[Steven] Today's show focuses on three dishes that cross national borders and timelines.

Tremendous amount of flavor.

Shrimp cocktail gets the East-West treatment with Thai spices and Mexican chilies.

That, my friends, is a cocktail sauce worthy of the name.

Chipotle ribs feature an unexpected ingredient: chocolate served with a drunken salsa, spiked with tequila.

This salsa packs a wallop.

And dessert sounds an equally cross-cultural theme, a luscious banana split made with grilled plantains.

You can see how beautifully the plantains have caramelized.

From a river cruise in San Antonio, I'm Steven Raichlen.

Welcome to Planet Barbecue.

[opening theme music] [announcer] Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" is made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: [Steven] In 1908, British writer Israel Zangwill coined the phrase "melting pot" to describe a fusion of nationalities and cultures.

He could have been talking about the history of barbecue.

Silk Road traders brought Asian spices to the Middle East whence the crusaders took them to Europe.

A few centuries later, European explorers like Columbus and Magellan discovered a new set of spices and seasonings in the Americas, transporting them back to Europe and on to Asia.

The grill remains the ultimate melting pot, using seasonings and flavorings from all over the planet.

I've never understood the appeal of traditional shrimp cocktail.

Cold boiled shrimp with sugary sauce does not gastronomic glory make.

But reach across timelines and continents.

Fire it up with chipotle chilies from Mexico and Sriracha from Thailand, and above all, grill the shrimp over a smokey fire.

Now you have my interest.

For shrimp, I'm using these U-8s, that means there are eight to a pound.

And the first step is to peel and devein the shrimp.

So, with your thumb, grab the shell under the legs and just peel it off the body.

And I like to leave that last segment of shrimp tail on the shrimp.

Gives you a handle for eating the shrimp.

Now to devein the shrimp, take a fork and insert it through the back of the shrimp and gently pull up.

And you can pull the vein out just like that.

That's the lazy man's way of deveining a shrimp.

You can devein the shrimp using the traditional method, and that is you make a V-shape cut on the top of the shrimp.

Then the bottom of the shrimp.

And scrape out the vein.

Next, make the marinade.

It starts with minced chipotle chilies for smokey heat.

Minced garlic for pungency.

Brown sugar for a touch of sweetness.

Freshly grated lime zest for brightness.

Mm.

The zest, the oil rich outer part of the lime, tremendous amount of flavor in the zest.

Next, lime juice for acidity.

Now add fish sauce, that malodorous Southeast Asian condiment made with fermented anchovies, which has such wonderful salty umami flavor.

And vegetable oil to keep the shrimp moist.

A pinch of salt.

A generous pinch of pepper.

Stir these ingredients together, and that's your simple marinade for the shrimp.

So, stir in the shrimp.

And marinate for 15 to 30 minutes while you light the grill and make the cocktail sauce.

Now for the grill, set it up for direct grilling and heat it to high.

And to add a smoke component, place a handful of soaked cherry wood chips in the smoker pan.

You can start to see some smoke already.

I'm going to run the burner on high until you see smoke, then cut it down to low so you don't burn up the chips.

Then place the grill grate on top.

Close the grill lid to hold in the heat and smoke.

Next, the cocktail sauce.

The cocktail sauce starts with the traditional ketchup.

To that, we add the garlicky heat of Thai Sriracha, about equal parts.

Then the sweet heat of Thai chili sauce.

Some freshly grated lime zest for citrusy brightness.

And fresh lime juice to offset the sweetness of the ketchup.

A generous pinch of chopped fresh cilantro.

And the secret weapon, a few drops of mescal, that smokey Mexican spirit.

Whisk the ingredients together.

Mm.

And that, my friends, is a cocktail sauce worthy of the name.

I like to grill the shrimp in a grill basket.

It's a lot easier to turn the basket once than turn 20 shrimp.

So, start by oiling the grill basket.

This will keep the shrimp from sticking.

And remember to oil the top portion of the grill basket as well.

Then arrange the shrimp in the grill basket.

Grill baskets are great for delicate foods like fish filets, small foods like shrimp, and for those grateless grills you find throughout so much of Planet Barbecue.

Close the lid of the grill basket and secure the top and the bottom with this little ring.

All right.

And our grill is nice and hot.

Plenty of wood smoke coming out of the smoker pan, so place the shrimp on the fire.

It's a quick grill, two to three minutes per side will do it.

To pump up the smoke flavor, you can place the shrimp directly over the smoking wood chips.

Once the shrimp are sizzling and browned on the bottom, turn over the basket.

You can see it's a lot easier to turn a shrimp basket than 20 individual shrimp.

And when the shrimp are browned on both sides, transfer the basket to a sheet pan.

Now pull this ring back.

Remember, it's very hot.

Open the basket.

