Tyler Florence’s Angry Lobster with Tomato-Chile Butter Recipe

For this month’s Test Kitchen, I get to eat lobster thanks to your votes. Some 47 percent of you wanted me to try the “angry lobster” recipe from Tyler Florence’s “Tyler’s Ultimate” Cookbook that I got awhile back.

That far exceeded the other three choices: Ultimate chicken wings (23%), hunter’s minestrone (16%), and lemon ricotta crepes (12%).

The recipe keeps things simple, with minimal ingredients. I think when cooking lobster, the simpler the better because the lobster meat is just so great by itself.

The trick is finding the live lobster. Most places sell just frozen lobster tails, but whenever I need live seafood, I can always count on the seafood markets in Chinatown. So that’s where I went, and found the above huge lobster that weighed more than 2 lbs. (Florence’s recipe really only called for a 1.5 lb. lobster.)

The recipe gets its name from the fact that you have to kill the live lobster, which would make anyone angry. But in Chinese households, a quick chop to a lobster (or crab) between the eyes is a quicker death than boiling. And Florence agrees with me as he instructs you to first pierce a chef’s knife between the lobster’s eyes, then twisting off the claws, followed by cutting through the back and finally chopping the lobster tail into four sections.

I’m not going to photograph the cutting process, mostly because I have yet to figure out a way to shoot photos of myself while wielding a knife. So instead, here’s the end result with the lobster all chopped up. (One thing, though, is I didn’t really keep the body section, which really had just the gills and very little meat. Florence’s instructions made it sound like you should cook them too.)

Once I got my lobster ready, I prepped the other ingredients, which was a pint of cherry tomatoes, two handfuls of fresh basil, a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced.

To prepare the dish, I started by warming a little less than a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet. Then adding the garlic and red pepper flakes to infuse the oil (over medium high heat). With some flour that’s been seasoned in salt and pepper, I dredged the lobster pieces and tossed them into the pan. I cooked the lobster in two batches because it’s important not to crowded the skillet. Florence says to brown the lobster pieces for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

When the lobsters are all browned, then they all get combined in the skillet along with the cherry tomatoes, cooking for another five minutes to soften the tomatoes. Then add half the basil along with the juice of half a lemon.

To finish everything, I added in two tablespoon of unsalted butter, which creates a sauce for the butter. And then I just plated everything up and garnished with the remaining basil leaves. Looks pretty good huh?


My tips and warnings about this recipe:

1. I don’t know if this is true for all lobsters, but mine had sooo much water in him (or her, I didn’t check) that when I chopped into it, a lot of liquid came out. Be very close to your sink to not mess up your counter top.
2. Try not to use a lot of flour on your lobster pieces, dust them off a bit. The reason is the flour residue in the skillet will turn the butter you add later into a nice thick sauce. But too much flour can mean a super thick sauce. So use less flour or add more liquid or lemon juice at the end to thin out the butter sauce.
3. Definitely serve this with bread to fill you up but also to soak up the chile butter sauce.

Ease of cooking: Although I’ve done it before with Dungeness crabs, it was a bit tougher killing a lobster, especially the one I got which was huuuge from Boston. The killing part is probably the toughest part of the recipe, and then after that it’s pretty easy.

Taste: Keeping it simple, the taste was pretty nice, with the butter and slight heat from the red pepper flakes. I really enjoyed it.

Overall grade: A, because this was a simple preparation, tasty, and really looks vibrant in the red and green when presented. I’m definitely going to try another recipe from this cookbook. (Maybe the lemon ricotta crepes!)

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Test Kitchen: Oxtails Braised in Red Wine Recipe

In this month's Test Kitchen I tackle one of the biggies -- the Zuni Cafe Cookbook, one of the most lauded cookbooks of its time, written by Judy Rodgers, chef and owner of the San Francisco institution of the same name.

I got this cookbook as a gift, and for years it's mainly been a paperweight because of its hefty weight. The recipes are a mix of simple California-style salads to complicated roasts. The reason why Rodgers garnered a lot of accolades is because she really delves into every recipe and technique of cooking, which means a lot of reading.

