Meat master
Award-winning cookbook author shares tips for perfect ribs
When you want the lowdown on cooking the very best ribs, you go to the pros. And we’re lucky to have four-time James Beard Book Award winner Cheryl Alters Jamison right here in Santa Fe to fire up the grill and walk us through the path to carnivore nirvana.
Alters Jamison is one of the nation’s leading food writers and the author of numerous cookbooks on regional and American fare, including her latest, Texas Q: 100 Recipes for the Very Best Barbecue from the Lone Star State, All Smoke-Cooked to Perfection, which was published in April by Harvard Common Press ($26.99). It’s available at the usual places, as well as through the Santa Fe School of Cooking, where you can get it autographed.
The New Mexican visited with Alters Jamison at her home in
Tesuque last week as she grilled a couple racks of pork spare ribs to perfection (check out the video at santafe newmexican.com). She told me she prefers the spare ribs over baby backs because “they have inherently more flavor and more marbling, and they are tastier when they’re cooked right.”
She likes to use a heritage breed of pork and looks for ones trimmed in a St. Louis cut, which makes the ribs more uniform in size. Locally, she recommends checking in with the butcher shop at Dr. Field Goods (2860 Cerrillos Road, drfieldgoods.com) for excellent meat.
Then it’s time to add your dry rub: “A dry rub will give you the boldest hit of flavor in the quickest amount of time,” Alters Jamison says. She recommends a blend of brown and turbinado sugars, a bold ratio of black pepper, salt, a little dry mustard and cayenne or New Mexico red chile, and paprika. Be sure to apply it liberally and evenly! (One more tip: Ask the butcher to remove the tough membrane on the underside of the ribs, or be sure to do it yourself. It’ll help that dry rub to season the meat and make it more tender.)
For the video, Alters Jamison used a gas grill to cook her ribs, since that’s what most folks will have at their disposal. She lit one burner, then cooked indirectly on the other side at about 250 degrees. If you have an oven thermometer, put it on the grill grate right where you’re putting the food and keep it in the 225- to 250-degree range, she says.
Then just smoke those ribs, low and slow. Make a foil pouch or use a smoker tube and add your wood chips — she used hickory — and place near the hot burner where it will ignite and smolder to get that smoke that will infuse flavor into the meat. It’ll take about three hours for a rack or two of ribs to properly cook, enough for that simple alchemy of good meat, bold spices, smoke and time to do its magic.
CAFE MIMOSA SHIFTS GEARS
The coronavirus pandemic has forced all local restaurants to make changes, but Cafe Mimosa has transformed into a whole new operation.
It’s now the Marquez Deli, serving up a deli menu with house-smoked meats and a personal pizza menu with gluten-free crust available. There are sandwich options (or you can build your own), as well as bagels, soups, salads and desserts.
The Marquez Deli, 513 Camino de los Marquez, is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to
3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Call 505-3652112 for takeout or visit marquezdeli.com.
ARROYO VINO GETS CREATIVE
Some of the most imaginative takeout options in town are coming out of the kitchen and wine shop at Arroyo Vino. Daily menus feature a variety of starters, main courses and desserts, as well as “to go bottles of the moment” — wines with descriptions so conversational and inspiring you’ll want to pick out at least one. There’s also a selection of curated provisions to add to your order, from good cheese and olive oil to high-end tinned tuna and sardines.
But my favorite feature has been the weekly prix fixe dinner and a movie menu for two, available on Sundays. The most recent menu, for example, was designed to go with the Disney film Ratatouille and featured duck and rabbit rillettes, garden salad, sear-at-home Alaskan halibut and white chocolate mousse, with wine, for $85. It’s the kind of creativity I’d love to see continue even after the pandemic has passed.
The restaurant and wine shop at 218 Camino La Tierra is open Tuesday through Saturday. Call 505-983-2100 or visit arroyovino.com.
GET YOUR SUNSET SWIRL FIX
I wrote about Sunset Swirl’s vegan ice cream last year and have been dreaming about it ever since. The operation has moved and is now offering curbside pickup and walk-up service at 1807 Second St., Unit 9 (that’s next to Backroad Pizza). Sunset Swirl is open from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 1:30 to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Place your order online at sunset swirl. square. site. The shop’s cart is also back on the Plaza for a quick downtown dairy-free ice cream fix.
The latest flavor? S’mores, with toasted marshmallows, a chocolate fudge ribbon and graham crackers in vanilla ice cream. No campfire required.