BBQ Sweet Ribs Recipe

UK BBQ Week is finally here and we have some delicious recipes lined up for you. For today I have pulled out an incredible ribs recipe which is featured on the left of the above image. The image above was taken at a charity dinner that we catered for and the theme was ‘hoedown’.

A dinner such as this, is just one of the unique events that we make happen for our clients. Our catering services launched in January 2015 and has been expanding ever since with Weddings, Events and Corporate catering. Whether it be a brilliant Festival-Style BBQ, a relaxed Sharing-Board Supper or a 5 Course Feast, everything centres around 3 things: seasonal produce, quality ingredients and making your event personal, memorable and unique!

So for this special week we are giving you a sneak peak into some of our mouth-watering recipes that we cook for our events. UK BBQ Week was set up by a ‘group of real BBQ fans have set up UK BBQ Week in an effort to promote barbecue and encourage people young and old to pick up the tongs and cook up some amazing BBQ food for their families and friends’. Here at Ross & Ross Food we are totally on board with our customers getting more involved in the Kitchen, which is why everyone loves our Homemade Curing Kits. We want everyone to enjoy the last bit of summer this year and get out in the sun and start ‘BBQing’. We are giving you a helping hand today with our exquisite ‘BBQ Sweet Ribs’ recipe:

Serves: 4 – 6                                       Prep time: 10 Minutes                                   Cooking time: 4hrs

For this recipe we use both an oven and the BBQ (controversial we know!!!!). When catering for large weddings and events, often in very remote locations, we feel this is the best way to achieve consistency with temperatures of the cooking. At home you can play around with cooking purely on the smoker or BBQ. But if you haven’t got that kind of set up then this will work just great.

We use cider to add some bite and sweetness into the cooking and building up extra layers of flavour. Good quality apple juice works well too.

You will need:

• 4 x whole baby back pork ribs. Try and get free-range or outdoor reared pork. We have some amazing Gloucester Old Spots reared by us so tend to use those.
• 1 x jar Ross & Ross Sweet Ribs rub
• 1 x 500ml medium dry Cider. We use Hogan’s
• 1 x tbsp fennel seeds
• 1 x BBQ sauce (preferably homemade!!)
• Salt for seasoning. We use our BBQ Salt

Method:

1. Firstly, remove the tough membrane underneath on the ribs and discard. Then gently rub the pork ribs with the sweet spice rub all over. Cover, place in the fridge and leave for 4 hours or overnight.
2. Remove pork from the fridge at least 1 hour before cooking.
3. Preheat oven to 140°C.
4. Season the pork with salt all over, place into a roasting tin arch side down, cover tightly with foil and cook in the oven for 1 hour.
5. Add cider and fennel to the roasting tin and turn the pork over. Cover back with the foil and cook for 2 more hours. Turning the pork every hour or so. Add some water if the liquid starts to dry up.
6. Light the BBQ. We use Oxford Charcoal Hardwood blend. Using proper charcoal (#propercharcoalmovement) means you won’t be tainting your food with lighter fluid. And just use a chimney starter to get you going. 10 mins later you are on the way to great BBQ with a clean taste and amazing flavours from the wood.
7. When the BBQ is ready, take the pork out (reserving the juices) and place on indirect heat (away from the hot coals) for 1 hr. We usually add some Oak and Cherry wood for the smoking. Close the lid on the BBQ. Carefully turn every so often.
8. Brush BBQ sauce over the pork and cook for a further 15 mins on direct heat (right over the hot coals) to get some nice caramelisation happening, basting with more sauce and the cooking juices and carefully turning regularly.
9. Place back into the tin with any remaining cooking juices, cover tightly and leave for 30 mins in a warm place near the BBQ to rest and relax. As with all meats, this is really important.
10. When ready to serve, check for any additional seasoning.

Now you have everything you need to know about how to make this delicious recipe so what’s your excuse? Get cooking! Please do leave comments below on how you like to cook yours. Cooking techniques are really subjective so we are really interested to know how you do yours.

Another fun way to get involved with #UKBBQWeek is to take part in the competition we have running on our social media pages, @rossandrossfood. You could win one of our fantastic BBQ Hampers or Homemade Curing Kit…Bacon! All you have to do is like, share or retweet on one of our social pages.The competition will commence from Saturday 19th to Monday 28th August and we will announce the winner on our social media on Tuesday 29th August.