And let the shrimp cool to room temperature or chill for serving.

And here is your East-West shrimp cocktail.

We'll just add a sprinkle of chopped fresh cilantro.

Let's see how we did.

Dip the shrimp in the sauce.

Mm.

First thing I get is the fiery char and the wood smoke on the shrimp.

The sauce plays sweet against heat like a traditional shrimp cocktail sauce.

But here, the heat comes from Sriracha.

The smoke from the mescal.

Very deep flavors.

This is a shrimp cocktail worthy of the name.

When it comes to the sheer unadulterated joy of eating, it's hard to beat ribs.

They're one of the few foods that's considered good manners to eat with your fingers.

These racks take their inspiration from Oaxaca, Mexico, where pre-Columbian flavors like cacao and chiles chipotles and anchos produce ribs of extraordinary character by way of a barbecue sauce, a distinctive drunken salsa made with cactus spirits and chiles.

There are several options for ribs.

I like St. Louis cut.

They're shaped and they eat like baby backs, but have the rich, meaty flavor of spareribs.

The first thing to do is remove the papery membrane on the back of the rib.

So, using the tip of a butter knife, pry the membrane up from the bones.

Then, grab the membrane with a paper towel and pull it off the rack of ribs.

Next, make the adobo, the spice paste.

It starts with ancho chili powder, about three tablespoons.

The ancho chili, not particularly hot, but it has a wonderful earthy, fruity flavor.

Then chiles chipotles, chipotle chili smoked jalapeños, which definitely add smokey heat.

Then cocoa powder, chocolate being one of the great gifts of the new world to the rest of the world.

The cocoa powder adds an earthy bitterness.

For aromatics, we have rough chopped garlic, rough chopped fresh onion, and chopped fresh cilantro.

For bright fruity notes, we'll add freshly grated orange zest.

So, think about the flavor profile so far.

We have chilies, chocolate, orange, and aromatic root vegetables.

Lots of flavor happening here.

Now add a couple of tablespoons of honey for sweetness.

A generous pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Puree these ingredients to a smooth paste in the food processor.

Finally, add enough vegetable oil to obtain a smooth, pourable marinade.

Mm.

Earthy, fruity, gentle heat.

Then take your adobo and spread half of it over the meat with your spatula.

Now turn the ribs over and spread the remaining adobo on the other side of the ribs.

Marinate the ribs in the refrigerator for at least six hours, as long as overnight.

The longer, the better.

The next step is to make the salsa borracha, drunken salsa.

To start, heat about four tablespoons of vegetable oil in a skillet.

Now this salsa also uses chili peppers.

These are chiles pasillas, raisin chiles.

So-called because they are wrinkled like raisins.

When the oil is hot, you test it by dipping in a chile.

When you see the bubbles dance, the chile is ready.

So, we'll add chiles.

Now fry the chiles until puffed and crisp.

Ah, look at that, how that puffs.

Then drain the chiles on a paper towel.

In the same oil, add a diced, medium-sized onion and fry the onion until golden brown.

Once the onions are golden brown, remove the pan from the heat and let cool.

To finish the salsa borracha, place chopped fresh cilantro in the blender.

Then add about two teaspoons of honey for sweetness.

A half cup of distilled white vinegar for acidity.

Three quarters of a cup of Mexican beer because a salsa borracha, a drunken salsa, should contain beer.

Then add a couple of tablespoons of mescal or tequila.

In Mexico, this salsa would be made with pulque, which is a sort of cider or beer made from cactus sap.

Next, a little water.

A generous pinch of salt.

And freshly ground black pepper.

Then crumble your fried pasilla chiles into the blender.

And last of all, add the fried onions and oil.

Place the lid on the blender.

Now puree the ingredients for the salsa borracha.

This is very different than the salsas that most North Americans are familiar with.

And we'll take a taste.

Wow, this salsa packs a wallop.

It's earthy and pleasantly bitter.

Now to the grill.

To smoke the ribs, I'm using a Kamado style ceramic cooker.

I loaded the fire box with charcoal.

I'll add three hardwood chunks to generate the wood smoke.

So, insert your heat diffuser.

This creates a barrier between the hot coals and the meat so you can smoke the ribs low and slow.

Now get the ribs.

Here are your St. Louis ribs.

They've been marinating for 24 hours.

Arrange them on the grate over the heat diffuser.

Now close the lid and adjust the vents to obtain an internal temperature of 275 degrees.

Cooking time, two and a half to three hours.

It's been three hours, whoa, and check out the ribs.

They look beautiful.

They certainly look done.

The way you tell for sure is you check out the ends of the bones, and when the meat has shrunk back from the ends of the bones by about a half an inch, you know the ribs are cooked.

What I like to do right at the end is simply brush the ribs with a little of the salsa.

Close the grill lid.

