They looked great in the store so I bought them even though I have no idea what to do with them. Can you help a cooking novice with favorite recipes or at least suggested preparation techniques? Thanks!

I think they're really good in Asian preparations...cut up and stir fry, or make a Thai-style curry with coconut milk, or a Vietnamese caramel-type thing (I've never acutally made such a dish, but I'm sure that that cut of pork would be good in it).

One simple preparation that you might like is to brown them, and then put them into aluminum foil in a baking dish. Add bbq sauce, cover them and slow-roast for a few hours.

the main thing to remember is that this is an inherintly sp? tough piece of meat that will benefit from any preperation that involves slow andlow cooking. braising, roasting, poaching all would be good ways to cook these. My fav, dry rub, stovetop smoker, oven roasted ro finish at 200 degrees andservedwith collard greens and skillet cornbread.

Any favorite recipes? I'm leaning toward Asian seasoning.

i just made this recipe two weeks ago, and i thought it came out pretty well (and yes, it came from molly steven's braising cookbook, which i've been on a quest to make as many recipes from there as possible). the recipe uses bone-in ribs, so i'm not sure how well it will work with boneless pork. the sauce is quite thin, but it's very savory.

pork riblets braised in vietnamese caramel sauce
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp lime juice
1/3 cup asian fish sauce
1/3 cup sliced shallots
1 tsp pepper
~2 lbs slab baby back ribs sawed lengthwise in half

spread sugar in the bottom of a wide heavy-based skillet (12-13"). pour over 1/4 cup water and lime juice and let sit for a minute to soak in. heat over med heat until sugar begins to liquefy. you can shake or swirl the pan or stir with a wooden spoon once or twice so the sugar melts evenly, but don't stir constantly, and stop shaking or stirring once the contents of the saucepan have liquefied entirely. (if you stir too frequently you risk crystallizing the sugar.) reduce heat to med-low and let caramel boil until it turns a deep reddish-brown, but not black, ~10 min.

remove caramel from heat and standing back, add the fish sauce slowly and the remaining 1/4 cup water. (don't worry if caramel hardens.) return caramel to heat, stir and boil until you have a smooth, thick sauce, ~4 min. add shallots and black pepper and simmer for 2 min. remove from heat and set aside to cool to warm. (the caramel sauce may be made ahead up to this point and kept refrigerated for a week.)

separate the pork ribs into individual ribs by cutting down between the bones. add to caramel sauce, stir to coat, bring to simmer over low heat. cover and braise, stirring and turning every 10-15 minutes so that ribs remain evenly coated in sauce for about 1.5 to 2 hours. ribs are done when they become tender enough to pull easily away from the bone and are a deep mahogany color.

remove as much fat as possible from caramel sauce (which will be rather thin).

this sounds sooooo good

My wife makes a similar dish using both bone-in and boneless pork. But instead of sugar, she uses palm sugar. It comes in a solid block and is a dark brown color. She always uses this type of sugar when making any dish slow cooked in a clay pot.

The only time I have cooked with country-style ribs is also a recipe from All About Braising. There is an adobo recipe that combines chicken with the boneless ribs, in a vinegar marinade. Traditional Filipino dish I believe. It was decent but nowhere near as good as most of the other recipes I've tried from there.