Cookin’ and Bookin’ with Kelli Kelly and Allison is back. We both love to read, we both love to cook, and we both love to keep our favorite editors at The Fallon Post on their toes, so we are mixing it up again this week. I have a recipe for you to try - and just a few pages over, Chef Kelli is taking over The Book Report.
During the pandemic, my husband built an English pub in our backyard called The Lab & Lion. It is named after my husband, who is 100% a lion-hearted Leo, and his yellow Labrador, Kai, who is pretty much his shadow. The building itself has seen many uses over the years. When he decided to turn it into a pub, his friends were all eager to pitch in - and even more eager to have a place to hang out and share a drink. Since its completion, The Lab & Lion has taken on a life of its own with monthly “Pub Nights” and other gatherings, including an annual backyard rib competition. All of our friends get together in our backyard with every type of rib cooking apparatus you can imagine, and we spend the day drinking, cooking, laughing, and trash-talking. Last year, I told everyone that I would make the most delicious ribs with nothing but my humble oven. It was controversial amongst this group of hardcore rib enthusiasts, but I managed to take second place, losing by one measly vote. This year, I knew that I was going to have to step up my game even more.
One night, I was making grilled chicken thighs marinated in a sticky, sweet sesame-ginger concoction that my kids love when I had an epiphany. That marinade makes boring, boneless skinless chicken thighs a thing of beauty. Imagine what it could do for my ribs. So, in my quest to be crowned Lab & Lion Pub Rib Champion, I decided to ditch the smoke, and traditional barbeque sauce and seasonings, in favor of tender oven-roasted meat and bold Asian flavors. Sounds a little bit blasphemous, I know, but this was a go-big-or-go-home thing, and I would either win and take home the trophy, or I would go down in a fiery plume of my competition’s beloved barbeque smoke.
Well, guess what happened? Out of nine total rib entries, these ribs won by a landslide. We have a very talented group of friends, the competition was steep, and all of the ribs were delicious. No one loses because we all get to eat a mountain of ribs.
This is the marinade I used. It is more than a first-prize winner for pork spare ribs. It can also be used on grilled chicken thighs, drumsticks, pork chops, or tenderloin. I can promise that whatever you use it on will be a winner.
Allison’s Prize Winning Sesame Ginger Marinade
Ingredients
1 cup low-sodium soy sauce
5 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup tahini
3 tbsp sesame oil (preferably toasted sesame oil)
¼ cup rice vinegar
3 tbsp fresh grated ginger
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp red pepper flakes or more if you like things spicy
Directions
Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over protein in a zip-loc bag and let it all marinade in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, but it is best if you can do it overnight.
If you are making spare ribs and want to do them in the oven. Cook the marinated ribs at 300° until they are tender, around 3 hours. While they are cooking, make a second round of marinade to use as a glaze. Bring it to a simmer and let it reduce until it is thick, stirring so it doesn’t burn. Set it aside. In the final 30 minutes of cooking, brush the glaze over the ribs every 5 minutes until they are cooked to your liking. You can put the broiler on for a few minutes at the end if you like a little bit of char.
Garnish with extra sesame seeds and a handful of sliced green onion, and get ready to accept your trophy.
Allison Diegel is the Executive Chaos Coordinator at the Diegel Home for Wayward Girls and Their Many Pets here in her hometown of Fallon. She has been reading since before she could talk, and now she likes doing lots of both.
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