Mexican Pork Ribs in Orange and Chili Sauce

This is where the "almost" comes into the Blog Title!!

We had a family meal on the weekend with my brother, his wife and my adorable niece (nearly 2) and nephew (nearly 4). They live on a farm and are meat-three-times-a-day eaters so there is a little food culture clash between our families. But we are all passionate foodies and very big users of spices so we fit in with each other and manage to eat well together. 

So we cooked a meat meal! A Rare Event! (It was delicious)

The other culture clash between our families is that they don't fancy the internet and insist no images of them appear on the WWW. Thus my photos are a bit poor as I had to take them quickly and before hitting the table

They came in the late afternoon so we started with some Guacamole, a Chipotle Dip I found on a Costco adventure and some Tortilla Chips.  

Then I made an Orange & Chilli sauce based on one I found online to fit a Mexican Theme. 

Mexican Ribs In Orange & Chili Sauce

(Costillitas en Naranja)

Ingredients

• 2kg Pork Ribs 
• 2 Tbspn vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions , sliced
• 1 can 450g can diced tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 dried Chipotle chili
• 1/2 small tin of chipotle in adobo sauce
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground clove
• ½ cup fresh orange juice
• ¹⁄3 cup dry white wine
• 1 Tbspn brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon orange zest 
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• fresh Coriander (cilantro) (for garnish)

Method:

• Heat oil in a heavy based pan over a medium heat.
• Add Onions, Saute until soft (approx 5 min)
• Add garlic, chilies, cinnamon and cloves to the onions cook and stir for a few seconds.
• Add Tomato , cook for 5 minutes or until bubbling.
• Add orange juice, wine, orange rind, salt and sugar and cook until bubbling.
• Lower heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
• At this point I put some aside for the vegetarian serve.
• Then I browned pork ribs over a high heat, spooned the sauce over them, covered the pan and baked it for 1.5 hrs in a moderate oven. 

• 

  Sneaky (and poor) photo at the table

• Next Remove ribs to serving platter, keep warm.
• Skim the sauce and discard the fat.
• Stir in the vinegar.
• Spoon Sauce over the ribs.
• Garnish with coriander

I choose to serve it with mash as we had a potato glut and it worked really well together - I guess I would normally have chosen rice though.

I made a simple corn salsa - corn off the cob, diced fresh tomato, parsley, coriander, lime juice and olive oil. I also cooked a few baby peas. Mia had some leftover Vegetarian Chili, some reserved meatless sauce and all the vegies.

It was a cold and rainy night here - as was most of Sydney’s summer :( - and this was a very satisfying comfort food meal.   

Nicola