Well folks, we are into Round 2 (final round) of the infamous (thanks to Twitter) Fried Chicken and BBQ Rib Throw Down. To check out the Twitter banter around the contest, go to #ThrowDown. If you want to know how this all got started, read the first few paragraphs of the LunaCafe’s Spicy Fried Chicken post, which was our Round 1 entry.
At the end of this post, you can also check out the throw down rules, list of contestants, and the recipe posts so far. Contestants have until end of day June 29th to post their entries.
But in case you don’t make it to the end, I want to add a special note of thanks here to Mark LaPolla of the Life By Chocolate blog, who orchestrated the contest and the unruly, hooligan contestants. We somehow managed to break every rule, especially the “Don’t taunt Bobby Flay” rule, and yet he handled it all with exceedingly good humor. Thank you, Mark! We owe you, cowboy! J
Now, on to the ribs…
If my BBQ ribs have a “secret ingredient,” it’s definitely the brining process. I confirmed this for myself yesterday. I was in a rush to launch this post and thus decided not to brine the ribs. I mean, really, whose going to notice?
Everything was going swimmingly until MauiJim took his first bite of the beautifully glazed, incredibly tender ribs. I was expecting RAVES. But instead he asked what I did differently this time. Rather than tell him, I asked for his impression.
His response was spot on. He said,” It’s like the flavor is ON the meat, not IN the meat.” He was right. Not only did I not brine the ribs, I didn’t marinate them in the sauce for any length of time either. I broke all my own rules. Never again though. I’ve learned my lesson.
Unless you have access to a smoker grill that will allow you to slow smoke the ribs and thus infuse a marvelous flavor in that way, brining, in my opinion, is a must. It is the only way I know of, other than smoking, to ensure that your chosen flavors permeate the meat all the way to the bone. Even a killer sauce can’t do the entire flavoring job.
My other BBQ Rib “secret” is to slow-poach the ribs prior to grilling. With slow poaching, you break down the connective fiber, which fast grilling does not do. The ribs are then incredibly tender.
I also love this method because I never have to worry whether the ribs are cooked to the necessary internal temperature for safe consumption. Plus all major steps are done ahead. All you need to do just before serving the ribs is heat them through and brown the glaze. It doesn’t get any easier than this.
I almost forgot to mention that these BBQ ribs are over-the-top delicious. I have served them at numerous Fourth of July family gatherings, and they are always the star attraction. Folks are still talking about them even years later. I LOVE that. J
Grilling Tips & Tricks
- For the best grilled flavor possible, use wood charcoal alone or in combination with wood chips (which must first be soaked in cold water). Mesquite, alderwood, peachwood, and applewood are all excellent flavor producers.
- Charcoal briquettes vary widely in quality and are less desirable as a grilling medium– although they are so easily available, it is always a temptation to use them. With briquettes, look out for the smell of petroleum (motor oil). It is often used to bind the pieces together and it doesn’t always cook off before you are ready to barbecue. A greasy, smudged residue on your hands after touching one of these briquettes is a good indication as to the use of petroleum by-products in the charcoal.
- Be sure to start your fire in plenty of time to insure it is thoroughly active when you begin to grill. This will usually take 35-45 minutes; the coals should be covered with a coating of ash.
- Your grill should be cleaned thoroughly after each use to prevent a buildup of heavy, off flavors. Always brush the grill rack with oil before putting anything on it.
- 15-20 briquettes are plenty for a couple of chickens or two racks of baby back ribs; be sure to spread the coals out evenly before you begin to cook. The closer together the coals are spaced, the hotter the fire will be.
- With the advent of urban living, condos with miniscule decks or no decks at all, and gas grills, charcoal grilling is not always an option. That’s OK. You can get delectable (although not the same) results using a gas grill or even an oven.
- Although baby back ribs should be meltingly tender even without a brine, there is no way (other than smoking) to get flavor all the way into the meat without brining it. If you cannot smoke and grill over natural charcoal with added soaked wood chips, don’t even think of not brining.
- Whatever flavors you add to the brine will permeate your meat.
- Baby back ribs are a great choice for BBQ because they are succulent, tender, and a perfect size for eating with your hands. I prefer pork, but beef ribs are wonderful too.
