RIBS

I had to come up with eight recipes for party food a week or so ago and the number one request in my house from the kids would have to be RIBS! I am sure Max would say they are the best food to come out of America. We were spoilt, we had friends who loved to cook and were very good at it. They showed off their skills and the Baker family was always there to help them eat it! 

There are 100 and 1 ways to cook ribs from the BBQ to the oven. Personally I love popping them on the Weber and slowly cooking them, then in the last 30 minutes, smothering them with a homemade BBQ sauce to make them sticky, sweet and juicy. I always believed you had to boil the ribs first to get that 'fall off the bone' texture and that was what it was all about. How wrong I was. My dear friend Kathleen put me on the straight and narrow. She was and still is a firm believer in sticking them on the Weber and leaving them to themselves. Just before removing them you brush on the BBQ sauce. Your end result is a luscious, tender rib that still has a bite to it yet the meat is soft and tender. I like the fact that you have to chew it a little, it adds to the whole performance of eating ribs.

 Firstly, you go at then with glee, you can't get enough of the succulent meat then you put the first one down and work your way through another one, two, five, etc. Once you have finished you then go back and chew off all the sticky bits you missed the first time. That is how I enjoy eating ribs. Sadly Max is getting better at eating them and now doesn't leave the chewy bits for me to gnaw on!

The ribs recipe I concocted for kidspot is tasty and quite delicious, it is also a fast and easy way to have ribs without lighting the coals and waiting for it to heat up. Sadly I couldn't find my BBQ sauce recipe when I made these, but I substituted with a Chinese BBQ sauce and it worked very well. It wasn't as sweet as a lot of BBQ sauces and I think that worked in my favour. So if your in the mood for ribs but don't have a grill/Weber then give these ago and make sure you haven't got your Sunday best on!