Ribs and Fried Rice.

My husband and I thought it would be nice for him to take a meal into work for the guys so they could all eat the same thing, together. There in ends my husband's involvement in the idea. Not that I am complaining, because I'm not, I like cooking and I like feeding people. Ribs and rice seemed like a good, bulk food idea and so it was. Bear in mind that I was making this for lots of people, you could easily halve the rice quantities for 4 or less people. 

I love making fried rice, it is such a versatile dish, you can use anything and everything in it, whatever needs using up, whatever is on sale, you get the idea, veg, dried fruit, nuts, literally whatever floats your boat. I find that making the rice ahead of time and letting it cool works the best, if you try to use fresh, hot rice it tends to go very sticky. While the rice cooks and cools you can make the other half, or in my case, the rest of it is always greater in volume than the actual rice. I find it a heck of a lot easier to have all my ingredients cut up and ready in advance of cooking, so, dice up everything and open all cans etc.

This is my wok with all my veggies etc in before I added the rice. The other big part of my fried rice dish is that there is NOT a lot of oil in it, if any. So there! If you are using bacon in it, which I did this time (to finish off the bacon from the twice baked potatoes and I used some in the stuffing too) then you don't need any oil at all. If you are not using bacon in it, then you will need a small amount of oil to cook the onion and that is it. So, in the bacon version, you trim and finely cut up the bacon then start to cook it in the wok, you will get enough oil from the bacon fat (I think I had about 5 slices of bacon to use). In the other version, add a small amount of oil to the wok and start to cook your onions. From there on in you add ingredients according to how long they will take to cook, so your peppers, celery etc will take longer than mushrooms and frozen peas, and then anything from a can only needs heating up so goes in at the end. (This particular dish had 1 onion, 2 red peppers, 1 small box mushrooms, 1 large can of corn, about 1 cup of frozen peas, 1 can of black beans, 1 can of water chestnuts and 2 cups on uncooked rice. There is no wrong though, so just use what you have around and go with it). I only use one pan so everything must end up in there at some point in time. Put the lid on your wok and allow things to STEAM, and you won't need lots of oil. Into the mix I then add things like fresh ginger, garlic, seasonings of all varieties, ketchup, soy sauce, anything else your hand come upon that seems like a good idea, go for it! You can't really go wrong as there is no right version and it will be different every time. Once the veggies etc are just done it is time to add the rice. You don't want to over cook them as you will lose your vibrant colours, I always aim to have something in every colour if possible. By the way, if you use any canned bean do rinse them first! You then incorporate your rice and get it all mixed in. Once it has heated through with the added rice it is ready to serve.

I made so much that I had to divide my veggies into 2 dishes before adding the rice. If you are looking for a leaner version then don't add things like ketchup or other sauces. Your rice may not look a 'dirty' colour as such but never mind, make it how you want it! The beauty with this dish is that is can be eaten so many ways and so many times. You can have it as a cold salad the next day, or reheat it with some hot sauce. I like to keep my rib sauce and drizzle some of that onto the rice. You can also cook other meats on other days to go with it if you make a huge batch. It is also a great meal in itself. Rice done, now for the ribs. 

Again there are so many ways to make ribs and everyone has their own method and no one is wrong and no one is right. I have tried many methods. Here is what I have observed. Boiling ribs in water before hand makes sure they are cooked and means you get falling apart ribs, it means you can make ribs fast if you are pushed for time as they are already cooked but it also means that you have boiled the flavour out into the water which you then through away. Boiling ribs in a huge vat of sauce with lots of liquid like beer or coke  means you boil the flavours into the sauce which you can keep to use for basting. However, I prefer to cook them in sauce like mix rather than a liquid one, one that will reduce and I can serve it with the ribs and all the flavour has been maintained. There is also no right or wrong method in terms of length of time, I have cooked ribs very high and fast and they were great and also very low and slow and they were great. The fast method was with ribs that had been marinading for 12hrs in a marinade that had sugar and vinegar in it which will have been breaking down the meat and aiding in the cooking process. There is also no right or wrong in whether you want to dry rub marinade them before hand or marinade at all. I have made dry rubs and had ribs in them overnight, also had them in liquid marinades , also I have put them straight into a sauce and cooked them with no marinading at all. It all depends on how much time you have, what ingredients you have and what you feel like doing. I have found that dry rubs can sometimes leave a gritty feeling on the meat as the powders cling to it. Obviously smaller ribs with less meat will cook faster than big ribs, ribs with tonnes of meat can sometimes dry out the way pork would if it had been overcooked, so just pay attention. The good thing with ribs is that they have fat in them, which you need to keep the ribs moist. So, no specific pointers from me here, though this batch of ribs had no prior marinading, I put them in a huge dish, covered them in sauce, covered them and cooked them on 350 degree for somewhere over 2hrs but less than 3hrs. I then uncovered them and put them on a tray and drizzled sauce on them and put them back in the oven to caramelise. Had the batch been smaller and the sauce less and the dish shallower I would have just taken the lid off and let them caramelise where they were but there were so many they were overlapping this time. You can also put them on the bbq to give them a bit of burn too. Because I didn't have a massive vat of sauce left behind I put it into a pot and boiled it down a little then added a cornstarch/water paste to thicken it and you have a rib gravy to serve with your ribs and over your rice. 

I cook ribs in a rack if it is just one rack, or in 2-3rib chunks if it is more. It helps keep them moist. Because these were going to be eaten at work I divided them into individual ribs once they were cooked but before the caramelising happened, for ease of eating. 

This particular batch of sauce had things like ketchup, brown sugar, chilli, Tequila, jam and ginger in it. You do need the sweet, the sour, the salty, something to make it sticky, a little heat, some spices and you are good. Bottles of bbq sauce are very convenient and a good option of you don't like the idea of making your own sauce, you could thin them out a bit with some beer, apple cider or coke to make it more saucy and give you some room to allow evaporation in the cooking process without burning happening. 

I sent him off to work with big containers of rice, ribs and sauce and some freshly steamed mange tout/snow peas for a crunchy, green side. And some brownies. I hope they get enough down time to enjoy them, I hope they enjoy them full stop, I hate not being there to watch people eat the food, you are left wondering....

(P.S. This is an afterthought about a week later - my wok is non stick, if yours isn't and things start to stick when you are trying to make them steam then you will need to add some oil).