LunaCafe’s Grilled Baby Back Ribs with Garlic-Ginger BBQ Sauce
These ribs are meltingly tender as a result of the brining and slow poaching processes specified here. They are also a snap for the host, because they are fully cooked ahead, thus requiring only a brief period on the grill before serving.
3 full racks baby back pork ribs (each rib should contain 12-14 ribs)
Brine
2 quarts unsweetened apple cider (unpasteurized if you can get it)
1/4 cup wildflower honey
1/4 cup fine sea salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic
5 star anise pods
Garlic-Ginger Barbecue Glaze
2 cups best-quality catsup
6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup wildflower honey
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon anise, ground with a mortar and pestle.
- Cut the racks into 3 or 4 rib sections. You should get 3 to 4 sections per rack.
- Arrange the ribs in a large nonreactive container.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cider, honey, salt, ginger, garlic, and anise. Whisk to dissolve the salt.
- Pour cider mixture over the pork ribs, cover, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
- Up to two days before serving, drain the brine solution completely from the pork.
- Put ribs in a large pot and fully cover with cold water.
- Bring water to a bare simmer?just a bubble or two on the surface.
- Maintain this bare simmer for 45 minutes, using a cover if necessary.
- Using long-handled tongs, remove ribs from the water and place in a large nonreactive container.
- While ribs are cooking, make the glaze by combining all glaze ingredients in a large saucepan and bringing to a simmer.
- Stir until the butter melts, and then remove from the heat.
- Dip each pre-cooked rib section in the prepared sauce and rearrange in the container.
- Cover and refrigerate until ready to grill, preferably at least 6 hours.
- To grill, prepare a charcoal or gas grill and brush the grilling surface with vegetable oil.
- Arrange sauce-coated rib sections on the grill and lightly brown each side while heating through. Brush with sauce each time you turn. The glaze should look burnished and sticky, rather than wet, when the ribs are done.
- Alternatively, place the glazed ribs on a rack set on an edged baking sheet. Bake or roast at 400°, turning once, until the surface of the ribs is nicely browned and the ribs are heated through, about 30 minutes.
- Pile onto a platter to serve. Include additional glaze on the side.
Serves 6-10.
Fried Chicken or BBQ Ribs Throw Down Rules & Contestants
A huge thank you to Mark LaPolla of the Life By Chocolate blog, who master-minded this throw down, corralled the wild and woolly contestants, and kept a steady stream of hilarious Twitter banter going around the contest. This throw down has been a hoot!
Also, our apologies to Bobby Flay, the throw down king, whom we badgered mercilessly on Twitter for weeks. It was all in fun, Bobby! We were really hoping you would join our party. J As a peace offering, there’s a pointer below to your Asian Spice Rubbed Ribs, which sound fantabulous.
Rules: Virtual Throw Down: A Twitter and Blog Extravaganza
LunaCafe
SMS Bradley, Pacific Northwest
Twitter: @LunaCafe
LifeByChocolate
Mark LaPolla, New York
Twitter: @LifeByChocolate
Gluten Free Sanctuary
Leslie McLinden, Arkansas
Twitter: @lesliemac59
Cre8tive Kitchen
Brenda Campbell, Washington
Twitter: @cre8tivekitchen
Fresh Eyes
Jan Richards, California
Twitter: @MrsRoadshow
Grandma’s Gluten-Free Baking N Cooking
Joyce Paige, Kansas
Twitter: @SilknPearls or @GFGrandmaBNC
Licorice, Chocolate and Other Foods To Love
Andrea Rowe, Pacific Northwest
Twitter: @LicoriceShrine
Sensitive Pantry
Nancy Kohler, New Jersey
Twitter: @SensitivePantry
The Router Guy
Twitter: @routerguy
Other Noteworthy Fried Chicken or BBQ Ribs Blog Posts
Forking Delicious
David Lawrence, Los Angeles
Twitter: @ChefDaveLA
Food Network
Bobby Flay, United States
Twitter: @bflay or @bobbyflay
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This post is the result of admiring Chef David Lawrence’s take on fried chicken, Ultimate Fried Chicken No Kidding, on his Forking Delicious blog, which resulted in a few exchanges on Twitter and then a throw down challenge. Chef Mark LaPolla of the Life By Chocolate blog hopped on the throw down train immediately and corralled several other food bloggers to join in. To see all contestant’s fried chicken posts, visit their blogs, which are listed at the end of this post, after June 29th.
You can check out the throw down rules, as prescribed by Mark, but I’m already breaking one of them by posting a few days early. Then, ShaveMistress, for some unfathomable reason, threw in the Rule: No shirts, no shoes. And although I am indeed barefoot as I am writing this, I will keep my shirt on. The only other odd thing about this throw down is that Bobby Flay (@bobbyflay or @bflay) failed to sign on, even though we badgered and taunted him repeatedly on Twitter. J
The judges are top secret, but I’ve learned that one of them is the lovely Kim LaPolla, who runs the blog, Crazy By Design – Artist Interrupted and also happens to be married to Mark. In our clandestine correspondence, she has agreed to vote for me (as fiber artists always stick together). So, as you can see, this contest is completely fair and beyond reproach.
Now, on to the chicken…
I have been frying chicken since I was 8 years old. My Kentucky born and raised Dad taught me his recipe for basic southern-style fried chicken, which I assume he learned from his mother, my Grandma Maisie.
The chicken pieces were treated to plenty of salt and pepper and then dredged in flour that included more salt and pepper, paprika, thyme, onion powder, and garlic powder. I was taught to shallow-fry the dredged chicken in sputtering hot shortening in a heavy, cast iron skillet, putting the lid partially on the pan during the last half of cooking.
The only thing that was wrong with that recipe was that, in those days, everyone seemed to be obsessed with overcooking meat and vegetables alike. Grandma Mary cooked corn on the cob for 40 minutes, for instance.
Dad instructed me to cook the chicken for an hour. You can imagine how difficult it was to keep the chicken from overbrowning while frying it for that long. It was a laborious process of turning and turning the chicken parts for 60 long minutes, which seemed a lifetime to this young cook. And this resulted in, of course, rather dry chicken.
Now, fast-forward many years. When I deep-fry chicken parts (occasional madness does occur), it rarely requires more than 20 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 175° at the meatiest part of the thigh. When I shallow-fry chicken, as in the below recommended method, it never takes more than 15 minutes to fully brown the chicken and then between 20-30 minutes in a 350° oven to reach a safe internal temperature.
In addition, I now know the magic of the dry salt cure and wet salt brine. Either will work here, but the wet salt brine seems to carry the spicy heat into the meat a tad better, so we will use it for this recipe. As far as buttermilk brining goes, it sounds delicious, but the results I’ve had with it have been unimpressive.
When it comes to coatings for the chicken, there are many schools of thought: flour alone; cornmeal alone; rice flour alone; flour and cornstarch; flour and cornmeal; egg wash alone; flour, then egg wash, then flour; flour, then egg wash, then bread crumbs; or flour, then egg, liquid, and flour batter, then flour. And probably a dozen more possible combinations. I’ve tried most of them.
If you want a light and crisp coating that stays crisp only until the chicken cools, then go with the Simple Dredge below. For a crunchy coating that stays crisp longer, go with the Extra Crunch Dredge. For a coating that stays crunchy even after refrigeration (amazing!), go with the Extra-Extra Crunch Dredge.
This said, I prefer the look and taste of my Dad’s southern fried chicken, with herbs and spices in full view on the browned skin and only the barest of crispy coating. Thus, the photos here show the Simple Dredge. But in the recipe below, you will find directions for all three.
As far as deep frying versus shallow frying goes, I cannot in good conscience recommend deep frying for the home kitchen, unless you happen to have a deep fryer. It is a dangerous and exacting proposition. Get distracted for a few seconds and you could have ruined chicken or a kitchen fire on your hands. I would never try this technique with children in the kitchen. Why take a risk?
It’s so much easier, and just as delicious, to shallow fry your chicken. I take it a step further even and finish the cooking in the oven. That gives me time to set the table, whip the potatoes, and make a pan gravy. Just like Dad taught me.
Now, for a few tips that will ensure that YOUR fried chicken is the best in the world.
LunaCafe’s Fried Chicken Tips & Tricks
- Purchase the freshest, local chicken possible and use it right away. For the best fried chicken, do not use frozen, thawed chicken.
- Cut the chicken into serving size pieces, i.e. 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 4 half breast sections.
- Do not overcook the chicken. When an instant-read thermometer inserted into the meatiest part of the thigh reads 175°, the chicken is done. (The temperature will continue to rise a few degrees after taking the chicken from the oven.)
- Chicken breasts generally cook faster than dark meat. Be sure to account for this and remove the chicken breasts from the oven in advance of the rest of the chicken.
