Plum glazed pork ribs

 

About a week ago I was given a bit more than 1.5Kg of very ripe plums (thanks Sam!), so that they wouldn’t be just thrown away. After changing my mind about 5-10 times I decided to make a Chinese plum sauce. The reason I made the plum sauce is that I could put it in a (sterilised) jar and keep it for a month or two. The obvious use for it would be to use it as a dip for duck, but as usual I like to think out of the box and try new things.  The sauce is basically made of the fruit, vinegar, sugar and aromatics, which sounds like an awful lot like a barbecue sauce, so I decided to use it as a glaze for pork ribs.

The recipe procedure is very similar to my spicy ribs, but with some Asian flavours instead. I won’t start mumbling about science stuff, as I usually do. Let’s just go straight to the recipe.

Plum Glazed Rack of Ribs

Ingredients

• 1 rack of pork ribs
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 chilli (I used Serrano)
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 tbsp vinegar (I used sherry)
• 3 tbsp Chinese plum sauce
• 1/2 tsp Chinese fivespice
• Coriander (aka cilantro) for garnish
• Salt, pepper

Execution

1. Start with the rub. Put in a blender or pestle and mortar the oil, chilli, ginger, fivespice and garlic. Blend/mash well. If you don’t have a blender or pestle and mortar just finely chop everything.
2. Rub the ribs with the mixture, wrap with aluminum foil, leaving one end open. Pour in the vinegar and seal. Make sure that the ribs are not wrapped to tightly, so that you can allow the steam to build up.
3. Put in a 160C preheated oven for 1h30m.
4. Optionally, leave them in the oven until cool enough to handle. This makes them super tender; you will literally need to be careful handling them afterwards or they’ll fall apart.
5. Take them out of the oven and unwrap. (make sure you keep the juices… they’re too delicious to waste – see tips for idea on how to use them)
6. Turn your oven grill to its highest setting and let it get really hot.
7. Meanwhile spoon over the ribs the plum sauce and put under the grill, as close as possible) until it starts getting caramelised. Be careful not to burn them… this only takes about 3-5 minutes so keep an eye on them.
8. Garnish with fresh coriander/cilantro leaves and enjoy!

Tips:

• You can use the meat juices to dress a side salad, noodles or sautee potatoes, which you’ve previously boiled. As you can see from the picture I used it to dress some rice noodles.
• If you own a blow torch use it to caramelise the ribs instead of the oven grill. It will do a better job and it’s easier to control; I need to get myself one of these.

Baby back ribs with a spicy rub

I was planning to post this recipe next week, but it was so good that I decided to just post it now.

This is probably one of the most devilish preparations of baby back ribs. Initially I was planning to do a dry rub, braise it in orange juice and then use the cooking liquid to turn it into a barbecue sauce. However, as soon as I got them out of the oven, had a tiny nibble and I had a foodgasm. They had so much flavour that the glaze would just be too much.

It would be a crime if I made this post any longer, so here’s the recipe!

Spicy baby back ribs with an orange braise

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 rack of baby back ribs
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp vinegar (apple cider works best; other types are also great)

Execution:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C.
2. To prepare the rub, mix all the spices and salt in a bowl
3. Put the rack of ribs over a sheet of tin foil. Drizzle over the olive oil and rub.
4. Sprinkle the spice rub over the ribs and pat so that it sticks on the meat (about 3/4 of the spice mix goes on the top side and 1/4 on the back side). It might look like too much spice, but trust me; it’s fine!
5. Make a parcel with the tin foil leaving one side open (kind of like a funnel). Pour in the opening the rest of the ingredients (honey, juice and vinegar) and seal.
6. Bake for 1h30mins.
7. The easiest way to get the ribs out of the parcel without them falling apart is to make a cut on one side of the foil and drain the liquid. (Keep the cooking liquid!!!)

You have no idea how tender these ribs were. You really have to try them out!

Tips:

• DO NOT THROW THE COOKING LIQUID AWAY! There are so many things you can do with it! I used it as part of the liquid for couscous. If you don’t want to use it straight away, just put it in ice cube trays and freeze. When solid put the cubes in a bag and store in your freezer until the next apocalypse.
• The cooking liquid is great as a sauce for a stir fry.
• If you have enough left you can reduce it in a sauce pan until it becomes thick enough to become a glaze. This is so much better than store bought barbecue sauces. (why not use it as a glaze for spicy orange chicken wings?)

Peanut butter pork

I was feeling a bit creative, so I decided to do a stir fry with pork, a few vegetables and peanut butter. I’ve never done this before, but what could go wrong? 😛 Oddly enough, it turned out quite tasty, so here’s the recipe for my 10 minute wonder! 😀

Peanut butter pork

Ingredients

• 250g pork loin, sliced to 0.5cm strips
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 handful shredded cabbage
• 1tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 carrot cut at an angle
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/4 tsp chinese fivespice

Execution

1. In a hot frying pan or wok add the onions and stir fry for 2 minutes or until soft.
2. Add the pork and carrots and stir fry for another 3 minutes.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and a splash of water. Let it reduce for 2-3 minutes, or until the liquid turns to a glaze.