From My Kitchen

I’ve got new rules (but I’m not counting ’em): Always make more ribs than you think you’ll need, and don’t forget napkins for sticky fingers. Ten minutes to marinade, and an hour in the oven – this is straightforward to make, in fact it’s almost as easy as getting a takeout. Three of us managed to work our way through this lot:

Ingredients

Marinade:

4 garlic cloves, minced

125ml light soy sauce

100ml hoisin sauce

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp Chinese five spice powder

And:

At least 1kg pork ribs (I used about 1.2kg)

Method

1. Put all of the marinade ingredients in a large sealable bag, and squish around to combine well.
2. Pop the ribs in the bag too, reseal, then tip the bag around to ensure every surface of every rib is covered in marinade.
3. Place the bag flat in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.
4. Heat oven to 160C.
5. Prep a large roasting tin with a double lining of tin foil, then put a roasting rack on top, and pour 1cm water into the base of the tin.
6. Pop the ribs on top, reserving the marinade.
7. Roast for 1 hour, brushing on the marinade every 15 minutes and turning the ribs over after 30 minutes.
8. After the final basting, heat the remaining marinade in a pan in order to reduce it to a thick sauce (and to cook out any raw pork). Depending on how thick you want it, maybe add a scant teaspoon of cornflour mixed with a little water, and keep stirring until any cloudiness disappears and the sauce reaches the desired consistency.
9. Serve with aforementioned napkins, fries and cucumber chunks.