As you may have read, I wasn’t particularly kind to Ben O’Donoghue regarding his endorsement of certain products in a recent blog post, although I did make it clear that I preferred his cooking to that of a certain Curtis Stone. In an effort to supplement Ben’s endorsement income, my wife bought me a copy of his book “Ben’s Barbecue” for my birthday last month.
Ben’s Barbecue was published in August 2009, and comes in at a generous 234 pages. It’s a step up from most of the standard barbecue books out there, and includes a wide variety of recipes and some dessert ideas that you wouldn’t normally think to try. The photography is also good, and it’s a worthy addition to my cookbook collection.
This weekend is a long weekend in Perth, so I decided to invite some family over and cook up a storm on the barbecue. With some trepidation I decided to try Ben’s “classic barbecued sticky ribs” recipe instead of my usual tried and tested formula. This recipe makes use of a dry rub before cooking and a hot glaze to finish the ribs before serving.
Rub
1 teaspoon celery salt (the book includes a recipe for this; I used a pre-made variety)
1 tablespoon soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon English mustard powder
1 tablespoon onion flakes
1 tablespoon garlic flakes
This quantity made enough to coat a baking dish full of pork ribs (with a couple of belly strips thrown in for good measure), and I left them in the fridge for about 6 hours.
I cooked the ribs for 3 hours over indirect heat at around 120C (250F). Unlike my usual method which involves sitting the ribs on racks over pans of water, the ribs were put directly on the grill (but not over flame) as per the recipe. The ribs were sprayed with apple juice every half hour or so to keep them moist.
Glaze
1 cup brown sugar
250ml malt vinegar
1/2 stick cinnamon
1 small dried red chilli, crumbled (I used a teaspoon of dried red chilli, which gave it quite a kick)
250ml tomato sauce
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
100g creamed horseradish
100ml dark rum
I brought the glaze ingredients to the boil and allowed the mixture to thicken before coating the ribs and cooking them over direct heat for 15 minutes or so. This isn’t a cheap recipe, especially if you don’t have rum in the house – 2 miniatures of Bundaberg Rum (50ml each) cost me $12.
I also roasted some small sweet potatoes (simply wrapped in foil and thrown on for 45 minutes or so) and corn on the cob (I unwrapped the husks, removed the fibre and re-wrapped the husks, also cooking for around 45 minutes). I made some chilli butter to go with the vegies (100g softened unsalted butter mixed with one finely chopped red chilli, lime juice and salt & pepper). The sweet potatoes were beautifully soft, I’ll certainly cook those on the barbecue again.
The ribs were sticky and delicious, although a little spicy for some thanks to the generous helping of dried chilli in the glaze. The meat was tender and moist, despite not being cooked over a water bath. I’d certainly use this recipe again, as long as the quantity I was cooking justified the expense and effort of making the glaze.
My standard dessert to accompany ribs is pavlova (or Eton Mess if it goes wrong), and today I tried the “huge celebration pavlova” recipe from Julie Goodwin’s (Australian MasterChef winner) book “Our Family Table”, which I was also given for my birthday.
This recipe uses 6 egg whites so makes a decent amount – which is good, because I have many mouths to feed! The end result is a fairly low pavlova with a chewy / marshmallow-y crust. Covered in sweetened whipped cream and strawberries it was quite delicious, and this will be my new standard pavlova recipe because it works in my crazy temperature-lottery oven.
Oh my goodness, I’ve eaten too much – why did they make me eat that second piece of pavlova? It’s a good thing I don’t have to go to work tomorrow!
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