Tell Me Why, I Don't Like Mondays....

I suppose most people wouldn't even remember the song by the Boomtown Rats, before St Sir Bob Geldof got his halo lol
In any case, I really DON"T like Mondays, and I can tell you why too. Before I stopped work to take care of my other half, Monday was not a good day, but even now it hasn't improved any. The main reason for disliking it is that Monday is rubbish day. Yes I hear you say, but if you prepped the bags the night before it wouldn't be that much of a chore, but if grass were dollars we'd all be rich!
Trouble is, that we have to use the council approved rubbish bags, which apparently are made of tissue paper, or at least, they tear like it, and they cost over $2.00 a pop. In order to not end up trailing rubbish all the way down the drive, I've come to the conclusion that double bagging is the only way to go, using good old old fashioned black sacks. While this does mitigate the "pick the bag up, have bag explode all over you" issue, it does require some serious effort getting one, into t'other, which is not fun first thing.

Who, me??

Anyway, the upshot of that is that on most days if I (or the other half) didn't sleep well, I can usually go through my morning routine which is feed the younger cats, then the oldies, then put the dogs food out and put them outside, uncover Bacci the 'tiel,  put some food in for Levi the house rabbit, and let him out, and then, making sure that 'tombi, the youngest cat isn't shut in the lounge with the bird aviary, go back to bed for another couple of hours. On rubbish day that tends to go by the board, and did particularly today because of Jeni one of our dogs. Shes a Staffordshire Bull Terrier that we got from the SPCA and she was supposed to be 10 when we got her, which would make her about 14 or so now, so an old lady. And like most old ladies she has the odd lapse shall we say, on the carpet in the hall. Today however she has dire rear (say it out loud). Even so, usually I don't worry about it, just clean it up. It really is part and parcel of having an old dog, EXCEPT when the reason she has an upset tummy is that the old tart nicked half a loaf of garlic bread off the coffee table last night!! Hopefully shell be feeling a bit better tonight.
The garlic bread was the remains of last nights BBQ, which turned out rather well. I wanted to do ribs, because we had a pile of ribs in the freezer. We usually buy pork belly in the piece, and on the bone and I bone it myself, which then means that I have the ribs which I can either use as a trivet to roast the belly, or pop into the freezer to cook up as spare ribs later. Now that the weather is finally co-operating a little we've been having a BBQ, or braai to use the South African term, most nights. The other half is part South African,and braai is one of the few things I can be assured that he'll eat.
Anyway, after a search through some websites, and a root through my cupboards, I decided to do a dry rub, and then baste with a sauce.

Dry Rub

The BBQ in among the fruit trees

The dry rub was brown sugar, smoked paprika, dried oregano, black pepper, sea salt and onion and garlic powder, which I mixed up and rubbed all over the meat then left it to sit till the coals were hot. I'm not too sure about the quantities, but it should be mostly sugar, enough paprika to colour the mix red, a lot of pepper and salt to taste and just a teaspoon or so of the onion and garlic powders (and it has to be said, that if you didn't have the powders, you could make a paste with the same ingredients just using onion juice from a grated onion and crushed garlic, I use the microplane) to go onto the BBQ i used a foil roasting pan, put the ribs inside it and then covered with foil. The whole idea is that the ribs go on for a long slow covered cook in their own juices, before they're taken out of the roasting pan, put on the grill rack, and basted with the sauce until browned and sticky.

Sauce
The sauce is used to baste the meat once its had its initial cooking, and just gives it that sticky glaze. I find a lot of american bbq sauces to be very sweet so I pretty much always fiddle around with them.
For this one the base was equal parts of bought bbq sauce (I needed to use it up) and tomato sauce, then  I tasted and started to adjust. With the sauce that I started out with, I found it had an unpleasant chemically tasting smoke flavour added, and while the tomato sauce helped to cut it a bit, I could still pick it up, so the main aim was to get rid of that taste while playing up all the others. For sharpness I added a BIG spoon of dijon mustard (you could use english mustard also, or vinegar), and to mellow the flavour another big spoon of onion jam (I do my own so always have it in the fridge). I also added salt, and then some maple syrup, which is sweet yes, but also has a lovely smoky hint that goes beautifully with savory flavours, think maple syrup and bacon....oh and please, only REAL maple syrup. The final touch was a few splashes of soy sauce, for that umami hit.

The BBQ

While I have used gas BBQs many times in the past and would still use one if that was the only thing availiable, I do think that nothing beats the flavour of a charcoal BBQ, and I love my Weber knock off to bits. It was only a cheapie but the fact of the matter is that to BBQ all you really need is something to contain the coals, something to put over them to cook on and you're sweet. The addition of vents to control the heat and a lid to create a smoke oven are gilt on the lily, but great things to have.
Anyway, to set up the BBQ for the ribs, once the coals were hot (this is when there is no visible flame and the coals are covered in grey ash), they were pushed to one side. This creates zoned heat and allows you to cook with more control. I put on the grill rack and then put on the foil tray containing the ribs, on the side with no coals. You want it to cook over INdirect heat. Partly close your bottom vents so the fire doesn't burn too hot, put on the lid and cook for 2-3 hours, turning the foil tray regularly.
Once time is up, remove the grill rack and on the side with no coals put in a drip tray (I use another foil baking tray) and put into it some liquid. It can be whatever you want, beer, water, wine etc. If you want to up the smokey flavour, damp down a handful of manuka chips and throw them on the coals just before you put the meat in.  Replace the grill rack, and put your ribs onto the rack, again on the side without coals. Remember the sauce and the rub both contain sugar and will burn over direct heat. Slap on your sauce, and cook with the lid on, turning regularly and basting with sauce for about another hour or so.
If you like garlic bread pop it on in the last half hour or so if you can fit it on the cooler side, if you cant just wait till the meat comes off and do it then.
yummm.