Here's what you're going to need:
Some ribs (good start!)
Soy sauce
Black pepper
Sugar
Your favourite BBQ marinade (to serve 6 hungry lads, I got through 3 packs of ribs and two bottles of sauce, so keep that in mind. It's always worth buying more than you need, rather than buying too little).
You can choose any marinade you like, I'm going for barbecue.
But if you want to go for another style of rib, by all means try it out. For example, for salt and pepper ribs, try making a rub from a small amount of oil, soy sauce, pepper, chilli, garlic and Chinese spices.
This stuff is absolutely amazing, it's sweet, sticky, tangy and delicious.
I mean seriously phenomenal, but that's just my personal preference.
You can use whatever you like! :)
We need to cook these ribs, so take a large stock pot, and pile in. I'm cooking for six, so mine was pretty packed.
We need to flavour these ribs. They don't need anything too fancy, just a few things to give them some depth.
Get a pretty sketchy one handed photo of yourself pouring in some soy sauce (I'd say about a tablespoon).
Season them with some pepper, and chuck a teaspoonful of sugar, too. All this will do is take away some of the saltiness from the soy sauce.
Fill the stock pot up with cold water, enough to cover the ribs. Bring this to the boil, and then let it simmer. This isn't a quick process, but trust me... It's totally worth it!
Bring this to the boil, and ignore the gross looking meat-foam on the top. I don't know why it's doing that, but trust me, it's supposed to.
When it looks like this, and it's bubbling away, reduce the heat down and let it simmer.
This needs to simmer for a while...
I played Call of Duty. Not a bad way to pass the time really. We played Black Ops: Zombies. Nothing like killing dead s**t with your housemates for a while. We did pretty well. I love being a student.
Here's your end result. The pot will have reduced down, and you'll be left with a lot of pork stock, and tender, juicy ribs that have been cooked right through.
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| Yay! |
Lets get some sauce on these guys. Pour the stock away (or keep some, if you want to put it in a soup with some roasted veg) and transfer the ribs to an oven-proof dish. Make sure you save some of the sauce, you'll need it for a second coat.
I'd get your hands in there, it's the easiest way!
There are no words...
Let the sauce work its magic. Cover the dish with cling film, and let that flavour lock itself in. Keep them in the fridge for as long as you can. The longer you keep them in (i.e. overnight), the deeper the flavour will go into the meat.
The bottle said 15 minutes. Lol.
I went for 4 hours, because I had 5 hungry housemates and I decided against forward planning.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Take them out of the fridge when you want to cook them, and stick them in the oven for 35 minutes.
Take them out, and lay on some more sauce. Give the ribs a good mix around with a wooden spoon and get them coated in the remaining sauce. Stick them back in the oven for 10 minutes. They won't need much longer.
Technically the ribs are already cooked, all we're doing now is essentially cooking the sauce that's soaked into the meat, warming them through and making them even more tender.
That final basting will make all the difference to the end result.
Boom.
There are still no words.
Serve 'em up with some wedges, or whatever you want to have them with. I was lazy and went for some wedges that I didn't make myself. It's a Monday, I was at Uni all day, and I really couldn't be bothered. The ribs were the key part for this meal, so that's what I've focused on.
And there you have it. Matt's Show Stopping Ribs. They're juicy, succulent, tender, smothered in my favourite sauce, and just all round amazing.
Ultimate manly comfort food that made myself and my housemates very happy lads.
