Page 110 - Amazing Ribs - Book

2 tablespoons brandy (or dark rum or bourbon) 2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot sauce such as Tabasco 2 teaspoons ginger powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon five spice powder 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring
About the Chinese ingredients. There are no substitutes for hoisin sauce, five spice powder, or sesame oil. They are responsible for most of what we think of as the flavor of Asian food in the US. Five spice powder is easy to make at home (click the link above for our recipe), but the others are not easily made. Click on the links for more info on these ingredients. If you have trouble finding them in your grocery store, try Amazon.
About the hot sauce. If you have an Asian-style chile sauce like gochujang you can use it, but any old hot sauce will work fine in this marinade since it pro- vides more heat than flavor. The recipe above produces mild heat. Add more if you love pain.
About the food coloring. Food coloring is necessary for the authentic color. We are told that you can substitute beet root powder for the red food coloring or fermented bean red curd, but I’ve never tried them. There is very little color- ing in this recipe and most is discarded with the unused marinade. There are natural food colorings made from achiote and its seeds, annatto, or cochineal (a.k.a. carmine). If you want to leave it out, the ribs will still be great, but won’t have the traditional festive color.
Optional. After about 2 1/2 hours, paint the meat with a glaze of honey and roast an additional 30 minutes
Garnish. Sprinkle sesame seeds, orange zest, and/or chopped chives or chopped green onions.
Method
1| Prep. Skin & trim the slab. Cut it into individual bones. Mix the marinade 110