sticky beef spare ribs

Who doesn't like sticky ribs? My kids and I devoured these for dinner tonight.The kids love gnawing on the rib bones and dipping the meat into the sticky sauce.

Super simple to make, ridiculously delicious and nutrient-dense (these are my 3 key cooking criteria!).

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

2x pastured beef spare ribs (approx. 500g in total)

For the marinade;

15g garlic
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (I like the Melrose brand as its the cleanest).
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/8 tsp salt
cracked pepper

Directions

Blend the marinade ingredients with a hand held (stick) blender well mixed. Pour over the ribs in an oven proof baking dish. Allow to marinate in the fridge for 2+ hours if time permits. Before popping into the oven, brush the ribs with the marinade mixture from the bottom of the dish with a cooking brush. Cook covered at 80 degrees Celsius for 8+ hours (or higher temp for shorter time. Don't cook above 120 degrees as high temp cooking denatures fats and proteins and causes inflammation).

Once or twice while the ribs are cooking, baste them with the marinade mixture from the bottom of the dish. Baste again just before serving.

Serves 2-3 (2 ribs served me plus 2 kids with some left overs - the one I bought were HUGE).

I teamed this with some steamed Asian greens and a cup of home-made chicken broth.

For the greens I steamed boy choy until soft and dressed it with olive oil, a splash of tamari (wheat free soy sauce), a handful of roughly chopped mint and scattering of activated  sesame seeds.

If you try this, let me know what you think! :)

Mildly spiced beef cheek and sweet potato casserole

This week I bought beef cheeks for the first time. They are cheap ($21.99/kg) and I bought the Tova Platinum grass fed brand from David Jones Food Hall. I slow cooked them in a casserole for 24 hours and they were so incredibly melt-in-your-mouth tender. I share my simple recipe below. For those of you who have done my casserole cooking classes you will know that my casseroles follow an easy-to-remember 4 part formula:

1. Pastured meat - in this case 1 packet of Tova beef cheeks.

2. Liquid - 1 cup home made beef or chicken broth and 1:4 cup balsamic vinegar or red wine. If you don't have bone broth just use filtered water- it won't be as rich, nutritious and flavoursome but it will still be fine.

3. Herbs and spices - I used 1 tablespoon OVVIO Indian Herb & Spice blend bought form OVVIO -The Organic Lifestyle Store in Paddington 5 ways (or make your own using Cumin, Tumeric, Cardamon, Fennel, Fenugreek, Chilli, Cinnamon, Garlic granules), plus liberal amounts of sea salt and cracked pepper. Instead of the Indian herbs you could use garam masala which is similar. Or use Mediterranean inspired spices like oregano, basil, bay leaf and some tomato puree. If you don't have any spices don't let that stop you- just season with good ol' sea salt and pepper.

4. Vegetables- a couple of diced garlic cloves, 1 diced onion, 1 large sliced sweet potato or other root vegetables to your liking.

Add everything into an oven proof casserole dish or slow cooker. This will take you between 2-4 minutes (I guarantee it- I've timed myself many times!!). Cook on low heat (e.g. 80 degrees) for 8-24 hours. Ladle the juices over the meat in shallow soup bowls. Serve with some steamed buttered greens or a garden salad. Easy, delicious and nutritious! Great for these cold wintery evenings.

Wholefoods in Melbourne

I’ll be heading to Melbourne on 6-11 April for some R&R (“recipe-writing” and “reading” a pile of nutrition related articles). For all my Melbourne customers feel free place your orders for activated nuts and coconut balls so that I can get your orders packed and ready. Where to buy grass-fed meats in Melbourne?? I’ve heard great reports from Rendinas butchery. The Canadian Way (Australia’s only source of truly wild salmon) now delivers frozen salmon to Melbourne by courier and dry ice delivery.