My folks got me a subscription to the BBC Good Food Magazine for Christmas and it’s dead handy. I’ve done everything I want to in my recipe books and generally the internet doesn’t deliver new ideas – it just pumps out the same old, same old all the time.
The Magazine however is a well of inspiration – with pictures (so you can see where you are starting to go wrong during the creation of a creation) rather than getting to the end only to realise the recipe you’ve been following was just words on a page and never tried out by the chef who put his/her brand to it.
Here we try out Sweet and Sour Ribs with Pomegranate Salsa. Now I’ve never really got the thing with pomegranate – its a fruit full of pips. However I liked the look of the ribs so we went for it.
For the ribs
- 4lbs pork ribs
- 2 pints pomegranate juice
For the sauce
- ½ pint pomegranate molasses
- 8 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
For the salsa
- 1 red onion, chopped
- Seeds from two pomegranates
- 1 red chilli, chopped
- Juice from two limes
- Chopped coriander
Heat the oven to 160 centigrade. Put the ribs in a roasting tin and pour over the pomegranate juice. Cover with foil and cook for 2 hours until tender.
Put the all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan (to make the molasses boil 1 ½ pints of pomegranate juice in a pan with the juice from 1 ½ lemons and 5 tbsp of sugar until it gets thick).
Making the molasses
Simmer the sauce for a couple of minutes. Put to the side to cool down.
Adding the molasses to the sauce ingredients
Pour the juice from the ribs away and coat them in the sauce.
Cover with some more foil and leave to marinade for an hour or more if you can stand the wait.
Make the salsa (put the ingredients in a bowl and mix then leave in the fridge to chill).
Heat the oven to 220 centigrade and take the ribs out of the fridge to get to room temperature. Bake for 20 mins, turning the ribs to make sure they remain coated in the sauce.
Serve with flatbreads of your choice!
The verdict? Well the ribs were gone in 60 seconds. But everyone agreed the salsa was like eating a bowl of pips. Not impressed with pomegranate (although obviously the juice was essential for the the ribs).
Happiness Stan Lives Here 
Pingback: Sweet and Sour Ribs with Pomegranate Salsa | pureheartsrecipes
Those ribs look delectable but soooo labor intensive. Funny, when I was a kid I used to love pomegranates but when I became an adult, while I still liked the taste, I didn’t like it as much and definitely not enough to spend forever and a day harvesting that tiny amount of fruit from all those seeds.
Agreed – easier just to buy the juice
I tried to find the You Tube link but I couldn’t about how to de-seed a pomegrant. You cut the pom in half then just bang on the “shell” with a wooden spoon. It sounds crazy, but all of the seeds just start falling out without all the bitter while membrane inbetween. I didn’t think it would work, when I saw the video, but it really does. I will keep looking and see if I can find the link for you.
Thanks that sounds like a solution – I couldnt believe how tedious getting seeds out was!
I love the pomegranate! Looks delicious 🙂
Cheers but to be honest I think it looks better than it tastes
Now that looks like a great rib sauce. I’d think if you’re using full strength pomegranate juice that you might not need to put the seeds in & save having to pick your teeth all night. But the color is amazing & there’s nothing like nice sticky ribs.
I was just noticing on your stove that you’ve got 5 knobs on the front – do you have 5 top burners? In the market for a new stove which I thought I’d be able to hold off on until 1 burner burnt out & I’m not spending 1 red cent on that thing. I was just thinking how great it would be to have an extra burner or a warming unit on top.
Yes five burners – its a star – good for the wok but it does burn hard so you have to be careful. Its good because of the space you get on the hob – definitely recommend
I’m definitely going to look into that – there’s been so many times where I needed just one more burner. I have electric but I’m guessing they must be out there.
Gas, you have to have gas!
Well, sometimes I do. Oh…for the stove!
I was completely drawn in by the picture. I can practically taste them. What a great idea! I never would have thought of it.
No I needed some help – pomegranate isn’t the first thing i’d think of to use with ribs!
This looks sticky and delicious. I love the idea of mixing poms with chili and coriander. Well done, Trix!
Cheers – the chilli was needed to give it some kick
I love that kind of BBQ sauce that gets cooked down into that sticky paste !!!
Yes it was like jam in the end
When I make bbq sauce like that, I skim the fat off and use it like sandwich spread
Thats an old trick my grandma taught me – bread and dripping she called it
Looks delicious – even with the pomegranate, which I like you am not a big fan of. The images, as always, are great. I especially like your step-by-step approach. Are you sure you don’t work secretly for the BBC Good Food Magazine?
By the way, the Tesco/beef “additive” story finally made it to these shores on the public radio network.
Now what a job that would be – working for a food magazine – that’s what I need to be doing….
Ribs look good! I make pomegranate molasses too, but I just use pomegranate juice and refined sugar. One thing I learned was that I had to be really careful to check the label to make sure that I was using 100% pomegranate juice since most of what is sold on the market is mostly apple juice with some pomegranate thrown in.
Exactly what I found. So I had to live with it. I mean pomegranate juice is like liquid gold. Not sure why though – I think it’s a bit…..bitter!?! Probably being a philistine for writing that..
I think it’s a little bitter too! Well, maybe too tart is the same as a little bitter.
It’s highway robbery that apple juice-pomegranate concoction!
Happiness Stan, I love the sound of this recipe, being a pomegranate lover myself! (Not so much pork ribs, though, but I’ll find SOMETHING to slather it on….) Thanks for stopping by my blog and following the Pachamama FB page.
Thanks and I’m having real trouble with Facebook – I just can’t get it to work properly….
Hope you can work it out with Facebook – your blog is beautiful!
Those ribs look amazing! I’m a big fan of foodie magazines. I was subscribing to 3 at one point, using my Tesco points, which made it very cheap. I’m down to 1 at the minute, but I have enough of a back catalogue to keep me going for years.
Yes thats the plan – Im getting a backlog of food posts together right now. And then I;m hitting the diet – again!
We also have a Good Food subscription and agree, it’s great for inspiration and is packed with new and exciting recipes! We’d seen these in the magazine, made ribs from an old issue the other day and they were delicious so may have to try and make these ones! Great pictures by the way!
Well worth it!
I love pomegranate. It’s one of my favourite fruits. I made an awesome mango and pomegranate salsa to go over some baked fish last Christmas. mmmmmmmm
Yes I think the pomegranate effect got lost in all that meatiness
I think the pomegranate must have been overpowered by the huge flavours of the other ingredients. Looks lovely all the same. Btw, I am with you on the totally untried ‘branded’ recipes. Very annoying when the Wife spends an afternoon working on something from a magazine only to find it tastes no better than eating the magazine would.
Rant over…
Yes pomegranate isn’t specially strong but god know I stuck enough juice in that sauce….