There are 2 kinds of grocery shoppers, 1 makes a list and gets what they need. The other (me) makes no list and winds up with a cart full of what he didn’t necessarily expect to buy. This is a lot of fun and I enjoy it each time. The downside is that I forgot to purchase soap for the shower twice now. It’s kinda funny to scrapple through the bathroom cabinet searching for those lost bars of soap that one might get as gifts from 10 years ago. You know the ones, nasty smelling, in the shape of a monkey or cat. Yeah, those. I fight the good fight.
I hadn’t planned on purchasing that little rack of baby pork ribs, I did though. And a day later? I’m sooooo glad I did. I was able to try out a curry based dry rub I’d had in the wings here for quite some time. No really, a long, long, long time.
Come along my pals and we’ll get a glimpse of a nice Wednesday evening meal.
If you take a close look at the rack, above us, there. You can see I used Ol” #46 Curry rub on the right and a standard American paprika based rub on the left. I don’t do recipes, sorry about that. But if you’d like an idea as to what it all was, try this.
Simple paprika based dry rub
4 parts good ground paprika – sweet or smoked, you choose.
1 to 2 parts of whatever else you enjoy. Chile powders, oregano, thyme, celery seed, onion/garlic powder, cumin seeds (toast and grind), corriander seeds, (same), salt and/or sugar, cinnemon … you get the idea. Hmm, well watch that cinnemon. It can get out of hand and ruin things very quickly, maybe just a teaspoonful.
Here’s the curry rub I’ve been waiting so damned long for.
First off we start with a curry powder base. A friend was cleaning out their mother’s cabinets and gave me a handful of old spice cans. This was dates back to September of 1961. After inspection I noticed it was unused and the powder actually did have some kind of “curry” smell and flavor. Don’t be wasteful!
Ingredients for Ol’ #46 Dry Rub
2 Tablespoonfuls 46 year old curry powder
2 or 3 good pinches of coarse fleur de sel
5 or 6 hefty grinds of white peppercorns
Rub liberally over rack that has been washed, dryed and membrane removed.
Here’s the important part. Baby back ribs are tender little creatures and even though I did cook them directly over the heat. It was a mellow fire that sat out for a bit, closed the lid to bring it down. Set yourself up so you can hang out at the grill. If you’re inside doing chores or watching TV, you’re doing it wrong. These don’t take long and came off when they hit about 180 degrees or so.
Not bad for 7:30pm Wednesday after a long day at work, eh?
How’d they taste? I was able to down most of the rack. Juicy & the meat came from the bone with a tug. Honestly, if I didn’t tell you, you’d think Ol’ #46 was just a mild curry rub, nothing more. Will I do it again? Probably not. Once was enough and it’s time to move on, thank you very much.
Biggles
ps – Yeah, I really did use 46 year old curry powder.
Biggs! You prove that “Vintage” is IN! Rounded up, your half century old Curry Powder came through like a trooper! P.S. We will all be shipping you bits and pieces of interesting soap. I had part of a swan, lying around somewhere, “dying” or not … Happy Midnight Scrubbing!
I got some old soap you can have. Shape of a walrus. Hmph.
The 46-year-old spices, I’m keeping.
Rev,
I’m a list maker, good thing too, given what I do for a living. And you should try some fresh curry powder sometime, just to be daring.
I’d keep the tin but wouldn’t have used the powder. The ribs look great!
When are you going to conduct a Barbeque Class?
I do the same thing, though I keep forgetting toothpaste so I’ve had to brush with baking soda the past couple of days. Good thing I have a salt tooth!
Sometimes, I even take the list and forget to look at the darn thing! And I always end up with more than is on my list – fresh stuff, stuff too good to pass up, random stuff. Oh, well… the ribs look great and who cares if the spices are old as long as they still have flavor? 🙂