Hoisin-Glazed Barbecued Ribs - No Photos, but Many Delicious Memories

One of the victims of my recent hard disc crash was a roll of photos taken during the filming of this Hoisin-Glazed Barbecued Ribs video recipe. Usually as I cook and film, I have my camera at my side to snap shots along the way. This is especially important at the end of the recipes when I like to get what we call in the business "the money shot."

All those sharp, well-lighted, color-corrected still frames you see in my videos are done with a digital camera, as my cheap camcorder doesn’t perform nearly as well. Here you can see a huge difference in quality, as I had to rely on some frame captures instead of photos.

Adding to the problem is the dark red color of the Hoisin glaze (a very hard hue to film), and the distortion the heat waves add. The result is one slightly annoyed video recipe producer. Thus concludes the venting portion of today's recipe post.

Notwithstanding the photographically challenged nature of this recipe, it sure tasted good. When I do pork spare ribs I usually go with the standard American barbecue rub and sauce, but an abundance of leftover Hoisin sauce and a stray can of pineapple juice nudged me further east.

I mention in the video that Hoisin sauce has an interesting story behind it. I probably should have said confusing, rather than interesting, but here it is. According to my extensive research (5 minutes on Wikipedia), "Hoisin" is a romanization of the Cantonese word for seafood. What? Why? It's traditionally served with pork, isn't it?

That was all they had. So, if you have any ideas why Hoisin means "seafood," please let me know (even if you have to make something up). Enjoy!

Ingredients:
Full rack of pork ribs

For the marinade:
1/2 cup Hoisin sauce
6-oz pineapple juice
1 tbsp sambal chili sauce or hot sauce

For the rub:
2 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp 5-spice powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
pinch of cayenne

For the basting sauce:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Asian fish sauce
2 tbsp Hoisin sauce