We read an interesting recipe for “chilli marinated pork spare ribs with salted lemon” in Donna Hay magazine issue 35. Let’s just say that squeezing lemon on barbecued pork ribs is a totally excellent idea! But, we had planned to make baby back ribs on the grill so we altered the recipe a little. Here is what we made to serve 4 people.
Soak a dried ancho chili in hot water for 20 minutes. Drain the water off, remove the stem and seeds from the chili and set the chili aside.
In a blender or processor, grind
4 cloves garlic
the soaked ancho chili
a dried cayenne pepper (optional – use it if you like hot spicy food)
4 Tablespoons gluten free Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon kosher or coarsely ground salt
Spread the mixture on the meaty side of two racks of baby back pork ribs.
Using indirect heat on a barbecue grill, grill the ribs bone side down for 30 minutes, turn them over so the meaty side is down, grill for another 30 minutes, until tender and the meat is very easy to remove from the bone. If they need further cooking, keep then cooking until they are done! Turn them meat side up again and slather a mixture of 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup honey on the meat. Let cook briefly (close the cover). Remove the ribs and serve with quartered fresh lemons and sea salt. Squeezing the fresh lemon juice on these ribs is a great, great culinary idea!
Indirect heat cooking – this is when you put the fire under one side of the grill, and put the meat on the other side, so there is no fire directly under the meat. You close the cover of the grill while the meat is cooking.
In the original recipe, the chili, garlic, Worcestershire, sugar, honey and salt were mixed together, then half of the mixture was brushed on the ribs. The ribs were put on a wire rack over a baking pan lined with non-stick baking paper, and marinated in the refrigerator for an hour. Then they were baked in the oven at 355 degrees for 30 minutes, the temperature was raised to 390 and the remaining half of the marinade was brushed on, then they baked for another half hour until sauce was sticky and the ribs were tender. They were served with the lemon wedges and salt. Again, the lemon is the key!