So finally I busted open the book to test the braised oxtails recipe, which 48 percent of you voted for me to try. It was a clear winner over the shrimp in romesco sauce (20 percent), summer onion pancake (17 percent) and asparagus and rice soup (13 percent). I've been eating a lot of oxtails recently from this food truck parked near my work, so I've been interested in trying them out myself at home.

Full disclosure: I am lazy, so I didn't do everything from scratch, as is the expectations of Rodgers in the cookbook. For example, she expects you to make your own beef stock to be used in the recipe. I used store-bought stock. I am not that patient to make stock while also looking at 5 hours of cooking time for the oxtails. So sue me. Here's how it all went down in my kitchen:

Just like how Rodgers recommends pre-salting for her famous roast chicken recipe, she does the same for the oxtails, suggesting salting the oxtails two to three days before you plan to cook them. I got about 2 pounds (cutting in half the recipe), and didn't really have to worry about trimming any excess fat because my oxtails were beautifully presented when I bought them at the Piedmont Grocery. I used about half a tablespoon of salt, and kept the oxtails in the refrigerator.

On the day I cooked the oxtails, I began by reducing the beef stock. The recipe calls for four cups of beef stock that needs to be simmered until it's reduced by half. The recipe says it'll take about 30 minutes but it took longer for me, maybe because my stock was thin with little body since it's store bought.

After awhile, the stock reduced and it just needs to look syrupy, not necessarily thick. It kind of looks like chocolate sauce, huh?

In a skillet, I warmed some olive oil over medium heat and then added the oxtails to brown. Rodgers made sure to say that every side should be brown, and to be patient to make sure it's done correctly. (About 3-4 minutes for each side.)

Here's how the oxtails looked after browning. I removed them and placed them in the dutch oven that I'm going to use to braise them. Rodgers actually suggests a flameproof roasting pan but I wanted to use the dutch oven with the cover.

Then more reduction, this time the wine. The recipe calls for 1 -3/4 cup of red wine, either Cabernet, Syrah or Zinfandel. Something heavy to live up to the oxtails. I used my go-to Malbec from Argentina, where people revere red meat.

In the same skillet I used to brown the oxtails, I simmered the wine over medium high heat and scraped any bits that were left from the oxtails. The recipe also called for a "splash" of brandy, but I don't have brandy in my kitchen and wasn't about to buy a whole bottle just to use a splash.

After the wine reduced, I poured in the beef stock, blending the two and then set the pan aside. This is the braising liquid.

Now I had to assemble the braise. The first items to go into the dutch oven with the oxtails were a clove of garlic (cut in half), a bay leaf, several peppercorns (slightly cracked) and a twig of thyme.

Then went a small yellow onion, roughly diced, a few stalks of celery cut into 2-inch length, a carrot (also 2-inch length) and a cup of chopped tomatoes from a can. (The recipe actually calls for tomatoes from a can.)

Here's my dutch oven with all the ingredients snuggled around the oxtails. Once they were all in, I added the liquid so that it was one-third the depth of the oxtails. Then I covered the pot with parchment paper and put on the lid, placing everything in a pre-heated oven at 300 degrees. Now the braising, where I just sit and let this cook slowly and perfume my apartment with the wonderful smell of oxtail meat.

The recipe says it should take 3.5 to 4 hours, but Rodgers suggest you check the oxtails after 2.5 hours. The meat should be tender. If not, it goes back in the oven and she suggests checking every 30 minutes afterwards till done. After 2.5 hours, I checked and it was still tough, so I cooked for another 30 minutes and then it was tender. Rodgers also suggest to leave the lid slightly ajar to let some of the braising liquid evaporate, but there really wasn't much liquid in my pot so I didn't have to worry about letting the liquid evaporate.

And here's my oxtails after being cooked for roughly 3 hours. The recipe says to tip the pot so that the oil could settle to one side. As you let the oxtails cool, you can then begin to skim off some of the oil. But you know me. Lazy. So after awhile, I skimmed any oil I could see (not much) and just got ready to eat because I was hungry after nearly 5 hours of prep and cooking.

