I had promised to have an entry ready for Meathenge's Meat Platter contest. But of course, too much cider, beer and pork led to a food coma that put me out of the running.
Regardless, here's my entry, if late and incomplete. Feh.
Jeff at Pierotti Brothers had baby back ribs on sale for around $4/lb, so we promptly bought two racks, invited K & O for dinner and I made Moroccan spiced baby back ribs with Amy's Pomegranate BBQ Sauce.
I started the ribs with a Moroccan-inspired spice rub, applied in the morning and left to "relax" all day. Just before grilling, I glazed them with the sauce (ever so slightly modified from Amy's original), and sent the boys upstairs with extra sauce for basting.
They ended up incredibly juicy and tender, and flavorful like you wouldn't believe. The spicy sweetness of the cinnamon and nutmeg in the rub was a perfect counterpoint to the tart-sweet flavors of the pomegranate sauce.
We started dinner with a salad of peppercress, cilantro & strawberries dressed with Minus 8 vinegar, olive oil, herbes de Provence, salt & pepper. O brought his famous garlic smashed potatoes and C made a Coconut Refrigerator cake from a recipe in Real Simple magazine.
We had a Ravenswood Sonoma County Carignane '01 with salad and munchies before dinner. This is a unique wine - somewhat dusty with soft fruit and nice acidity. The wine is concentrated towards the front of the tongue, with a bit of spice on the finish.
We also had a Cline Ancient Vines Zinfandel '01, which was drinking perfectly. It was very concentrated and still a deep purple with lots of lovely, jammy-blackberry fruit and a fair bit of white pepper spice. This was wonderful with the ribs.
Moroccan Spice Rub:
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika (smoked, if you have it)
1/2 tsp ground pepper (I use a mix of white/black/green/pink)
the seeds from 4-5 cardamom pods, ground
2 cloves, ground
nutmeg to taste (I use about 1/4 tsp)
