BBQ Beef Ribs and Potato Salad

Very few things go together better than barbecue and potato salad! I love barbecue- the mixture of sweet, salty, spicy and sour are hard to beat! I also love the way potato salad enhances the bbq experience as the velvety mayonaisse laced potatoes provide the perfect backdrop to the ooey gooey tender ribs.

There are a lot of rib purists out there who believe that it's sacrilege to bake ribs before bbq'ing them. To those people I say "Ha!". BBQ beef ribs are quite lean and have a tendency to grow tough. To avoid this, I slowly bake them until they're to my desired tenderness and then I grill them for the lovely char that they're just pining for! You have to make these ribs and this salad. They're a match made in heaven!

Ribs Ingredients:
2lbs beef ribs (of course get more if there's more than two of you!)
your favourite bbq sauce (I love Diana's original)
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 teaspoon franks red hot sauce
1/2 cup orange juice
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon chili powder

Method:
Preheat oven to 375. Rub ribs with salt, pepper and chili powder. Mix a bottle of bbq sauce with ketchup and franks red hot sauce. Divide the mixture in half, placing 1/2 into a baking tray with orange juice. Coat the ribs so that there's enough fluid to cover it by more than half. If this isn't the case add more bbq sauce and orange juice.

Cover the ribs in tinfoil and place in the oven. Cook until tender (about 45 minutes-1 hr) but not too tender that it falls off the bone! Remove from the oven and place ribs on a hot grill until they char evenly on both sides. Remove and toss into the remaining bbq sauce mixture. Serve with potato salad.

Potato Salad Ingredients:
5 Idaho potatoes
1/4 cup mayonaisse
1-2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 scallion thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon franks red hot sauce
1/2 a celery stock thinly sliced
salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, mix the mayo, mustard, celery, scallion and hot sauce. Reserve. Put potatoes into large bite sized pieces and bring to a boil in a large pot of salted water. When the potatoes are fork tender remove and drain. While they're still piping hot add the potatoes to the mayo mixture. Toss until well coated. If you like it really mayonaissey add a little more of everything. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if needed.