Grill & Chill

So celebrating time and your freedoms and grilling or coming together with people. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think that's part, you know, when people give their life for something that means you should live yours,

not somehow squelch your life. But certainly I would love to at the beginning of the show to remind us that Memorial Day is for the men and women that have put themselves selflessly behind the enemy lines and to do what many of us could interwant it maybe to protect our freedoms, and that is above all things. Even in scripture it says the greatest love of all is someone who would lay down their life for another and the power in that is not lost on this program.

But we will continue to do what we always do, and that is to celebrate life and celebrate food today and the fact that people will be getting outside, will be grilling and eating and living in honor and respect towards those that gave their lives for our freedoms. And one of the things I get asked a lot, especially when it comes to grilling, there's an intimidation factor of ribs.

So I thought I'd give a very simple and basic rib outline today for technique of the week, as it might be something you want to do this weekend, it being a long weekend and all I love ribs. Now, there's two different things between you know, you cook and ribs at home and let's say competition style ribs. Competition

style ribs are cooked a little differently. So when I've had the pleasure to judge at a barbecue contest or something like that, they don't do you know what a lot of people say, like, oh, it's falling off the bone goodness and delicious and tender. That would be a no no. In competition style ribs. You want them stuck to the bone. You want to have a perfect indentation of where your teeth bite in and pull that meat

from the bone and it's still stuck to the bone. Now, this we're going to talk a little differently because I have found that most people when they cook them at home, don't really go for or even want a competition competition style rib. They want slightly overcooked ribs which pull from the bone. So that's kind of what I'll be talking about, because hey, the reality is this is the way you want them. You're probably not going to be a contestant anywhere.

So just getting to a place where you're cooking and grilling some pork ribs to like. Another thing is I'm not going to get into smoking or any of those things because I'm going to assume the vast majority of you listening are really, you know, have a gas grill, and that's going to be your focus and this will

work great on that. So grilling pork ribs is just that we're not going for barbecue, super low and slow barbecue, but we'll go lower and lower than typical grilling, which is high heat, getting that carmelization, cooking them quickly, and getting them off, So we'll stay away from the smokers, the wood chips and all that for right now, and we'll just go to non stress, simple but delicious, and you can do it with your gas grill. Just make sure, as always if you're running from a pro pain tank

that it is full. A couple of ways to test that is well, you could lift it up and shake it and see there they do make little magnetic things. It will tell where the meter is as well. One way to do this is you could disconnect it, bring it out, and pour hot water on the outside of it, and when you run your hand the metal that does not have propane up against it will be warm because it's warm it has been warmed through by the hot water, whereas the area that it does have propane will remain

cool because it will dissipate that heat. So you can tell by where it goes from warm to cold. That's about the line as to where it's filled. So once you got all that stuff out of the way and you're ready to go, well, then get ready to go. You want to prep your ribs. So for this basic layout, what you're going to look for is you're going to look for baby back ribs or Saint Louis style will work as well, if that's if you prefer. Some people

go by one name and the other. A dry rub. Now, a dry rub is a spice mix that is good for pork. In this case, it could be store bought. I'll give you an easy homemade version in just a little bit. You want unsweetened apple juice. This is going to add moisture without adding extra sugar sugar burns. Keep in mind, so people that put their barbecue sauce on too early, they'll find that it burns. The sugar burns and then it makes it a nasty taste. In this case,

unsweetened apple juice, orange marmalade, and I love this. You can use peach or applecot preserves as well, but this is you're gonna make a glaze for later in the process. Apple cide or vinegar. This adds a little bit of tang also tenderness. And then a large disposable aluminum tray that's just to make clean up a little easier. You can find those at the grocery store, similar to what you find you know around like a roasting you know ten,

but it doesn't have to be that big. All right, So you're gonna need about an hour and a half or so, plus a little bit for resting times. But you want to get the ribs. You're gonna take them out of the package and you're gonna you're gonna pat them dry. Part of the process here is you know, prepping the to be to be perfect for this grilling process. You want to pull up, pull off that thin shiny

membrane on the back of the ribs. They call that silver, the silver skin that pull that part off that is chewy and nasty and not going to do anything for you. It's not going to help the ribs stay moist. It's not going to do anything it brings anything good. It's tough, chewy. Then you want to rub them with your favorite dry rub. Now again, this is not a sauce. It is a dry rub. I'll break that down when we come back.

We'll talk a little bit more about that and getting them up on that the grill, but also not taking them to the temperature you think want to take them because they're pork. I'll explain that when we come back.

enjoy it this weekend. Talking about ribs, a very simple recipe and grilling technique. This is not your competition style rib This is not smoking or any of those things. This is just a basic you can throw it on your gas grill and enjoy yourself. So prepping the ribs, we already got into getting rid of the silver skin there, pulling that off, brain, getting that off, and then putting the rub on low and slow. Yes, but it's not as low and slow as you can go if you

are smoking it. So you want the heat to meet medium blow and you're gonna cook for about one to two hours. You're looking for an internal temp. Now I know Normally, when you're cooking pork, you go to one forty five. That's when you know it's safe. However, if you want these ultra tender that kind of melt in your mouth texture, you're going to go hotter and more done. You're going to look for an internal temperature of about eight

one eighty to one ninety. Now, again this is not competition style where you want to be able to see your teeth bite into the meat but they still stick to the bone. This is kind of what people expect, that kind of pulling away from the bone style, and that's what we're focusing on. You're going to use indirect heat, Okay. That means you don't want the ribs placed on top of the heat. You want the heat to warm the

area around them, but not cook directly underneath them. So, depending on your burner system, let's say you have three burners, three burner areas, which is what I have in mind, I would leave the middle one completely off and then put the flank, the left and the right with low to medium heat, and that's what's going to give you, you know, that slower and lower process there, and that's what's going to give you that tender rib So your gas grille, you're going to set it to a ground three hundred

and three hundred is kind of what you're looking for. You don't want to go any hotter than that. You don't need to go any lower than that. Although you could have a clean grate. You want to oil them up a little bit from you so it doesn't stick to the ribs. And again that indirect heat is what you're going to do. So you put foil covered tray of ribs on the grill over indirect heat, close the lid, and you let them cook for about an hour, maybe up to two hours, depending on the grill thickness of

the ribs, that kind of thing. Use a thermometer you want to check, aiming for one hundred and eighty to one hundred and ninety degrees, like I said, in the thickest part of the meat. And I know normally that would be way too overcooked. But this process is going to get you where you want to go. In a small pot, you want to mix the orange marmalade, some apple cide or vinegar over medium heat until smooth and bubbly. It takes just a couple of minutes. You remove the

ribs from the pan. You place them directly on the grill at this point still over low heat, and you brush that glaze on close thera and cook for another five minute minutes. You repeat one more time with that glaze. That'll thicken up and caramelize in all that great goodness, and then you let them rest. It's pretty pretty simple. So again, one rack of baby back pork ribs, cup pork seasoning rub. This could be over the counter. I'll

give you a really quick recipe in a sect. One cup of unsweetened apple juice, one large disposable aluminum tray, aluminum foil, half cup of orange marmalade, a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar. So you remove that baby back pork ribs from the packaging, padded dry paper towel, spray the aluminum pan with nonstick cooking spray, or you can

rub with oil. Place the ribs into the pan, remove that silver skin off there, and from the back side of the ribs, you sprinkle some of that half cup pork seasoning rub onto the ribs, and you want to rub it, I mean seriously, you want to rub that in really get it in there every nook and granny, and if it makes it easier, you cut the rack of ribs in half that you know uh is easier for you to handle, flip the ribs over, you seison the other side. Rule of thumb with rub is however

much naturally sticks to the rib is enough. Whatever falls off after rub rubbing can be discarded. And then you pour one cup of that unsweetened apple juice into the bottom of the large disposable aluminum tray. You cover the pan with aluminum foil and you place in the fridge until your grill is ready. Heat that grill, get it to three hundred. Maintain this temperature through the cooking process. You don't want them to cook too fast. And you get them up to one ninety and you make that

that glaze and you'll be good to go. As far is a homemade pork seasoning rub, this is simple. Half cup brown sugar, quarter cup smoked paprika, one tablespoon coarse ground black pepper, one tablespoon kosher salt, one tablespoon chili powder, one tablespoon garlic powder, one tablespoon onion powder, and one teaspoon of cay an and you're good to go. So enjoy and let me know how it goes.

to do it. I'm always honored to be behind this mic. I mean really, if I think about it too much, it will make me weep that I get to do this and hang out with you every single Saturday. We have this time to just kind of shake off the heaviness of the week and celebrate food and I dig that. If you want to connect on social media, I invite you to. I have a good time connecting with you folks there. So you can find me at Fork Reporter at Fork Reporter on Instagram. That's where I am the most.

