Braised Pork Ribs

Short ribs fried then braised in a sweet-sour sauce reduced hard until it turns sticky.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork spare ribs, cut into 4 cm lengths
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons black vinegar
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• a thumb of ginger, sliced
• 400 ml hot water
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

Method

1. Blanch the ribs in boiling water for 3 minutes and rinse them. Drain them properly: wet ribs will not brown.
2. Fry them in the oil over a high heat until they are coloured on all sides, about 6 minutes. Unlike a belly braise there is no caramel here — the browning of the meat itself is doing that job.
3. Add the ginger, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and wine, and let it bubble for a minute so the raw edge comes off the vinegar.
4. Pour in the hot water, bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Ribs do not need the long haul a shin or a belly does.
5. Uncover and boil it down hard, 10 to 12 minutes, turning the ribs constantly as the liquid drops. It goes from watery to syrupy to burnt quite quickly, so stay with it.
6. Stop when the sauce is thick enough to leave a trail behind a spoon and the ribs look lacquered. Scatter the sesame seeds over and serve.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes