Meal time: Nagaland House Ribs from Bon Appétit

by Rose Elder

My day gets much more exciting when I hear the mailman dropping off the mail and I see my new Bon Appétit magazine in it! I’m telling you, it makes me so happy. I stop what I’m doing to browse through it before I can finally sit down and read it cover to cover.

The magazine has gotten so hip and fun. Their recipes are very creative because they are using unexpected ingredients in new ways. It has become this multicultural mix of recipes that implement flavors from all different countries and regions around the world.

I’m the kind of person that loves to create something new everyday in my kitchen. I rarely repeat a recipe. I see ingredients and decide on a whim what to do with them. I’m not saying I’m the best cook, but I will admit I am creative. I just saw this great advertisement of Williams-Sonoma that said something like: “Life is short, so cook accordingly”.

The latest’s issue cover had this amazing looking recipe. It looked so enticing, fun and different. I went to get pork ribs right away to try to make it. I couldn’t find a couple of ingredients but I substituted them for very similar ones. I failed to find the tamarind concentrate, so I used three fresh tamarind pods. I forgot to buy the apple juice, so instead I used 2 applesauce pouches of my kids! I can’t imagine how amazing the recipe would be if I had found the exact ingredients.

The ribs were so delicious! The garnish on top was just the perfect punch of flavor and acidity to contra rest the light sweetness and spiciness of the ribs. The end recipe didn’t have that strong pork flavor sometimes ribs have. They only thing I would change is that I would’ve added more cucumber to the garnish. It was it was so good I wished I had more of it to be able to have cucumber in each bite. You can’t taste one particular flavor when you combine all the final ingredients in your fork, the flavors just work together to make it a truly special bite.

Here are some photos of the process, it was a little long, but really easy: