The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Spare ribs with rice

Before Danny met me he lived in America for three months. Often he refers to the spectacular spare ribs that he ate there.
“One guy spent three days cooking just one pot of ribs. They were superb.”

Unfortunately Danny didn’t get the recipe.

When D’s brother came to visit he made some stunning ribs. His secret ingredient was black bean sauce. Unfortunately we didn’t note down the recipe.

I had a longing for slow cooked spare ribs this week and I had two packs in the freezer that I’d picked up from the Waitrose *CFC which would be a glorious pig out for two but could easily feed four with a starter. The slow cooker (crock pot) is the perfect place to cook spare ribs as long slow cooking certainly enhances the flavours. I was determined to create a recipe that would get the thumbs up from Danny.

This means that there was a lot of snaking upstairs to The Rat Room with tasting teaspoons. The Cottage Smallholder version if an egg and spoon race – with me being the sole runner.

So this recipe was crafted and tweaked by us both and guzzled beside the pond with chilled beers to hand. Full of deep flavours and very moresish. I served it with Basmati rice and a crisp baby raw turnip and pepper salad.

Spare ribs recipe slow cooked in a rich sauce

Ingredients:
900g of pork spare ribs
800g of bottled or tinned tomatoes (I used half home bottled and tinned of tomatoes)
65g of brown sugar
1 tbsp of dried coriander powder
I tsp of garlic granules (or one fat clove chopped fine)
3 heaped tbsp of black bean sauce
2 heaped tsp of molasses (black treacle)
1 tsp of vegetable stock powder
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
Half a tsp of smoked paprika
Quarter tsp of cayenne pepper
Half a tsp of salt
2 tbsp of red wine vinegar
2 tbsp of red wine

At the end
2 tsp of corn flour

Method:

Put all the ingredients (apart from the corn flour) in the slow cooker. Set the switch to auto and cook for 5-6 hours (lid on). Alternatively set the switch to high until the sauce is bubbling (this took about an hour) and then switch to low for a further 4 hours or so.

When the ribs are tender, remove them to a dish in a warm place to rest. Pour the sauce into a bowl and skim off the fat – I used our fat and lean gravy boat. Mix the corn flour with a little of the sauce to make a paste and stir this into the sauce. Simmer the sauce gently, stirring every now and then until it thickens. Pour over the ribs and prepare for rapturous applause.
* Condemned food counter