My Famous Smoked Beef and Pork Spare Ribs

In the 70's I travelled and worked throughout South Africa. For a number of years I worked in Durban as Executive Chef for The Meikles and Southern Sun Hotel Group. One of the hotels in which I worked, 'The Elangeni' , was a large hotel with 470 rooms 5 restaurants and a very busy function centre. In one of the restaurants 'The Kontiki', we could seat 250 people at a time.

Believe it or not, of all the dishes available on the menu of this 4 ½ star restaurant, the best selling dish was smoked pork or beef spare ribs. The locals could get not enough of them! All we served with the ribs was a tossed salad, papaya chutney and tomato shallot salsa.

In 1974 the chain opened another 5 star hotel 'The 'Monamatapa' in Salisbury Zimbabwe; Salisbury of course is now called Harare. Another Kontiki restaurant was built, using the same concept as in Durban. It was an instant success, and as in our Durban restaurant the most popular dish proved to be - you guessed it - smoked ribs! The smoke oven we used to produce enough ribs was huge and cost then, over $60,000.

Today I am producing the same quality smoked ribs dish at home in my own smoke oven, which I designed myself and they are as perfect and delicious as they were in the 70's. I am only too happy to share these recipes, which can also be applied to brisket of beef and pork belly with anyone who purchases my e-book.