How to make ribs from scratch
Tender Ribs made from scratch and served on a harvest board
It’s so common for us as South Africans to buy our ribs precooked and marinated in an overly sweet basting sauce and to then heat it up on the braai. I’m pretty sure many of you would look at a rack of ribs at the butcher’s counter and move on to grab the pre-packed version. I’m sure we have all tasted a bad, chewy version at a braai before.
With this recipe, I share all my secrets as to how to transform a raw rack of ribs into the succulent, tasty kind yourself. Stick to some basics and you won’t go back.
I love serving food as a harvest board. It’s fun to serve and visually appealing. You eat with your eyes first so you need to make sure it looks appetising.
Food should be fun, flavourful and rewarding. This easy recipe is a combination of all three.
Ingredients to make ribs from scratch
1kg of uncooked ribs
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
6 tbsp pesto
6 tbsp mayonnaise
1 kg potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 limes
How to prepare ribs from scratch
Oven bake potato wedges in the oven on 180 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes, covered in olive oil and generously seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celcius.
Take the uncooked ribs and generously cover them in salt and pepper on both sides. You can get more creative here and use your favourite spice.
Wrap the ribs in tin foil and then place into an oven at 140 degrees for roughly an hour. If they are not tender at this point, leave them for a bit longer.
Once the ribs have been cooked in the oven you can take the tinfoil off and then blast them under the grill which will give them fantastic grilled flavour.
Or: even better - throw them on a hot fire to brown!Slice the potatoes into wedges (you can peel them beforehand, or leave the skin on), then cover with olive oil and generously season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Oven bake the potato wedges on 180 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes, or in the air fryer on 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.
Mix the pesto and mayonnaise for a delicious dressing and serve with some potato wedges and salad, as well as cut up limes to squeeze over for some acidity.
Don’t forget to tag me if you make yourself ribs from scratch, or serve a harvest board, I’d love to see it!
More meat recipes
Below the newsletter block, you will find some more meat recipes.
If you have the time, you should try this deboned lamb leg recipe, slow roasted in the oven. You can also make leg of lamb on the braai. Ostrich fillet kebabs on the braai are delicious to, or braai a snoek and serve it with plum jam. Pork belly is one of my favourite foods to cook, and this recipe makes for succulent meat with crispy skin. Most people only order rump steak in a restaurant, but if you follow these tips and tricks, you can make your own medium-rare steak at home. And why not serve them with hedgehog potatoes, made easily in the airfryer? Another meat that many people find too intimidating to cook, is duck breast. With these step-by-step instructions you will cook a succulent duck breast with ease. Salads are underrated, and once you have tried this beetroot and bacon salad, you will never host a braai without it.
Don’t forget to tag me if you make any of my recipes, I’d love to see it!
About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).
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This dish is a labour of love - it takes a whole day to cook it and ideally you need to start the day before, to allow the meat to marinade overnight. It’s a great winter warmer to make on the weekend.