Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Boneless Polynesian Ribs!

I'm in the middle of cooking these for the first time and I'm already addicted to the sauce. Good indication? Well, if the meat comes out over cooked, at least I have something yummy to dip it into!!
There was an awesome sale on meat this week at Broulims (our local grocery store chain). 5 packages of meat for 20 bucks. Great deal! Among other things, they were selling sirloin tip steaks (got 2 packages), stew meat (usually about $4.00 a pound!), cod fillets, and boneless pork spare ribs ("country style," what ever that means). I've never really made anything with pork before, I'm not a huge fan of anything that comes from a pig. Except maybe the occasional bacon strip (guys, you have permission to start drooling, I know you always do). But anyway, I looked up recipes pertaining to this particular cut of meat and the most interesting that turned up was Polynesian ribs. It looked delicious, so I showed to Josh and he approved it.
Anyway, here's the original recipe. I didn't have all the ingredients, so I will post the changes in parentheses right next to what I replaced it with. IT'S YUMMY!!!!

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds pork spareribs
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch (I didn't put this much in, I put a little bit into some water and added that, but it didn't make much of a difference. Besides I like it a bit more saucy, not thick)
1/2 teaspoon celery salt (I used garlic salt)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, with juice(I used canned mandarin oranges and crushed them)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup chopped onion (since I don't like onion, I just put in a 1/4 of a jumbo onion and let the layers separate in the sauce... then took them out after it was done)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (I used A-1 steak sauce)
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel (I omitted this)
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I used about a tablespoon of Franks for more kick)
Directions
1.Cut ribs into serving size pieces. Place ribs bone side down on a rack in shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 1 hour(50 minutes if it's boneless); drain.
2.In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar, cornstarch, celery salt and ginger. Combine the pineapple, water onion, vinegar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, orange peel and hot pepper sauce. Gradually stir into brown sugar mixture. Bring to a boil; cook for 2 minutes or until thickened. Brush ribs with sauce. Bake 25-35 minutes longer or until meat is tender, basting with sauce several times.

And by the way, for all my friends who don't eat pork or don't like it, I think this sauce would be excellent on chicken (though Josh disagrees). I could eat this sauce all by itself! I needed a lot of self control just to leave some for the ribs!
PS the meat was good too! Too bad I'm too lazy to think up some side dishes for this. Maybe rice? Hawaiian Sweet bread?