- To get beautifully browned and crispy chicken, you need either a cast iron skillet or a heavy aluminum sauté pan (such as Calphalon). Even heat distribution and temperature control are keys to perfectly fried chicken. Do not attempt to make fried chicken in a stainless steel lined pan. It will stick like crazy.
- For deep-fried chicken, the oil should be about 1-inch deep in the pan. For a 12-inch diameter, Calphalon sauté pan, that means 6 cups of oil.
- For shallow-fried chicken, the oil should be about ¼-inch deep in the pan. For a 12-inch diameter, Calphalon sauté pan, that means 2 cups of oil.
- Dredge all of your chicken and set on a wire rack before you begin to heat the oil. Redredge each piece if needed, just before sliding it into the hot oil.
- In a heavy, 12-inch sauté pan or skillet, heat the oil to between 350° and 365°.
- For deep-frying, use an instant read thermometer to gauge the temperature of the oil. Or, insert a wooden skewer into the oil. At 350°, a mass of tiny bubbles will collect around the skewer.
- For shallow-frying, put a 2″ cube of bread into the hot oil. It should brown nicely in about 60 seconds.
- When you begin to smell the oil as it is heating in the pan, it is nearing its smoke point. Monitor closely.
- Carefully lower chicken pieces into the oil, skin-side down.
- Turn the chicken pieces with tongs as they brown.
- Fry in batches. Overcrowding the pan lowers the temperature of the oil, causing more oil to be absorbed and resulting in greasy chicken.
- Soggy, greasy chicken is the result of too low oil temperature. You must maintain an oil temperature of at least 350° while frying the chicken.
- For shallow-frying, when the chicken pieces are fried to a deep golden brown (should not take longer than 15 minutes), remove pieces from the pan with tongs and place on a wire rack set over an edged baking sheet. Finish cooking in a 350° oven for between 20-30 minutes, until internal temperature at the meatiest portion of the thigh registers 175° on an instant-read thermometer.
- The USDA’s Food Safety & Inspection Service recommends cooking chicken to a minimum internal temperature of 165°.
- Fry chicken in fat that has a high smoke point. The smoke point is the point at which heated fat begins to emit smoke and acrid odors. At this stage, it also begins to impart an unpleasant flavor to the chicken.
- Reusing fat and exposing it to air reduces its smoke point. Thus, it must be discarded at least after every three uses. In practice, I discard the oil after only one use.
- The smoke points for some common fats are as follows: butter (350°), vegetable shortenings (356°-370°), lard (361°- 401°), olive oil (375°), and vegetable oils (441°-450°).
LunaCafe’s Spicy Fried Chicken
You have a choice here of three dredges for the chicken. I prefer the simplest of the three, but the others are good too.
2 pounds fresh chicken legs and thighs, trimmed of excess fat and skin, and rinsed
LunaCafe Spice Blend
1 tablespoon dried thyme, crumbed
1 tablespoon dried oregano, crumbed
1 tablespoon sweet or hot Spanish paprika (I use smoked, hot Spanish paprika)
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground cayenne (perhaps half this amount if you plan to serve to kids)
Brine
2 quarts very cold water
¼ cup LunaCafe Spice Blend
¼ cup fine sea salt
Simple Dredge
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup white rice flour
1 tablespoon LunaCafe Spice Blend
freshly ground black pepper
Extra Crunch Dredge (optional)
Simple Dredge
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Extra-Extra Crunch Dredge (optional)
Simple Dredge
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk (or water or beer)
2 eggs
Frying
fresh peanut or canola oil, non-hydrogenated shortening, or lard, for frying
-
To make LunaCafe Spice Blend, in a small bowl, combine the thyme, oregano, paprika, mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, and cayenne. Mix well and reserve.
-
To brine the chicken, one or more days before frying, combine water, ¼ cup spice blend, and ¼ cup salt. Stir to dissolve the salt.
-
In a glass bowl or plastic container, put the chicken and cover with the brine. Make sure that the chicken is fully submerged in the brine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 3 days.
-
When you are ready to fry the chicken, remove it from the brine and lightly pat with paper towels. Arrange on an edged baking sheet.
