Barbecue ribs with hot slaw and cowboy butter Jersey Royals

Method

1. To make the barbecue sauce, in a dry frying pan toast off all of the whole spices until fragrant, for 30 seconds or so. Tip the spices into a spice grinder or pestle and mortar with the smoked paprika, then grind into a powder.

2. Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and toasted spices and cook gently for 10–15 minutes until the onions are lightly golden.

3. Deglaze the pan with the apple juice and cider vinegar and allow to reduce. Tip in the rest of the remaining ingredients and season with a pinch of salt. Bubble away for 10–15 minutes until reduced slightly but not too dry.

4. Blend the sauce with a hand blender until smooth, then the sauce through a sieve into a bowl so it’s as smooth as possible. Use to pour in with your ribs and then keep some back to glaze the ribs on the barbecue.

5. To make the ribs, mix up all the ingredients for the spice rub and massage this into the ribs on both sides. Make sure the ribs will fit in the slow cooker, otherwise cut them in half. Cover and leave the ribs to marinate for at least 1 hour but ideally overnight in the fridge.

6. Combine the rest of the ingredients and pour this all over the ribs in the slow cooker pot. Make sure they’re all coated and leave to cook for 8 hours on low, until the meat is tender and falling off the bones. Overnight works too!

7. The next day, lay the ribs out on a tray and heat up your barbecue. When the flames have died down, add the ribs and cook for 20 mins, turning occasionally, and basting often with remaining sauce. When the ribs are sticky, hot through and crisping on the outside, slice to serve.

8. To make the cabbage and apple hot slaw, place the cabbage quarters and apple in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt.

9. On a very hot barbecue, char the apples and cabbages until dark and smoky and leave to cool slightly.

10. Chop up the cabbage and apple into small pieces and chop the pecans.

11. Toss everything together in a bowl with the apple cider vinegar and olive oil with a big pinch of salt and pepper. Break it up with your hands to soften the apple to a bit of a purée around the cabbage.

12. To make the cowboy butter Jersey Royals, tip the potatoes into a saucepan of heavily salted cold water, then bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside while you make the butter.

13. In a bowl, mix together the spices, lemon zest and softened butter with some salt and pepper.

14. Halve all of the cooked potatoes and pop them into a little kitchen foil parcel with the butter. Make sure you wrap 2–3 layers of strong kitchen foil, otherwise the butter will leak out and cause the barbecue to flare.

15. Place the parcel onto the side of the barbecue and leave to cook away while the rest of the dish is cooking. Open up the top of the foil parcel towards the end of cooking and let the steam escape. Season generously with salt and pepper.

16. Serve the sliced ribs with the hot slaw and potatoes alongside.