Beer-Braised Country Pork Ribs

Is your mouth watering yet? And you havent seen pictures or a recipe or anything. But the sight of beer along side pork ribs.....toe curling good! And it only gets better. I saw this recipe in Food Network magazine I think. But I added my own stuff and my own twist to it. And it made for a tasty Sunday lunch. Me and Alex like to have a big meal on Sunday between lunch and dinner. That way you get to enjoy the richness of a heavy meal without feeling miserable late at night. This recipe fit the bill! So without further delay.....the recipe!!

Recipe:
4lbs country pork ribs
salt
1-2t hot Hungarian paprika*
1 large onion, sliced
4 medium carrots, sliced
6-8 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 12-oz can/bottle of Ale
1 1/2c chicken broth
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs of thyme
2/3c apple cider vinegar
3T honey

*hot paprika can be found in most stores. And unless you use a lot of it, I wouldnt buy a big bottle of it. Heres a picture of mine.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large dutch oven (must be a dutch oven to go from stove to oven) add a little drizzle of olive oil to the pan over medium high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the ribs in small batches to the pan. Season with salt and 1/3 of the paprika. Brown on both sides. This should take about 8 minutes per side. Remove ribs from pan and set aside. Repeat with remaining ribs until all the ribs are browned.

If there is no oil in the pan, add a little more oil to the pan and reduce heat to medium. Add your onions, garlic, and carrots. Season with salt and another 1/3 of the paprika. Cook until the onions are browned and the flavors intoxicate your senses! This should take between 10-15 minutes.

Once your onions are cooked, add the Ale. In this instance I specifically looked for Ale rather than Lager. I am not sure what the difference is between the different types (besides color) but I thought I would do it by the recipe this time. I used a Fosters Ale.

 Bring mixture to a boil and cook for 5 minutes or until the liquid reduces to about a half.

Add in your chicken stock, bay, thyme, salt and pepper. Once the mixture comes up to boil, add back in your ribs.

*the original recipe called at this point to place in oven uncovered for 1 hour. I was nervous all my liquid would evaporate and leave my meat dry. So I left the lid on my dutch oven and placed in the oven. So whichever way you feel comfortable is how I would do it.


During this slow point I cleaned up and then rough chopped some celery root and baby carrots. Celery root  is exactly what it sounds like, the root on the celery we all know. This is a knobby ugly looking root vegetable. Cut all of the brown part off and you are left with a white creamy looking veggie smelling of celery. Treat it like any other root veggie at this point. I rubbed my carrots and celery root in olive oil, salt, and pepper. I roasted for about an hour. I timed it to come out with the rib meat.


Pull your pot out of the oven and onto the stove over medium heat. Mix together the vinegar and honey in a small bowl or cup. Add the mixture to the ribs and bring back up to a boil. Once boiling turn the heat off and place uncovered in the oven for another 15-20 minutes or until the meat is super tender. 

Take the ribs out of the liquid and onto a platter.

Pour the rest of the contents of the pot through a strainer.

Reserve the veggie medley for your side dish and put the liquid back in the pot to simmer and reduce by half. Once the sauce is reduced (no more than 10 minutes) pour a little over the ribs to keep them moist and place the rest in a bowl or gravy boat or fat separator.

Take your cooked veggie mixture out of the stainer and carefully stir together with the roasted vegetables. Add a little jus if the veggies look too dry.

Eat with some nice whole grain bread and enjoy your hard work!

Me and Alex were making all kinds of "oohs" and "ahhs" and yummy noises. I am not even sure we really talked during the meal! That is how good it was. Alex made the comment during its cooking process that he never understood the phrase "slap your momma" until this dish. Im pretty sure he was just being silly, but with him you never know! All I know is that we were in heaven. And heavens gonna come to lunch today too! There was enough left to eat today!! Oh yeah!! So if you make this, make plenty becuase you are going to want them all for yourself!