You can find me on Threads and X and everything else at the same at Fork Reporter, and then my new venture, which is I don't know, I guess a little more personal in the sense. It's some of the stuff that I do off the air with arts, with design, with electronics, replica, prop making, three D printing, laser cutting, stuff like that that I really love doing and sharing with like minded people. Are just people who are fans of that. You can join me there on Instagram as well.

At Savco Industries. It's saav CEO Industries at Savco Industries and I just put stuff up there that is stuff I'm working on, little toys that I build for my eight year old boy, projects that I'm working on myself. I still do some design work and some stuff outside of the you know what I do here, So join

me there, won't you? All right? Something very cool and another love that you'll see popping up at my save coo Industries instagram is my love for Walt Disney, an intense man of great focus and passion and is one of those people that comes up a lot in my life mentally when it comes to philosophy and stick to a niffs and just believing in the unbelievable sometimes and really just saying, hey, if it can be thought of, it can be done. You just have to find a way.

So anything Disney I'm always a fan of. Well, there's this place in Los Felis. Here in Los Angeles. It's a great tavern, a wonderful place to go eat, with so much character. It's even though the food is delicious and I enjoy the food, it's almost the whole package is much more than any piece of it. So it's called tam O'Shanter, and you probably know of it because it's legendary. It's the Scottish take steakhouse rather on Los Felis Boulevard, and it's it's just it's a cute place

to begin with. It's got a lot of character. But it also happens to be a place for for Walt Disney to gather. His offices weren't down the street, his house was not far and so Walt Disney frequented tam O' Shanter quite a bit. And I knew that, and I knew his table table thirty one. It's a big deal. And although Saint Patrick's Day is the epicenter big time. There at tam o' shanter that they are shining light on this table in a very cool way that I

want to tell you about it. As a matter of fact, I reached out to them and told producer Kayla that, man, I sure would love to have these people on. I don't know that we've ever had tam o shanter on the folks from there, but it's such a great place and they're doing something special. The Table thirty one Experience is what they're calling it, and that is the table

where Walt Disney dined. It's a four top I think, and that means it's for four people and he would go there with imagineers or business colleagues, whatever it was, talk business, enjoyed himself. So they've curated an exclusive menu. It's got one of Walt's favorite dishes that is not available on the regular menu, which is pretty cool. A personalized history set, accession sharing, you know, these great stories and lesser known details about Walt's time and the fact

that he would visit there all the time. And then they have a special take home souvenir to commemorate the experience, you know, and it's one of a kind, so you can RSVP for it, sixty nine bucks for lunch, eighty nine bucks for dinner. The location there is twenty nine to eighty Los Felis Boulevard in Los Angeles, and you know you can check them out and go to their website and make your you know, make your plans there.

But I just love this, and I love that these places like Tam o' shantern are still alive and well and going strong with all the craziness that has gone, you know, on It's to have such a special place still around at after all this time, and you know, it's just a powerful statement to the importance of these places. So this meal is very cool. You can start with deviled eggs, pickled vegetables or bacon wrapped dates. You can follow by choice of classic Wedge salad or TAM's famous

nineteen twenty seven chili. For the main course, you're gonna enjoy Walt's favorite. It was the thirty one burger with bacon, Scottish rare bit onions, chili fries, and finish with the Sea Sea Brown's Hot Fudge Sunday or English trifle. But I've been hearing, you know about Walt wanting to get that hot fudge Sunday or certain things like that. It's like the old school focus of the I don't know, easier,

less complicated, at least seemingly less complicated times. I know it's always hard to gauge because we look at things differently when we're living through them, But I don't know. I just thought this was a great nod to a fascinating man and a great nod to a fascinating restaurant. And if we don't go and enjoy these restaurants, they

go away, and I would hate to see that. So I'm very thrilled that Tam o' shanter is still around, And like I said, I hope to have them come on and tell us a little bit more about this, maybe in the next coming weeks or so. But if you get a chance, you should definitely check them out because they do really really wonderful food and it's just a good vibe there. I love it. Sometimes I'll go in and just sit at the bar, eat at the

bar and chat away. Just very very cool joint. So if you get a chance, that is Oh you've been listening to the Fork Report, you can always hear us live on KFI Am six forty two to five pm on Saturday and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app. We're just enjoying talking about food today for three hours, as we do every single Saturday from two to five

right here. And although we are tipping our hat in great thanks for those that gave their lives for our freedoms, and that certainly is not going to be lost on us this weekend or at all, or during this program or on Monday when I'm with the morning crew. The truth is to give your life is for someone else to live, not to live only in mourning, but in the respect of the act and appreciation of the act,

