Tonight I'm having: Ribs

[Scottland]

Been to the butcher earlier and picked up a rack of spare ribs, so that's for tea tonight.

Sometimes I boil the ribs up first to help release the meat from the bone, especially if they're individual ribs from a supermarket. But these looked nice with a good amount of fat, so I got them started in a low oven with a dry rub to start.

Been in there for 90mins at 100°C, and now I've just made the sauce and put them back in. A little higher now at 150°C.

They'll be in for another 2 hours or so, 4 hours should be enough to get some nice tender meat that falls off the bone. Whilst the sauce looks runny there, it should reduce down nicely to give a sticky glaze.

Will post the finished pics, ingredients and what I did a little later.

 

[Scottland]

Dry Rub:

1tsp Sea salt
1tsp Ground black pepper
1tsp Sugar
½tsp Chili flakes
1tsp Cumin
½tsp Garlic powder
½tsp Mixed herbs

Mix together in a pestle and mortar until you have a nice even powder, rub into the rack of ribs/meat all over and really try to work it in.

Now coat the ribs in a drizzle of Olive oil and massage this in to help mix together all the flavours.

Put the ribs into a pot or baking tray and cover with foil/lid, and put into a lowish oven at 100°C.

After about 90mins start making your sauce

Sauce mix:

1 pint of beef stock
3tbsp Ketchup
1tbsp Tomato puree
½ tbsp Soy sauce
3tbsp Maple syrup, or honey
2tbsp Cider vinegar
1tbsp Lemon juice
1tbsp dried Chipotle chili flakes (or half a tbsp of normal if you haven't got Chipotle)
1tsp Cumin, ground
1 bay leaf
A sprig of thyme and a garlic clove

First off reduce down the stock, ketchup and puree a little in a pan. Then add each of the other ingredients 1 at a time, stirring in between. Don't forget to taste after each addition to get an idea of how it's tasting. Everyone's taste differs so you may prefer to alter the mix somewhat.

Once the mix has simmered for a few minutes and has reduced slightly, you can pour over the ribs. By this stage, it should still be quite runny.

*Before you do this, remove all the fat/juice from the ribs* Although you can if you want add a tablespoon to the sauce. It's quite strong, and will be full of fat as a lot of it will have rendered out of the meat.

Baste the ribs with a spoon/brush and ensure they have a nice coating.

Recover them and put back in the oven at 150ºC for a further 2 hours. Be sure to check them every 45mins or so, and baste them to make sure they don't go dry.

After the 2 hours, the sauce should have reduced to something thicker and sticky. Baste them one last time, and now put back into the oven uncovered and put the temperature right up. After 10 mins or so, the sauce should now be a sticky glaze you can baste them in before you serve.

 

[Scottland]

Can't remember exactly, but about £4

 

[Scottland]

The end result:

And the leftovers