Thursday, September 8, 2011

Spiced-up country-style pork ribs

A couple years ago, my husband noticed that my crockpot had a little defect, so he helpfully decided to fix it. He did such a great job I ended up with a brand-new crockpot with even more functions.

Actually what I bought was an electric pressure cooker that has settings for browning and for slow cooking. While it will never by my favorite appliance (my KitchenAid stand mixer has that status) it does get a lot of use in my kitchen.

It was perfect for this recipe in particular. Country-style pork ribs are a fairly tough cut of meat, perfect for slow-cooking. Great for the crockpot.

But I decided to go with a combination of pressure cooking and slow cooking.

Sure, I could do that with a regular pressure cooker and a regular crockpot, but it's a little more convenient to do it in one appliance.

The peppers I used came from Marx Foods as a free sample.

While the pepper varieties were familiar to me, the form was a little different. Instead of whole peppers, these are "granulated." Basically, they're chopped up.

When I use the whole varieties of these peppers, I usually soak them, then blitz in the blender, then pass them through a strainer to get rid of the bits of skin and errant seed.

To be clear, the skin is edible. But I don't like the texture. It takes a little effort to strain the peppers, but I think it's worth it.

Spiced-Up Country-Style Pork Ribs
The granulated dried peppers I used were ancho, New Mexico, pasilla, and guajillo.

3-4 pieces of country-style pork ribs
1/2 cup granulated dried peppers (I used 1/8 cup of each of the four)
Salt, to taste

Place the ribs in the pressure cooker. Add water to cover. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Seal and cook on high for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, hear 2 cups of water to boiling. Turn off the heat and add the peppers. Let the peppers soak while the pork cooks.

When the the pressure cooker time is up, release the pressure and remove the lid. Skim off the scum from the top of the cooking liquid, and remove enough liquid so it's about halfway up the pork.

Pass the pepper mixture through a fine strainer. Discard the seeds and skin in the strainer and add the pepper puree to the pot with the pork. Stir. Taste for seasoning and add salt, as needed. At this point, the pork is fully cooked, but it's still tough.

Put the lid on the cooker and set to slow cook. Cook for 4 hours, or until the meat is tender. Serve with some of the cooking liquid - it makes a nice sauce.

Like any braised meat, this is better the next day. It's great served with rice or you can break it up a bit and make tacos.
Yum

1 comment:

Wine Harlots said...

Wow, that really looks good.
Add a glass of pinot noir, and you're set.

Cheers,

Nannette Eaton

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