The recipe says that if you taste the vegetables and it has a weird texture, then you should run it through a food mill. But mine tasted fine, tender and keeping up its shape. So I left them as is.

And below is how it all turned out. You can serve the oxtails over polenta or mashed potatoes. I went with grits because I had some in my pantry. What do you think?

My tips and warnings about this recipe:

1. Plan ahead. With the pre-salting, the beef stock making (if you're not lazy like me), you actually have to spend days, maybe weeks, getting ready for this recipe. And I dedicated a whole Sunday afternoon to make the braise.
2. Make your vegetables pretty. If I knew I would plate my vegetables as is, I would have cut them more nicely and not as rough or coarse. I've seen places that use baby vegetables which probably would look beautiful on the plate.
3. Be careful not to let the braising liquid dry out. Mine almost did. If it looks like it's running low when you're checking the oxtails' doneness, then I would add either a bit more wine or beef stock. Just add a little at a time though so you don't make it too wet.

Ease of cooking: The braising part was a cinch, just sitting there waiting. And really, the rest of the recipe is simple, in terms of assembling your braise. I would say the toughest part (or laborious part) was reducing the stock and wine, and maybe skimming the oxtail fat.

Taste: I don't know if you can go wrong with oxtails, which are such a rich cut of meat with that glutinous fat with lots of flavor. So the overall dish tasted great. The wine makes the dish taste a bit richer and not just like another beef/vegetable stew recipe. I could have made my oxtails a bit more tender, maybe a half an hour longer, but it was still good and tasty.

Overall grade: A. Not surprisingly, I loved the recipe, partly because I love oxtails. While it was time consuming and laboriously, it all tasted great at the end. I would make this again for a dinner because it has that "wow" factor.

Don't forget to vote for this month's Test Kitchen poll on the upper right hand column. I'm featuring one of celebrity Chef Tyler Florence's many cookbooks. I have a couple of his cookbooks, and he's constantly releasing a new one. But this is a classic, "Tyler's Ultimate" partly inspired by his old Food Network show of the same name. Now he's busy chasing food trucks.

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Test Kitchen: Salmon Baked in Salsa Verde Recipe

Last month's Test Kitchen came from one of my older cookbooks, the "New Food Fast" cookbook (Whitecap Books, 1999) by Donna Hay, who's known for quick and easy dishes.

Hay's recipes are really a reflection of today's modern chef trying to cook with a busy schedule. You can imagine that these cookbooks are probably really popular, but the challenge is always to have tasty dishes from these super simple recipes. So the poll results saw 37% of you wanting to try the Salmon in Salsa Verde recipe, with Peppered Beef and Cucumber Salad (sounds so summery) coming close at 32% followed behind by Angel Hair Nicoise (25%) and Little Chocolate Brownies (4%). What have you guys got against chocolate!? ;-)

This salmon recipe is perfect for summer too because sometimes when it gets hot, I don't really want to be hovering over a stove top or eating anything too heavy. So you can always count on fish for a light dinner. So how did it go in my kitchen? Check it out below.

I began by making the salsa verde. The ingredients include: 1/3 cup chopped dill, 1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, 1/3 cup mint, 2 garlic cloves, t tablespoon dijon mustard, 6 anchovy fillets, 3 tablespoons salted capers (rinsed), 1/3 cup olive oil, and 2 tablespoon of lemon juice. Of course, I cut the recipe in half.

The recipe says to put all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until smooth. (Start with everything except the oil and lemon juice, and then add those two ingredients at the end.) But I don't own a food processor, and while I typically use my hand blender as a substitute, the ingredients were so few that it really wouldn't work. So I busted out my hand-powered spice pulsing gadget from Jamie Oliver and had to shake everything together to basically pound them into a sauce.
Using it didn't turn out too bad. The main thing is making sure I chopped all the ingredients really fine since the shaker really just bruises everything together.

Oh, and you should remember to preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. And the cookbook suggests to serve the salmon on a bed of steamed greens. The cookbook photo had some Shanghai greens, but I couldn't find any at my local grocer so I got these bok choy.