Then open the grill vents wide and just sear some of that salsa into the ribs.

Five minutes will do it.

Five minutes have elapsed.

You can see the salsa has cooked into the ribs.

Then to cut the ribs, it's easier to turn them over.

That way, you can see where the ribs are, and we'll just make cuts between the ribs.

And I have to tell you, the knife is gliding through the meat as though through butter.

Now, what's interesting about these ribs and very different than the way we serve ribs in the United States is we sprinkle them with cotija cheese, a salty cheese from Michoacán.

Finally, a spoonful of the drunken salsa.

And there, my friends, are your St. Louis ribs with salsa borracha.

Let's take a taste.

Wow, the ribs are tender, but not soft.

You get a little heat from the chili.

The booze from the salsa borracha.

Little salty burst from the cheese.

You sense the cocoa more than taste it.

It gives you sort of an earthy, pleasantly bitter background.

So, there you have it, chocolate chipotle ribs with salsa borracha because sometimes you want a rib that's about the meat, not about the candy sweet barbecue sauce.

One of Raichlen's rules states that if something tastes good raw, baked, or fried, it probably tastes even better grilled.

Case in point, that classic American dessert, the banana split.

Another of my principles is the freedom, dare I say the mandate, to innovate.

In this case, substituting sweet ripe plantains for bananas.

I give you a banana split unlike you've probably ever tasted.

Step number one, smoke the whipped cream.

This whipped cream has been sweetened with confectioners' sugar and flavored with a few drops of mescal.

To smoke the whipped cream, I'm using a handheld smoker.

Fill the fire chamber with hardwood sawdust, hickory in this case.

Then switch on the smoker and light the sawdust.

Insert the smoker tube in the bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

Let the smoke infuse with the whipped cream for five minutes.

Next, prepare the tortilla crisps.

Start by making a spiced sugar.

Ground cinnamon.

Ground cloves.

And granulated sugar.

Whisk these ingredients to mix.

And take a flour tortilla.

Brush it with melted butter.

Sprinkle with spiced sugar.

Turn it over.

Brush the other side with butter and sprinkle with spiced sugar.

Set up your grill for direct grilling and heat two zones to high, one zone to medium.

Clean your grill grate with a stiff wire brush.

Then oil your grate with a folded paper towel dipped in oil and drawn across the bars of the grate.

Place the buttered, sugared tortilla on the grill grate.

Cooking time is really quick.

A minute or two per side will do it.

Just long enough to caramelize the butter and the sugar.

Oh, nice.

Then transfer your tortilla to a cutting board and cut it into eight wedges.

And here are your tortilla crisps.

Now for the plantains.

The plantain is a cooking cousin of the banana.

You use it at every degree of ripeness, green when it tastes starchy like a potato, yellow when it's semi-sweet, and black when it's as sweet as candy.

To prepare the plantain, cut off one tip, the other tip.

Then cut the plantain in half lengthwise.

Brush the cut side of the plantains with melted butter.

And sprinkle with more of your spiced sugar.

And once again, a quick brush to clean it and oil with a folded paper towel dipped in oil and drawn across the bars of the grate.

Arrange the sugar plantains on the hot grill grate slightly on the diagonal.

Grill for one minute in one direction, then give each plantain a quarter turn.

Once the plantains are darkly caramelized on the cut side, turn them over.

When the fruit shrinks back from the skin, you know the plantain is cooked.

So, we'll take these off.

You can see how beautifully the plantains have caramelized.

Place a grilled plantain half in one of your sundae boats.

The second one.

And a scoop of dulce de leche ice cream.

Next, your smoked whipped cream.

Chocolate syrup.

Toasted almonds.

And finally, your tortilla crisps.

And now the moment I've been waiting for, take a bite.

Mm.

That is so interesting.

The plantain, it tastes like a banana, but it's more than a banana.

There's a caramelized flavor, it's richer, and it goes so well with the dulce de leche ice cream.

Dulce de leche, it's made by making caramel out of milk, basically.

It goes great with the smoky whipped cream and cherry on the top, as it were, these crunchy cinnamon tortilla chips.

Mm.

And that, my friends, is a banana split.

I hope you've enjoyed our show on the global melting pot.

This is Planet Barbecue.

See you next time.

[announcer] For recipes, books, and more live fire cooking, visit StevenRaichlen.com.

You can also follow Steven Raichlen on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" was made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: [Melanie] Here we go.

Rolling and sound speeding.

In this case, sweet plantins for the bananas.

What did I say?

[crew] Plantins.

Plantain.

Maintain, plantain, maintain.

Got it.

Okay.

Ready?

In this case, using sweet ripe plantins.

Sorry, I was thinking about something else.

In this case, substituting sweet ripe plantains for bananas.

Let's go.

[Melanie] All right, moving on.