Spices, Kitchen Shopping, and Ribs

One of the best parts of cooking….is kitchen shopping.  Not the run of the mill grocery shopping, but that can be fun too.  But shopping for the neat stuff.  The different stuff.  This time it was spices. 

A little over a week ago.  Baker Man and I ventured into a Chinese cooking store and an Indian cooking store in search of the “Ghost Pepper” powder.  Otherwise known as the Bhut Jolokia Pepper.  You see, he had watched an episode of Man vs. Food.  And there was some incredibly hot dish that had to be eaten and it included that pepper. 

Well, Baker Man just had to have it. 

For those of you who know peppers, this pepper is over 1 million units on the Scoville scale.  For those of you who don’t know peppers, it is really really hot. 

We didn’t find that particular powder but we did get some Masala and a hot white chili pepper powder.  The white chili pepper was really good but I sneeze like crazy anytime I get near it.  So I steer clear.  We haven’t tried the Masala yet but I love Indian food so I can’t wait to use it.  Chicken Tikka Masala anyone? (I haven’t really tried making my own Indian food so this could be interesting)

Baker Man would not  give up though.  He searched furiously online and found a website where he ordered TONS of spices.  He got his ghost pepper powder, and thyme, and Habanero pepper, and this and that and another spice.  And YUM.

Ok, TONS was an exaggeration.  But a lot.  More than enough.  And our spice cabinet is stocked already.   

Baker Man found everything at My Spice Sage.  He thought the prices were good, better than our grocery store.  And of course he found things that he couldn’t find in our normal grocery store.  Or even some of the local specialty shops.   So I went and checked out the website quickly.  I was pretty impressed.  They have a lot of information out there including recipes, spice education, and a blog.  It is all presented well without being overwhelming. 

I am sure there are a lot of websites out there that you could go to…this just happened to be our first.  And it will always be dear to my heart for that very reason. 

And because of this website, he made ribs again but this time with a dry rub instead of a wet paste (recipe below).  And of course they were delicious. 

The best part of this whole spice adventure was going to find containers for the spices.  As you saw above, the spices came in plastic bags.  We wanted containers to store them in to make cooking easier.  So off we went to one of my favorite local cooking stores The Wooden Spoon.  I wish they had a website so I could send you there.  Baker Man fell in love.  Just like I did when I got him part of his Christmas gift there this past December.  Talk about 2 kids in a candy shop.  Well actually 3 since my friend was with us and just as excited.  They have everything!  And the cutest couple runs the place.  I have to keep myself from going there though.  Too much temptation! 

We found our spice containers and we stored out spices.  And we got out without buying anything else…“sigh”

Aren’t they pretty? 

And now I get to go play because we got some new Curry Powders.  And I love Curry.  Love it.  All types.   I hope you are jealous.  But you probably aren’t.  You probably don’t have this weird thing about spices like we do.  Fine.  Just read the rib recipe then and be happy.

Ribs Jamaican Jerk Dry Rub

Adapted from Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen

Ingredients
2/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup coarse salt
1/4 cup dried chives
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1-4 tablespoons Habanero chili pepper (optional)
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons ground allspice
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

And of course….
Bhut Jolokia Powder TO TASTE.  And completely optional. 

Mix all ingredients together.  Make sure they are mixed very well.  Pat onto both sides of clean ribs using a little bit of water to get the dry rub to stick. 

We made 2 racks with the basic dry rub and then 1 rack with the Bhut Jolokia Pepper. 

Once ribs are prepared, bake at 300 for an hour and a half and then grill for about 5 minutes on each side to lightly char the outside and finish cooking.