Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Ribs & Polenta

Last night I made pork ribs and served it on cheesy polenta. All pretty tasty. The only not awesome part of the meal was the polenta's texture. I had regular, finely ground cornmeal. A more coarsely ground cornmeal would have been nicer.


Creamy, cheesy polenta...or grits...depending on your heritage.

To make the polenta, I used about 3/4 cup of cornmeal, that I slowly added to a pot of boiling liquid (1 cup water, 1 cup 1/2 & 1/2), plus one tablespoon of butter. Stir until cooked thru, depending on the type of cornmeal you make (10-30 minutes). Season with salt & pepper. If the polenta will be cheesy, add a handful or two of your favorite cheese, shredded. Another pat or two of butter are also acceptable additions. Chopped herbs as well.

Ribs resting on the cheesy polenta with some extra broth.

I made the same ribs as this recipe, the only difference was the type of seasoning I used as a dry rub. The variety I used was loaded with extra black pepper. Without the polenta as a side, the ribs were super tender and juicy, but also little pepper pots. Not that that is bad in and of itself, but the other flavors were very muted and pushed to the back of the line, barely being noticed, even while raising their hands and shouting for attention.

All in all, the pork paired with the polenta was a delightful combination.

3 comments:

DC Food Blog said...

Where did you find those cuts of ribs? They look meatier (and therefore tastier) than spare ribs or even country ribs. They look more like short ribs (that sounds like a Dr. Suess poem).

ScottE. said...

I don't know specifically what they are, but a boneless, country style rib. Probably not a rib at all. But Giant calls them ribs, so I call them ribs.

Dancer in DC said...

The decision to pare these together was spontaneous, but it really worked well. The creamy taste of the polenta mellowed out the peppery rub of the ribs.