Marcus Blog

As i mentioned in my earlier BBQ post i said i'd post up some of the recipes i made for the BBQ, and, as I love ribs so much i thought i'd start with this.  Sorry there aren't any photos, but, er, none were taken :P

Ribs.  I like ribs.... a lot.  Pork, beef, lamb - all good.  Beautifully succulent meat cooked on the bone to get as much of that meaty flavour as possible.  With the right rub, sauce or marinade there are few things better.  I mean, who doesn't like being presented with a full rack of barbeque baby ribs? that wood smoked flavour with a sweet but tangy scent penetrating to the back of your nose... nice, i'm salivating just at the thought of it (hopefully you are too :P )

So, how did i make them? well... it was a rack of pork ribs, with my BBQ sauce on it, all put in a bag to marinade for a couple hours (the longer the better though).  Unfortunately, on the night, i wasn't around for the whole cooking process as @Lisa_T and I had to go on an emergency beer run.  It really was an emergency, we only had two beers left with at least another 5 hours to go, dilema.

Anyway, the ribs were put on the Q and i left it in the very capable hands of my friends @_@ and when we got back lovely BBQ, porky, boney, goodness was ours! ALL OURS! MUHAHAHA!

Tools:

• Sharp knife
• Pan
• Wooden spoon
• Large foodbag
• Smoking Wood Chips

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Large Onion
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 1tsp Cumin Seeds
• Whole Grain Mustard
• Tobasco
• Red Chilli Flakes
• 1tsp Dried Thyme
• 2tsp Paprika
• 1 Can of Coke
• 2tbsp Tomato Ketchup (i woulda used tomato puree if we had any, it worked anyway though)
• Splash of Olive Oil
• Knob of Butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• Rack of ribs

Method:

1. Finely dice the onion and garlic
2. Heat the oil and butter in the pan and fry the onion and garlic till they turn brown, lower heat and continue to stir till softened
3. Grind the cumin seeds in a pestle and morter while the onions/garlic soften
4. Add the can of coke, whole grain mustard, ground cumin seeds, ketchup, a couple drops of tobasco, dried thyme, paprika, and then salt, pepper and chilli flakes to taste.
5. Bring this to a boil and then simmer the mixture till it has reduced by half.
6. Now reduced, leave the mixture to cool down - your marinade is made.
7. Now cooled, put the clean rack of ribs in the large food bag and pour the marinade in making sure the meat is completely covered.
8. Leave to marinade for a few hours, over night if possible...  As long as you want really, the longer the better.
9. To cook the meat we put it on the BBQ when it was at a lower heat, added some woodchips to the coal and closed the lid, we checked it regurly and turning and re-basting with the marinade sauce.
10. It should take 30mins or so to cook.

Hope you enjoy these ribs, the marinade has been made a few times and each time it's got better for me.  With the actual cooking of the meat i reckon it could actually be boiled first to cook it, this would leave the meat extremely soft and most likely absorb the marinade a lot more, although you would lose some meaty flavour in the boiling proces. 

The alternative is to have it on the BBQ at a very low heat and cook it for hours, adding more chips and constantly basting.  This would also leave the meat nice and soft with extreme smokey and bbq saucey flavour, so this would probably be the best option.  Having said that you can just whack it on and munch it like we did :P

Happy rib ripping :D

 >Marcus

The day was perfect.  Sun, friends, beer, and ofcourse lots of food.  Four of the best things in life all in one place, what could be better?

Also, before i get started i'd like to mention the extra B's are for "Big Bitchin'".

There we were all sat in my garden soaking in the sun and, in the words of Mr. Dre "drinking, smoking, straight west coastin'", yes... we were. heh.  The idea of the day was to just catch-up with old friends and ofcourse eat.  Unfortunately, there were many of my friends who could not make it, but dontchu worry people.... BBBBQ (this time it's "Bigger Bitchin'") will be back with even more awesome (hence bigger) next month, hopefully with some variations and possibly new recipes being tried out on the grill of life.

Starting in the afternoon, in the sun, precautions were set up with the possibility of rain.  Thanks go out to Jon for bringing a huge piece of green ground sheet which we used to build a shelter above the patio which could also be taken down and put up quickly.  We hailed the green sky and got ready for the flames to rise from the metalic depths of the bbq :P

Fortunately the rain held off and we were able to grill worry free.  There were some people who insisted on having it up when it was sunny although didn't need to be.  It must be said though, the canopy kept the warmth in, a bit intense during the day, but when the sun went down and food was done, the BBQ was turned into the fire of life, warming our hearts, minds, souls, and everything below the canopy.

I had many tasty treats installed for my guests, unfortunately i arrived home late cos i was supremely hungover and therefore only started marinating very late.  Everything was very rushed, but, on the meaty end of things there was gonna be:

• BBQ Pork Ribs
• Rosemary Infused Lamb Ribs
• Mama Lees Chinese Style Chicken Wings
• Tikka Style Chicken Drumsticks
• Homemade Beef Patties
• Red Pepper and Lancashire Sausages (store bought)
  

... and for the greener tip of the stick:

• Rosemary Rock Salt New Potatoes
• Lemon & Garlic Butter Fine Beans
• Whole Baked Onions
• Simply Grilled Aubergine
• Corn on the Cob
• Salad

If you're wondering why some of the items have been greyed out it's because they were never made in the end. Blame the alcohol, blame the sun, blame the hangover, or simply blame laziness, but i just could not be arsed to make them after such a busy day.I've just realised though it was all the veg things that weren't made, lolz.  As well as these titilatingly tasty treats there was a triumphant trifle from Lisa.

Throughout the night there were many stories told and jokes shared so yeah, i won't list them all but, heres a quick rundown of some things that occured:

• Music listening
• Food eating
• Shelter building
  
• Alcohol drinking (Good job everyone, we did a sterling job)
  
• Drinking games playing (drink while you think, 21, arrogance)
• Volcanic lava shotting (sorry Si)
• Rain spotting (Jon, Louise :P)
  
• Grass sitting
  
• Breakdance dancing
• Green hazing
• Fire gazing
• Mind wondering

As mentioned, by the end of the night the final few of us perched our chairs around the BBQ and got a fire burning.  This is the first time in a year i've had the opportunity for this, and i didn't know I missed it.  Fires are damn cool.... really cool.

So yeah, that was pretty much the night, can't really list much more but i think everyone had a good time and i'm glad the food went down so well (it all got eaten!).  If you want recipes for the food listed above i'll be posting them one by one in the following days and they will all slowly become linkerfied.