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Grilling For Labor Day: BBQ Ribs And Grilled Chicken

burning charcoals with flames

Before we fire up the grill today, the folks at Harvest Public Media are back this week with part four of their series about local food. Today, they're talking about price.

Paying More Or Paying Less?



Would you pay more for local food, or would you expect to pay less?

Research by Rich Pirog in 2009 did find that overall it was cheaper to buy locally produced fruits and vegetables.

But Pirog, who was with the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in Ames, says that's not the whole picture when looking at the expense of local food. "One would have to look at the entire market basket," he says.

And that's a tricky assessment.

"We did make an attempt to look at lean ground beef, pork (and) eggs that were sold in local butcher shops, natural foods shops, etc., and it was very difficult to make the comparison from a research basis," Pirog adds. "Attributes are never exactly the same."

More: Read more about the price of local food and all sorts of issues surrounding food, fuel and the field at Harvest Public Media.

BBQ Spare Ribs



Every great BBQ dish starts with a great marinade. (Well, it actually begins with some quality local meat -- our spare ribs are from Kiss My Grass Farm in Morgantown, Indiana.)

To start, Chef Daniel Orr is mixing his Columbus Cowboy Espresso Chili Rub with the spare ribs in a plastic bag and shaking it until the ribs are coated. (If you don't have this specific rub, add some ground espresso to your favorite chili rub. The coffee will give the meat a smoky, roasted flavor.) To that, he adds some of his Big Belly BBQ Sauce and then puts the plastic bag o' ribs in the fridge overnight. Good flavor takes time!

The next day, the ribs are steamed for 90 minutes before they are grilled. Once the skin is caramelized and crispy from the grill, the ribs are ready to eat.

The garnishes provide a unique touch for this dish. The toasted coconut adds sweet crunchiness to the pork, and the star fruit (or carambola) and orange slice not only add color, but according to Chef Orr, "I like some citrus with my BBQ because you can get the grease off your fingers and it's a good palate cleanser."

Eggplant Fries



Eggplants are all over the farmers market these days. There are a number of different varieties of this beautiful fruit: Black Beauties, Ping Tung Asians, Fairytales, Graffitis and even White Eggplants.

Some folks might not like the bitterness of eggplants, but you can solve that by salting them and letting them sit. The moisture (and the bitterness) will be pulled out. Then rinse them off, pat them dry and you're good to go.

Chef Orr also advises that you should cook eggplant until it's soft. "When you touch it, it should be a bit mushy. It shouldn't be firm at all. If it is firm, it's undercooked and that's where your bitterness will come."

More: If you've got eggplant on the brain like we do, check out plenty of other eggplant recipes here and here.

Grilled Chicken With Chilies, Garlic & Lime



In the Caribbean, they start every chicken dish with a healthy squirt of lime juice. "I think it started off as a way of preserving the chicken with the acid in the lime," says Chef Orr, who spent a few years working in Anguilla, "but now it just tastes like the Caribbean."

After you take the chicken off the grill, the Caribbeans aren't done with it. Keep an extra half lime for when the chicken is done cooking to squirt on the finished bird. Also add some sea salt for a saline crunch.

This dish uses the Mellow Yellow Spice Blend and the Mediterranean Herb Blend.

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