and living is what we will do this weekend. We will be with friends and family, and we will eat and grill and commune together in the honor of those that gave us that opportunity. So one of those things is gathering together for potlucks. And I came across a

really great tasting notes from the Los Angeles Time. They have an exceptionally wonderful team of writers for food and the like, and Lori Ochoa, who oversees all of this in the food department, wrote just a really fun breakdown of called a No cook potluck and I just love this concept. So here's the basic breakdown. It's a potluck, but nobody cooks anything. It's all dishes from their favorite takeout place. And I thought that's a really I love cooking, but this is a really neat idea to me. I

do enjoy cooking. I enjoy cooking for a lot of people too. Sometimes you might not think this, but I'm a little introverted at times. And I wouldn't say that I'm shy, but I kind of keep to myself in a lot of ways. It's a strange thing that I do for a living, but I you know, I'm kind of private. But I love people, like when you come say hello at Disneyland or when I'm you know, out in the wild. I love it. I love meeting you,

and so I get all of those things. But sometimes, you know, it's kind of nice if there's a big crowd for me just to be cooking and having something folks. But if you go to one of these things, this breakdown by Laurie Ochoa there at La Times is you can find out more there by finding this on the website there. But it was just a really neat event that she went to she got an invitation. She hangs

out with some pretty cool people. I'm not gonna lie to you from Nancy Silverton, who's just a food genius in her own right, just really brings some of the best flavors, textures, and to life here in Los Angeles, and we're lucky she calls this place home. But all these different chefs were gathering for this event a pot luck, but they were bringing some of their favorite takeout places.

And when she broke down some of the places and how they did it, I thought, hey, this is a really neat idea, because everybody gets caught up in baking something or cooking something and then the stress of it and that can weigh you down and it ends up being not as fun as it would be if you

just brought something. And really, although food is the thing that centers us and brings us together at events like a pot luck or a cookout, a barbecue, picnic, whatever you want to call it, it is the food that we're centering on. But it's really about the people and getting people together. So anything that takes that, you know, takes that out of the equation, is you're not doing it right. If you're stressing about the food and not

being in the moment and connecting with one another. Then that's that's a problem, right, That's that's an issue because you want to connect on a level, you know, a personability. And so they list off a bunch of really cool places that they love to bring. So one of the places that pops up on here is Moo's Craft Barbecue, which is one of the critics their food critics at La Times, Bill Addison his favorite La barbecue spots. So how cool is that you bring up something like that

you can bring. One of the other ones that caught my eye that I just love seeing these types of things being highlighted is Burrito's Burritos La Palma. And when you think about everybody bringing something that brings them joy, a rest that maybe they've ordered from time to time again maybe it's catered a special event in their life, and then bringing that that's as special, equally as special, I would say, as you making something on your own.

I mean, I know that's got the love built right in, but you're also sharing something you love and something that has brought joy to you. I thought, you know what, maybe because my wife is always telling me Tracy's always telling me whenever people come over, my first thing is, Okay, I gotta cook. And she's like, no, because when you cook,

no one sees you. You're always there in the out backyard kitchen and doing your thing, and you don't socialize as much when you're cooking because they're always watching tempts and times and all of that. And I'm like, but that's, you know, part of my love for all of this stuff, right. But the thought of, well if you each just brought something that was from a place that was special to you, from a place that somehow struck you as special, and

that's special too. And then I thought about all the wonderful places that we have in southern California to choose from, and that it's it's actually a great way to give back to your community by still going out, not out to eat in this sense, but out to purchase food that is being made locally to share with others. And then and it's a neat way to learn about a

place too. It's like a sampler plate. Especially if like this list of people, you know that we're invited to this party and went out and bought some of there. Can you imagine chefs bringing me their favorite foods in Los Angeles, just saying hey, you got to try this place out, and you get caught up in you know, the fact that it reminds us about how great we

have it here culinary wise. I know, the taxes and stuff are crap, and the roads suck and all that stuff, but we have it really good when it comes to weather and food here in Southern California. So at least we should be celebrating that. So next time you think you're gonna have people over you want to do a potluck, think about a no cook potluck and just say everybody can go out. If you want to make something, sure,

but you don't have to. Don't have the pressure. We'd love to taste one of the dishes that you think is the most fabulous dish there is, and you put out a sign up sheet so you know, not everybody gets the same thing. But I just think that's a cool wait way to celebrate. All right, stick around, Much more to come as we have two hours to go on the Memorial Day episode of The Fork Report, So go now where