Air fryer pork ribs

We had this takeaway pork ribs from Pura Brasa last week to celebrate our wedding anniversary at home ( thanks to Phase 2 HA restrictions!!) 

I wanted to try to prepare a homemade version as Y loves her meats (her latest addition to her nickname list is "Miss meaty"). I didn't want to have to burn a big hole in my pocket to feed her carnivorous cravings. 

So I got this lovely slab of pork ribs from the wet market at Chinatown. This hit the weighing scale at close to 900+ grams (approx 2 pounds?), and costs $23/kg. 

The uncle at the stall suggested that I precook the meat before putting it into the oven to roast/BBQ, to avoid drying out the meat. So here it is, in my WMF stainless steel pot on a trivet,ready to be steamed.

I chose steaming rather than boil or parboil, so that the juices and flavour do not leech out into the boiling liquid. Besides, it's already so hot in the kitchen! In total, I steamed it for about 15 mins. It was fully cooked when I poked the meat with a chopstick, as the juices ran clear. 

I then rubbed on some store bought BBQ seasoning sauce and popped it into the air fryer for about 5-7 mins at 170 deg Celsius. I just eye-balled and flipped it over (for more even browning, aesthetics, really, since it was already fully cooked) and cranked up to 200 deg Celsius for a final burst for another 4mins. The BBQ smell was so enchanting and the fats sizzling and popping when I opened the airfryer. 

Here's a pic of the final product. 

Verdict: it looks better than it tastes. 

I think I overcooked it and the exterior bits of meat were super dry and tasted like jerky. Personally, I had the small loose piece of rib, which I cut off from the main slab so that it could fit into the airfryer. It was exposed to the convection heat in the airfryer and tasted dry and tasteless. I later had another rib from the middle section and it was much juicier and softer. 

By not marinating in advance, I set the stage for bland meat. The seasoning was only on the exposed parts of the meat. I can only shudder to imagine the quantity of seasoning used by restaurants to get that smoky, sweet, salty taste we get when dining out. I can only console myself that my version is healthier! 

This is a dish that I will definitely try again, not least because Y asked for more (her exact words were "mummy, can you cook this more often") , but also cos I have a bottle of BBQ seasoning dry rub to use up before SG's humidity ruins it.