Baby back ribs with Korean sauce and plum salsa recipe

Our baby back ribs with Korean sauce and plum salsa are tender, sweet and savoury – so irresistible! Brining the meat overnight makes it so moist and juicy, and the Korean BBQ sauce adds a real punch of flavour. The umami flavours of this Korean sauce are lip-smackingly good. Baby back ribs are leaner and more tender than spare ribs, and don’t worry, they are only called baby as they are shorter in length than bigger spare ribs!

Ingredients

• 1.5kg baby back pork ribs

For the brine

• 250ml cider (we used Aspalls)
• 250ml apple juice
• 2tbsp caster sugar
• 11/2tbsp salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 star anise

For the Korean BBQ sauce

• 1 apple
• ½ onion, peeled, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 3tbsp honey
• 4tbsp soy sauce
• 4tbsp gochujang (or 1tsp dried chilli flakes)
• 150ml tomato ketchup
• 3tsp sesame oil

For the salsa

• 3 plums, pips removed and finely chopped
• 1 bunch coriander, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced
• zest and juice of 2 limes

Method

1. In a small pan, heat together the cider, apple juice, sugar, salt, bay leaf and star anise. Remove from the heat once the sugar has dissolved and leave to cool. Pour this mixture over the baby back ribs in a plastic bag, seal well, and place the bag in a bowl (to avoid spillage). Leave the ribs to brine overnight in the fridge.
2. The following day, preheat the oven to 160C. To make the Korean BBQ sauce, blitz together all the ingredients. Place the ribs in a baking dish, cover with the BBQ sauce and 250ml boiling water. Cover with foil, place in the oven and bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, and turn the oven temp up to 220C. Take the foil off the ribs and return them to the oven for a further 30mins until slightly charred.
3. Meanwhile, to make the salsa, mix all the ingredients together, season well and then serve with the baby back ribs.