By Saskia Spender illustration by Roz Streeten

Barbeque, Memphis style

Some would say that the only good barbecue is the one you've smoked through a night and a day, in your own rub, in your own barrel, in your own back yard.

They wouldn't be far wrong. But if you happen to be in Memphis, Tn, land of the barbecue, riding in on the Dolly Parton Bridge, take Summer and drive way down. It's as good a view of Memphis as any. About thirty-seven miles from the Pyramid, in a nameless shack in the woods, opposite a 'dozer cemetery, Brother Ferdinand's got the real deal. He doesn't smile. Not much banter in the shack, certainly no sauce. Just ribs.

Strictly speaking Memphis barbecue doesn't involve oils or sauces. The best rare breed pork belly and ribs are rubbed in salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne, packed together crackling-side up, with an occasional thin slice of onion and a sprig of fresh thyme, and smoked in a barrel 13 to 17 hours. The barbecue relies on the scent of the smoke and the fatty meat for its entire flavour. Don't compromise on the meat. Ribs are as inexpensive a cut as you get and farmers' markets have excellent organically reared breeds. However, here is a sauce you can use to marinade your pork, which also works very well with chicken, to get into the barbecue spirit without leaving your kitchen.

Marinade for 4 racks of baby ribs, or 2 lbs scored pork belly:

• 1 cup whole peeled or crushed tomatoes
• half a large onion
• 1 small carrot
• half a celery stick
• 1 fresh thyme twig
• brown sugar to taste (about 1 tsp)
• Blackstrap molasses (about 1 tbs)
• half a celery stick
• Worcester Sauce (about 2 tbs)
• Lots of salt and pepper
• Optional: Paprika, balsamic vinegar, and oak-chip roasted cherry tomatoes*

Finely chop the onion, carrot. and celery and saute in olive oil with salt and pepper until soft and well cooked, about 6 mins. If adding paprika, now is the time. Add the tomatoes, cooking on a lively flame until they go orange. Add sugar, molasses and Worcester sauce to taste. You need to balance the sweet, spicy and sour tastes, so feel free to put in a drop of balsamic if sweet and spicy, but not vinegary enough. Marinade the meat for 2 to 24 hours. Cook at 200 C/400 F for half an hour, then cover with silver foil and cook at 160 C / 320 F for another 2 hours.

* For that optional smoky taste, add to the marinade some oakchip roasted cherry tomatoes. You can find them at the Saturday farmer's market in Notting Hill. Or make your own: roast sliced cherry tomatoes in olive oil for an hour at 200 C / 400 F, then put them on a heat proof plate to smoke for 20 mins Japanese style - on a platform of 2 chopsticks, with a tbs of brown sugar, 2 of tea and 2 of rice placed on silver foil in the bottom of an old wok, well covered possibly with the aid of an old tea towel wrapped around the cover, and set to smoke on a low flame.

Lemonade

• 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 6 ice cubes
• 1 1/4 pint cold water
• 4-6 sprigs parsley

Cut up lemon. Liquidise the lemon, parsley, sugar and a small amount of the water. Strain into a jug. Then add rest of the water and thin slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley. Add ice cubes.

Blueberry Pie

Makes one 9-inch pie, serving 6 to 8
The amount of sugar in the fruit is a guide. Add more or less depending on the fruit’s quality and your taste

Pie dough

• 2 1/4 cups plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 tps salt
• 2 tbs granulated sugar
• 11 tbs unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 7 tbs vegetable shortening (chilled)
• 1/3 cup water chilled with ice, increasing to 3/8 cup, if necessary.

Blueberry filling

• 3 pints fresh blueberries (6 cups), rinsed and picked over
• 2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 small lemon, zested to yield 1 tps zest and juiced to yield 2 tps juice
• 1/4 tps ground allspice
• pinch ground nutmeg
• 2 tbs unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1. Mix flour, salt, and sugar in food processor fitted with steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture. Blitz butter into flour with five 1-second pulses. Add shortening and continue to blitz it in until flour is pale yellow and resembles coarse cornmeal Gradually add the iced water to the mixture (with the motor still running) a little at a time until the dough start to come together in a ball. You may not need all off the water. Remove from mixer and divide dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other. Flatten each into 4- inch-wide disk. Dust lightly with flour, wrap separately in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Remove dough from refrigerator; let stand at room temperature to soften slightly, about 10 minutes. Heat oven to 200 C/ 400 F.
3. Toss fruit with sugar, lemon juice and zest, spices.
4. Melt the remaining butter in a pan and add the fruit. Coat in butter, simmer gently for up to five minutes, being careful not to bruise the fruit. (At this stage, if there seems to be loads of juice, you can strain a little and keep back to serve with the pie later.) Leave to cool slightly.
5. Roll larger dough disk on lightly floured surface into 12-
   inch circle, about 1/8-inch thick. Transfer and fit dough into 9- inch pie pan, leaving dough that overhangs the lip in place. Turn fruit mixture, including juices, into pie shell. Refrigerate until ready to top with remaining dough.
6. Roll smaller disk on lightly floured surface into 10-inch circle. Cut into lattice strips and lay over fruit. Trim top and bottom dough edges to 1/2-inch beyond pan lip. Tuck this rim of dough underneath itself so that folded edges are flush with pan lip. If pie dough is very soft, place in freezer for 10 minutes before baking.
7. Place pie on baking sheet; bake until top crust is olden, 20 to 25 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 175 C / 350 F and continue to bake until juices bubble and crust is golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes longer.
8. Transfer pie to wire rack; let cool to almost room temperature so juices have time to thicken, from 1 to 2 hours.

Saskia Spender is a cook. Her husband is the son of a bishop from Memphis, Tn. They live in Shepherd's Bush.