Pork Spare Ribs braised in Maple Syrup

I mentioned in my last post that the weather here has been very hot and already, most of our meals have been cooked on the barbecue. Last week I bought some spare ribs to make this recipe, but when we woke to find the day quiet cool, I did a quick Google search for an alternative way to cook my ribs for dinner.

While searching for a recipe I became a little confused. I had it in my mind that I wanted to make something like an American barbecue sauce to braise the ribs in and yes, there are a lot of recipes for this type of thing. That wasn't the confusing part. I realised something, I hadn't realised before (talk about the dumb girl in the class)

Spare ribs aren't ribs!

Thanks Jamie! After about an hour on the computer, I found this Jamie Oliver recipe that I cooked below and a bit of information about 'ribs'.  At my local Australian butcher we call the cut I used 'spare ribs', my butcher also sometimes sells 'american ribs' - these really are ribs! Confused yet?

In Australia, we call this cut of meat 'spare ribs' and in American they call the same cut of meat 'country ribs'. That should help you with own your Google searches in the future.

I was intrigued by this recipe and to be honest wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. It turned out to be a hit. Declared, "the best meal you've ever cooked" by my daughter.

We served these ribs with mashed potatoes and steamed greens (asparagus, beans, zucchini and snow peas). I think this was the perfect accompaniment. The photo above was taken the next night, when the leftovers were turned into a meal, with fried rice, zucchini slice and 'help yourself' salad.

Pork Spare Ribs braised in Maple Syrup

serves 8

• 1.5kg pork spare ribs (cut in half)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 onions (finely diced)
• 3 garlic cloves (crushed)
• salt and pepper
• 120ml maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 480ml chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Heat the oil in an ovenproof casserole dish to medium-high and brown the ribs in two batches. Set aside. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of oil from the pan. Add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion begins to soften. Season to taste. Add the maple syrup and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and cook until the bubbles become slow and thick. Add the vinegar and cook for about 3 minutes, until well reduced. Add the chicken stock and ribs to the pan and bring to the boil. Cover and transfer to the oven. Cook for a total of 2 hours. Cook for 1 hour, then turn the ribs. Cook for another 30 minutes, then remove the lid. Cook for a further 30 minutes until the ribs are tender and flake with a fork.

Jamie says to check the ribs regularly to make sure the pan has enough liquid, adding 50ml water at a time to keep the juices from running dry or burning. I didn't find that I needed to do this, I guess it depends on your oven.

Fettuccine ai Funghi

Getting back to school after such a long break can be a little difficult.

Dinners this week have been and will be easy. Last night I cooked a favourite Jamie Oliver pasta dish, adapted only slightly from 'The Naked Chef'. I love to make this when the new season mushrooms start appearing at the farmers markets.

(You will see from the pictures, we had only spaghetti in the cupboard and button mushrooms in the fridge. Sometimes we don't eat as glamorously as we would like)

This is a delicious and simple meal, especially if you make it with a mixture of wild mushrooms and serve it with homemade fettuccine or pappardelle, just as I have written below. But if you don't have that, it makes a very yummy Tuesday night meal out of spaghetti and button mushrooms that can be found at the corner shop.



Fettuccine with Wild Mushrooms

Fettuccine ai Funghi

• 350 grams mixed wild mushrooms (sliced and torn)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 clove garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 teaspoon dried red chilli flakes
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 lemon (juiced)
• 455 grams fettuccine, pappardelle or spaghetti
• a handful grated parmesan cheese
• 1 handful parsley (roughly chopped)
• 55 grams unsalted butter

to serve

• 2 tablespoons parsley (roughly chopped)
• grated parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente. When the pasta is almost cooked, heat the olive oil in a frying pan to very hot. Add the mushrooms and let them fry fast, tossing once or twice, add the garlic and chilli with a pinch of salt, it is important to season the mushrooms to bring out the flavor. Continue to fry fast for 4 to 5 minutes, tossing regularly. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice. Season to taste.

Drain the pasta and add it to the mushrooms. Add the Parmesan, parsley, and butter and toss gently. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with the extra parsley and parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

Baby carrots and heirloom beetroot

If you are a reader of my other blog, you would know that we are trying (learning, failing) to grow our own vegetables. We have a lot to learn, but we did manage to produce a few meals from our recent carrot and beetroot harvests.

While some of you may have thought our baby carrots inedible, they were not.

Here is the yummy Jamie Oliver recipe that I made with them.



Roasted Baby Carrots

serves 4

• 500 grams baby carrots (scrubbed and trimmed)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (crushed)
• 1 handful of thyme leaves
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup white wine
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Tear off 1 1/2 metres of aluminium foil and fold it in half to give double thickness. Place everything, except for the wine, into the middle of the foil. Bring up the sides of the foil and pour over the wine. Season to taste. Fold or scrunch the foil together to seal, place the parcel onto a tray and cook for 45 minutes or until the carrots are tender.

This recipe is basically Jamie's recipe from this book.



And with the last of our beetroot we made pink dip.

I call this dip, beetroot tzatziki, perhaps the beetroot should be grated and many people would argue that the beetroot should be roasted. Grate the beetroot or roast it if you prefer. This recipe is in our lives is because of my children. They were chatting away one day about the different types of dips you can eat.

When they mentioned 'pink dip' I quickly whipped some up for afternoon tea.

I puree the ingredients as there is a better chance of the children eating it. It's a texture thing and a little bit of a gimmick. However my daughter still won't eat it, even if it is pink!



Beetroot Tzatziki

(Pink Dip)

makes 1 1/2 cups

• 400 grams beetroot (cooked and skinned)
• 1 clove garlic (crushed)
• 1 cup yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Put all of the ingredients into a blender and puree. Serve with pita bread or pita bread chips.

Brussels Sprouts - are you for or against?

I think I have only eaten brussels spouts twice before. Both of my parents have bad childhood memories of brussels sprouts. I don't remember them ever being cooked in my childhood home.

The first time I tasted them, I cringed, what I was served was overcooked, tasteless and a little cold, if I remember correctly. They had completely lived up to the brussels sprouts reputation. The second time I ate them, they were delicious. When I saw Jamie Oliver cook them with bacon, chestnut and sage butter on his Christmas DVD, I knew I wanted to try cooking them myself. I am always inspired to get back into the kitchen after watching one of Jamie's cooking shows.

This weekend at our local farmers market, I saw these baby brussels sprouts, they were calling out my name, I had to buy them. I cooked Delia's 'brussels sprouts in riesling and with bacon' and they weren't bad, I'm almost converted. I definitely needed a little more salt, and I cooked them for a little longer than Delia did in her recipe.

How do you cook your brussels sprouts? Do you have any tips?

So... am I for or against? I'm not sure yet. But I will give it another try, maybe try Jamie's recipe.

I would love to grow my own, did you know that brussels sprouts grow like this? Now I bet they would taste good.