My date night dish last week was inspired by a meal I had at Arugula Bistro & Bread.   I decided to change it a little bit and make Cider Pork Ribs with a Jalapeño and Pistachio sauce.

The pork ribs

For the pork ribs you need:-

• 1.5kg ribs
• 1.5l of cider (or enough to cover the ribs in a slow cooker). I used Savanna Dry.
• 1 apple
• A bouquet garni of fresh thyme and bay leaves
• Honey and balsamic vinegar for a glaze

Put the ribs in a slow cooker and cover it with the cider. Peel and deseed the apple and cut it into thick slices. Put the apple slices in the cooker with the bouquet garni and let it simmer for +/- 4 hours.

Carefully remove the ribs from the cooker and place it on a baking tray. Brush the ribs with the honey and balsamic glaze. Heat the oven up to  250 degrees Celsius while on grill and grill the ribs for 5 minutes.

The sauce

For the sauce you need:-

• 40g jalapeño chillies
• 60g pistachio nuts
• 250ml cream

Deseed the chillies and cut it into rough slices. Remove the shells from the nuts. Fry the chillies and nuts in a pan with some oil until the nuts are brown. Liquidize the chillies, nuts and cream together.  Add salt to taste. The jalapeño chillies are very mild so you can easily add another 20-30g of them.

Serve the sauce with the ribs. I also added some vine tomatoes, mushrooms and green beans with roasted garlic and Parmesan cheese.

We enjoyed this with some Shiraz wine: Cloof’s “The Very Sexy Shiraz” 2013 and Kleine Zalze 2013.