The Viking Cooks: Sweet and Hot Sticky Ribs

Hands up if you don’t like eating with your fingers.

Why not?  It’s quite an experience.  I don’t mean just grabbing hold of a cheese sandwich here, either.  That doesn’t count (although I wouldn’t wish to say bad things about a cheese sandwich – sometimes, nothing else will do) – think instead of all the great things that you can (and should) eat with your hands.  Big, juicy burgers.  Hot dogs.  Sizzling chicken fajitas.  Pizza.  Imagine: you clutch a chicken drumstick as big as your head in your fist, and then ripping great chunks of flesh from it with your teeth before dispatching the bone over your shoulder to be fought over by the dogs.  Tell me that doesn’t make you happy.

Alright, so maybe eating with your fingers needn’t be such a medieval affair after all – but it can be a lot of fun and there’s one food that is suited particularly well to the art of finger eating, and that’s the humble rib.

I remember that, as a child, I was the pickiest eater.  I must have been a constant nightmare for my parents.  Peas?  No.  Batter Pudding?  No (although I would eat a Yorkshire Pudding, so my Mother won that little battle, I suppose).  Fish?  Nuh-uh.  Eating out was an entirely new horror and often led to panic attacks – but there was one place that I truly loved to go to eat.  A place where I loved all the food, and the atmosphere, and the cool way the bar people used to make you highly coloured (and highly sugared, no doubt) cocktails for kids.  The restaurant was (and still is) called Back Inn Time, an American themed diner in Chelmsford Essex – if you ever find yourself there I highly recommend you drop in and check them out.  You’ll not be disappointed.

So there I would be sat, colourful cocktail alongside me, waiting for the feast.  Others would have burgers (loaded with all the accompaniments under the sun), or great big juicy steaks with piles of perfectly fried French Fries (oh, I didn’t like French Fries either, but if you told me they were ‘Thin Chips’ then I was fine with that) – but me?   I went for the ribs each and every time.  I’ve been visiting this restaurant for 20 years and I still always order ribs.  It’s the best – you get a rack of wonderfully sticky ribs, a pile of napkins and, best of all, a dog bowl to out your bones in.  As a child, I would feel like Fred Flintstone as these frankly gigantic (to my small eyes) racks were laid in front of me, and off I would go.  And that’s how my love affair with ribs started, and has endured to this day.  I think most rib lovers would tend to find their own rib shack that they like the best (in London – as I can’t always get to Essex – there’s a fabulous rib house called Bodeans in Soho), a place with the right stickiness to the sauce, the right smokiness to the meat, the right atmosphere to eat in.  But what I never realised until recently is you can achieve something similar at home for very little cost – it’s so very easy, and today I’m going to share with you my recipe for a sweet, hot and sticky rib sauce that you can make in near enough 5 minutes.

Now, before I get started I must say that sometimes it’s perfectly acceptable to not want to mess around – especially if you want ribs after work.  If you’re after quick, easy and tasty ribs, then I’d recommend using the Paul Newman range of sauces.  The best thing about them is that you’re doing something good for charity.  However, if you make your own sauce it’s something to be really proud of, and this is how you do it.

As usual, you’re going to need STUFF.  So, in order for you to get your stuff, here’s a shopping list (this lot feeds two):

Meat:

- One rack of baby back ribs.  You can use spare ribs if you like (and why not) – but I find the babyback is easier to eat.  If you go to Waitrose, these can be anything from £2.50 to £4, depending on weight.  Your local butcher may be cheaper.

For the sauce:

- 2 red onions, chopped

- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped

- 2 nice hot chillies, deseeded and chopped

- 200ml of ketchup

- A spoon of honey

- A tablespoon of dark soy sauce

- A tablespoon of dark drown sugar

- A pinch of fennel seeds, crushed

So.  Got your stuff?  Well done.  Grab a saucepan, stick it on the heat, and then (with a little oil) fry off the garlic, onions and chillies.  When they’ve started to cook down a bit, add in the sugar and briskly stir everything together.  You’re looking for the sugar to start caramelising, giving the rest of the ingredients a brownish colour. 

Then, add the ketchup, soy sauce and honey, and bring to the boil.  Simmer for 5 minutes to thicken the sauce down and bang, you’re done!  How easy is that?  If you’re feeling cheeky, add a good slug of Jack Daniels – I was, so I did.

The best things come to those who wait, eh?

"One shot for the ribs, and one for me..."

The level of heat/sweetness you put in is up to you – I have used two spoons of sugar before and my teeth nearly fell out.  For me, I really like the heat to come piling through the sweetness in the aftertaste, so maybe if you like a bit of heat don’t deseed the chilli.  I know that the ketchup is a bit of a cheat, but it really works and using that and the honey is going to give you a really sticky rib.

Now that the sauce is done, get your rack of ribs.  Using a shap knife, score along the top of the ribs in diagonal lines in opposing directions – this will help the marinade get right in to the meat transferring all that lovely flavour.

Spoon your rib sauce out on to the ribs and use a brush to spread it all over the meat, ensuring you get in to all the nooks and crannies.  If you’ve used a rib sauce before, it might look a bit weird but that’s only because you can see the lumps and bumps from the onion you made the sauce with.  You could strain the sauce if you like, but I like the extra bite those onions give.  If you have the time, let the ribs sit in the marinade for about 6 hours.  If not, you can get going straight away, you’re still going to get a good result.

Top tip time!  Wrap your baking tray in foil.  Your ribs and sauce will leak and it’s impossible to get off once it’s dried on.  Also, this creates less washing up and that’s always good for me!

Anyway.  Get your ribs in a hot oven, gas mark 7 (220 C) should do the trick.  Set a timer for half an hour.  Once that’s done, don’t even look at the ribs, just turn the oven down to gas 4 (180 C) for another hour and a half.  Even better, if you’re not pushed for time you could go down to gas 2 (150 C) for about 3 hours.  You can turn the ribs half way through cooking if you like, but it’s not essential.  Just make sure to have some extra sauce on the side so you can keep basting your ribs during the cooking process.

Afterwards, pierce between the ribs with a sharp knife.  If the juices run clear then you’re all cooked.  An even better way to tell is pulling the meat from the bone.  If the meat pulls cleanly away (and it should, you’ve cooked it good and slowly), you’re set to get eating!

It might look messy, but it really is a thing of beauty...

Please ignore the next picture.  Good ribs should, I think, be served with a pile of coleslaw and a crisp jacket potato.  I lost control of myself though and cooked some potato slices.  I’m sorry to let you down so.  It’s only just now I realise how much colour I could have added.

Eating with your fingers is fun, sociable and just a little decadent.  I highly recommend you have a go at this one – just make sure you have a small bowl of soapy water nearby to wash your fingers with.  The ideal drink to go with this would be an ice cold lager and I guarantee you and your guests will end the meal happy.

Next week, picture quality will return to normal now that I have actually managed to find the charger cable for my camera, and I think we'll be looking at a Great British Classic, the Toad in the Hole.  Until then, folks, and let's eat!