I WANT MY BABY BACK! or Spiced Baby Back Ribs With Maple Syrup.

 I was going to title this piece “Curse you Canada and the moose you rode into town on”. But, that would be churlish of me. No, why should I damn an entire country because of my distress?  I just have to accept that youngest daughter has flown the parental nest and is making one for herself in a maple tree. 

She was home for a brief visit at Christmas and I did get to visit her for 24 hours while on a US and Canada business trip earlier in the month. I should be grateful. But, I can’t bring myself to let the check shirt wearing, ax swinging, forest living nation off the hook that easily. It’s as simple as this; “I WANT MY BABY BACK”.

And if I can’t have her home again, I suppose I had better just make some spiced baby back ribs and serve them with lashings of maple syrup. Maybe that will let me think more kindly about the country and the big bearded, soft-spoken giants that occupy it. If I’m going to think about youngest daughter while preparing this dish, I had better make it spicy, so I have a decent excuse for my eyes watering just a little bit.

Spice it up with seven kinds of tastiness. That will make your eyes water.

Ingredients for smoked spiced baby back ribs

• 4 slabs of baby back (pork) ribs
• 1.5 tablespoons of paprika
• 1 tablespoon of dark brown sugar
• half a tablespoon of salt
• half a tablespoon of garlic salt
• half a tablespoon of ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
• half a tablespoon of cumin seeds

Put the fist six of the spice ingredients in a bowl. Dry fry the cumin seeds and then grind them in mortar. Add them to the others and stir to mix.

There is a lot of flavour in this bowl. The darker brown is the fried cumin seeds.

Next, comes the difficult bit (not as traumatic as having the kid emigrate but difficult all the same). Remove the sheet of membrane from inside the ribs. Do this by working a blunt knife between the membrane and a rib near the centre of the slab. Work it loose then pull with all your might until the membrane comes away. It’s easier to show than to tell so look a the photo below

It’s tough work. But, not as tough as having your young ‘un buy a one way ticket to Canada.

Rub the ribs all over with the spice mix. In my case, a lot of the salt didn’t stick. This is probably a good thing.

That spice rub is looking almost the colour of the Canadian flag. Damn it!

Wrap the slabs in cling film and leave in the fridge overnight. The next bit will prevent any of you without a smoker from participating. However, you could just slow roast them in the oven instead. They won’t have the lovely smokey flavour but they will be delicious and tasty.

They look lovely going into the smoker.

Place the slabs in the smoker at 110ºC for 4 hours.

They look pretty damn tasty coming out too.

Paint the ribs with lashings of original Canadian maple syrup. This at least will shrink the distance between father and youngest daughter.

There is nothing more Canadian than Jakeman’s. Or so I hear….

The ribs will take a decent lick of this deliciousness.

Note the tinfoil. This to facilitate easy wrapping for the final stage of cooking.

Wrap the ribs and warm them in the oven. Prepare some chips (fries to you Canadians reading this). I made mine in the oven too. Divide the ribs and serve them with fries and additional maple syrup. They should be fantastically tasty (if you like pretty spicy). These had my eyes watering.

Note the Canadian shirt I used as a tablecloth. The tea towel was a present from daughter.

I do know that I can’t blame that great country of Canada for taking my daughter. Truth is I can’t and don’t blame anybody. I am delighted to see her making her way in the world.

Maybe, just maybe, she will see this post and might think of coming home to share a slab. Maybe? Boy, these are making my eyes water again…