Ribs

Walking up from the lake in wet shorts with the smell of apple wood smoke wafting through my parent's neighborhood is always a happy moment. This means that super juicy, fall off the bone, slow smoked ribs will be fed to me in the near future. With my dad's special rub and high quality, jarred Bone Suckin' Sauce the ribs are one of my family's all time favorites. Because of this I love to cook ribs. However, my current living situation has posed quite a quandary. You see, I live in a high rise and have no outdoor barbeque space, hence, no smoker. This has forced me to commit a certain form of barbeque heresy. I decided to make "smoky" barbeque ribs in the oven.

I toasted a freshly ground barbeque rub featuring spanish anise and smoked paprika, rubbed it on the salted St Louis style ribs, sealed them in parchment and foil packet and put them in a 275 degree oven for two hours. They were tender and delicious with just the right amount of "tug" on the meat. A glaze of apple barbeque sauce comprised of caramelized apples, butter, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, fresh thyme, and lemon juice and zest completed the ribs.

I served the ribs with a small salad of baby arugula, apple, and Bleu d'Auvergne blue cheese as well as a grilled garlic baguette and a stack of napkins.

Platter of ribs for two