When you don't have a BBQ...

It's amazing how well you get to know your oven! I never used to cook with it too much but since living in Spain, we have this amazing relationship. Well, that is until I have to clean it... this is the worst house chore possible. I HATE it with a passion. But, as I was saying, until that time comes, I love that little machine :)

Having no BBQ doesn't mean that you cannot have any of those wonderful meals Summer brings. I did some killer ribs the other day with some new potatoes and grilled lettuce. I believe these were the best ribs I have done ever. Our friends were over and they kept on raving about them. They also mentioned that they were the best so far; they would know, they lived with us for almost 3 months! The funny part is that I did not use any BBQ sauce and they were finger-licking good.

Ribs with Creamy Potatoes and Grilled Lettuce



Ingredients:

1.5kg rack of ribs
1kg new potatoes
4 small lettuce heads (cogollos)
1 tbsp Montreal Steak Spices
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp curry
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp cumin
oil
2 tbsp cream (18%)
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp pecorino romano
1 tsp rosemary
balsamic vinegar cream
salt and pepper

In a small bowl, mix the paprika, steak spices, cumin, curry, nutmeg, garlic powder, parsley and black pepper. Honestly, I always eyeball my quantities so have fun with the flavors here.

Place the rack of ribs on an oven rack and rub the spices onto it. You might need to double the quantity depending on your meat.

Turn your oven on at broil and grill your rack for a few minutes (this gives you the grill color and helps seal the meat).

Turn the meat around and grill again.

Now the trick to get juicy ribs is to cover them with aluminium foil and cook them for about 1 1/2 hour at 180C.

Remove the foil and broil again on both sides for some added grilled look and taste.

This is the result:

Now while the meat was cooking, wash your new potatoes and slice them in half. Place them in an oven dish and cook in the oven for about 20 30 minutes. Obviously, I did this while the meat was cooking with the foil.

Remove from the oven and add some rosemary, salt and pepper, the butter, cream and cheese (I cheated here and added some of that leftover Alfredo sauce I had but it worked the same).

For the lettuce, wash the heads and slice in half. Drizzle some cream of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper on them. Top it off with a bit of oil.

Broil in the oven at high until they are "grilled".

And there you have it. A perfectly BBQ value meal done in the comfort of my oven :)

Enjoy!