Jazz Apples Masterclass with Alana Lowes - Sticky Ribs and Apple Slaw Recipe

Last year was the second year I had been eating Jazz Apples. Just like the previous year, the season was over far too quickly. If you don't know about them, Jazz apples are a mix between a Gala and Braeburn apple. They have a nice tang to them while being very sweet and crunchy. If you don't like crunchy apples, these aren't for you. Me, I love them. They have overtaken Fuji apples as my favourite. This year, the season for Jazz apples is getting longer as the trees mature more and more. The season is expected to last 6 months this time so we'll get to enjoy them for longer.

Last year, I went to Jazz apple masterclass with Fast Ed. At that class, I really saw how well apples can be used in cooking, especially savoury food. I've always thought of cooking apples are a desserts orientated thing, but they're very versatile. So when I was invited this year to attend a masterclass with Alana Lowes of Masterchef fame, I happily accepted.

Upon arrival, Alana served us some Apple and rosemary sorbet. It was so good. The small addition of rosemary just elevated what would normally be a pretty standard apple sorbet into something really interesting and delicious. While we cleansed our palettes, Alana went out explaining the next dish, which was a Spicy sticky pork ribs with smokey BBQ sauce served with a apple mayonnaise salad. I was hooked at ribs and the huge chunks of meat looked so enticing. Alana went about cutting up apples, mixing the glaze, all the while multi-tasking and chatting with us. She was so personable and really lovely. Also, I bow down to any woman who can cook a meal wearing glittery gold high heels. That's a skill.

After we had drunk our wines, the ribs were ready to be served. The oohs and ahhs when the ribs were taken out of the oven really reflected how wonderful the ribs smelled. We moved to the dining table at the Raw Materials studio and setup to eat the meal. While I started eating the ribs with my knife and fork, it was just too slow and ended up using all my fingers to munch into the amazing ribs. The crisp Jazz apple salad really helped to give a nice contrast to the heavy ribs. We, ok I, ate through so many ribs and so much salad. I was one McFatty by the end of mains, and there was still dessert to come.

Dessert was a simple affair, called an Apple and rhubarb filo scrunch. As Alana said, you can throw this altogether when you come back tired from work but still want some dessert. The amazing dessert queen ironchefshellie (who has a real name but I like to call her that) helped Alana make dessert as Ms offthespork (again, not her real name) and I were too busy drinking wine. Michele helped butter all the filo pastry sheets with ghee. Alana told us that ghee doesn't burn like butter and is great to use in this way or in your fry pan to make pancakes. Such a good tip as my butter is always burning when I make pancakes and I don't like that burnt flavour. So Michele gheed all the filo pastry, and then Alana threw on the rhubarb and Jazz apples and scrunched up the pastry. When the scrunch came out of the oven, Alana put on a perfect quenelle of ice cream and voila, one super delicious dessert made in minutes. The rhubarb and Jazz apples were a great flavour combination and I'd highly recommend you try this.

And that concluded a great night where I learned to make even more dishes using Jazz apples. It was heaps of fun, and super delicious. Thanks to Alana for cooking up such a great meal for us.

Sticky Smoky Spicy Pork Ribs with Jazz Apple Slaw Recipe
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 5-10mins (+marinating time)
Cook Time: 1hr – 1 ¼ hrs

Ingredients
2 cups smoky spicy BBQ or Mexican style sauce
Juice of 1 orange
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup brown sugar
1.5kg American pork ribs (small end are the best)

Apple Slaw
1 tbsp mild English mustard
Juice of ½ lemon
½ cup whole egg mayonnaise
Salt
pepper
3 Jazz apples, cut into matchsticks

To serve, lime segments, coriander leaves and sesame seeds

Method
1. For the pork ribs, place the smoky spicy sauce, orange juice, garlic, maple syrup and brown sugar into a large baking dish. Stir to combine. Add the whole pork ribs and turn to coat completely in the marinade. Allow to marinate for at least 30mins, preferably for 4hrs or overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 165°c.

3. Drain the marinade and reserve for basting. Cover the baking tray with foil and place in the oven and bake for 45mins.

4. Turn the oven up to 180°c. Remove the baking tray from the oven and remove the foil. Baste the pork ribs with some of the reserved marinade. Return to the oven for 10mins. Baste again and return to the oven. Repeat this until all the marinade has been used and the pork ribs look caramelised and sticky. Approx 15-20mins.

5. For the apple slaw, whisk together the mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper together until well combined. Stir the mustard mixture into the whole egg mayonnaise. Stir the mayonnaise through the Jazz apples.

6. To serve, cut the pork ribs up into 1-2 ribs. Place on a serving tray and sprinkle with coriander leaves, sesame seeds and squeeze over the lemon juice. Serve with the Jazz apple slaw.

I attended the masterclass courtesy of Media Moguls