Cooking With No One: Spicy Pork Ribs

Ingredients

'American-style' pork ribs

Dry Spice Rub

Large container of sweet paprika (this is the base)

2 pkts mustard powder (all packets are the ones that hang near the jars in the spice aisle)

2 pkts five spice powder

2 pkts black pepper

3 pkts chili powder

3 pkts chili flakes

1 pkt cinnamon

1 jar onion salt

Mix all spices together thoroughly. This will clear your sinuses. This actually makes way more than you need for the ribs, but when stored in an airtight jar it lasts for ages. We also use it to marinate other meats and add it to taco mix, and anything else we want spicy.

Glaze

500ml honey

500ml smokey bbq sauce

1 cup apple cidar vinegar

1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix together until completely combined. Again, this makes way more than you need for the ribs, but lasts for ages in the fridge. It can also be used on other meats, as a stir-fry sauce, and the other day my brother told me he was using it as a dipping sauce.

Method

Cut ribs into good sized pieces and place in baking tray.

Spoon on some spice rub, to rub into the ribs. I use more than is shown in the picture, but I wanted to make sure it all photographed well.

Put on gloves!!! This is very important. I didn't do that the first time I made these, and as I was rubbing in the spice mix, my hands started to burn. After repeated frantic handwashings, and holding a bag of frozen vegetables between my hands, the worst of the burning feeling went away, but my hands stung for two days afterwards. So, gloves.

Rub spice mix into ribs, both sides, until they are well covered.

Cover with foil, and put in fridge overnight, so the spice rub has several hours to tenderise the meat.

---------do whatever it is you do during the evening, sleep, do whatever it is you do during the morning and early afternoon----------

Put ribs in oven and bake (still foil covered), at 180 C. Length of time varies depending on thickness of ribs and how moody your oven may be. Anywere between 75 - 90 minutes usually does it.

If you're making a whole bunch of ribs, they can be cooked early, take them out of the oven, put the next batch in, and when the just removed batch has cooled a little bit, put them back in the fridge until the glazing stage.

Glazing! This can be done on a barbeque. I don't like cooking outside because of the cats, and the flies, and the sunlight and fresh air, so I do this under the griller.

Place ribs on foil-lined grill plate, and brush with glaze.

Put under heat (on high), for a few minutes, re-glaze put back under heat until slightly darkened, but not burned. Glaze may be bubbling a little bit. That's fine.

Turn over and do the other side.

These ribs are messy, sticky and so spicy hot that they burn the inside of your mouth and leave your lips tingly-numb. They are awesome.

Tender meat sliced from bone and put on breadroll:

Normally I serve the ribs with potato salad (dressing: mayonnaise, sour cream & lemon juice). This time they were served with a side of cheesy rice.