Sweet American-style Spare Ribs

Spare ribs were on sale this week at the grocery store and we just could not resist. So we brought them home and waited for the perfect day to make them.

Well, the first snow of the season brought that day and we decided that we needed something warm and delicious to fight the cold winter weather. We made our own sauce (saving our BBQ sauce brought from the USA for when we really crave it) and now the only thing we are wishing is that we had bought two packs of spare ribs instead of one.

For our tasty American-style spare ribs you need:

500 g spare ribs
1 onion
1 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1 Tbs vinegar (not balsamic)
2 Tbs honey
1/2-1 Tbs oil for cooking
salt, pepper and chili flakes

This recipe is very easy and only takes about 15 minutes to prepare. The long part about making spare ribs is letting the ribs cook long enough that they are soft and juicy.


Start by preheating the oven to 375 F (200° C). Then dice the onion, cook on medium heat with the oil until glassy looking. Add the brown sugar and cook until caramelized.
  
 

Add the rest of the ingredients, including the ketchup, vinegar, honey and seasoning. Mix well and warm thoroughly.




Place the spare ribs into a baking dish, cover with the sauce. Cook at 375 F for at least one hour.

It's ok to drool

Serve with rice or homemade french fries and a vegetable or salad. If you want extra sauce to use over your ribs once they are cooked double the recipe above.

The first snow of the season came on a German holiday. For the Americans out there, Nikolaustag (St. Nicholas Day) is a holiday for children celebrated in Germany and other parts of Europe. The night before children put their shoes outside of their bedroom door. The next morning, if they had been a good kid, the shoe is filled to the brim with chocolates and candy.

Even though she is a bit past being a child, Nikolaus must have understood that she missed all her Nikolaustags when growing up in America and in the morning her boot (of course, she put out the biggest shoes she owns!) was filled with her favorite sweets :)