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The mahogany-hued chicken thighs sit neatly on Angie Quaale’s barbecue like a freshly opened box of chocolates. She’s added a pinch of Asian five-spice to the poultry to give the sweet, juicy pieces of meat a gingery backspin. From another cooker in Quaale’s yard in Surrey, British Columbia, Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk offers me a cherrywood-smoked oyster dipped in a sauce that offsets the zingy bite of jalapeños with sweet habañeros. Later, for dessert, Shewchuk-who with Quaale is a mainstay at international competitions like the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue (the Olympics of the "sport")-grills a mess of peaches on a cedar plank with an icewine reduction.
The ingredients and flavours are quintessentially West Coast, but they’re married to the smoke and loving care of traditional barbecue-meat slow-cooked at low temperatures in indirect heat, as opposed to the direct, high temperatures of grilling. It’s what happens when the original slow food migrates north.
A recent convert to Shewchuk and Quaale’s passion is Brian Misko. He’s a self-described data geek for whom the pull of pulled pork was so strong that he quit his desk job to market his own line of barbecue sauces and spices, named after his competition team, House of Q. "How many full-time, professional barbecuers do you know?" he asks. "I’m one."
Misko’s obsession began in 2004 when he was a spectator at the Canadian National BBQ Championships in Whistler; there he fell under the spell of what Shewchuk calls the "alchemy of barbecue." According to Shewchuk’s book, Barbecue Secrets Deluxe, the alchemy occurs when the connective tissue in meat breaks down over slow, damp heat: "Fat between the fibres liquefies and combines with the gelatine to create a primordial broth, basting the meat from the inside. The end result is real barbecue-the most tender, juicy, succulent meat you’ll ever taste."
"On the way home," Misko recalls, "I said to my pal Glen, ‘Dude, we’re doing this next year.’"
After buying (and quickly discarding) a $50 smoker, Misko had a new hobby, a new love and, ultimately, a new career. For competitions, Misko began devising his own sauce, puréeing local apples and adding ketchup, molasses and "lots of love" to it. The resulting concoction was named third best sauce at the National BBQ Festival in Douglas, Georgia, in 2008.
It’s not just a coastal thing. At Divino, a New York-style bistro in Calgary, the ability to smoke meat with a custom-built charcoal grill-smoker brings versatility to the menu. "It used to be all grilling," says chef John Donovan, "but everyone’s looking for alternatives for their tenderloin and strip loin."
Donovan likes to fire up one side of his grill with B.C. apple or cherrywood, both of which have a sweeter flavour than the mesquite or hickory traditionally used for barbecue, and then smoke pork belly and pork shoulder on the other side. For bison and elk, he’ll use a combination of cold-pan smoking (smoking with a pan of ice underneath the meat) and grilling.
At the end of my magnificent lunch with Shewchuk and Quaale, I ask them whether it’s safe to say there’s been an explosion in the popularity of barbecue in Western Canada.
"We’re seeing it," says Shewchuk, who notes that the number of local barbecue competitions has grown significantly. "In the early days, American teams came to our contests because it was easy pickings and they won handily. That’s changed now. We now have a barbecue culture, where people talk about it and cook it in their backyards."
"Explosion is an overstatement," says Quaale. "Sushi is an explosion."
Shewchuk, a communications consultant when not cooking, concedes her point: "Okay, it’s more of a slow burn."
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RECIPES
House of Q Hurry-Up Grilled Pork Ribs
 3 racks pork ribs (sides or back)
6 tbsp House of Q Slow Smoke Gold*
mustard sauce
½ cup House of Q House Rub*
1⁄3 cup maple syrup
1⁄3 cup apple juice
1 cup House of Q Apple Butter BBQ
Sauce*
To prepare the pork ribs, remove the membrane on the back of the ribs. First, lift an edge of the tough film then use a paper towel to help you grab the membrane. If you have a good grip, you can pull the whole membrane off in one pull. Smear the mustard sauce all over the ribs, then coat generously with the rub. Let ribs sit at room temperature for 10 minutes to absorb the rub.
Prepare your grill for indirect cooking by heating only one side at medium heat. Place the ribs on the off, or cool, side and add smoke chips such as apple, cherry or hickory to the hot side. Close the lid and smoke the ribs for about 45 minutes to one hour.
Prepare a sheet of foil a little longer than the rack of ribs and drizzle it with the maple syrup. Curl up the corners of the foil and add a bit of apple juice, being careful it doesn’t run off the foil. Take a rack of ribs from the grill and place, meat side down, on the maple syrup mixture. Cover with another piece of foil and loosely fold the edges together to create a package. Return the ribs to the indirect side of the grill until soft and tender (about another 45 minutes to an hour).
