I know. When anyone mentions the word, "ribs" a southern barbecue comes to mind complete with its images of thick brownish sweet tangy sauce usually reminiscent of tomatoes, brown sugar, honey perhaps with pepper, paprika and chili. Each recipe is somewhat unique altering the proportions of sweetness to tanginess and even the saltiness. But whether the sauce is Texan or Georgian or Louisinianan I find that the taste stimulants are somewhat similar to one another. However, there is a basic way to prepare ribs so that it is absorbed in flavor and "sink-in-teeth-fall-off-the-bone" tender.
First things first – tenderizing does not mean pre-boiling the ribs. My mother used to do this and I believe most Filipinos would do it but that's simply from the at least my experience that pork I bought from the wet markets in the Philippines were somewhat tough. Preboiling the ribs under pressure for about twenty minutes usually does the trick but I noticed that doing this sacrifices on the flavor. The meat's own juices are washed away in the broth. This is where this trick comes in.
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| Pork ribs with Fujian Five Spice. |
Mainly, slow cooking with the use of aluminum foil under medium oven heat ensures that the heat gets a chance to tenderize the meat by slowly degrading the proteins. Secondly, with the aluminum foil cover and seal, none of the meat's natural liquids would dry leaving the ribs tender, moist and most of all flavorful.
Second, in connection to my comment regarding sauce, there are many ways one can explore the various flavors of ribs. It does not have to be barbecue sauce! In this installment, I am going to make ribs in the Hokkien (Fu-Jian) style which is mainly influenced by five spices much reminiscent of the Braised "Red Meat" (a.k.a. "Hong Ma")
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| A bottle of Five Spice Powder. |
Fu-Jian Style Five Spice Pork Ribs
- 1 rack of pork ribs (St. Louis style)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- ¼ cup five spice powder (Wu-Siang in Mandarin or Ngo-Hiyong in Hokkienese)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ cup light soy sauce (if less salt is preferred, you may want to omit the salt and just use pepper to taste)
- ¼ cup white sugar
- Aluminum foil.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Wash and pat dry the ribs using paper towels. Or let it drip dry for about fifteen minutes.
- Make a rub mixture consisting of the white sugar, five spices, salt and pepper. (Omit salt if less salt is preferred since soy sauce by itself is salty.)
- Using a piece of aluminum foil large enough to make a "pocket", lay the meat in the middle and wrap around it making sure all edges are sealed. Lay this on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about two hours.
- Mix together light soy sauce and white sugar in a cup.
- At the end of two hours, open the foil and spread the soy sauce and sugar mixture evenly. Once again cover the meat with aluminum foil but doing a light seal. This would encourage drying the meat and caramelization of the soy sauce/sugar mixture. Be careful not to burn the meat in this process. This probably takes just ten to fifteen minutes.
- Cool a bit, rest and serve.
And yes! The smile of contentment could be in you!
Now, for the people that want a traditional barbecue ribs recipe, this is how I do it:
- Salt and pepper the ribs to your liking.
- Dust the ribs with loads of paprika.
- Bake the ribs in the same way as above for about two hours.
- Open the foil after two hours and pour a whole bottle of barbecue sauce. (You may also make your own usually by sauteing garlic, onions, some chillies, sugar, tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes or ketchup or combination of these. Some even add honey. Simmer all these until desired thickness. Salt to taste.) Caramelize as before. Let cool, rest and serve.
I think I did discuss this in a former blog entry on "How to Make Barbecue Pork Ribs".
