Grilled spareribs and roasted vegetables - what a great menu for our Locally Grown Meal main course!

The spareribs were purchased from Haffner Family Farm (check out their story at thelocalgrowers.com/haffner-family-farm-a-true-farm-to-table-model.)

Like most meats purchased direct from a producer, the ribs were frozen.

Here is Leon’s process:

The pork spareribs came to me frozen so I left them frozen until just the day before the preparation of our meal.

When the meat is frozen and sealed in a plastic sealed package, I will defrost the meat in cold water. Most times it only takes a few hours.

Once the meat is thawed out, I cut the racks to a size that fits in a 1 gallon ziplock baggie. The ribs go into the bag along with a bit of BBQ sauce diluted with water maybe 50-50 for about 1 hour. The next step is maybe different from most, but I learned this from my mother. I precook the ribs in a small amount of water in a pressure cooker with 1 teaspoon of salt for just 10 minutes. We don’t want them to be overcooked before going to the grill, but this step makes for more tender meat in the end result.

Next step is getting the meat on the grill. I use a Kamado Joe “egg type” ceramic grill. This grill uses either wood, lump charcoal or wood chunks for fuel. For this meal, I used a combination of wood and briquette charcoal. I brought the temperature up to about 400 degrees F, then brought it back down to 250 degrees.

Before putting the ribs in, instead of laying them flat on the grill, the rib rack I use lets me stand them on edge which I think allows for slower cooking. As the meat goes to the grill, a BBQ sauce, just out of the bottle was brushed on the meat as it slowly cooked its way to perfection.

Leon adds that there was a small mishap the night of our meal. About one hour into the two hour cook time, he let a little too much air into the fireboat which started a fire instead of just a low heat and smoke. The day was saved, however, by removing the burning wood and letting the charcoal finish the job.

“So I learned once again to keep your eye on the temperature and the meat itself!” he said.

While the meat came out darker than he prefers, the taste was great!

“I learn something new each time I do this,” he added.

This meal brought back memories. The pressure cooker, by the way, a Presto model, was a wedding present Leon and Lori received 46 years ago. Certain markings have worn off of the handles, but the pressure cooker continues to work great.

And, for the vegetables, Leon purchased them from the Young Family Farm at the Fergus Falls Farmers Market.

Green and yellow string beans, new potatoes and some “not too hot” yellow peppers made the veggie mix.

The potatoes were cut into 3/4 inch cubes with the skins on. These were sheet pan roasted in a 425 degree F oven for about 45 minutes with a spritz of olive oil, coarse salt and fresh ground pepper.

Leon says “I like to have the potatoes over parchment paper as the roast as I think it makes them crispier.”

The beans and peppers went into another sheet pan lined with parchment paper using the same treatment, olive oil, salt and pepper.

“You may prefer to use some other type of seasoning. It’s your choice. One thing that I have learned about pan roasting is to not crowd the pan. Otherwise we end up with steamed veggies instead of crispy veggies.”

The ribs were “fall off the bone” tender and the vegetables roasted to perfection.

Note that Leon did a lot of prep work before our Locally Grown Meal. As you can see by the photo gallery below, he got the veggies ready but cutting the potatoes and prepping them before putting them on the parchment lined sheet pans for the roasting process.

When we talked about the meal before Leon started cooking, he said the focus on local foods and made him think more about where his food comes from and the local connection.

Then the meal….

Leon and Lori are great hosts.

Their home is warm and inviting and the ambiance is peaceful and comforting.

Conversation flows in that comfort.

Everything that Leon does to prepare a great meal, Lori does the same in the detail of the evening from setting the table to the comfort of guests and taking part to ensure a fun evening.

Because I was taking notes on every part of the meal and taking pictures, I arrived several hours before or dinner time. Several times I heard Leon call my name because….um….Lori and I were in mid-conversation. That happens a lot with us. (Or as my son, Jose, said when I went to introduce him to Leon and Lori shortly after we adopted him from Mexico more than 14 years ago, “That Carol….all she do is talk talk talk.” )

Before we dined, there was a special presentation honor our chef, Leon! Thanks to Shawn Schneeberger, we took time to note Leon on National Personal Chef Day! He was gifted with items a chef will love!

We had bowls of great food from the spareribs to potatoes and roasted vegetables. And Minnesota wines.

Squeeze bottles of different BBQ sauces were also on the table. I chose to eat mine without, but the sauces provided were a great treat.

A couple of main menu items that haven’t been mentioned yet. We did have sweet corn from the Country Stop stand and a loaf of sourdough bread from Falls Bakery in Fergus Falls, MN.

It was so great to see everyone embrace local from meats to vegetables to ingredients.