It is sort of experimenting with food this weekend. We don’t usually mess with ribs – not when there are places around that do them well. I’m not even certain what caused me to say, “Hey, want to give it a try?”. I did, however, ask the question and at the moment, the slab is in the fridge with a dry rub mix and I need to check some cooking time information for our particular set-up. Obviously, we aren’t going for the 12+ hours of smoking. Anyway, when I was at the store yesterday to look for fish, I was startled to see rock fish from Canada. We haven’t had rock fish in ages. That’s a favorite in the Maryland area and you just don’t see it often here. I pulled out my Legal Seafoods cookbook (Yes, the restaurant chain) and proceeded to sauté with a combination of lemon-infused olive oil and peanut oil to allow for a higher cooking point. A quick lemon butter sauce made for a nice topping and there were only a few small bones to deal with. I had warned Hubby so he was on the lookout. Oh, since I am trying to cut back on carbs, I found almond flour several weeks ago, thinking when we do want to bread something, that could be a good solution. In reality, the package talks about it as an excellent substitute for baking or for making something like a sauce. It worked okay for sauté in this case because fish cooks very quickly. Otherwise the coating would have probably burned. (What I don’t  know is if it will work with a quick crisping, then finishing in the over like you do with chicken parm. Hmm, might try that.)

Okay, back to my other unexpected find of sirloin tri-tip. This is a cut more common to the West Coast. We first heard of it while watching one of the California-based chef/restaurant owners on a show about Napa cooking and wine pairing. Then tri-tip began to show up occasionally on the TV series “Pit Masters” as a special challenge to mostly East Coast BBQ guys who weren’t familiar with how to handle it. One of my tasks today is find the proper cooking technique for the grill, although we’re not planning that until tomorrow. I’ll keep everyone posted as to how it goes.