pork ribs

So I went to Albertson's about 2 weeks ago and didn't know what the hell to buy for dinner. Then I saw spareribs for a pretty good price. I don't recall the last time I cooked spareribs - the Food Pimp usually ends up cooking them. Why is it such a manly thing to cook up ribs and stuff, but womanly to cook up roasts? And why is it manly to grill hotdogs and sausages? Manly in a gay way. Come to think of it, I can picture many of my straight male friends eating hotdogs with gusto, but I can't think of any gay guys I know eating hotdogs so crudely.

Sorry, I'm really tired. That is TBE in another blog. I don't know if that is an official acronym - but I mean to be explained. Why did I not just write to be explained? Well that is TBE in another blog about why I'm tired.

Anyway, spareribs.

So I got home and fired up the oven. It was pretty late, but I was going to try to get them cooked sometime in the next few hours.

Here's how I did them:

Vinegary New Mexico Chili Pork Spareribs

vinegar rub for the ribs:
1 T Tony Chachere's seasoning
1/2 T new mexico chili powder
1/2 T arbol chili powder
2 oz vinegar
1 t cardamom

for the sauce:
1/2 an onion chopped
6 cloves garlic
1 c apple cider vinegar
1 oz hot sauce
1 T Tony Chachere's
6 dashes Angostura bitters
3 oz brown sugar
1 oz coconut molasses - or regular molasses if that's what you have
1 T new mexico chili powder
3 oz nuoc mam

4 c cooked rice
2 heads broccoli, florets and stems
1 ear corn off the cobb
3 handfuls pea sprouts rinsed


So it was kind of late. I got home and turned on the oven. I put the ribs in foil and rubbed all the rub ingredients on them then wrapped them up and threw them in the oven, even though it wasn't hot yet. Then I took all the sauce ingredients and pureed it in a blender. Then I put it on the stove, brought it up to a boil, stirred with a wooden spoon, then dropped the temperature until it was at a simmer. I like wooden spoons because you can leave them in the pot and when you touch it later, you don't burn your hand. I know, I'm a cook, can't I take the heat? No, not really. I still burn my fingertips and it hurts.

So as I was prepping my veggies, I checked the oven. It wasn't really getting hot. This oven is very finicky. Sometimes it heats right up. Sometimes it takes an hour. I didn't have an hour to waste. So I took the ribs out of the oven and cut them up into individual ribs and I threw them (figuratively) into the sauce pot. I know it's not the same, but I just needed to cook them as fast as possible. It took about 2 and a half hours to cook them. They could have gone for 20 minutes more, but they were edible that night. The sauce was tangy goodness. For the veggies, I prettty much just put them in a pan with a little water and covered them and steamed them. They didn't really need any flavorings or fat because the ribs and sauce were so rich. I have to say that the next day, the ribs were so damn delicious after they really soaked the sauce up overnight!

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