Richard Gunner Fine Meats Beef Ribs w Chipotle Sauce

Picture by Martine Robert of ChompChomp.com.au

Well, here it is guys, the recipe for the tender RGFM beef rib with chipotle sauce.

One of the other dishes that went down well for the 2012 Eat.Drink.Blog dinner were these awesomely tender beef ribs with chipotle sauce.  I have a deep fascination with secondary cuts of meat, I love them.  Growing up, I hardly saw primary cuts being served on our dining table at home.  My mum or my grandmother would cook with predominantly secondary cuts like ox tail, ribs, beef tendons etc.  Beef ribs was used in a Filipino dish called sinigang; my mum would use either pork ribs or beef ribs, either way, it was braised in a stock flavoured with tamarind for hours until the meat is so tender it almost falls apart especially when you try to sneak one out of the pot, which was often for me because I would always try and pinch one out of the pot before they were served.

These ribs were cooked much the same, just finished differently.  The thing with secondary cuts is that it is packed full of flavour, intense flavours actually.  The draw back is that, to extract these flavours you have to slow cook them at low temperatures for hours to infuse flavours, develope flavours and tenderize the cut of meat.  Secondary cuts are working muscles so it’s tougher if you don’t treat it right.  Tenderizing can be done in several ways, slow cooked on a BBQ, braised, oven braised, slow roasted and the list goes on, it just depends on the final outcome you want.  In this case, I have slow braised it in a beef stock for a few hours on low temperature making sure I develope flavours and also tenderise the meat by cooking it for a long period of time breaking down tendons and connective tissues into gelatinous goodness.

Chipotle sauce is something else!  I love chillies and I fell in love with chipotle sauce because of its smokey flavour.  It’s different, it’s earthy and smokey.  I  came across it when I was trying out a recipe for a mole sauce, a spicy Mexican chocolate sauce.  I accidentally picked up the wrong chilli and from there, I was hooked.

Chipotle is a smoked jalepeno.   Jalepeno chillies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and simply smoked until it becomes this dark, almost blackened chili.  It comes in several ways but the most common is dried or in adobo sauce.  Like Filipino adobo, made with vinegar and soy, Mexican adobo (adobo means sauce) is similar but with out the soy sauce and the Mexican version is  made with a few more spices.

This is my interpretation of the chipotle sauce.  I added a little smoked capsicum in the recipe to boost the smokey flavours and roasted tomatoes to make it more dense.  I sometimes add butter to finish to give it the richness and nice glossy finish to the dish.  The honey is there to give it the “sticky” texture and helps make it really caramelized when roasting.  Try it as a glaze for the beef ribs but if you cool it down, you can add it to mayonaisse and use it as a condiment to say, slow roasted pulled beef rib slider with slaw or pulled pork with crackling slider and avocado.  Mate, if that doesn’t get the juices flowing, I don’t know what will??

I also have to mention how lucky we were to have Richard Gunner supply all of our meats for this event.  We use RGFM meats in the restaurant because one, they’re from our great state of South Australia and secondly, Richard Gunner meats are definitely one of the best going around.  Full traceability and we love that he is so passionate about all his product that he can back it up.  If you have some one with the type of passion and commitment to their product like Richard has, go with them, because chances are they’ll never let you down and boy did that man deliver on the night or what; with both the beef and the lamb that we cooked on the spit.  I’ll take some credit for the cooking but some would have to go to Richard for supplying an awesome product.

Picture by Martine Robert of ChompChomp.com.au

Roasted Beef Ribs with Chipotle Sauce

Serves 8

For the Ribs

2.5kg RGFM Beef Ribs – leave as whole racks on the bone

8litres Water or Beef Stock if Available

1tspn Black Pepper Corns

1 Onion – peeled and quartered

1 Garlic Bulb – halved

1 Bay Leaf

For the Chipotle Sauce

300ml Vegetable Oil

4 Brown Onions – peeled and chopped into small cubes

2 Garlic Bulbs – peeled

1tsp Cumin Powder

1tsp Dried Thyme

5 Tomatoes – roasted whole until slightly coloured and soft

5 Red Capsicum – blackened on open flame, peeled & deseeded

1 x 420gr Tin of Chipotle in Adobo

¼ Cup Honey

Sea Salt –  season to taste

White Pepper – season to taste

(200gr Butter – optional)

250ml Mayonnaise – if using as a mayo

Method

For the Ribs

1. Pre Heat oven at 180Degrees Celsius
2. Place 8 liters of water (or stock) in a large pot along with the black pepper corns, chopped brown onions, garlic and bay leaf to make a cooking stock
3. Take the stock up to boiling point then down to simmer for about 20 minutes
4. Add the beef ribs into the stock and simmer in the stock for 45 minutes to one and a half hours or until the meat starts to gently fall off the bone
5. Strain the beef ribs and allow to drain in a colander.  Reserve the stock for later use
6. Place the ribs on paper towel and dab them dry, place on a wire rack, meat side up with roasting pan underneath ready for roasting

For the Chipotle Sauce

1. Heat up a large deep pan and add the vegetable oil on high
2. Add the onions and garlic in the pan straight away
3. Take up the heat and stir as the oil gets hotter.  You want to cook it so as that the oil heats up slowly, slowly browning the onions an garlic evenly.  Do not leave the pot and continuous stirring at all times until golden brown
4. Once browned, add the cumin and thyme and stir in
5. Then add the roasted tomatoes and roasted, peeled red capsicums and stir in.  Cook until the both the ingredients break down
6. Add the tinned chipotle and the juice from the tin then bring to simmer and continue to simmer for about another 15 minutes
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste
8. Blitz the sauce to a smooth paste using a hand blender
9. Add the honey and continue to blitz until smooth (add optional butter)

To finish

1. Brush the ribs lavishly with the chipotle sauce
2. Roast at pre heated oven for 15 minutes basting every 5-8 minutes with remaining sauce.  You can achieve a smokier flavour if cooked in a Webber at the same temp and timings
3. Before serving, finish on charcoal grill for extra smokey flavour (normal BBQ grill would be fine).  If cooked in a Webber, omit this stage
4. Serve with chipotle mayonnaise and simple garden salad

For the chipotle mayonnaise

1. Place ¼ of the chipotle sauce in a mixing bowl and cool right down the fridge for about 30 minutes
2. Mix this with the mayonnaise until evenly mix thorough