Your Bank Holiday Weekend Menu: Rack Of Ribs

Get these ribs into the centre of a table and you will be adored by all, I promise! The only way to enjoy these ribs is to tear and share – get stuck in there, eat with your hands and lick the sauce off your fingers. This type of food is ideal for social eating and really gets the conversation going.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the marinade
½ fresh red chilli, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
75ml apple juice
100ml white wine vinegar
60ml soy sauce
50g soft brown sugar
50g honey
3 tsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger

For the ribs
1 rack of ribs (about 1kg)
drizzle of rapeseed oil
freshly ground black pepper
2 sprigs of rosemary
10 basil leaves, chopped
1 lime, cut into wedges

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

For the marinade, place all the ingredients in a pot and mix. Bring to the boil, and then reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will thicken.

Place the ribs in a large roasting dish. Drizzle with rapeseed oil, season with black pepper and sprinkle with the fresh rosemary. Spread the marinade over the ribs and place a lid on the roasting dish. Roast in the oven for 1 hour, then baste the ribs with the sauce from the dish and cook for a further 20 minutes.

The ribs will be ready to eat, but if you wish you can transfer to a barbecue for a few minutes for extra flavour.

Serve with chopped basil leaves and lime wedges.

Brian’s tip
Don’t forget to serve with a bowl of warm water and a lemon slice to help clean sticky hands!

Extracted from Brian McDermott’s Donegal Table (O’Brien Press, €19.99). Photographs by A Fox in the Kitchen.