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Can you smell it   By SHAVAUGHN MOSS ~ Lifestyles Editor ~ shavaughn@nasguard.com: Summer time and the livin' is easy — and the "backyard kings" are coming out of hibernation, firing up the grills and throwing on the ribs, chicken and steaks, foods which become a staple at this time of year. One of those "backyard kings" is Richard Rae who lights the coals almost every Saturday, and according to his seven-year-old daughter Faith, everything that comes off it is delicious. But nothing was quite like the compliment he got recently from a total stranger who had the opportunity to taste his ribs, and told him that he could put a local rib joint out of business. If he was double-jointed, Rae would have patted himself on the back. As he wasn't, all he could do was smile. He prefers pork ribs to beef on a grill, and wouldn't reveal all his secrets to the ribs, which had the young lady coming back for me, but he did say that he massages his ribs with a dry rub comprised of six different seasonings — two of which he gave up, all purpose seasoning and pepper —before they hit the grill. He also said he doesn't salt too heavily, and gives it a light coating of wet sauce when the cooking process is finished and he takes it off the grill. "You can get a bottle of BBQ sauce, and add stuff to it, to make it your own sauce, but those sauces are sugar-based and they burn, so I don't like to put any sauce on until the end. "And the secret to my ribs is going to remain my secret, because if I've got the power to put them people outta business . . ." And he prefers pork to beef ribs. "If you want beef, get a steak," he said. Not a classically-trained chef, Rae is just one of thousands of "backyard kings" who can really throw down. He's been grilling for as long as he can remember, and recalls being as young as nine, and traveling with his dad, Malcolm, uncles Winston and Robert, a cousin Paul Jones and family friend Greg Lampkin to Ship Channel Cay in the Exumas, during the Easter holiday weekend, and they would try to live off the land. "We carried a package of bacon and corned beef for just in case, but we did all our cooking on the rocks after collecting the firewood — that's how it started for me," he said. "Actually, they used to take me to be the deckhand basically, but then I'd hear 'Rich, we feelin' kind a hungry, why you don't go cook something for us now?' And that's how it started," he said. He now has his daughter helping him, which she seems to enjoy, as he showed a picture of her as a toddler, slathering BBQ sauce on chicken they'd had on a little hibachi. He says no one told her to do it, but that she just walked up to it and imitated what she'd seen her daddy do. From his boyhood days to now, Rae is one of the country's "backyard kings" and he experiments often. Just last weekend he used the trunk of an old sour lime tree he'd cut down last summer to flavor the meat he was smoking. To become king of your backyard, he says you have to be in the right frame of mind, and enjoy what you're doing. "That applies to everything in life," he said, "but if you're not in the right frame of mind, it's not going to come off like how you want it to. I don't just pick up and say I'm going to grill something. I think about what I'm going to do . . . let's say if I'm going to do pork, I think about what goes with pork, and what they serve with pork in the restaurants. Sometimes you see them using guavas or oranges —something that compliments the flavor of the meat, like lamb and rosemary, and then you just try different things, and when you hit something on, you write down that recipe." And he says he's done many things on a grill from a pork shoulder to roast pigs, conch and all kinds of fish. "Anything that needs to cook I'll put it on a grill, and I feel that if you bring anything to me, I can cook it on the grill — except I can't bake." Herein lies his weakness, although he has dreams of putting a Johnny cake on the grill and enjoying the nice smoky flavor he'd get as he ate it. Unlike baking grilling is not an exact science, but Rae prefers to use indirect heat when grilling so that his meats don't burn. The charcoal goes to one side of the grill, the meat of choice on the other side, and the lid closed to allow things to cook low and slow to its delicious end. He says the length of cooking time depends on a lot of things including the size of your grill, the surface area, and how long you're smoking them for, and he reminds that a slab will take longer to cook than individual pieces. For those people who have yet to claim their backyard as their domain, Rae says he lives by the mantra "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" but says you also have to have a love for it. He's also an avid Food Network fan, and watches the television station to get ideas and then tweaks the recipes to his liking. If you're motivated to go into your backyard and fire up the grill this weekend, Rae says to remember to marinate your meat overnight, and not just throw it onto the grill and expect it to taste good. He's actually thinking about getting some tamarind, seeding them, running the pulp through the blender, and slathering the tangy deliciousness on some grilled meat. "That sure would be like gorgeous on a piece of meat," he said with his mind already wandering to the weekend ahead. Richard Rae's GrilledJerk Chicken 1 whole chicken 1 whole grapefruit, juiced Jerk seasoning, to taste BBQ Sauce Ketchup, to taste Steak sauce, to taste Worcestershire sauce, to taste Brown sugar, to taste Grilled corn Grilled sweet potato Clean chicken well inside and out, and leave whole. Squeeze juice from one whole grapefruit, turn the skin inside out, and rub the membranes over the chicken to help clean the chicken and give it a nice flavor at the same time. Rinse again Season to taste, and rub jerk seasoning inside cavity and outside of chicken and marinate overnight. Mix ketchup, steak sauce, Worcestershire Sauce and brown sugar, and bring to a low boil on the stove. Set aside Heat coal in grill, and when the temperature is hot, place chicken on a can of liquid of your choosing, whether beer or coconut water, or whatever you prefer, and let cook for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Serve with roast corn and sweet potato, or vegetable of your choice. Wednesday,May 13,2009