Smother me in smokey sauce

Sometimes you've just gotta have it. The craving sets in. The need. Its ribs and beer night. Ribs covered in piquant smokey sauce that just leave a big sticky grin on your face. Sure you can get it out of a jar with Ainsley or Jack written all over it, but turn it round and have a wee peek at the ingredients on the back. That sure wasn't on Uncle Buck's finger lickin prep table. I'd bet my sweet bippy that the smokey flavour was all the way from the flavour labs. So one fine Saturday afternoon when I was fixin to have the boys round I played around with this excellent recipe I discovered on the wonderful VideoJug.com. It's satisfyingly good and offers plenty of scope for a bit of customization. Chances are you will have most of the ingredients in your store cupboard, save, maybe, for the sweet smoked paprika. I've made this recipe a few times now and it just gets better.
Points to remember: the chilli sauce isn't the sweet Thai sauce, its there for a bit of heat, so you could go your own way with a good dried chilli powder or, even better, grind up some smoked chilli to your own powder. The Sweet Smoked Paprika, La Chinata (in that timeless beautiful little spanish red tin) is there for the smokey flavour - use one teaspoon and then re-visit the smoke later on when it is cooked down a bit - you don't want it tasting like an old fire tunic. Take the time to reduce the sauce to a thick and dark consistancy if you are just making a batch of sauce to store in the fridge and please stir often as it thickens to prevent it catching. If you are going to cook it with the ribs, season and single the ribs, add a little stock or water and cook them down to tender under a tightly fitting roof of foil, then when you are ready to colour them up, put in some of the sauce you made - you don't want to cook the sauce to oblivion.

The sauce result: Smokey, tangy, sweet, spicy. Definitely one that you keep tasting as you stir. Result!

The fixings:
1 onion , finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic , chopped
160 ml red wine vinegar
40 g brown sugar
60 g honey
300 g ketchup
30 ml Worcestershire sauce
60 ml soy sauce
60 ml chilli sauce
1 - 2 teaspoons Smoked Sweet Paprika
100 ml water , or stock
1 blender
1 saucepan
1 wooden spoon

The Prep
Put the onion, garlic, vinegar, sugar, honey, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, chilli sauce and the water into the blender. Pulse it a few times and then blend on high until it has thoroughly combined into a smooth sauce.

The Final Act
Pour the sauce into the pan and place it over a medium heat. Bring it to a gentle simmer, add the teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika and cook for 15 - 20 minutes on a low heat so that all the flavours have had time to combine and the sauce is reduced in volume. Re-adjust for smoke/spice to your taste about half way through.