Rib Bits

Sadly, I do not have a barbeque. Yesterday would have been a perfect day for firing up the grill to cook up these ribs I had. To be honest with you, I have very little experience cooking ribs. In fact, I've only ever cooked them once before, in the slow cooker. I didn't have 6-8 hours to make dinner last night, so did some research on cooking methods and times for short ribs.

The method that best suited my needs was to boil the ribs for 30 minutes, then baste with barbeque sauce and cook in a 350^°F oven. Simple and relatively quick? Yes, please. To the boiling water, I added salt, pepper, about a tablespoon of garlic and herb seasoning salt (sea salt, garlic, peppercorns, chives), a 50ml bottle of vodka that was gifted to me by my local convenience store owner, a few dashes of Angostura bitters, and a packet of beef bouillon. To go with the ribs, I boiled a cup of rice in 4 cups of water with salt, a bit of olive oil and half a packet of the same bouillon. After the rice water came to a boil, I lowered the temperature to low and simmered for about 10 minutes until tender, then drained.

While the ribs didn't come out quite as fall-off-the-bone tender as they were using the slow cooker, they were still quite good. While they were a touch drier using the baking method, they did have a slightly more intense flavour profile in a much shorter time period. Guess it's time for me to start looking for a small barbeque, as well.