Down Home BBQ Rib Dinner with the film Crazy Heart

Head on down to the Southern region of the United States and you're guaranteed to find more BBQ shacks than you can image. All of them have their own secret sauce, spice combinations, and cooking methods to help set them apart from their competition. Though these BBQ shacks truly do have the world's best, good barbecue can be made in your own kitchen. Throw in some classic side dishes of buttermilk biscuits and crispy onion rings and we'll be bringing the South right to our own kitchens. Of course the only thing more loved in the Southern states than barbecue may be country music. In 2009, the world was told the emotional story of the fictional Country Music singer Bad Blake in the outstanding film Crazy Heart. A fantastic story, superb acting, and great music make this movie one of the best films made in recent years.

1 rack of Pork Ribs
1 cup of Ketchup
1/8 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar
1/8 cup of Light Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Honey
2 Tablespoons of Mesquite Grill spice
2 teaspoons of dried mustard
1/2 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon of Siracha Chilli Paste
1 Shallot (Grated)
1 clove of Garlic (Grated)
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Generously season the ribs with salt and pepper and sprinkle on a bit of our grill seasoning. Tightly wrap the ribs in aluminum foil and place them in the oven to bake for 2 hours.

Whisk together the ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, honey, grill spice, mustard, chilli paste, worcestershire sauce, shallot, and garlic in a medium sized sauce pan. Simmer the sauce over medium low heat for about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand until ready to baste our ribs on the grill.

Onion rings are a great side dish to go with these ribs. Here is the link to my full recipe for the onion rings. While the ribs continue to bake, slice the onions and get them soaking in the buttermilk. Before you pour the buttermilk over the onions, pre measure out 1/2 cup that we'll need for our biscuits.

To make our biscuits. We'll need 1 cup of flour, 1/2 tablespoon of baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 cup of buttermilk, 3 tablespoons of very cold butter, 1/4 cup of freshly grated cheddar, 2 chopped scallions, and 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. Start by combing the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Using a pastry cutter, a fork, or even a food processor - cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is very coarse. Add the buttermilk, scallions, and cheddar cheese and mix together just until the dough has formed. Flour a cutting board or your counter top and gently pat the dough ball flat. Use a large glass or a biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits and place them on an un greased  cookie sheet. Place the biscuits in the fridge until we're ready to bake them off.

Once the ribs have finished baking, remove them from the tinfoil. Heat your grill to a medium high temperature and transfer the ribs to the grill. Using a silicon barbecue brush, load up our ribs with our homemade sauce on both sides. Grill the ribs for about 15 minutes on each side, keeping a close eye on them and adding more sauce throughout the grilling process. Once the ribs have about 10 minutes left, heat your oven to 400 degrees and bake our biscuits for about 10-12 minutes until they're golden brown on top.

By now our ribs are grilled perfectly and because we baked them for low and slow before we grilled them, they'll be nice and tender. Cut the rack of ribs up into portions. Serve next to our southern style buttermilk biscuits, and our crispy friend onion rings. I'm hungry now just thinking about it!!

Crazy Heart was instantly hailed by audiences and critics as one of the best movies of the year in 2009. Jeff Bridges earned himself an Academy Award for his complex performances as the the fictional country singer Bad Blake. Bad was once on top of the industry as one of the best singer/songwriters in all of music. His fall from grace now has him struggling to make ends meet. Life on the road has taken it's toll on Bad's personal life and his health. Failed marriages, a distant son he has no connection with, and the once sold out crowds he'd play too are now a handful of people in bowling alley's and side bars.

Bad can't help himself but reach for the light and a reserection of his life and his career when journalist Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) asks to interview him. Despite the apparent differences between the two, they begin a romantic relationship and soon Bad has the closest thing to a family. Jean and her four year old son Buddy may be what Bad needs if he can only free himself of the demons he still battles and the grip they have on him. Robert Duvall and Collin Farrell costar in one of great American films that I think a lot of people missed.

Jeff Bridges gave the performance of a lifetime in Crazy Heart and his Oscar award was well deserved to say the least. His role as Bad Blake was one he was destined to portray and he makes what would have been just another ordinary movie into something truly spectacular. Click here to watch the trailer on YouTube to Crazy Heart.