Rich Braised Spare Ribs

We’ve been fortunate enough to go to some of the best restaurants in the U.S. One of the weird things I have noticed is how they often they use unusual and cheap ingredients in a very good way. In some ways this is really annoying because you pay a fortune to eat cheap food. However, the cool thing is how they make such awesome meals out of such ordinary ingredients.

Spare ribs, ox tail and pig’s feet are the primary subjects. Our story today centers on spare ribs.

My wife’s family is Chinese. I don’t know if that is why I experiment with Asian ingredients or not, but I’ll blame it any way. The special ingredient in this dish is fish sauce. There are many kinds, I use Vietnamese fish sauce (Noc Mam). In American cooking, the most similar ingredient is Worcestershire sauce.  

Ingredients:
2 – 3 rib racks of beef spare ribs
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp fish sauce (replace with Worcestershire sauce or reduce amount if sensitive)
1 cup red wine
1 sliced red chili
1 medium onion sliced thin
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Heat olive oil in pressure cooker until smoking. Brown ribs well on both sides, approximately 2 minutes per side.
 

2. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.

3. Close pressure cooker and bring to pressure. Cook for 1 hour. Release pressure, remove lid.
  

4. Serve.

Italian Beef Sandwich

Whenever you move to a new part of the country (or world), you need to learn the food culture. Each place is different. Chicago has sports food. Hot dogs and Italian beefs. We tried a place this weekend called Zippy’s. They’ve sold “millions”. Kim liked the “hot cheesy beef”. Hot giardinera laced with melted provolone on top.

The sandwich was good, but we both felt it lacked any real “bang!”. It could have been better, the giardinera (another Chicago thing: peppers, olives and celery in seasoned oil) added all of the flavor.

That inspired a mission for the weekend: make a better Italian beef.

We missed the mark in attempt #1. The meat was too dry (not sure what happened here) and the flavor just wan’t what we were expecting. We decided to try one more thing, we took the leftovers, sliced them and marinated in hot giardinera juice overnight. Reheated the meat in the microwave for 45 seconds. Perfecto, Italian beef beauty.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:
1 eye of round roast (1-2 lbs)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion sliced thin
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 cup mixed fresh herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme)
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
grated cheddar cheese to taste
hot giardinera to taste
soft sandwich rolls

Directions:
1. Set meat out to bring to room temperature and chop vegetables.
 

2. Season meat with salt and pepper. Heat oil in pressure cooker. Brown meat for 2-3 minutes per side.
 

3. Add vegetables, herbs, water, and wine. Bring top boil. Close pressure cooker and bring to pressure. Cook for 1 hour.
 

4. Reduce pressure and remove meat from pressure cooker. Slice thinly.

5. If you can’t wait, assemble sandwich with meat, cheese and giardinera.

6. Save the leftovers. Pour 1/4 cup of giardinera juice/bits in the container to marinate the meat overnight.

7. Reheat the meat and assemble sandwiches. I would recommend mild giardinera as the meat is pretty spicy at this point.