Spare ribs cooked in Instant pot with home-made BBQ sauce バーベキューソース豚スペアリブ

 This was the second version of pork spare ribs we made using Instant Pot. I asked my wife to come up with the BBQ sauce. We looked at a few Instant Pot rib recipes. Most of them start with dry rubs and add apple juice/vinegar in the bottom of the Instant  Pot and place the ribs on the trivet and pressure cook. After that, smear the BBQ sauce and grill it for a few minutes. My wife said, she does not like charred and blackened BBQ sauce on the surface. She remembered a BBQ sauce based on a recipe from Joy of Cooking that she used to make years ago. So we looked up the recipe and made her version based on the notes she wrote many years ago on a post-it note she stuck in the book next to the recipe. This was more traditional flavors but it is also very good. The meat came off the bone very easily.

First my wife made the BBQ sauce:

Ingredients:
One medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 cup ketchup

2 Tbs. Vinegar (we used sushi vinegar)

1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 Tbs. Brown sugar

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/4 tsp. Paprika

1/4 tsp. Pepper

1 Tbs. Mustard

Directions:
For Sauce:
Sauté and caramelize the onion in olive oil. Add the ketchup and cook until it caramelizes and darkens (Maillard reaction). Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 20 minutes.

For cooking ribs in the Instant Pot.

Ingredients:
4-5 pork spare ribs
onion and garlic powder
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
the BBQ sauce made above
Water

Directions:
Rub the ribs with onion and garlic powders, salt and black pepper
Using the sauté function, heat the Instant Pot and when the oil is simmering, add ribs and brown all four sides, add the BBQ sauce and water so that the ribs are just submerged.
Choose manual, pressure cook to high-pressure and 35 minutes
Let it naturally de-pressurize and remove the lid
Using the sauté function, reduce the sauce for 15-20 minutes or until thick.

This is relatively easy to prepare without additional grilling in the oven. The meat fell off from the bone and the BBQ sauce was sweet, sour, and  tomato-y but not dry or crusty. We are quite satisfied with this.