RECIPE - Gluten Free Pork Ribs & Corn Bread Muffins

I love Southern food. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Another Jersey girl that's never been to the South tries some KFC fried chicken and thinks she's on the pulse of Southern cooking". Don't worry. I've been to Tampa and to the Atlanta airport, that totally counts as the South. Also, I watch the Food Network, and they only show authentic Southern cuisine. I have standards, ya know?

Let's start with the cornbread muffins. These muffins came from my new favorite cookbook "Gluten Free Baking Classics" by Annalise Roberts. Annalise is part of The Food Philosopher group, run by Annalise and her sister Claudia Pillow. They are both highly active in the gluten free community. Annalise has written two books on gluten free cooking, and Claudia is a DOCTOR(!) and serves on the board for the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America (GIG).

This cookbook has changed my mindset about cooking, and especially about baking. Annalise talks a lot about the delicate balance between flours, liquids, baking temperature, and storage for all the goodies in the book. An over-measurement of flour or a minute or two under-baking can cause some real damage to your baked goods. So I've been trying to be as careful as I can with measurements and such (cutting down on the "BAM!"s, and it turns out that (literally) everything I've made from this cookbook has blown my mind.

The cornbread muffins are no exception. They turned out soft, moist, and with perfect texture. Here's a link to the recipe from The Food Philosopher's website.

I wanted to mimic my Grandma's recipe for cornbread, so I added some frozen (and defrosted, then squeezed out) corn kernels. If I really wanted to follow my Grandma's recipe, I would also add a gallon of cream cheese and a pound of grated cheddar cheese, but I'm saving that for the next batch. The corn was a fabulous addition.

Now, onto the ribs. I cannot take any credit for this recipe. The only thing I can take credit for is choosing the perfect barbecue sauce to complement the spicy rub. Here's the recipe, courtesy of Food Network and the Neely's. I know it seems like a lot of work, but you can make a large recipe of the rub once and use it multiple times.

For the barbecue sauce, I ONLY use Sweet Baby Ray's. You can't do any better. I once tried using their Hickory & Brown Sugar version for the ribs, but it was too sweet because there was brown sugar in the rub and the sauce. I like using the Original recipe for this because it's not too sweet. The combination of the spicy rub and this sweet and tangy sauce is ridiculous. Everyone that's tried these ribs spends about 20 minutes shaking their heads in disbelief. They're that good.

Even though it's still pretty cold out, you should definitely be preparing for the summer months. You'll want to make these gluten free cornbread muffins and pork ribs for every BBQ you attend, so try these recipes out now!


PS. For another southern recipe, check out this recipe I posted in the fall for gluten free buttermilk fried chicken.