Best Non BBQ Baby Back Ribs

By Lu

One thing I must admit is that I need to invest in a better camera, if I am going to take pictures of food I make rather than depending on the camera on my blackberry. But, you get the picture..no pun intended.

My boss has been asking me about cooking dinner as he keeps on hearing how great of a cook and baker I am. My chef friends probably think..she's good? Hehehe..but for the regular people, I am not shabby at all in the kitchen.

After thinking and contemplating what I could cook for dinner I narrowed it down to ribs -- either my red wine braised short ribs of beef or baked baby back ribs.

Well, as you could tell, the verdict was the baby back ribs. I decided to make this one as it is so easy to make and they taste heavenly. The short ribs would probably have some more pizzaz but also it would require more ingredients that are more pricy. Plus, it would need so much more prep time and cooking time. Further, I only had this ribs once and I have been craving it since that day I had it. So, at the end, it was an easy decision.

I've never heard of this dish before until an ex boyfriend, let's call him, shithead (no disrespect - it was a pet name he gave himself for me to call him, and it was for a reason!), made it for me at his home in Texas. In my head I thought it would have been some type of Barbeque ribs. I couldn't really picture baked ribs with no Barbeque sauce on it. "Really..? Ribs with no Sweet Baby Rays on it?" mh.... can't really fathom.

I just watched when he prepared it the night before. We had to search for the recipe as he didn't remember what were in it. We ended up improvising a lot with the rub and everything else. It was always fun cooking with him. We actually were a good team. If I cooked, he would be my wing man and just fetch things for me. I actually enjoyed it a lot cooking or baking as he watched me. If he's cooking, of course, I would be a back seat cook. I couldn't shut myself up - always giving him tips or telling him to do it this way. But come to think of it, I wasn't that bad. He's much more absentminded cook than I am. He either follows a recipe to the t, while I am more comfortable with throwing things together. So when there's no recipe to work with, we were the A team.

Instead of sticking to the actual recipe that I heard was popularized by Oprah, I am sticking to how I prepared my dish tonight. Here is my thrown together recipe:

Ingredients:
2 slabs of baby back ribs, trim the fat, and pat dry
lots of chopped garlic
3 jalapenos, diced (leave seeds if you prefer it to be spicier)
2 green bell peppers, julienne
1 red bell pepper, julienne
1 yellow/orange bell pepper, julienne
2 medium onion, julienne
salt
pepper
herbs (whatever..thyme, marjoram, oregano, whatever you have)

Prep:

Line a cookie sheet with foil, make shift foil so that you eventually can wrap and pack ribs tightly together, and make sure that juice won't leak out. So watch out if you have to put 2 sheets of foils together so that it minimizes seepage.

On the bottom of the foil, spread peppers and onions evenly. Be generous. You can always add more peppers if you would like some more. Nothing would hurt!

Rub ribs with garlic, jalapenos and herbs. Make sure to season it with salt and pepper evenly. Add ribs on top of peppers and onion, and then add more peppers and onion on top.

Pack tightly together, and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or for up to 2 days.

On the D day, heat oven to 400 degree, then reduce it to 275 before putting the ribs into it. Put the packed foil in a dutch oven preferably or a baker pan. Bake for 6 to 8 hours.

When ready, pull it out and serve with rice. I also make tomato and cucumber salad that I just dress with rice wine vinegar, little sugar, and olive oil to give a little acidity to balance the flavor of the fatty ribs. Yum!

A tiny tip - julienne is a type of cut, not a salad! Julienne is when you cut something into thin strips. Thus why the Julienne salad got its name because of those strips of hams, turkey, and whatever else they piled on top of the lettuce.

The first time we made it, shithead complained about how dry it was. Well, the problem was he only made 1 slab, but he put it in the high temperature oven for 6 hours. Yep, it would dry it. Further, like I told you above, be careful when you line the foil..make sure there's no seepage. If you use a cookie sheet to bake it, the juice would dry out on the pan. That is why it is good to use a dutch oven or baker pan as it is higher and it can contain the juice better if it does get away from the foil. Use a big or wide aluminum foil sheet or if you line 2 sheets together, put another sheet in the middle so, it gives reinforcement to the seam.

If you only make a small amount, you may not have to bake it as long and I would keep the temperature at 275 instead of at 300 as we did before in our first attempt. My ribs tonight came out perfect. It was falling off the bone good and it was very very moist and juicy. You can see in my picture that there's some jus under the ribs.

One lesson I got from making a dish for the second time, you do not want to repeat the same mistake you made on the first try. Now you know what to do. You would know the result if you did things a certain way, so you try to do it a different way in order to improve it. Some stuff are a given - dryness means too much heat too long, not enough moisture. Then, fix it. Pretty cut and dry. Same thing in life - you try not to repeat the same mistake again. Just because you did it that way the first time, if you didn't get the result you want, you probably better off trying something new. But you also need to realize that you made the mistake in order to change.

My boss, Paul, his wife, Rebecca and their daughter Lindsey enjoyed the dinner very much. We also had corn on the cob, along with the cucumber salad and rice. It was a great Saturday dinner with the boss. I hope the good taste will carry through till Monday when work resumes.