Two & A Knife

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I’m starting to think the theme going into my summer is going to be sweet heat because I find myself gravitating to the two a lot lately. For me its anything with a decent sugar content plus the hottest pepper I have on hand at the moment. That makes for some really fun, flavorful, interesting cooking. The key to a great spicy fruit based sauce is to.

1. Try your fruit prior to cooking with it. (You’d be amazed how many people don’t and just expect consistent perfectly ripened fruit) This helps you figure out if its ripened or unripen. Sweet or bitter and really it helps as a guide to how much sugar you may potentially have to add to balance the fruit with the pepper
2. Cook your sauce then season. I know that sounds simple but I mean wait till the end to start adding salts, sugars and acids because once your fruit starts to break down it tends to get sweeter naturally, same goes for your peppers, depending on which type you use can become dull with cooking or enhanced with heat.
3. Side disclaimer its not exactly necessary or recommended to just go chomping into super hot peppers. Save that for the fruit.

You may be noticing deals or specials on cherries right about now because its the perfect time for cherry picking! Cherry picking is best late May and June. So there is still time for everyone to still go out and enjoy them. Cherries are actually on the high side normally around here so when its a deal I tend to load up. In the past couple days I’ve pitted a lot of cherries, I’ve lost a lot of cherry pits and cleaned up a lot of dropped ones.

Normally I pit them and freeze them and use them while I have them . Cherries freeze really nicely just make sure you pit them ahead of time, future handling after frozen can really mush them up. Same goes for peppers so freeze excess of peppers too!

Now on to the recipe. This recipe I really enjoyed, one because I just love Chinese spare ribs and two I love working with habaneros and making sauces.

This recipe can be used to be put on any kind of meat really. I highly recommend Chinese spareribs. Chinese spare ribs are basically regular spare ribs which tend to have a higher meat to bone ratio but these are cut horizontally about 1 inch thick. So I really enjoy roasting these in the oven and don’t have to get the grill out to cook big slabs of meat. I make these on a weeknight in a snap. Try this recipe out and let me know what you think!

Recipe

• 4lb Chinese Spareribs
• 1Tb Salt
• 1Tb Black pepper
• 1Tb Garlic powder
• 1tsp Fresh Thyme
• 1tsp Fresh Rosemary
• Cherry Habanero Sauce
• 2 Habaneros
• 1.5 C Fresh Cherries
• 2Tb ketchup
• 1Tb Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2tsp salt
• 5 cloves Fresh Garlic
• 1 C water

Directions

• Combine salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme and rosemary.
• Rib onto Chinese spareribs. Let sit for 1 hour to overnight.
• Spread evenly onto sheet pan roast at 360 for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
• To make cherry habanero sauce blend all ingredients in a blender till smooth.
• Add into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and begin simmering for 15-18 minutes. Till desired thickness. Baste ribs with sauce and enjoy!