Baked Pork Ribs, Potatoes and Scallions in Butter and Herbs

- For Ashley

Baked Pork Ribs

3 lbs. pork loin back ribs

Rub

*Barbecue Sauce (see recipe below)

Rub

¾ c. light brown sugar

1 tbs. paprika

1 tbs. garlic salt

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

2. Peel off membrane on under side of ribs by scoring the tapering end with a knife, forming a pocket, and then slowly peeling the skin back and off the bones.

I don’t get terribly queasy, but peeling this stuff off is kind of gross. It’s like peeling back the skin of an eyeball. Or a…PLACENTA. Actually, I don’t really know what it’s like to do those things. But it reminds me of stories my Abuelita sometimes tells me – you know, the murdering of various beasts and pets to make food. And THAT reminds of a story from my eldest aunt’s childhood. She used to have a little goat because she would not drink cow’s milk. It would follow her around like a dog. One day it fell off a cliff. Why it fell off a cliff is not clear. My grandmother merely dismisses it as a thing that goats often do.

3. Mix together the ingredients to the rub, and apply it to all sides of the ribs.

4. Lay the ribs on two sheets of foil, meat-side down. Lay another two sheets atop the ribs and crimp the edges together, forming a package.

5. Place package on a baking sheet and bake for two to 2 ½ hours, or until meat starts to shrink away from the edges of the bone.

If you would like to have saucier, more savory ribs, continue with the following steps, using the provided barbecue sauce recipe. I made the sauce, but kept it on the side. The ribs are awesome without the sauce, but just as awesome (different, yes) with.

… 6. Remove the ribs from the oven and heat the broiler. Cut the ribs into pieces with portions of two or three ribs.

7.  Arrange them on the broiler, bone-side up, and brush on the barbecue sauce. Broil for one or two minutes, until the sauce is cooked and bubbling.

8. Flip them over so that they are meat-side up and repeat, one to two minutes.

*Barbecue Sauce

4 oz. tomato sauce

1 – 6 oz. can tomato paste

¼ c. minced onion

3 tbs. brown sugar

2 tbs. vinegar

2 tbs. olive oil

2 tbs. maple syrup

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbs. soy sauce

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

salt and black pepper to taste

1. Cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are opaque.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and allow them to simmer for about 20 minutes.

I love the color of this sauce – a deep, bloody, heart’s red. It is a bit thick, and was coming out with too strong a tomato flavor, but some adjusting with the sugar, syrup and vinegar took care of that.

Potatoes and Scallions in Butter and Herbs

1 lb. red potatoes, cut into ½ inch pieces

1 - bunch scallions

¼ c. onions

½ c. butter, softened

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp. salt, divided

1 tsp. each: parsley, chives, thyme, basil, marjoram

salt and black pepper to taste

1. Place potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water and add ½ tsp. salt. Bring to a boil. Simmer over medium heat for two minutes and strain.

I always think of red potatoes as the little old hag-men of the potato family. They are weary looking, and bright red or dusty brick. They have spots that make them seem as though the earth from which they grew only birthed them grudgingly, those poor little red potatoes that we dice so unpityingly.

2. Drain and let stand for two minutes.

3. Heat butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Saute garlic and onion. Stir in salt.

Butter! I don’t know what it is about butter that enchants me. It can’t be the benevolent Pocahontas on Land ‘O Lakes. It can be sweet, it can be salt; it can be brown, herbed, clear and clover. There is no true replacement for it, like happiness and like sadness. Perhaps butter gets its wonder from irony. I'm glad for butter, and the fact that I don’t have to churn my own. The closest to Amish I want to get are Jill’s wicked dance-moves.

4. Reduce heat to medium and sauté potatoes for 20 minutes, or until soft and browned.

5. Seventeen minutes in, add the scallions – cook for about 3 minutes.

6. Add herbs and cook an additional 30 seconds. Pepper to taste.

So this meal was pretty successful. The little additions were baked beans and a salad, courtesy of Ashley. Also some garlic bread from Mi Pueblo down the street.

The reason I didn’t use the barbecue sauce directly on the ribs was simply due to the fact that the ribs were really very good without it, and the cooking time was perfect – they literally fell off the bone. They were not dry or tough, but soft and moist…(haha).

An earthy brown, sweet with brown sugar that pools along the ridges of rib bone – these ribs work with the sauce on the side, like fire to earth. The cayenne pepper and vinegar are bites in the sauce, but the maple syrup is the wood that feeds that slight flame of spice. Overall, I enjoyed making it and eating it (like most-everything edible).