Smoking is good for you

You Manhattanites can keep your soggy rooftops and crowded little hibachis.  For summer barbecues, Brooklyn's got you beat.  I went to three grillin and chillin festivities this Memorial Day weekend without ever having to leave the big-sky borough. 

Today, I rolled over to Winnie & Chris's Boerum Hill apartment where Jim was busy deflowering the brand new smoker he bought with Chris.  I followed the pungent trail of mesquite to their airy apartment, where Jim was manning the steadily puffing green R2D2 on the mini-deck out back. 

They broke the smoker in with several racks of dry-rubbed pork spareribs.  "Never put sugar or tomato on the rib rub," Jim said.  "It just burns and turns all black."  Winnie also brined two chickens, dry-rubbed with a cayenne cumin clove blend and lowered the birds into the smoker's roomy cavity.

The result?  Tender, spicy, mesquite-infused ribs with a rosy ring of smoke that could give any of those BBQ festival participants a run for their money.  And smoky, juicy chicken that will be incredible sliced cold on tomorrow's salad.  Chris's cinnamon and butter-spiked sweet potato mash cooled our spicy tongues while Winnie's dandelion pea shoot salad with sauteed mushrooms and fiddlehead ferns cleansed our palates. 

I'm glad I saved room for our perfect summer dessert of lavender-mint syrup macerated mixed berries with a touch of balsamic vinegar over Ciao Bella vanilla gelato.

Only drawback to our hot fun in the summertime?  I reek like I went in the smoker myself.  T-Bone, the tabby I'm catsitting, wouldn't stop licking my arm when I got home.  I guess even cats love the cue.

I'm looking forward to smoke-filled weekends with a parade of carcasses -- duck!  oysters!  baby back ribs!  trout!  I'm going to try and find good slaw and baked beans recipes. 

Summer's been coming on slowly this year, but this weekend was an auspicious start.  Jim thought perhaps the dry rub could have used a bit less salt, and the ribs could have stayed in the smoker a smidge longer so the meat would slip off the bone more readily, but hey -- we've got the whole summer to perfect our smoking technique.