The recipe calls for 4 pieces of salmon (6 oz. each), but I just made one. This is wild salmon I got from Whole Foods. Man, they're pricey. I placed it on a roasting pan.

Then I just lathered the piece of salmon with the salsa verde. Then placed it in the oven and cooked for 10 minutes like the recipe said. (It actually says 6 to 10 minutes.) And below is how the dish turned out.

So how did it turn out? Well, I have to explain that the salmon's center was raw, and while generally it's OK to have some rear salmon, especially when the fish is fresh, it was too rear for me. The 10 minute for this cut of salmon wasn't a good recommendation. And usually when I cook salmon, I sear it first on the stove top and then cook it. So I actually end up cooking salmon a bit longer than 10 minutes total (probably closer to 12-13 minutes).

My tips and warnings about this recipe:

1. Doh, the first tip is to cook the fish longer. Because you're not searing like what you might typically do, it really needs more than 10 minutes unless you really like sashimi. I ended up having to microwave my final salmon just so I could eat it.
2. For some reason I feel like it needed pepper. But you definitely don't need salt with all the anchovy and capers in the salsa verde.

Ease of cooking: Salmon is always easy to cook, and a recipe from a cookbook called New Food Fast has got to be easy and simple. So definitely lived up to its name, although it was a bit tough without a food processor.

Taste: Despite the undercook salmon, I thought the fish tasted all right with the salsa verde. I did feel like the was a lot of salty flavors from the capers and anchovies (even though I love anchovies) so the fresh flavors of the herbs got lost by the heaviness of the capers and anchovies. I think I would use less anchovies or capers in order to let the mint and dill flavor come out more.

Overall Grade: B because it's an average dish but with all the ingredients that I like. It is simple but I think I'll experiment more with the salsa verde.

Don't forget to vote in this month's Test Kitchen poll on the upper right column. I face my fear and will try a recipe from the overwhelming Zuni Cafe Cookbook. This James Beard Award-winning cookbook seems complicated and time-consuming, but I figured since last month I went easy, next month I should challenge myself.

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Michael Symon's Crispy Gnocchi with Morels and Spring Peas Recipe

Here I go again squeezing in my Test Kitchen down to the wire, but you have to cut me some slack because I was hit two weeks ago with major seasonal allergies. I didn't feel like doing anything for more than a week.

But now that I can breathe again, I spent the weekend testing the winning recipe in this month's poll from Iron Chef Michael Symon's "Live to Cook" cookbook. It was a landslide as more than 70 percent of you voted to have me do Symon's crispy gnocchi with morels and spring peas. (I don't even remember what the other recipes were, but it doesn't matter because they didn't even come close in votes.)

This recipe is actually perfect for right now because all the ingredients are at their peak right now, namely the peas and morel mushrooms. But it was the first time I made gnocchi, which I love to eat but don't make because I just hate the idea of getting flour all over my new kitchen (also another reason why I don't make fresh pasta).

So here's how it all went down in my kitchen:

The first thing I had to do, according to Symon's recipe, is to drain the whole-milk ricotta overnight. So here's about a cup of ricotta I bought at the Pasta Shop in my neighborhood, sitting in a fine mesh strainer in a big bowl. You can really see, but there's just a bit of water on the bottom of the bowl. I guess the ricotta I got wasn't that wet.

The next day I was ready to make the ricotta gnocchi (Symon's recipe isn't potato gnocchi but the fluffy ricotta version of his grandmother's), starting with 3/4 cup all-purpose flour in a bowl with 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, the zest of one lemon, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Then I added the ricotta along with one large egg and with my hand started to mix everything together until it started to form into a dough. But Symon warns not to overwork the dough, so I didn't do this very long.

On my new granite counter tops ;-), I rolled out the dough into a square and then cut them into thirds. Then each segment I lightly rolled them into a foot-long roll with an inch diameter (roughly). Occasionally dust your dough to make it more manageable and not let it stick. Then I placed all three rolls into the refrigerator, uncovered, for an hour. (The recipe says between 5 minutes and up to 2 hours.)

