I like to have themes for my tailgating articles, but to be honest, I’m having a hard time with BYU. The state bird of Utah is a seagull … from California (seriously). The state vegetable is an onion. I know of no food that makes Utah famous. I’m at a loss here.
When faced with a situation like this, I try to cook something that I just love. Something that I get a lot of compliments on, from some of the best cooks I know. And if you’ll allow me a little liberty, I can bring it back to the BYU theme.
My wife’s family is from the North Shore of Oahu. On the northeast corner of Oahu, BYU has a campus. We usually pass by there at least once during our trips and we always seek out a lunch spot nearby that serves “plate lunch” … an informal meal that contains one protein, a scoop of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad. My favorite plate lunch meal is pork ribs. When I cook them at home, I usually omit the macaroni salad and just serve it with rice. Truth-be-told, I’ve never quite understood macaroni salad.
Hawaiian Style Spare Ribs
Note: you can use beef short ribs with this recipe as well, particularly the Korean-style cut where you get a cross section of the entire rib, rather than the individual ribs. They sell this cut of ribs at the Sam’s Club in Charlottesville.
Ingredients
- 1 rack of spareribs, cut into individual ribs (you can use baby-backs, but their lower fat content will dry out in the oven if cooked too long – spare ribs are the better choice)
Marinade/Glaze
- 1.5 cups soy sauce (preferably Aloha brand – they sell it at the Rio Hill Kroger)
- 1/4 cup of grated fresh ginger (about a fist-sized piece grated on a microplane)
- 10 garlic cloves (about a head of garlic), crushed
- 1/2 cup Hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar (sherry vinegar will also work)
- Optional: hot sauce, Chinese five-spice powder, hot Chinese mustard
Time To Cook
A day ahead, combine the marinade ingredients (you don’t have to grate the ginger separately … you can always just put all of the ingredients in a food processor and puree them). Place the ribs in a very large Ziploc bag or a casserole dish and pour the marinade over top of them. Toss every 6 hours and marinate for at least 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Place a cooling rack (the ones that you cool cookies on after they come out of the oven) over top of a sheet cake pan lined with parchment or aluminum foil. Remove the ribs from the marinade and pour the marinade into a small pot and cover. Place the ribs on the rack about an inch apart and put into the oven. Pour 2-4 cups of hot water into the pan, making sure it’s enough to cover the bottom of the pan, but not so much that it touches the rack. This water will keep the ribs moist as you cook them. Add water as the ribs cook if it evaporates.
Bring the marinade to a boil (covered) for 2 minutes. Do not skip this step, as the marinade has come into contact with raw pork. It needs to be boiled!
Cook the ribs for 2 to 3 hours. Every 20 minutes, lacquer the ribs with the marinade. As the ribs cook, the marinade will caramelize on the ribs. Even if it starts to turn a little black, don’t worry … this is what you are going for … a sticky glaze that adheres to the outside of the ribs. You want the meat to start pulling off the bone, but not separating from it completely. Every rib is different, so there’s no set time.
Just remember that if the meat is too tough, your guests will be picking pork out of their teeth for about an hour (I always have toothpicks and/or floss handy when serving ribs).
The ribs can be made up until this point up to 2 days ahead of time. To reheat, wrap completely with foil and reheat in a 300 degree oven or on a low grill.
Have plenty of napkins handy … these ribs are messy!
Note: You can cook these ribs on the grill. I don’t think they go too well with smoke flavor, but charcoal works very well. Just make sure the temperature is kept constant.
Steamed Rice
Cooking steamed rice properly is actually pretty tricky. There are a couple of tricks:
- Always buy good quality sushi rice (we like Kokuho Rose).
- Rinse the rice thoroughly before cooking. Place in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse with running water until the water turns clear. This will wash the excess starch off the rice and keep it from becoming gluey.
- Use a good quality rice cooker if you have one and follow the instructions.
- If you don’t, I like to use a small pot with a tightly fitting cover. Use 2 cups of rice and cover with water that goes 1/2 inch over the rice, bring to a boil for 1 minute, turn the heat off and let it sit for 20 minutes. If you don’t have a tightly fitting cover, use foil under the lid.