Remove the foil pouch from the grill and, being careful of the steam and hot liquids inside, open the foil and remove the ribs. Once again, place the ribs back on the indirect side of the grill. Brush with Apple Butter BBQ Sauce and close the lid. Cook for 15 to 25 minutes. Remove the racks from the grill and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting between the bones for each portion.
*To order or find retailers visit
houseofq.com
Championship Barbecue Rub (aKA Bob’s Rub)
This recipe (from Bob Lyon, the granddaddy of barbecue in the Pacific Northwest ) follows a rule of thumb that’s worth remembering anytime you are creating a rub: "a third, a third, a third." Translation: one-third sugar, one-third seasoned salts and one-third dry herbs and spices will give the meat a balanced flavour profile.
1 cup sugar
1⁄3 cup chili powder (try a combination of
ground chilies like ancho, poblano, New
Mexico or guajillo)
1⁄3 cup freshly ground black pepper
1⁄3 cup paprika
¼ cup celery salt
¼ cup garlic salt
¼ cup onion salt
¼ cup seasoning salt (I like Lawry’s)
Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Add extra heat to this basic rub with cayenne pepper, hot paprika or ground chipotles. Also try adding 2 or 3 signature ground spices/herbs to suit your taste, like thyme, oregano, cumin, sage or ginger. Add only 1 to 3 tsp of each so they don’t overpower the rub. Makes about 3 cups.
(Adapted from Ron Shewchuk’s Barbecue Secrets Deluxe, Whitecap Books.)
Angie Quaale’s Maple-Bourbon Sauce
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ cup white wine or Champagne vinegar
2⁄3 cup Jack Daniel’s whiskey
½ tsp kosher salt
½ cup cider vinegar
2 tbsp white sugar
2⁄3 cup maple syrup
1 cup ketchup
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine ingredients in medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer until smooth and thickened to desired consistency (approximately 20 to 30 minutes). Makes about 2 cups.
Ron shewchuk’s Classic Baked Beans for a Crowd
This classic bean recipe, by friend and caterer Margie Gibb, is a perfect accompaniment to barbecued brisket or ribs, or just about anything else, for that matter!
2 cups dried red kidney beans
2 cups dried cannellini or white kidney beans
2 cups dried black beans
1 lb double-smoked bacon, cut into large dice
2 large onions, cut into ¼-inch dice
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp freshly ground cumin
2 tsp finely chopped canned chipotles in adobo
sauce
1 ¼ cups packed dark brown sugar
3 tbsp molasses
8 cups water
2 bottles dark beer (12 oz each)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Place beans in a large bowl, cover with cold water by 2 inches and let soak overnight. (Note: If you are short of time, rinsed canned beans work just as well; use one 14 oz can for every 1 cup of dried beans.)
To cook the bacon, place diced bacon into a cold frying pan and heat over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and place it on a bit of paper towel to absorb the excess fat. Set aside.
Pour off all but 3 tbsp of the rendered bacon fat. If you are short of bacon fat, add olive oil as necessary. Add onions and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until they are soft but not brown (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin and chipotles to the onion mixture then cook a further 5 minutes, until the flavours are well blended.
Drain beans and place them in a large Dutch oven. Add onion mixture, sugar, molasses, water and one bottle of beer to the beans and bring to a boil. You may only need 1 bottle of beer. If the beans threaten to boil down too far, you can add part or all of the second bottle.
Reduce the heat to medium low and cook the beans, covered, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and most of the liquid has been absorbed (approximately 2 hours). Stir in the bacon and season the beans with salt and pepper.
You can serve immediately, but this dish improves if prepared 1 day in advance. Refrigerate the beans overnight and then gently reheat them. Serves 14.
House of q Grilled Romaine Salad with Smoked Tomato, Onion and Garlic Dressing
2-3 heads romaine lettuce, washed and quartered
through the stem
1 head garlic
1 tomato, cut in half
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
4 tbsp olive oil
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp Champagne or cider vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Prepare your grill for indirect cooking by heating only one side at medium heat. Cut off the top of the garlic head to expose some of each clove. Drizzle the tomato, onion and garlic with the olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place vegetables on the off, or cool, side and add smoke chips such as mesquite or hickory to the hot side. Close the lid and smoke the vegetables until soft (approximately 20 to 30 minutes). Remove from grill and set aside to cool.
In a food processor, blend together the mayonnaise, mustard, smoked tomato, smoked onion, smoked garlic cloves squeezed from their skins and the vinegar. Blend until smooth and season to taste. Dressing will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Preheat the grill to high heat and grill the lettuce to add searing marks and colour to the outside (about 30 seconds). Take care not to leave the lettuce too long on the grill or it will overcook and wilt. Once ready, place the grilled romaine on individual serving dishes or a large platter and drizzle generously with the dressing. Serves 4 to 6.
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