-free cooking, as well as in vegan recipes.

Ingredients:

1 kg Ontario apples peeled, cored and diced in 5 mm pieces
175 g granulated sugar
2.5 g cinnamon
125 mL apple cider
30 mL apple cider vinegar

1. Combine all the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and place over medium-low heat.
2. Cook uncovered until the apples are very tender and have darkened, occasionally giving everything a stir. After about 60 to 70 minutes, remove the mixture from the stove and let it cool.
3. Puree everything using either a blender or an immersion blender. Pour the apple butter into a clean container, cover and chill in your refrigerator, it should be good for up to two weeks.

Preserved Lemons - Memories of a Summer We Didn't Have

This year's summer left a lot to be desired. Only two weekends from June 1 were rain free; on the days that it didn't rain, it wasn't warm. And the less said about the washout that was Canada Day, the better. It is now officially autumn, and with the threat of another bone-chilling winter ahead of us, why not remind yourself of what summer could have been with some preserved lemons? Pickling lemons supercharges their flavour, giving them a zing that you don't get from regular lemon juice or zest. A staple in Moroccan and Middle Eastern cuisine, they're great chopped up in salads and salad dressings, pestos, guacamole, hummus, and salsas; and in any chicken or fish recipe that requires lemon. And the best part about preserved lemons is that they are very simple to make, allowing you time to enjoy the nice weather we are currently experiencing.

Ingredients:

lemons
salt (kosher perferred, sea or table is fine)
water that has been boiled and cooled

1. Wash the lemons, then trim the nubs off both ends of each lemon. Quarter each lemon, slicing them down just over three-quarters of the way to leave the slices attached at the end. Put one teaspoon of salt into the cavity of each lemon.
2. Place about 5 g of salt into the bottom of a sterilized canning jar. Put one of the lemons in the jar, cut-side down, pressing firmly to squeeze out the lemon juice. Sprinkle another 5 g of salt on top of the lemon. 
3. Repeat the process of stuffing a lemon into the jar and topping it with salt. The jar should be halfway full with lemon juice. If needed, squeeze some additional lemon juice into the jar to bring it to the halfway point (don't waste that lemon; slice it and stuff the slices into the jar). Once there is no more space in the jar for more lemons,  pour the water into the jar to fill it to the top.
4. Screw the lid on the jar and store it in a cool, dark place at room temperature for three days, shaking it and rotating the jar a few times per day. After three days transfer the jar to the refrigerator and let them sit for at least a month before using (the longer you let it sit, the better). The lemons can be stored in the fridge, or in that dark, cool place they were left to pickle in for at least 6 months. Whatever dish you use them in, be sure to discard the pulp and to thoroughly wash the peel you use to remove any excess salt.

The Cardboard Smoker Box Ribs Experiment

With rib festivals happening numerous times throughout the year over the city, Ottawa's love for grilled meat has been well established. In honour of the Orleans Ribfest, I decided to try making some pork ribs using the cardboard smoker box method popularized by the cooking world's mad scientist Alton Brown.

Build Materials:

cardboard box (big enough to hold a BBQ grill in, but not so big it will take forever to heat up, something under a metre high and at least 60 cm.wide)
2 wooden dowels
BBQ grill
aluminum foil
aluminum pie pan
hot plate
old frying pan
wood chips
probe style cooking thermometer
small fan (optional)

I lined as much of the inside of the box with aluminium foil as a safety precaution.

I then cut a hole in the bottom of the box as shown below, in order to make access the wood chips easier during cooking.

Because the food needs a place to be cooked on, I inserted the wooden dowels through the box and placed the grills from my propane BBQ on top.

When it was time to start cooking, I hauled everything up from the basement, and set it up outside, placing the hot plate in the centre of the box through the hole in the bottom. I soaked the wood chips as instructed on its packaging, and then filled the frying pan with the wood chips. Placing the frying pan on the hot plate, I topped it with a pie plate with holes poked through the bottom, allowing the smoke to fill the box while protecting the burner from any juices that drip from the meat. I then plugged the hot plate into an outlet and turned it on. If you have a small fan, you place it in a corner of the box away from the hot plate so it can circulate the hot air and the smoke throughout the box, but don't be surprised if the fan runs out of power, or shuts down during the cooking process as mine did.

The night before, I prepared the pork ribs. For the rub, I went with a recipe from my go-to BBQ reference, "Weber's Way to Grill: The Step by Step Guide to Expert Grilling".

Ingredients: Rub

45 g kosher salt
30 g chile powder
30 g light brown sugar
30 g garlic salt
30 g  paprika
20 g dried thyme
20 g ground cumin
20 g celery seed
10 g black pepper (freshly ground if possible)

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Season the ribs with rub you created.

I placed the ribs on the grill bone side down, and then closed the box up to allow it fill with smoke. I had to be careful as the box got warm to the touch quickly About every half-hour or so, or whenever I saw less smoke coming out of the box, I carefully checked on the wood chips in the frying pan,  dumping out the burnt up wood in a fireproof container, and adding more wood chips, and adjusting the temperature control on the hot plate as needed.

YOU ARE DEALING WITH FLAMMABLE OBJECTS ENCASED IN A FLAMMABLE OBJECT - DO NOT LEAVE THE SMOKER BOX UNATTENDED!

Knowing the ribs will take at least 4-5 hours to cook, I did some yard work in the backyard, then enjoyed a few of my favourite IPAs while watching the pilot episodes of "The Defenders" and "G.L.O.W." (I liked the former more than the latter) and some "Lucha Underground" on Netflix while watching the ribs cook. Every hour or so I flipped the ribs to make sure they were evenly cooked, and sprayed them with the following liquid to keep them moist:

Ingredients: Mop / Spray Bottle liquid

240 mL apple juice
120 mL apple cider vinegar
30 mL Worcestershire sauce

1. Combine the ingredients in either a spray bottle or a bowl if you prefer using a BBQ mop.

After several hours of smoking, I finished the ribs on my BBQ so my hungry family could get their dinner. The ribs tasted great, tender and flavourful, I was surprised by how much smokiness I got on the meat. I may not win any grilling competitions with this method, but it's not bad for something you can make with stuff you may already have lying around your house, and it's something to try in between ribfests while drinking beer in the great outdoors.