Honey Roasted Ribs

My men are true Cave Men when it comes to ribs. My husband, has become quite the Grillmaster of making slow-cooked ribs on our Weber. Moi? I'm more of a Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip person. We are looking forward to having warmer weather, after Spring, when  the infamous Salinas Valley winds should be dying down. Trying to grill, during the spring months, can be frustrating because the wind tends to blow out the fire. 

 In order to reduce paper clutter, I'm going green with Digital Magazines and Cook Books. When I received the digital version of Cook's Country Feb/Mar 2013 magazine, I took one look at their beautiful photo of these Honey Roasted Ribs and I fell in-love.  I'm not a big fan of cooking ribs in water, before grilling them-- to me, they just taste boiled.  Cook's Country has a different approach.  The ribs are roasted on a rack, above a baking sheet that is filled with water.  Covering the ribs with foil would, essentially, steam them.  Okay, I'm game. It's that sticky honey glaze, though, that I honed in with total food lust.   I love honey!

The marinade uses one cup of honey, scallions, soy sauce, mustard and a few other aromatics. 

The pork is cut into three-rib sections, then marinated in a zip-lock bag for at least an hour. I marinated mine for the recommended 24 hours.  The next day...

...the ribs are placed on a foil-lined baking sheet, on a rack and the marinade is reserved in the refrigerator. About 2 cups of water is placed into the baking sheet and the ribs are covered with foil and roasted at 325F for a little over an hour, then uncovered and roasted for another hour.

In a large Dutch Oven, the marinade is then brought to a boil and reduced...

... until it becomes thick and syrupy. NOTE: The next time I make this, I'd like to try adding some fresh orange or pineapple juice, or even Sweet Chili Sauce could really add more zip to the sauce.

The ribs are then basted with some of the sauce, and roasted until bubbly and brown.

They're loosely tended with foil for a few minutes.

Then, stirred to coat with the glaze.

Some scallion greens add a colorful garnish.

I tossed a little toasted sesames seeds for some texture and crunch.

NOTES: These take a while to prepare, only because of the 2 hours of roasting time.  I didn't find this recipe to be super fussy, but there is some prep worked involved with the marinade and waiting time. Grilled ribs still remain our #1 favorite recipe. However, these were good. The only thing I felt is that I'd like to tweak the recipe a bit more. I'm thinking that adding fresh orange juice to the marinade would have given the marinade a bigger flavor POP.  I wish I had also added some red chili pepper flakes to this, as well.  Overall, they were a hit with my men, and that's what really counts to this wife/mom. This recipe is perfect for those of you who don't have a grill, but love ribs. I hope that you try it.

BONUS: Cleanup wasn't too hard. Because the baking sheet was foil-lined, I waited for the water to cool, then poured it out and removed the foil. A little soap and water and cleanup was done.  The rack, however, takes a bit more work.  It needs a bit of a soak and a gentle brush and the dishwasher. Good as new!

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