My First Outdoor BBQ of the Year - Baby Back Ribs Galore

Two weekends ago I had the pleasure and privilege of "first use" of my parents bbq in the catskill mountains to kick off my summer outdoor bbqing.   YAY!

I decided I wanted to make baby back ribs and make them nice and slow.   I had picked up a pork baby back ribs with the loin on them.    This is the first time I cooked these style of ribs so of course it was an experiment!

The house I was cooking at had just a plane ole gas bbq and I love smoking with hickory wood chips so my first step was to fabricate a way to infuse some hickory smoke into a normal bbq.   I decided that I can fabricate one by taking a frying pan and covering it with some tin foil.   I would put that pan over the direct heat to keep the chips smoking after I got them started on the stove top.  I used the tin foil to make almost a pipe to where the meat was to ensure the smokey goodness was getting to the meat.    In my pan i placed about 10 hickory woodchips that were tossed with about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.

Ok now that I had fabricated a smoker it was time to turn to the meat.   I used my traditional rub:

Salt
Black Pepper
Yellow Curry
Cumin
Cayenne
Paprika

I then made a sauce to baste the ribs with that had the following in it:

Mustard
Ketchup
Brown Sugar
Stubbs BBQ Sauce

I spent about 5 hours cooking them at a low temperature and the result was amazing!  I would say though that if you get baby back with the loin on them I would recommend an 8 hour cook time instead.  It could of been more tender.

Pic below!

Smoked Baby Back Ribs with Cornbread and Tangy Sweet Spinach

After a trip to the farmers market I had picked up some beautiful pork baby back ribs.  My plan was to smoke the ribs after giving them a nice rub.   Then make my own bbq sauce that had real depth of flavor.  I would make a sweet and tangy greens with spinach to bring something fun to the plate.   I would finish it off with a simple cornbread to wash it all down.

So first order of business was the BBQ sauce.  That was the part of this dish that would take as long as the ribs.   So I assembled a list of all star ingredients to really help me make a robust and flavorful BBQ sauce.    Here was my list:

Scallions
Leeks
Dried Thai Chilis
Dried New Mexican Chilis
Mushrooms
Chives
Thyme
Brown Sugar
Water
Cider Vinegar

I chopped it all up and threw it in a stock pot to boil it down and concentrate the flavor.  I then combined it together with ketchup, worcestershire, brown sugar, and honey.

I whisked it all together and cooked it down so I could develop a nice sauce with it.

Now cooking down and thickening it up is the most critical step to having a wonderful bbq sauce.   Here is a picture of the sauce cooking down into a sweet and sour delicious bbq sauce.

I them developed a rub to develop some nice flavor on the porky goodness while I smoked it.   So I combined together the following spices and seasoning:

Salt

Black Peppercorns

Brown Sugar

Garam Masala

Red Pepper Flakes

Paprika

I mashed them all up in my mortar and pestle.   I then rubbed it down all over my beautiful farm fresh pork baby back ribs.   

I then smoked the ribs for 4 hours with hickory wood chips.   I love hickory wood chips and how they make ribs taste.   They are one of my favorite chips to smoke with.  

I then boiled the spinach in a tiny bit of water with the drained vegetables from the bbq sauce stock.   I mixed it all together and added some honey to sweeten it up a bit.     I quickly baked up a nice batch of cornbread and voila.

Delicious

Brooklyn

Smoked

BBQ

YUM!