Halloween Ribfest 2010

So last year I smoked my famous Pineapple Jerk Ribs to wild acclaim. It worked out well on several fronts. 1) I got to smoke ribs, which is one of my favorite things ever to do. 2) Handling the cooking for the Ribfest party meant I didn't have to interact with hundreds of children and hand them candy. (Yes, I'm still bah humbug on holidays, get over it.)

Well since last year was such a success, the wife and I decided to declare the 2nd Annual Halloween Ribfest. And to honor the occasion, I decided to bus out an entirely new recipe. This time I went crazy and made some Fillippino-style ribs. About 70 different spices went into the marinade and dry rub, which made this one of the more expensive rib recipes I have undertaken since it involved a bunch of items I normally don't have on hand, like whole Szechuan peppercorns or whole fennel and coriander seed. Oddly, we grew lemongrass in our garden this year, so we actually that covered!

The recipe was a 150% success. Holy crap those ribs were tasty. The only downer was the accompanying sauce, a plum-ginger sauce that I also made from scratch. The wife and the rest of the party loved it, but it wasn't my bag, just something wasn't quite doing it for me. But nevertheless, it looks like we have created a nice tradition with Halloween Ribfest. So mark it down, and reserve your seat for next year.