reflections

Summer Faves #1: later sunsets

What a killer view from up here. Lake Mendota on the left. Lake Monona on the right. And if you just disregard the ugly construction cranes, the country's prettiest Capitol straight ahead.

Coming at you from Jared's beloved balcony of his already-dearly-missed-by-all apartment.

By the by, this drink. Killer. Beer, grapefruit juice, Sprite, gin. Yum.

Where it began.

Summer = grilling. Obviously. So naturally the next anatomy of the pork to attack was the mishapen and small rack of spare ribs.

Char siu ribs 

with homemade sauce adapted from Saveur

1/4 c brown sugar

1/4 c honey

1/4 c tomato sauce (or ketchup)

1/4 c soy sauce

3 T beet powder

2 T apple cider vinegar + splash mirin (or rice wine vinegar)

1 T hoisin

1/2 t five spice

What was intended to be a taste test between my sauce and Jared's bottled sauce kind of became a night of Asian fast food instead.
Burgers on oversized rolls with pickled carrots, avocado, and free form* peanut sauce.
Peanut sauce noodles with cilantro, scallions and charred broccoli. I swear cold noodles in summer are the most addicting things... I could just nestle up on a couch with a comically large bowl of the stuff and eat away the night one strand heaping mouthful at a time. For a more guilt free indulgence, you could drench some different leaves and herbs in the peanut sauce and have at it.

*As in, I was given a range of Asian ingredients to play with. Peanut butter base of course, plus soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, hoisin, sriracha, garlic, ginger for adjustments.

Anyways, this was my attempt at trying to highlight the competing ribs. Homemade sauce with beet powder imparts a pretty bright pink color to the meat - don't worry, you can tell the difference between that and rawness. But these two sad single pieces just looked like... fish?
Conclusion, you ask? Addicting and messy. The bottled stuff is thicker and saucier. But after marinating with at home stuff, I say reduce on the stove and generously brush on towards end of grilling. Flavorwise, everything was there. Next time, I'm getting a rack of baby back.