After letting the dough rest in the refrigerator, I took them out and cut them into 1/2-inch pieces. You can imagine that this creates a lot of gnocchi, so I kept out the amount I planned to eat that night, and the rest I put into a plastic bag and froze them for future dining.

Now I could focus on the sauce, and here is where I just did half of the recipe since I was making enough for just me. So the amounts I list here is enough for one serving. This included one garlic clove, thinly sliced, half a shallot (also thinly sliced), 6 leaves of fresh flat-leaf parsley, 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of shucked fresh English peas, and the juice of 1 lemon.

I also had to prep the morel mushrooms. To do this, Symon suggests soaking them briefly in a warm salted water and then rinsing them off and gently patting them dry. The recipe calls for 12 medium morel mushrooms, so I used about 6 or 7.

The sauce is also a brown butter sauce, so to start I use about 2 tablespoons of butter in a saute pan over medium-high heat, and then started with the morel mushrooms, cooking them for about two minutes to allow them to soften. Then I added the shallots and a pinch of salt.

This all happens pretty fast, so next I toss in the garlic and parsley. I actually don't like the idea of throwing in the parsley so early because it pretty much disappeared by the time I was done cooking.

Next I add the peas and lemon juice, cooking just until the peas are brightened and then I took everything off the heat so I can crisp up the gnocchi.

In another pan, I heated up another 2 tablespoons of butter, cooking it over medium heat until it turned brown. Then added my gnocchi. Now, the recipe says to cook for about 5 or 6 minutes, so I thought I'll cook each side about three minutes but that didn't turn out since my new stove top was so hot.

So basically after I flipped them over, my gnocchi was more than crispy they were nearly burnt. So lesson learned is that the timing is just suggestions, and you really have to check the gnocchi based on the heat. If your butter is really hot, it shouldn't take that long for them to crisp up and get golden brown.

Once the gnocchi were crispy on both sides, I added in the morels and mushrooms and added the 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese. The recipe said to add another tablespoon of butter, but I was already getting grossed out by all the butter so I skipped that.

Here's my finished gnocchi with morel mushrooms and spring peas. The peas were overcooked and several of them actually started to pop. The morels turned out a bit dark, so they blended in with my burnt gnocchi. Definitely not my most successful test kitchen.

My tips and warnings about this recipe:

1. Don't add the parsley when the recipe says. I would actually add it last with the Parmesan cheese.
   
2. Be careful not to burn your brown butter. Once you have that nice brown color, turn down the heat.
3. Watch your gnocchi to make sure they don't burn. Depending on your stove, they may cook faster than you think.

Ease of cooking: This is a simple recipe, even making gnocchi. Even though I burnt the gnocchi this first time, they did taste fluffy and nice with the lemon zest, so I'm looking forward to eating the ones in my freezer. The sauce was pretty easy to make, and it's a quick dish to make once you got the gnocchi prepped.

Taste: I did like the gnocchi, but the brown butter was just too much butter for my taste. I don't know if I got much other flavor, since the butter drowned out the natural flavors of the morel mushrooms.

Overall Grade: C. Even though it was my fault that I burnt the gnocchi, I think the recipe just gave bad advice about timing and I didn't like the fact that so much butter was used. I like the idea of crispy gnocchi, but I think I could crisp them up with olive oil and then maybe just make a light sauce.

Don't forget to vote in June's Test Kitchen poll in the upper right hand column. Since I've mostly been using cookbooks by male chefs, this month I'm featuring a female, Donna Hay, known for her quick and easy recipes. In fact, the book is called "New Food Fast." I've had this cookbook for awhile and mostly fell in love with the photography. Sometimes I felt the recipes were too simple, but right now after some complicated recipes I'm ready to do something quick and easy.

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Test Kitchen: Antojito's Sea Scallops in Saffron and Chipotle Salsa Recipe

This month's Test Kitchen was an attempt to get me excited about Mexican cuisine. So I picked the "Antojitos" Cookbook that I got as a gift from my sister. It's a cookbook by some New York chefs who owns the Manhattan restaurants La Palapa's.