- For the Simple Dredge, combine flour, rice flour, and LunaCafe Spice Blend. Grind black pepper over all surfaces of each chicken piece. Dip each piece of chicken into the flour and coat well, tapping off any excess that does not stick to the chicken. Repeat. Arrange on a wire rack set over an edged baking sheet.
- For the Extra Crunch Dredge, prepare the Simple Dredge and then in a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. After dipping each piece of chicken in the Simple Dredge, dip in the egg wash, and then again into the Simple Dredge. Arrange on a wire rack set over an edged baking sheet.
- For the Extra-Extra Crunch Dredge, prepare the Simple Dredge and then in a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, milk, and eggs. The batter should not be too thick. Thin with more liquid if necessary. After dipping each piece of chicken in the Simple Dredge, dip in the batter, and then again into the Simple Dredge. Arrange on a wire rack set over an edged baking sheet.
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°. Set a wire rack over an edged baking sheet and reserve.
- Heat about ¼-inch of oil in a heavy skillet or sauté pan to 350°.
- Fry the chicken in batches, skin side down, until golden brown, turning every couple of minutes to evenly brown all sides, about 15 minutes total.
- Remove with tongs and place on the wire rack. When all pieces are browned and on the wire rack, put the baking sheet into the oven to complete the cooking.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the internal temperature of the meatiest part of the thigh registers 175°.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and with tongs, place chicken pieces on a large serving platter.
- Serve hot or warm. Refrigerate any leftovers and eat cold later.
Serves 4-6
Fried Chicken or BBQ Ribs Throw Down Rules & Contestants
Rules: Virtual Throw Down: A Twitter and Blog Extravaganza
http://lifebychocolates.blogspot.com/2009/06/virtual-throw-down-twitter-and-blog.html
LunaCafe
SMS Bradley, Pacific Northwest
http://thelunacafe.com
Twitter ID: @LunaCafe
LifeByChocolate
Mark LaPolla, New York
http://www.lifebychocolates.blogspot.com
Twitter ID: @LifeByChocolate
Cre8tive Kitchen
Brenda Campbell, Washington
http://www.cre8tivekitchen.blogspot.com
Twitter ID: @cre8tivekitchen
Gluten Free Sanctuary
Leslie McLinden, Arkansas
http://glutenfreesanctuary.blogspot.com
Twitter ID: @lesliemac59
Fresh Eyes
Jan Richards, Washington
http://www.jgrichardsresultsblog.com
Twitter ID: @MrsRoadshow
Licorice, Chocolate and Other Foods To Love
Andrea Rowe, Pacific Northwest
http://www.gotlicorice.blogspot.com
http://www.marinamarket.com
Twitter: @LicoriceShrine
Grandma’s Gluten-Free Baking N Cooking
Joyce Paige, Kansas
http://grandmasgfbakingncooking.ning.com/
Twitter: @SilknPearls or @GFGrandmaBNC
Other Folks with Fried Chicken Blog Posts
Forking Delicious
David Lawrence, Los Angeles
http://forkingdelicious.blogspot.com/
http://forkingdelicious.blogspot.com/2009/06/ultimate-fried-chicken-no-kidding.html
Twitter ID: @ChefDaveLA
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I am a fan of simple tea cakes. I almost always prefer them to towering layered cakes with mountains of frosting. (Well, with one possible exception: the Vienna Mocha Torte at Rose’s Bakery in Portland, Oregon.) Also, I never again want to see a thick custard layered with cake. Not ever. When Costco started layering their sheet cakes with custard, I knew it was time to take a stand. A warm pudding cake, on the other hand, is quite another proposition and always a treat.
Tea cakes, bundt cakes, coffee cakes, pudding cakes, and pound cakes were the kind of old-fashioned cake that my farm-raised, Mennonite grandmother always made. “Nothing fancy,” she would say, but fresh from the oven, fragrant, and utterly delicious with a pot of freshly brewed tea.
Grandma Mary liked to put prunes, plums, pears, applesauce, and even jelly into her tea cakes. She always served them plain, with a bowl of whipped cream on the side. My own preference is to include tart fruits, such as rhubarb, sour cherries, apricots, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Just like Grandma though, I like to serve these cakes very simply, with just a dusting of powdered sugar, a poof of whipped cream, and for special occasions, perhaps a drizzle of fruit sauce on the plate.
Somewhere along my baking path (San Francisco, circa 1980s), I discovered Italian pastries and the notion of adding cornmeal to a cake batter. This was not a notion that Grandma had ever entertained. I was hooked from the first golden, crunchy bite.
