Bison Ribs

I was craving ribs. This is a problem when you generally don't eat pork and beef, unless you know the best place to go for bison in the city...Fortunately, I do.

There's a place on the suth side of the market, just around the corner from the chocolate place, next to the gaspesienne fish place that has very good bison. Not organic but all antibiotic-free. It's even relatively affordable. Relative, compared to the organic meats just a hop, skip and a jump down the market lane. I used my standard pulled pork recipe with a few variations. It wasn't super, the sauce, I mean. I should have just used a more standard bbq sauce, but, well, I just didn't.

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
1 cup ketchup (should have used a bbq sauce...)

2 tbsp Ethiopian hot sauce (any chili paste is good here. I had hot chile paste from the McGill Organic Campus. It's very tomato-y so I figured it would be fine. I don't find it too spicy, but the heat ended up over-powering the sweetness of the sauce, unfortunately.

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce. I finally caved and bought some
1 teaspoon liquid smoke. Again, caved.
1 1/2 lbs bison ribs

Directions: Put the ribs in the slow cooker. I should have broiled them to give a good crispy exterior and keep the juices locked inside during the slow-cooking, but I knew it wouldn't matter too much, since the slow-cooker would make them fall off the bones anyway. A big piece of meat you can brown in a large pot on the stove, but ribs are so gangly that it's easier to broil them in the oven. Then just put the broiled ribs in the slow-cooker to wait.

Heat the oil in a large skillet and cook the onions for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder and pepper for 1 minute. Then in went the ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, worcestershire, and liquid smoke.

In about 2 seconds it came to a boil and I tasted it (pungent!) and poured it over the ribs in the slow-cooker. 4 hours later they were ready. I dug in.

You know, they weren't amazing. They were perfectly cooked and the sauce was thick and coating, but it was a bit too spicy and a bit too tart...not tart, but just not sweet. I wanted a bit more brown sugar, molasses-y sweet stickiness. So next time I just need a different bbq sauce. I kind of don't like the tomato-based sauces with this, since the meat is so rich. Tomato feels superficial. Ah well. Next time. I still love that the rib bones just slid right out. There was a ton of fat to pick through, but there was a fair bit of good meat.