Richard's Spareribs at the firehouse

When we don't BBQ our food at the firehouse, referred to as a fire station on Guam, we just love to bake or broil our meats. And spareribs are no exception.

Firefighter Richard Tareyama baked us some great pork spareribs for our dinner last night. Here is what he did.

First, after removing the membrane (pleura) from the ribs, he cut them into 2 sections. Then he separated the rib tips from the ribs and marinated everything. Richard doesn't use measuring devices as he goes by his vast cooking experience which quite a few fireman have for some reason.

Richard basically poured in equal parts of soy sauce (Kikkoman) and white vinegar. He then added granulated garlic powder and black pepper to taste. He left this to marinate for a few hours.

When it came time for the baking, he baked the ribs, uncovered, at 350 degrees for about 3 hours. This cooking time depends on your oven. Many home ovens, especially the inexpensive types like the one we have at the station, cook differently. It's like they have a mind of their own.

About the last hour and a half, Richard covers the ribs with sliced onions. This baking time is just right for the onions to caramelize.

When the cooked ribs were removed from the oven, they looked great.

Here are some pictures that I took. Unfortunately I was not available to take pictures while Richard was preparing the spare ribs so there are no pictures of that part of the process.

Richard and his "Cook Helper I" Joe DeVera preparing the Lemon Finadene. Click here for the Lemon Finadene recipe: http://bbqguam.blogspot.com/2011/04/lemon-finadene-guam-bbq-dipping-sauce.html

They are using a different type of lemon. This lemon is called Calamansi. It is tart but has a slight sweetness to it. And of course it is very small. It's actually a type of orange as it turns orange when mature. But it has the tartness of a lemon. Great flavor. Great for cooking.

Joe squeezing the juice out of the Calamansi lemons.

Close up of the lemon squeezing.

The strainer catches all the seeds. By the number of pictures taken of the finadene process here you can tell this is an important part of the meal. As a matter of fact, every meal has finadene served.

"Chef" Richard with the finished product.

These ribs were cooked perfect.....a nice mahogany brown on the outside and the meat was juicy and tender but not falling off the bone. We like firm with a bite. The onions were so sweet. This was served up with cold slaw, fried rice and plain white rice and of course the lemon finadene.

Just another satisfying meal at the fire station.

Until next time....