My Thai ribs wet rub recipe.

Haole Pete said:

I would eat that jaew as soup! Looks great.

Not sure I've seen coriander root out here. Will it work without it? Or is there a substitute I can use?

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I think that here in the USA we usually substitute cilantro stems for unavailable roots, unless of course you grow your own cilantro.

Panupat said:

I'm going to buy a real big Eucalyptus log in a few days. Can't wait to try. If it works I will no longer need to use imported woods. Around $70 which isn't as cheap as I'd hope. But sure beats $20 per small WESTERN bag.

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Not sure Eucalyptus is suitable for smoking or grilling wood/fuel. Here's an old thread to look at:http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=177458

However, Brother buccaneer says
"It's pretty much all we have and use down under.We even grill using it.
If it's a seasoned hardwood you are going to be fine, and since everyone I know grew up with it then it will be refreshing to get your take on what it is like for you.
Rest assured...you _are_ going to die, just not from using this wood in your stick burner."
That's good enough for me!

Although I love my huge gorgeous Eucalyptus ficifolia (now properly "Corymbia ficifolia") tree, I am not going to cook with that stinky wood. Dave

Thanks for the recipes. I love Thai food but was never that good at cooking it. I'll be cooking these ribs this weekend. I'm always looking for a new way to cook ribs. :thumb:

I also looked into Eucalyptus for smoking/cooking.
It seems like there are a lot of different opinions about it, although in general it seems a lot of Ozzie's and Kiwi's are using it. They are still going strong, so should be fine...

Eucalyptus over 700 Varieties
Burn a small piece and smell it first.
Age it well,Some is awesome to cook with and some is pretty awful.
Probably one of the most knowledgeable man in Low Slow cooking in Australia wrote this.
I will link cause I try not to steal

http://ausbbq.com.au/a-guide-to-smoking-with-native-australian-hardwoods/

\https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus

Panupat said:

A very exciting news is that I finally found a meat supplier who can get me very meaty ribs. For 3 years since I started BBq I thought I'd never seen 1 this meaty in Thailand...

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We have the same problem in New Zealand. Here it is because pork belly is worth more than pork ribs so the butchers, even under pain of death, cut close to the ribs to maximise the pork belly income. What I do now is buy bone-in pork belly, skin it and have super thick ribs.

That looks really good and different from any ribs I have done. This goes on my to-do list for sure. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to have to give that a try.

Stingerhook said:

Ribs look great and so is all the info you provided.

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Marty - we'll put this on the menu and see how it works when the time comes! Mac

Panupat said:

Dear Brethren. I want to share you my recipe. It is actually a very common mixture we marinade pork for many dishes.

Per 1 rack of ribs:

2 coriander roots
2 large clove of Garlic, or 6-7 smaller cloves.
2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil. I prefer Rice oil.
1 tablespoon Thai soy sauce.
3 tablespoon Oyster sauce or Mushroom sauce.
1 tablespoon Honey. Or Palm Sugar. Honey is easier to rub.


Jaew recipe:
2 tablespoon tamarind paste.
1.5 tablespoon ground toast sticky rice
1 tablespoon ground Thai chili
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon Palm Sugar
1 teaspoon lime juice (I don't like sour taste. Add more if you like)
2 shallot, slice thinly.
couple sprigs of parsley, chopped.

Simply mix everything together and decorate with chopped scallion.

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Well, today's the day I'm trying these... or as close as I could get with the ingrediments I could find out here in the desert. Never did find coriander root -- went with cilantro stems instead.

I made the rub and jaew last night and will start cooking shortly. A couple of comments/questions -- some of these may be due to what ingredients I could find in Tucson vs. what you're using.

1) 3 TBSP of oyster sauce in the rub was overwhelming (for me). It really overpowered the rest of the ingredients and made the rub taste like brown gravy. I upped the rest of the ingredients to compensate/balance.

2) I've never used tamarind paste before, but it also was overpowering the rest of the ingredients in the jaew. Your jaew looked reddish and sorta thin (?) while mine is dark brown and very thick (lower photo). The label on my tamarind paste says it's a "concentrated form of the tamarind fruit". I wonder if that's the issue -- too concentrated (?) When I first sampled the paste from the jar (out of curiosity) it took several beers to wash the taste out it was that strong. The lime juice seems to aggravate the effect. Again, I balanced with the other ingredients for now. (I haven't added the shallots or toasted sticky rice yet since I made the jaew last night...)

I usually don't like to deviate from recipes on first cooks, but my jaew originally tasted like straight tamarind paste (again, with my 'arizona' ingredients). I'll post how things turn out...

Final verdict: The ribs were great with just the wet rub, but my family and I couldn't warm up to my "jaew". The ribs were better off without it -- the tamarind flavor was just too bitter even after my mods.

I welcome any feedback on what I mighta done wrong on the sauce...

Panupat said:

Anyhow, do try again and slowly add a bit of tamarind paste at the end. It's suppose to be a background thing. I'm going to edit this into the original post.

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Appreciate the feedback! That's what I'll do next time. The tamarind was THE dominant flavor, not a background thing. I think if I added enough of the other ingredients to get it to the background, I woulda ended up with several gallons... :wink:

I'm thinking that I must have bought super-concentrated paste -- this morning after sitting overnight in the fridge, the jaew was the consistency of jello. Seriously - I stuck a finger in it to taste it, and it 'bent' like jello and didn't stick to my finger the first attempt :twitch:

After looking at your technique with the actual fruit, I realize my paste-in-a-jar is ludicrous overkill. Thanks for the help -- I'm just trying to learn...

Though you want to be true to the recipe, you still must trust your palate to balance flavors. Always bounce around between Hot, Sour, Salty and Sweet (though there is not much sweet in this rub).

And don't forget Panupat added that he left white pepper out of the rub/marinade. I believe it is very important part of the recipe, and you probably use a lot in this concoction.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, Panupat, I'm just trying to get a farang perspective on your delicious looking ribs.

And good on ya' H Pete for tracking down all the ingredients. And, different cultures/brands/types of Oyster sauce can also vary greatly. Dave

Smokeat said:

And good on ya' H Pete for tracking down all the ingredients. And, different cultures/brands/types of Oyster sauce can also vary greatly. Dave

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Took me 2 grocery stores and 2 asian markets, but durn it I got >90% there.

The oyster sauce I got was brown and goopy like, well, brown gravy. I was expecting it to be more thin, like fish sauce.

I did remember the white pepper, though.

I _figured_ most of my issues were differences in the ingredient styles, as I doubt I'm getting the same stuff as Panupat out here. The good thing is is I now have a lifetime supply of tamarind :razz: