How could you resist a mash-up like spare ribs vindaloo, recently in Food & Wine?
And then, spare ribs were on sale.
Kismet.
This made a lot of ribs and I only bought a single rack. It may look like a lot of ingredients, but you probably have most of them.
Spare Ribs Vindaloo
- A 2-pound rack St. Louis—cut pork ribs, halved
- Salt and pepper
- 2 dried New Mexico chiles, stemmed and broken into large pieces
- 2 tablespoons cumin seed
- 3 whole cloves
- One 1″ cinnamon stick
- 2 tablespoons ancho chile powder
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar (mixed use)
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 large red onion, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
- 1 quart chicken stock or low-sodium broth
- 1/4 cup silver tequila
- 3 tablespoons finely grated jaggery (or brown sugar)
Season the spare ribs with salt and pepper and let stand for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a spice grinder, grind the dried chiles with the cumin seeds, cloves and cinnamon stick until finely ground.
Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and stir in the chile powder, turmeric, cayenne, 2 tablespoons of the vinegar and 1/2 tablespoon of pepper until a paste forms.
In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the oil. Add the red onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 8 minutes.
Add the garlic, ginger and the spice mixture and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until deep red in color, 8 to 10 minutes.
Stir in the stock, tequila, jaggery, the remaining vinegar, add the ribs and bring to a simmer.
Cover and cook over moderately low heat until the ribs are very tender, about 1 hour.
Transfer the ribs to a work surface and let cool slightly; cut into individual ribs.
Simmer the sauce until thickened and reduced by half, about 10 minutes; season with salt.
Return the ribs to the sauce and stir to coat. Serve with steamed basmati rice and enjoy!
My verdict:
I think we were a little underwhelmed by these the first time around. However, like a lot of slow cooked food, they were much better the second night and Frank gave his “you can make these any time” seal of approval.
We both thought they could be hotter and the next time, I’ll add some minced serrano, or jalapeno.
There was a lot of sauce because I didn’t halve the sauce recipe (too lazy to do math) just the ribs, but it just meant more sauce for the rice.
I didn’t have any jaggery (do you?) so just used some brown sugar. If I get some, I’ll let you know if I think it makes a difference. However, this seems to be one of those stealth trendy foods for 2017, so you might want to be one of the cool kids and find some.
