Spare ribs

First pig item to be cooked and eaten were the Spare Ribs.

Spare ribs in a sweet and sticky sauce (with some egg fried rice)

Whilst watching the rugby on Saturday morning, marinating was commenced, basically using a Nigella recipe from the Kitchen book. Actually the only difference between what Nigella said and what I did, was the substitution of a lemon for lime, because I didn't have a lime. Also at the time of the commencement of the marinade I was ginger-less. This was rectified after a subsequent trip to Waitrose.

It was a fun marinading using a bag to squish all the ingredients together around the ribs. It comprised of:

• Juice and zest of a lemon (my idea, not Nigella's)
• 2 tbl spoons of sesame oil (actually i think Nigella said groundnut, but again, didn't have that)
• 2 tbl spoons dark brown sugar
• A broken up cinnamon stick
• 3 red chillies deseeded and chopped
• 125mls of pineapple juice
• A lump of chopped ginger
• One red and one yellow pepper sliced ( my invention entirely - Nigella never even thought of that).

That stayed in the fridge until teatime, whereupon everything was poured into a roasting tin and cooked for about an hour. At the end what liquid remained, and slightly disappointingly there wasn't much, was put into a saucepan and bit more brown sugar added to form a thick syrup. This was poured over the ribs on the plate. I made egg fried rice to accompany.

Verdict
Excellent. Strongest flavour on the meat was lemon and cinnamon. Might have been better if the meat fell off the bone a bit more. This would have required a longer cooking time, probably on a lower heat with a foil roof. Difficult to grade with no benchmark to compare to, but I think 7.5 out of 10 sounds fair.