Recipes

• Apple and Blackberry Shortcake
• Drunken Brown Sugar Bananas
• Four Hour Olive and Lemon Scented Leg of Lamb
• Gorgeously Simple Broad Bean and Parmesan Salad
• Grilled Lemon Whiting with Crushed Peas
• Honey Roasted Figs with Butterscotch Sauce
• Just Yummy Peas
• Lemon Delicious
• Melting Moments
• Pecan and Golden Syrup Tart
• Polpette - Italian Style Pork, Veal and Sage Meatballs
• Real Shepherd's Pie
• Soft Polenta with Braised Mushroom Ragu
• Spaghetti with Pork, Fennel and Tomato
• Tuscan Style Slow Braised Beans with Red Wine and Sage
• Up-the-Duff (Tinny Impaled, Beer Steamed) Chook
• Wheat Beer Sozzled Pork Spare Ribs with Sage and Garlic
• Yoghurt Cake with Lemon Syrup

 

Wheat Beer Sozzled Pork Spare Ribs with Sage and Garlic

1 July 2008

 I don’t normally drink beer for breakfast. Honestly. Even on a Saturday it’s an aberration. Three ten-litre kegs (one filled with a beer called Terry, it’s a long story) perch like drunks at the kitchen table and we’re slurping them on a very fresh palate. It’s amazing how you can get a taste for something. So the pork will get sozzled slowly in beer for a couple of hours. Sounds strangely familiar.

Wheat Beer Sozzled Pork Spare Ribs with Sage and Garlic
(serves 4)
Spare ribs should be cut by the butcher into slices about 2cm thick; trim them if really fatty.

2 stubbies wheat beer (or use other beers preferably that aren’t too bitter)
1kg pork spare ribs
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into modest chunks (or use whole scrubbed baby potatoes, 300-400g)
2 large green onions, cut into pieces the length of your last thumb joint
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into batons the length of the onion
6-7 cloves garlic, peeled and maybe roughly chopped
big handful sage leaves
1 1/2 tsp salt and some freshly milled black pepper

Cooking time: about 2 hours

Put the oven on 200C. Have a swig of beer.
Pull the pork out of its bag and check it over. If it looks gritty, give it a rinse. Get the baking or roasting tray (or even a wide casserole) and lay the pork on the bottom in one layer. Push the potato between the meat so it will be covered with beer. Scatter the onions, carrots, garlic and sage over. Sprinkle evenly with the salt then tip the beers all over. You want the meat to be just about submerged, maybe fully submerged but not by much. If you need more liquid (I did just say have one swig of beer) use water. If there’s too much beer take a pause now while you imbibe.
Cover the tray with foil and pop it into the oven. Cook for 1 hour. Take the foil off and cook another 30 minutes so the top of the pork starts to colour and poke above the sauce. Turn the meat and cook another 30 minutes (try laying the meat on top of the vegies for best effect.) You want the pork to look browned but not burnt, the sauce moist but not overly runny (add a touch of water if it dries out). Remove from oven and serve immediately.