Watch: Currabinny Cooks make sticky spicy ribs
Five Spice Ribs. Photo: Bríd O'Donovan.
January is always a time where we do a big stocktake of everything we have in the kitchen. This involves sorting through all of the cupboards, cabinets, shelves, countertops, the fridge, behind the fridge, under the table, spilling out into the dining room.
Not having the luxury of a proper pantry means that food tends to accumulate unchecked. There will often be multiples of things like baking soda, packets of rice, lentils, tinned tomatoes, stock cubes and an interesting but largely unnecessary array of different types of vinegar.
We come to the same conclusion, every year, that all this unorganised accumulation of food must end, not least for economical and environmental reasons, but because the clutter itself creates an unending and ever worsening situation where an ingredient, which we have, but hasn’t been seen in a while due to being buried behind all the other packets of things, gets purchased again and again.
Luckily, most of what we tend to accumulate has long expiry dates, being dried or tinned goods. Anything fresh is bought and consumed as needed, but this issue of long-life ingredients building up prevails, due to us not having the best organisational skills and compounded by lack of space.
We did start to decant things into glass jars, a few years back, but this was pretty much abandoned so now these half-filled jars sit side by side with unopened packets of the same ingredients.
Our newest ambition, which we are determined to see through, is the creation of a clean and organised spice rack. We have a pull-out drawer just next to our oven which holds masses of overflowing, opened, unsealed arrays of different jars and packets of spices, dried herbs, seeds and seasonings.
What we need is something with clear labels, enough space for an extensive collection and most importantly, a rack which facilitates easy opening and closing, decanting and filling up. There is nothing more annoying than fiddling around with tiny lids and packets which require endless rubber bands to stop everything spilling out. Currently, everything seems to be swimming in a sea of fennel seeds with patches of turmeric and life rafts of loose bay leaves.
Trying to grapple with the spice drawer has invariably led to a flurry of recipes where we get to use some of our favourite spices. It feels good to give a brief day-release to some of the little jars of things from their messy jail.
We rarely make ribs, so when I opened the jumbled drawer containing all of our spices, I thought it might be time to indulge the sticky, messy and delicious process of making our favourite five-spice ribs.
These are super-easy because they don’t require marinating or frying. You just have to generously coat the ribs in a thick lacquer of your five spice, hoisin sauce glaze and pop them in the oven before finishing them off under the grill.
Chinese five-spice is basically a mixture of ground star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds. If you have a good spice grinder, feel free to experiment with making your own. Chinese five-spice is however widely available and generally of good quality.
The basic point of five-spice is to represent the five different flavours in Chinese cooking: sweet, bitter, sour, salty and pungent.
- 2 racks of pork ribs (around 1kg each)
- 1 heaped tablespoon of Chinese five-spice (plus one teaspoon)
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 thumbs of ginger, peeled and grated
- 100ml hoisin sauce
- 100ml soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons honey
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Make the rub by mixing together the five-spice, brown sugar and sea salt in a bowl.
Cut your racks into four manageable pieces and place on a prepared baking sheet. Rub the racks all over with your spice run so that everything is well and truly coated.
Pour around 250mls of water into the baking sheet and cover tightly with tin-foil. Place in the oven for 1 hour and 40 minutes. The ribs should be very tender and the bones exposed.
While the ribs are in the oven, mix together the hoisin sauce, remaining teaspoon of Chinese five-spice, 3 tablespoons of honey, and the soy sauce in a small pot. Heat over a medium heat and grate in the garlic and ginger. Bring to a simmer and cook until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
When the ribs are cooked, remove the foil and brush the ribs on both sides with your sauce. Place under the grill on the top rack with the ribs facing flesh side up (convex side up). Leave under the grill for five minutes so they become caramelised. Take out of the grill and pour the rest of your warm sauce over the ribs. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into individual pieces and place in a large serving bowl.
This recipe is inspired by the Indian dish of ‘akuri’ which is a Parsi dish of runny scrambled eggs with fried onions and spices such as ginger, cumin, chilli and turmeric.
We always add a few chopped cherry tomatoes, crushed garlic cloves and a good garnish of coriander leaves to ours. The main thing to keep an eye on with this dish is that you don’t overcook or over scramble the eggs.
Akuri is always served with the eggs very runny, which will give you maximum flavour and a smooth, velvety texture.
Serves 2
5 eggs, beaten
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1 red chilli, deseeded, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of ground coriander
5-6 small cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Sea salt and black pepper
Fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Butter
In a large frying pan, over a medium-high heat, add a small knob of butter to the pan. Add the slices onion and fry for a minute or two before adding the chilli and garlic. Cook for another 4 minutes and then add the spices, cooking again for a further minute or two.
Lower the heat.
Season the beaten eggs with salt and pepper and then add to the pan along with the tomatoes. Stir the eggs around the pan, mixing them together with the spices and other ingredients but being careful that the eggs don’t start to scramble too much. Remove from the heat altogether if they start to do this. You want the eggs to gently cook but not quite scramble.
After around 2 or maybe 3 minutes, the eggs should be done. Serve between two plates, season again lightly and garnish liberally with coriander.
This is one of our favourite dishes to make to use up some spices and dry store ingredients. A daal is a bright dish of stewed goodness with plenty of warmth and depth. The ingredients are largely humble and the flavours balance well with the nutty brown rice. We like to serve this with a nice big dollop of seasoned yoghurt and some fresh coriander leaves.
Serves 4
200g red lentils, rinsed and soaked for 30 minutes, drained
1 litre of good quality chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 thumb of ginger, peeled and grated
4 medium-sized plum tomatoes, chopped up finely
2 small green chillis, diced finely
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon medium curry powder
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
300ml coconut milk
Sea salt
400g cooked brown rice to serve
200ml yoghurt seasoned with salt and lime juice
Fresh coriander leaves to garnish
In a large pot, heat the stock and add the lentils along with a good pinch of sea salt. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to maintain a steady simmer. Add the turmeric, ginger, tomatoes, ginger, chilli and leave to gently bubble away uncovered for just under an hour, until the lentils are very tender.
Meanwhile, in a frying pan over a medium-high heat, add the vegetable oil to the pan. Add the cumin, curry powder and garlic, cooking until fragrant (around 2 minutes).
Stir this into the lentil mixture along with the coconut milk.
Serve with brown basmati rice, a dollop of yoghurt and fresh coriander.
