Weekly Dish

(the last of the Oscar-night series, I promise)

For the main course of our Oscar-night dinner, David and I chose ribs, purely for the appropriateness of the name. I’d never cooked babyback ribs before, and to be honest, I’m usually not a huge barbecue fan. Sure, I like to eat it every now and then (and of course whenever I’m in Memphis), but it just isn’t something I crave.

So I wanted more than just a plain barbecue sauce for these. Traditionally, ribs are either dry or wet, meaning the flavor comes from a dry spice rub or from a sauce. I decided to combine these methods, cooking the ribs at a high temperature for a brief period of time after they’d been coated with the spices, and then covering with sauce to cook at the lower temperature. Most rib preparations take hours and hours; the cooking time for these was reduced to about an hour and a half.

The sauce is by far the best part about this recipe–I love the smoky flavor of the chipotle combined with the marmalade, garlic, and molasses; the spice rub added an extra layer of depth that was nice too. The salad is a simple early spring-time one I make a lot with strawberries and goat cheese; the ingredients follow the rib recipe.

Brokeback Ribs

2 1/2 pound slab of babyback ribs

Spice rub:
1 t. Kosher salt
1 t. brown sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. allspice
1/4 t. cayenne pepper

Sauce:
2 T. butter
4 cloves garlic
Zest and juice of one orange
2 T. cider vinegar
2 T. cane syrup or molasses
1/4 c. oyster sauce (hoisin sauce would work too)
1/4 c. chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1/2 c. orange marmalade

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cut the ribs into sections of 4, cutting close to the bone to separate. Mix the spice rub ingredients together. Rub the mixture evenly over the ribs on both sides. Arrange the ribs on a broiler pan or rimmed baking sheet, and slide into the oven. Bake for 8 minutes; turn them, and bake for 10 minutes more. Reduce the oven tempreature to 300 degrees.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium. Add the garlic and orange zest; cook until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high, and add the vinegar and the orange juice. Let it reduce for a few minutes, until some of the liquid has evaporated. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the remaining ingredients, and let them cook until the mixture is thick and syrupy.

Pour the sauce evenly over the ribs and cover tightly with foil. Cook at 300 for about an hour (ours were done at this point, but you’ll need to check; you want to make sure that the meat is falling off the bone and that no pink remains). Because our sweet potatoes needed to cook at a high temperature for another few minutes, I uncovered the ribs and slid them into the oven too at 450 degrees. This step is probably not necessary, but it helps to seal the glaze, making the sauce into a dense, sticky coating, which we liked. Let the ribs rest for a few minutes after they’ve finished cooking.

I spent those minutes throwing together our Constant Garden Salad, which consisted of greens, strawberries, green onions, and goat cheese drizzled with basalmic vinegar, olive oil, honey, and salt.

Thanks to everyone who has patiently endured my Oscar dorkiness; it has been fun, but now it’s time to retire the tiara until next year. Until then, Good Night and Good Luck. (how could I resist?!)

Posted: Saturday, March 11th, 2006 at 10:05 am Filed under: Main Dish, Party Food, Salad, Meat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.