Hey there faithful fans of the BGAE blog… It’s been a while no doubt but fear not…I’ve got a new recipe for you that will surely please the pallet! Last Saturday’s experiment tested the way we normally do ribs on the Egg and I must say, I was really pleased with the result. What did we try? Tuscan style back ribs from our favourite pork supplier….The Pig Lady!
A couple of differences this time included further trimming down the monster sized ribs PL gives us. Take the time to trim down your ribs to ensure an even cook and uniform ribs once cut. We made stir fry the night before with all the trimmings so nothing went to waste.
The second change was to try our regular rib rub on a mustard slathered rack. So in the end we actually went for two distinctly different racks of ribs: Romans Classic Ribs and Tuscan style.
For the Tuscan style ribs this is what you’ll need:
1 slab of your favorite ribs
1 head of garlic (already roasted with quality olive oil and Kosher salt.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp minced lemon zest
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp honey
1/3 cup pitted kamalata olives, minced
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tbsp anchovy paste
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Combine all of the above and place your slab of ribs into a large zip top bag. Pour in your marinade and plonk it into the fridge for up to 8 hours. Make sure you squish the bag once in a while to ensure an even coating.
In the meantime, get the grill ready by setting it up for indirect heat, no wood chips, and stabilised at 225 degrees F.That’s really low in case you were wondering. The result will not disappoint…have faith in your grill and be prepared to invest at least 3 hours of your day to produce the best end result!
So, grill is now stable, no smoke, ribs at room temperature, it’s time! I put in a roasting tin with some beef broth under my rib rack. Not sure how much this step adds in terms of flavour or moisture but it didn’t hurt at all. I then set my timer to ping every 30 minutes and at every half hour mark thereafter I basted the Tuscan ribs with the remaining marinade. I did this 5 times and stopped with the last 30 minutes without a final basting. This ensures that you’re not cross contaminating your pork with nasty little germs.
At three hours in, I did the “bend test” on both racks. Basically you pick up one side of a given rack and let gravity pull on the opposite side. When you start to see a crack or if the slab breaks at the bend point…you’re all sorted. Wrap them up in some foil and let them rest for a good 15 minutes.
Once rested, cut each rib down the mid point and arrange them on a serving plate. For the classic ribs, serve up some homemade BBQ sauce on the side…for the Tuscan ribs, naked is the only way to fully appreciate the complexity of flavours.
In all a total success! Thanks to the Clements clan for agreeing to be our test case (and for peeing on the couch) and a special thanks to Heather for inspiring me to try something completely new!
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Overall Heather Rating: 9/10
Tuscan vs Tusken…you decide!
Comments