Oven-Roasted Pork Ribs with Garlic and Roasted Potatoes
Well-made oven-roasted pork ribs may look tricky, but they're actually very simple. A big rack of meaty ribs roasted in the oven can easily be the centerpiece of a good holiday table. And if you roast potatoes alongside the meat, you get a superb side dish too.
Without a doubt, the best and tastiest thing you can make from a pig is salo with garlic, that's hard to argue with. I know a few people who'd get into a fight over it. Still, pork, the most popular kind of meat, goes into thousands of dishes, from simple to fairly exotic.
Supermarkets and markets don't usually sell pork ribs one at a time. Most often the ribs are cut into racks of several, with quite a lot of meat and fat. If the ribs are cut long, 1-2 ribs with meat make one serving. Pork ribs are roasted in the oven as a whole rack, or with a few shallow cuts in the thickest spots. Only once they're done are the ribs cut into portions.
Pork ribs are cooked by roasting. Lately people very often recommend roasting meat in a “bag.” To be honest, I don't like that method at all. Meat in a roasting bag essentially cooks in a lot of steam, and even if you cut the bag open later, only a very thin top layer gets roasted. Plus, meat in a bag loses most of its “juice.” The exception is homemade buzhenina, which is marinated for a long time before roasting and cooked in foil or a dough crust.
That said, roasting meat in a bag is a practically foolproof way to cook it, in the sense of getting it done without burning or undercooking it. You simply can't go wrong. But in terms of flavor, pork ribs cooked by plain roasting are far tastier.
Under dry heat, pork ribs keep all their juices inside and end up juicy and tender. The browned crust that forms on the surface lets the meat roast in its own juices. With this method, you can put chunks of potato right in the pan and get a roasted side dish at the same time.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Meaty pork ribs 600 g
- Garlic 1 head
- Potatoes 3-4
- Vegetable oil (for brushing) 1-2 tsp
- Salt, coriander, black or mixed peppercorns, allspice, thyme, savory to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- We'll make oven-roasted pork ribs by simply roasting a prepared rack of meat, without a marinade and without any wrapping (bag, foil or dough). It's best to choose long ribs cut as a “block” of 4-6. There should be plenty of meat on the ribs and some pork fat.
- In a mortar, combine 1/2 tsp coarse salt, 1-2 allspice berries and 1/2 tsp each of black (or mixed) peppercorns, dried thyme and coriander seeds. Coarsely crush the spices.
- Rinse the whole rack of pork ribs and pat it dry with paper towels. Peel a small head of garlic and cut each clove lengthwise into several pieces. Stud the meat with garlic: pierce the pork with a sharp knife and push garlic into each slit. Then sprinkle the pork with the spice mix. If there's a lot of meat on the ribs, make a few shallow cuts in the thickest spots.
- Cover the pork ribs with a plate and refrigerate for 1 1/2-2 hours for a “dry” marinade. Then wipe the ribs with a paper towel to remove the larger bits of spice, and brush the whole rack with a little vegetable oil to coat it in a thin film of fat. Grease a roasting pan with a little fat and lay the ribs in it. It's best to stand them on the rib bones so the meat is on top. That way the meat has as little contact with the pan as possible.
- Put the pork ribs into an oven preheated to 220°C. A big piece of meat takes quite a while to heat through. Once it warms up and a crust starts forming on the surface, the fat will begin to render out of the pork. Baste the meat with the rendered fat from time to time.
- From the moment the crust starts forming, the pork will need up to 1 hour in the oven. Peel the potatoes and cut them into large wedges, 6-8 per potato. Put them in a bowl, salt them and sprinkle with 1-2 pinches of dried savory, then toss. After 10 minutes, once the salt has dissolved, drizzle the potatoes with 1 tsp vegetable oil (or fat from the roasting pan) and toss again.
- Arrange the prepared potatoes around the pork, which has already started roasting. Keep roasting the ribs along with the potatoes. Roasting potatoes takes a bit longer than frying or boiling them, and can be more than 30 minutes. Check the wedges for doneness by piercing them with the tip of a knife. At the same time, turn or stir the potatoes so they brown evenly and don't burn.
- When the potato wedges are completely done, you can take them out of the pan, while the ribs keep cooking longer if needed.
- When the ribs are fully cooked, they're ready to serve. Cut the meat between the ribs so each long piece has one bone.
- Arrange the pork on large plates and add the potatoes roasted with savory. Pour the fat from the pan over the meat and potatoes.
- Serve the ribs and potatoes only hot, while you can still hear the faint sizzle of hot fat. They're delicious with homemade mustard, spicy tomato sauce or well-made horseradish. Fresh wheat bread won't hurt either.
- If you're cooking the meat for a holiday table, arrange the cut ribs on a large serving platter, add the roasted potatoes and, if you like, some pickles.
| Serves: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 242 |
| Prep: | 2 h |
| Cook: | 1 h 30 mins |
| Total: | 3 h 30 mins |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.4
(11)
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