RIBS WITH FRIENDS

On Tuesday we had some friends over for dinner and I had some center cut beef back ribs that I wanted to try.  I usually make St. Louis style pork ribs, I've never made beef ribs.  Let the adventure begin. 

I started by mixing up my dry rub.  The original that the hubs wrote down was from Emeril, it has since been tweaked to our liking.  This was the original that we wrote down, I will follow up the picture with what we actually use.

We will start with the basic difference when I use the oven vs the smoker, if I'm using the oven I will add Spanish smoked hot paprika.

• 2 T Brown Sugar
• 2 T Chili Powder
• 2T Paprika
• 1 t Spanish smoked hot paprika (if not using smoker)
• 1 T Garlic Powder
• 2 T Onion salt
• 1 T Fresh ground black pepper
• 1 t  Cayenne ( this is still being tweaked)
• 2 t dry mustard
• 2 t ground cumin

I rinse off and dry the ribs.  The next challenge is to take the silver skin off the back of the ribs, this was actually easier than my wrestling with the pork ribs.

I then take the rub and RUB it all over the ribs, front, back everywhere.  It is best to do this over the sink...almost no clean up, trust me you really want to do this over the sink!

I then wrap the ribs in plastic wrap, place on a baking sheet and put in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours but I almost always refrigerate over night.

Oh another lesson learned, use a baking sheet that has a lip, the rub can bring out meat juices...which without the lipped pan will leaving you cleaning your refrigerator the next day...you truly don't need to ask how I know that, right?

The ribs are out of the refrigerator, they get covered in aluminum foil and are ready to go into a 250 degree oven for 3 hours.  At half way through the 3 hours I turned the ribs.  At 3 hours I turned the ribs again and turned the oven down to 175 degrees for 2 more hours.  While they were in the oven I set the table.

Next up was preparing the sides, I went simple...The Pioneer Woman's Creamy Mashed Potatoes...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/creamy-mashed-potatoes-recipe.html

As I usually do I altered the recipe some...I put the potatoes through a potato ricer, used half and half (and a bit more than called for with the cream) and I did not bake them.  I also used white pepper so I didn't have white specks in the potatoes.  And even more simply, green beans with a bit of butter.

Now that the sides are done, I take the foil off of the ribs, brush them with my favorite BBQ sauce and put under the broiler on high for 10 minutes.  The outcome is lovely, tender and tasted terrific, but do notice that the ribs to shrink and you must plan accordingly with the number of racks and the amount of sides.

We had a great dinner and Cyndi brought a heavenly Amish Honey Pumpkin Loaf with a glaze and topped with pecans! (I wish I could show you a picture but the leftovers are gone! hehe)

  Happy eating friends!