Of the three recipes put up on the poll, more than 42% of you voted for the Sea Scallops with Saffron and Chipotle Salsa. (It was followed closely, or 30%, by the Guajillo Chili-rubbed Chicken and hardly anyone felt like the Chilled Avocado Soup, 27%.)

Scallops are always a guaranteed winner (and lately a bit expensive), and here's how it went when I tried this recipe for dinner recently.

The recipe tells you to prepare the scallops by using a pairing knife to remove and discard the small, tough membrane from the side of each scallop. You know what's weird? I've never done this before. Every time I've cooked scallops before, I never realized there was a tiny tough part on the side. I probably was such a big that I ate it and just though, "geesh, this scallops kind of tough." So when I looked at the scallops, I realized there was this really separate part that's slightly tougher. So I just cut it off. Now I know to always prep my scallops.

The recipe says to roll the scallops in some all-purpose flour to coat before pan-frying them in a skillet. First you season it with some salt and pepper, then roll them in the flour, shaking off the excess. Then place all the scallops over high heat with olive oil. The recipe said 1/4 cup and that sounded a lot and you know my issue with grease and oil, so I just used enough olive oil to create a thin layer in the pan. I cooked it following the recipe, which says 5 minutes untouched.

This is how the scallops look all golden brown. Then I cooked it for 3 minutes longer and reduced the heat to low and cooked it for another 2 minutes. I placed the scallops on a platter and kept it in the microwave to stay warm while I worked on the saffron and chipotle salsa.

The recipe starts with 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (keep in mind I made half the recipe as usual) in a skillet (I only had a small saucepan) along with 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat, then lowered the heat to medium to add one shallot that I minced, cooking it for 2 to 3 minutes. (Do not brown.) Then I stirred in 2 tablespoons of adobo sauce from a can of chipotle pepper. (Again, the recipe just wanted the adobo sauce, so I just froze the chipotle peppers to use later.) The recipe says to boil the sauce for about 2 minutes to let it thicken, but I have to say it barely thickened during that short time. The recipe then says to take it off the heat and add a pinch of saffron threads, leaving it to sit and infuse.

Then I plated up the scallops and drizzled the sauce over it. That's the end of the recipe, and in the cookbook there wasn't a photo so I didn't know how it should look when plated. But I knew it sounded boring with just the scallops drizzled in sauce. So I decided to dress it up myself by adding toasted sunflower seeds and ripped pieces of cilantro. Pretty huh?

My tips and warnings about this recipe:

1. Don't be so exact about the cooking of sea scallops. Go with what you think should work for your stovetop and the size of your scallops. I followed the timing exactly, and my scallops turned out overcooked. Probably because my new stove gets super hot on high, and maybe my scallops were smaller than what the recipe expected. So just brown for how long you think it should take, keep in mind seafood doesn't take that long to cook.
2. I think the sunflower seeds and cilantro did the trick with garnishing. I think it would have been totally boring without it. If you don't like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds would also seem appropriate.

Ease of cooking: This is a very simple recipe, although there are added steps that I really wonder about, mainly the directions to coat the scallops in flour. That does help the scallops get crispy a bit, but I've seared scallops naked (the scallops, not me!) without flour and they seemed crispy, especially when using butter. I may skip that step next time. Also, the sauce didn't thicken the way it should have, so not sure if it's really that fast to make sauce in 2 minutes.

Taste: The scallops, of course, were great because like I mentioned, how wrong can you go with scallops. But the sauce, which should have taken the scallops to another level, was actually mild and didn't seem to add a lot to the overall dish.

Overall grade: B-. I love scallops and the recipe was simple, but maybe too simple. And I was annoyed having to deal with the whole flour coating thing, and the sauce that never really thickened. And unfortunately, I don't think it inspired me to do more Mexican cuisine.

Don't forget to vote for next month's Test Kitchen in the upper right column. I delve into another Iron Chef cookbook, choosing recipes from Chef Michael Symon, who came out with his "Live to Cook" cookbook last year.

