Ajosshi and His Sticky Ribs

I have a passion for ribs at the moment, I only started cooking them earlier this year, but they have become a regular feature at the dinner table. They're boiled and baked with a recipe of my own concoction, sort of a cross between chinese and western ribs, trying to mix complimentary flavours from both worlds.

Here's the recipe, why not give them a try...

You will need:

A rack or two of pork ribs
A peeled onion
A peeled carrot
Eight cloves of garlic
A thumb of peeled ginger
A star anise
A teaspoon of schezuan pepper (whole, not ground)
Ten whole black peppercorns
A teaspoon of five spice powder
A pinch of chili powder
A good glug of honey
A good glug of soy sauce
A glug of your alcohol of choice (whiskey and rum work well)

Add all of these things to a large pot of boiling water and leave on a gentle simmer for an hour or so. If your ribs are especially meaty then give them an extra ten minutes for luck. Every once in a while skim the surface for oil and make sure the ribs remain covered with water

When your time is up gently remove the ribs from the pot and place them in a foil lined baking tray meaty side up. Add a little of the rib water to the bottom of the tray and baste the ribs with the following marinade:

A glug of oil, a dash of soy sauce, a pinch of black pepper, a squeeze of honey and a shot of your alcohol of choice.

Once your marinade is mixed together lovingly brush the ribs with some of this concoction and place them in a hot oven (225 centigrade) for about half an hour. Take the ribs out once or twice and baste them with the rest of the marinade, adding a little stock water to the bottom of the tray if things are getting to dry or burnt. Bake your ribs as crispy as you like, but do be careful unless you fancy cooking Cajun style...



Finally take the ribs out of the oven and let the rest for ten to fifteen minutes so that they can relax. Then hack at them with a pair of scissors until separate and eat with your fingers...

I love to use dark rum with these ribs, but a half decent whiskey will also do the trick. Just follow the golden rule: If it's not good enough to drink, then don't cook with it.

The ribs will happily sit with a salad, steamed veg, a simple pasta, rice and kimchi... in fact they'll go with pretty much anything you like.

Be sure to gnaw the bones clean...