Chilean Ribs

Yum yum yum. It's no secret that Mr. Foodie and I like it hot. Get your minds out of the gutter. We love spicy stuff - and I love how different cultures have different kinds of spicy.

***DISCLOSURE!!!THE MEAT NEEDS TO MARINATE OVERNIGHT***

There. I hate when I read a recipe, realize I have everything on hand to make it, get super jazzed up about how great it sounds...and then I get to the end of the recipe and find out I can't make it that night because it requires sitting overnight. You're welcome.

These ribs were phenomenal. The marinade would be fantastic on chops, bone-in chicken breasts, flank steak, or as here - country style ribs. The recipe is based loosely on a recipe I found on epicurious.com.

Marinade
1 3.5 oz can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/2 jalapeno, seeded
1/2 onion
4 cloves garlic
Generous pinch of dried oregano, or one tablespoon fresh
3/4 c. red wine vinegar
1/2 c. olive oil

Combine chipotles and sauce, jalapeno, onion, garlic and oregano in food processor and pulse to chop.

With food processor running, drizzle in vinegar, then oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Reserve about 1/2-3/4 cup marinade for basting during grilling. Pour remaining marinade over your meat and refrigerate, covered, overnight.

Grill as usual, basting frequently. For country ribs, grill for a total of 20 minutes, flipping every 2-3 minutes and basting at each flip. Watch the grill - the marinade has a tendency to catch fire!

I served this with black beans and a mixed salad with avocado and red wine vinaigrette. We had white wine open, but I think a zinfandel or other juicy red would have been much better.

Bonjour!

Mr. Foodie and I just got back from a weeklong vacay in London and Paris. A week was not enough. I wish we had two additional days in Paris. Three days in London was plenty for me - the food was awful and isn't the point of a vacation to eat and drink? I did have plenty of tasty ciders and beers in London though!

Paris was lovely. Like Italy, France has a very rich culinary history and culture. Some things we ate that were fabulous:

- Crepes filled with literally half a jar of Nutella and sliced bananas
- Baguettes
- Escargot and pieces of bread dipped in the garlicky butter "snail sauce"
- Duck confit (duck leg cured in its own fat, then fried and generally served with pommes frites or mashed potatoes with lots of butter and cream...drool)
- Pommes frites with garlic aioli
- Brick salad, which is essentially a huge salad topped with goat cheese encased in crepes. Yum.

We had a great time, although three days in Paris was not enough to allow us to work on the language or to immerse ourselves into Parisian culture. Guess we'll just have to go back!