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Short Ribs or Spare Ribs? Let's Just Ad Hoc Them

OK, I really need to read the recipes in this Test Kitchen series. Remember when I got confused about how much chipotle to add? And sometimes I end up doing a recipe and realize I don't have all the equipment to make it per the cookbook.

Well, in the masterful "Ad Hoc at Home" cookbook (award-winning cookbook, that is) by Thomas Keller, everyone voted to have me test the roasted pork short ribs recipe (40%), over the pan-roasted duck breast (31%), lemon bars (18%) or romanesco sauce (9%). Simple enough.

So I got started on getting my ingredients, and this was an extremely easy recipe because it was just salt and pepper, and letting the pork slow roast in the oven. So what went wrong? I misread that the recipe calls for pork short ribs. I bought pork spareribs.

Is there a difference? I'm not exactly sure, but I think it probably is because the spareribs I got didn't necessarily seem "short." I blame it on the fact that 1) I had spareribs on my mind because I recently used a recipe that called for pork spareribs and 2) the Ad Hoc cookbook had a glazed pork spareribs recipe right next to the short ribs recipe.

Well, it is what it is. So here's how the roasted pork spareribs recipe turned out if Ad Hoc wanted you to make roasted pork spareribs.

First of all, not everyone stocks pork spareribs. The baby back ribs are more popular, but the spareribs are more fatty. (Wonder if it would be easier shopping for short ribs?) After letting the spareribs get to room temperature, I generously seasoned them in salt and pepper. Keller specifically says to use gray salt (or coarse sea salt) and I happened to have gray salt, so I was good there.

Then I had to pan-fry them in a pan in batches to get them brown, using Canola oil in the pan. This was a real chore because to fry up all my spareribs, I had to fry four times to fit all the spareribs in the pan. And because this cut was fatty, there was a lot of oil splashing around. After awhile with my pan all fatty, it created a lot of smoke and my place started to get really smokey.
But once I was done browning the spareribs, I placed them on two baking sheets with racks and cooked them in the oven at 350 degrees for about two hours. (I love my new oven with the window and light. I can monitor the cooking without opening the door like I used to do.) Again, because the spareribs were so fatty, my new oven got a lot of oil splatter that I used the self-cleaning option for the first time afterward.

Here are the spareribs after they came out of the oven. I let it rest for about 30 minutes before cutting into them. And that was it. See, pretty easy recipe. But was it too simple?

Here's the final dish, served up with some braised Savoy cabbage as suggested by Chef Keller. I have to say, even though they weren't short ribs, they still looked pretty scrumptious, huh?

My tips and warnings about this recipe:

1. Buy "short ribs," not spareribs or baby back ribs.
2. The cut of pork meat is very fatty, so be prepared for a lot of clean up. Use a splatter guard if you have it.

Ease of cooking: The instructions are so simple, and that's part of the Ad Hoc approach, to make simple dishes that are home-like but delicious. But actually, not every recipe in the cookbook is this simple. So of the simplest sounding dishes actually require a lot of steps. But this one can't be any easier. Just season and bake and forget about it.

Taste: I had my doubts because this recipe didn't call for anything but salt and pepper. I thought it'd taste plain and boring, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. By generously seasoning with salt and pepper, these roasted spareribs tasted like one of my favorite Chinese spareribs dish that's like a dry roast. The natural fatty flavors of the pork add to the whole experience, brought out by the salt and pepper. And because the fatty parts get all crispy, it was like eating crispy bacon in certain parts.

Overall grade: A- because this was super simple to make and satisfying to eat. I just knocked it off a bit because it's so fatty (translation: bad for my cholesterol).

Don't forget to vote for next month's Test Kitchen in the poll on the upper right hand column. The featured cookbook is actually a Christmas gift from my sister. It's the "Antojitos" cookbook by Barbara Sibley and Margaritte Maley and it's from a New York Mexican restaurant. I thought it might be interesting to try a Latin recipe because some of you know I'm not a fan of Mexican dishes because I think they seem pretty much the same (meat, lettuce, tortilla, beans). So maybe trying a Mexican recipe will change my mind about Mexican cuisine. Pick a good one!

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