We are big fans of pork ribs, or American ribs as they're labelled in our local butcher shop. We usually buy the Pre marinated ones as our butchery makes the spice mix and sauce themselves and it is just divine! But of course, I wanted to make my own. Flicking through my Autumn magazines I stumbled across a feature on pomegranate, including a sticky marinade for ribs - I was sold!
All sweet and sticky, teamed with the right spices and the sour kick of pomegranate molasses the marinade was a great choice as an alternative to BBQ.
3 hours later, I could barely put the ribs on a plate. They were so tender that any attempt to scoop them out of the dish resulted in a lot more scooping! I'll admit the marinade probably needs a bit of tweaking before I'd find it truly amazing, but that said, at the time the only thing running through my head was, "nom nom nom, pork ribs, nom nom, ribs, nom"... Or something to that affect.
Following on from ribs, on Sunday I chose to try my hand at duck. I enjoy duck immensely; it's one of those things I order when eating out but have never been brave enough to try at home. My favourite thing to order from our local Thai is the Larb Ped - Shredded duck meat with lots of fresh mint, Thai parsley, chilli, red onion, shallots, roasted rice and a chilli lemon dressing.
My duck dish of choice was from the May edition of delicious - Chinese style Braised Duck legs with Crispy Potatoes. I had all the ingredients in my fridge & pantry, and didn't look too technical for a rookie to start with.
Rendering the fat was probably the hardest part for me. I wanted the skin to go that lovely golden colour but it was taking so much longer than the recipe suggested, and I really didn't want to spoil the meat. Powering through, I set the duck aside and started on the braise. Star anise, red wine, rice wine and soy with a bit of sugar. Both my man and I are steering away from drinking at the moment so we had no wine in the house and buying a bottle was only going to go to waste. I decided to improvise and try using a home made blackberry liqueur, which I thought would compliment the flavour of the duck, with a splash or red wine vinegar so it wasn't so sweet. I am happy to report this choice did not spoil it one bit! I shoved the duck into the oven (literally, our roasting dish is a bit too big for our oven) and got to work on the crispy potatoes. I've heard how amazing potatoes roasted in duck fat are, but I have never tried eating them before, let alone cooking them! I think I may have over cooked them in water and could have done with more duck fat as they did not come out as crispy as I was expecting, and fell apart as they were so soft. More practice needed here, but they were tasty so I don't mind!
When I served it up to Bri, I was worried he wouldn't like it. I used marylands and they were quite fatty and really difficult to cut up and eat. But to my delight he thought he flavours were great and the duck well cooked, and even came up with some really nifty ideas on how I could present it next time to save us the hassle of picking the meat from the fat - and yes there will be a next time!!
It was great to be finishing the weekend on a high, having successfully ticked some boxes in the firsts category, I'm one step closer to where I want to be.
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