Asian BBQ sauce

This is a sauce I use with game meat because it's pretty powerful and the game meat holds up well underneath it.  But it could be used with anything, and indeed, with the omission of the last two  ingredients, it pretty much becomes a basic BBQ sauce.

1 cup of ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
4 tablespoons each of of soy sauce and worchestershire sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of Chinese Five Spice Powder
3 tablespoons of sriracha sauce (http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/sriracha.htm)

Combine everything in a sauce pan, whisk thoroughly, and cook over medium heat until it thickens to your desired consistency. 

This will stay fresh in your refrigerator for at least a month.

Barbecued Spare Ribs

So BBQ purists are going to lambaste me -- I'm not using a smoker (though I finally have one, though I've yet to break it in) and doing most of this in an oven, so I probably have no technical right to call them BBQ ribs.   But I've got to tell you, these are GREAT - every time I make them, they're a huge hit.  This is an easy cooking technique and if you've got a sauce you like, it's hard to go wrong.

Ingredients:

1 rack of baby back spare ribs
BBQ seasoning rub (I like the one from Tastefully Simple but anything will do)
1 orange, sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 tablespoons liquid smoke (http://www.colgin.com/liquid-smoke.php)
BBQ sauce -- my hands down favorite comes from Pierce's BBQ Pit in Williamsburg, VA -- http://www.pierces.com/edibles.asp).

Preheat your oven to 225 degrees.  Take a cookie sheet with a raised edge, and scatter the sliced onion and orange over it and sprinkle them with the liquid smoke.

Sprinkle both sides of the rack of ribs with the seasoning rub -- be generous -- and lay them down, meaty side up, over the onion and orange slices.   Cover the whole cookie sheet tightly with foil, making sure it's airtight.  Place it in the oven and cook for 4 hours.  You can totally ignore the meat this whole time and even if you let it cook longer, it'll be fine as long as the foil is really tight around the pan.

At the end of the 4 hours, between the moisture you get from the onions and oranges, as well as the gentle heat of the oven, the ribs are fall apart tender.   Let them sit for about 30 minutes and then you can transfer them to a grill or the broiler of your oven (the grill is better -- that little bit of char is nice).   Slather the top with BBQ sauce and let it cook for about 5 minutes, turn it over and do the same for 5 more minutes.  Flip once more, add a wee  bit more sauce, cook for 2-3 more minutes and then slice and serve.

These will be so tender and flavorful that they'll just slide right now and pull right apart with a fork.  Of course, eating ribs with your fingers is far more fun!

Super Bowl '14 Chicken Wings

We have a standing date with close friends of our every Superbowl Sunday and the menu always includes yummy finger food.  I do wings every year, and try to make up a new recipe each year -- something with bold taste, but healthier than fried food.   I really liked the one I did this year and hope you will too.

Marinade

1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
Zest of one lemon
1 heaping tablespoon of honey mustard
2 tablespoons of smoked paprika
a pinch of red pepper flakes, crushed up a bit
1 tbsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons of honey

Whisk this all together, and pour it over 3 pounds of chicken wings, making sure they're all coated.   Put them in an airtight container or ziploc bag, and marinate them for 4-6 hours.

Cook them on a grill on low heat so the skin can crisp without drying out the meat.   They should be done after 15 minutes on each side.

Take the leftover marinade and boil it so it reduces to a very thick sauce.  Use this sauce to baste the wings for the last 5 minutes they're on the grill.

Serve hot, warm or cold -- they're good at any temperature!