By now, I have a repertoire of cornmeal cakes, this one being the latest. Over the next few years, I’ll share them all with you. In the spring and summer, I like these simple cakes on the lighter side, almost always with fruit and perhaps with herbs and floral aromatics as well, such as thyme, rose petal, and lavender. In the fall and winter, I like deeper flavors, winter spices, and perhaps crunchy nut streusel layered with the batter and crumbled on top of the cake.
Once you have a basic cake batter that you trust, you can improvise endlessly with it. This cake batter, for instance, incorporates an acidic ingredient (sour cream), which gives the cake an extra tender quality, along with old-fashioned flavor.
I love buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream, Mexican crema, crème fraîche, and even cream cheese in a cake batter. You should be able to substitute one for another in this recipe, as long as the consistency remains about the same as for sour cream. Cream cheese must be whipped and then thinned with milk before using.
Now, a few words to describe this cake. OH! MY! GAWD! Seriously, MauiJim and I were nearly speechless when we put the first bite of this cake into our mouths. When he did finally speak, his exact words were, “This is unbelievable.” We both had a second serving within minutes of eating the first. Let’s see what YOU think. J
Rhubarb Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake
I can’t decide if I prefer this cake upside-down with the pale pink, glistening rhubarb on top or upside-up with the lovely browned cake on top. I leave it to your discretion.
Whatever you decide, upon your first bite of this anise-scented, tender cake, you won’t care how it looks on the plate.
The ethereally light texture of this cake is the result of the proportions of the ingredients but also, I believe, of the steam that is created from the sauce at the bottom of each ramekin.
vegetable spray
Rhubarb Topping
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 cups trimmed, ½-inch diced rhubarb
1 teaspoon anise seed, pulverized with a mortar and pestle
Cake
1¼ cups King Arthur’s all purpose flour
½ cup fine yellow cornmeal
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cool room temperature
¾ cup superfine sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks, lightly whisked, cool room temperature
¾ cup sour cream, lightly whisked, cool room temperature
Garnish
powdered sugar in a shaker
softly whipped, lightly sweetened heavy cream
Rhubarb Sauce, optional
- Coat six, 1¼-cup capacity, ramekins with vegetable spray. Place on an edged baking sheet and reserve.
- To make the rhubarb topping, in a small sauté pan, melt the butter and stir in the brown sugar. Bring to a full boil and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the rhubarb and anise, and cook for 1-2 minutes more, until the rhubarb releases its juice into the sauce.
- Evenly distribute the rhubarb and sauce into the ramekins.
- To make the cake, sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and baking soda into a medium mixing bowl. Reserve.
- In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, with the mixer set at medium speed, cream the butter and sugar until very light and creamy, about 5-6 minutes, scraping the bowl frequently.
- Add the vanilla and incorporate.
- With the mixer set at medium-slow speed, add the beaten egg yolks, bit by bit, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next. If the mixture begins to curdle, increase the speed of the mixer.
- With the mixer set to slowest speed, add first ¼ of the flour mixture, then 1/3 of the sour cream, and repeat until the last portion of flour is added. Do not overbeat. Just incorporate the flour mixture and sour cream briefly and then finish incorporating by hand with a flexible spatula.
- Spoon equal amounts of the cake into each ramekin, filling no more than ¾ full. Using an offset spatula, level the batter in each ramekin.
- Bake at 350° for about 25-28 minutes, until the cake is risen, nicely browned on top, and registers 175°-180° at the center of the cake when measured with an instant-read thermometer.
- Remove the cakes from the oven, let rest for 5 minutes, then invert each onto a dessert plate. (Alternatively, you can leave the cakes at cool room temperature up to 2 hours, and then reheat a couple at a time in the microwave for 30-60 seconds to loosen the caramelized fruit.)
- Dust each serving with a little powdered sugar, and serve with clouds of whipped cream and Rhubarb Sauce if desired.
Makes 6 individual cakes.
Other Rhubarb Posts You Might Enjoy
Fresh Primer: Rhubarb
Rhubarb Cardamom Lime Muffins
Apple Cider-Brined Tenderloin of Pork with Rhubarb Deglazing Sauce
Spring Rhubarb & Apple Crisp with Toasted Hazelnut Streusel
©2009 SMS Bradley. All rights reserved.
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