Spare Ribs in Hot Glazed Chilli Jelly Jam

Ingredients: ribs; soy sauce; chilli jam

I think that one of the best uses for chilli jam is as a glaze for spare ribs. The glaze is sweet and hot, and lifts meat, vegetables and soya-based food into a different zone of flavour. It's especially good with vegetable noodles, though you may want to think about leaving out the chilli jam from that vegetable noodle recipe if you're adding in these chilli ribs.

I like ribs to be very well cooked, pretty much barbecued, but you can adjust the cooking times for something a little less charred if you want. You can also replace the ribs with chicken, or vegetarian options like tofu or sliced aubergines.

First, marinade your ribs in soy sauce. This really shouldn't be complicated or time-consuming. I just chuck the ribs in a bowl and glug the soy over them, and stir them about till they're covered in it.

After about an hour, put the ribs in an over-proof dish or tray lined with tinfoil (shiny side up). Leave enough tinfoil to loosely cover the ribs, and cook slowly on a low heat - about 130 degrees C - for an hour to an hour and a half. Take them out of the oven, and spoon over and mix in approx 4 tablespoons of chilli jam. Uncover and cook at 150 degrees C for a further 30 minutes.

These ribs can be eaten on their own as a snack or as a side dish.

There will quite a lot of spicy sauce in your dish or pan, that can be used as a sauce to pour over the rest of the meal. It particularly livens up rice and noodles, or stir-fried vegetables.

From chillies grown in a small urban garden in Portsmouth, to a hot stack of eastern food. Not bad. Not bad at all.