Before you remind me of exactly what date it is and how I should have reviewed this BEFORE the hol­i­days, hold up.  I have to say Nigella Christ­mas: Food Fam­ily Friends Fes­tiv­i­ties by Nigella Law­son has recipes that are not just for the hol­i­days.  I have to con­fess that I was hes­i­tant to pick this up because I thought “Lys, why the heck do you need a cook­book just for Christ­mas?!?!?” as my cook­book shelf began to scream in hor­ror that it was about to have a new addi­tion.  How­ever, in ret­ro­spect, I’m glad I picked it up because I have recipes that will take me through the year.

I flipped through it and the pic­tures are gor­geous.  The recipes are some­what sim­ple for the home cook and, unlike this gal who blew up a food proces­sor mak­ing the accom­pa­ny­ing spoon bread (more on that later), every­thing is pretty straight for­ward.  There are tips for enter­tain­ing, brunch ideas, great sides, etc.  Some of the recipes that I’ve book­marked for future “inves­ti­ga­tion” are the Pome­gran­ate Mar­tini, Boston Baked Beans, But­ter­nut Orzotto, Triple Cheese and Onion Strata and, of course, the Espresso Mar­tini.   There’s a chap­ter on var­i­ous chut­neys, vod­kas and other giftable items and even a sched­ule for the hol­i­day day with what to do when.  It’s a book that I will refer to time and time again.

The one recipe that I HAD to try was the Bour­bon Glazed Ribs.  Hav­ing never made a rack of ribs before, this was quite the chal­lenge.  I will say that unlike my friends, I don’t often drink Bour­bon and I knew I’d have to go out and pro­cure a bot­tle.  In the move, the con­tents of my liquor cab­i­net (and the Maker’s Mark) was gifted to SL and I’m slowly rebuild­ing my Philly bar (Didn’t want to be branded “Lys Capone”).  One prob­lem:  there are so many bour­bons on the mar­ket and which one should a gal buy?  After con­sult­ing with the Bour­bon expert, Rifle­man, I was told that “any” bour­bon would be fine as he felt that Maker’s Mark might be too pricey.  How­ever, in true Nigella form, I thought that it would be a dis­ser­vice to the recipe to not use Maker’s Mark.  Hav­ing never bought a rack of ribs before, I bought one which turned out to be ran­cid within a day (shocked and sur­prised that Gen­uardis sold that) but after dis­cus­sions with another butcher and learn­ing what hap­pens when they shrinkwrap ribs, I bought a dif­fer­ent brand and attempted the recipe again.

The bour­bon glaze is ADDICTING.  Seri­ously, I’m think­ing I might have to make another batch of it just to keep in the fridge to glaze chicken and every­thing.  Nigella is prone to recipes that you can whip up the night before and leave in the fridge and this recipe was no excep­tion.  The next day we were treated to some amaz­ing ribs and even though I ter­ror­ized my Cuisi­nart with attempt­ing to make too much spoon bread in an 11 cup bowl when it clearly needed a 14 cup bowl, the din­ner was a suc­cess.  The cam­era was on life sup­port as it fell in the left­over spoon­bread bat­ter while I was try­ing to clean up the chaos.  Will I make this again – sure – but I would def­i­nitely cut the spoon­bread recipe in half.  The ribs – heck that’s a tried & true and I’ll prob­a­bly make it with the Boston Baked Beans next time.  Add this rib recipe to your reper­toire – you won’t be sorry.

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Bour­bon Glazed Ribs

Recipe adapted from Nigella Christ­mas: Food Fam­ily Friends Festivities

Ingre­di­ents:

• 24 St. Louis-style pork spareribs
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup bourbon
• 2 table­spoons soy sauce
• 2 table­spoons pre­pared yel­low mus­tard (I used dijon)
• 2 table­spoons tomato ketchup

Direc­tions:

1. Put the ribs in a reseal­able plas­tic bag and add the other ingre­di­ents to form a mari­nade.  Place into the refrig­er­a­tor, putting the bag into a bowl to avoid drips or spillages, and leave overnight.
2. The next day, remove the ribs from the refrig­er­a­tor, and pre­heat the oven to 425 degrees F.
3. Pick the ribs out of the mari­nade and put them into a shal­low roast­ing pan (lined with alu­minum foil for eas­ier cleanup), then pour the mari­nade into a saucepan.
4. Cook the ribs for 1 hour, turn­ing them over halfway through cooking.
5. When the ribs are cooked, bring the mari­nade to a boil and cook for about 7 min­utes or until it is thick and glossy.
6. Plate up the ribs than pour the bour­bon sauce over them.

(Dis­claimer – in my para­noia, I made a sep­a­rate batch of the mari­nade and reduced it for the glaze rather than reuse the mari­nade from the night prior.  What can I say – I get ner­vous with reusing marinades.)

Gath­er­ing The Mari­nade Ingredients

The Final Prod­uct – Hun­gry yet…

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And, as promised, the spoon­bread evidence…

Part I – it’s in the Cuisinart…

Part II – WHIRRRRRRR, It Mixes…

and – Part III – Spoon­bread Bat­ter – EVERYWHERE…

I need the new fancy Cuisi­nart… (or so I’ll keep say­ing to jus­tify buy­ing it instead of a new pair of Loubous…)