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spare ribs

Dream Dish: Steamed Ribs in Brown Bean Sauce

August 18, 2019 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

Do you ever dream about a dish you like?  For me Steamed Spare Ribs in Black Beans is one of them. It’s a mystery to me why it’s only served as a dim sum lunch item and never on the dinner menu?  

Addictive Dream Dish! Every riblet is so tender and tasty.

Note: I have an Amazon affiliate store for those who cannot get seasonings and products easily. I will get a fee when you click on these links.

This is what makes being a Wok Star so fun, because we don’t follow rules, we swap out ingredients and often get better results than the original dish PLUS get a nice surprise! 

When I came across pork riblets at Costco recently, I immediately thought of making Steamed Spare Ribs in Black Beans for dinner. 

Here’s video as promised, https://youtu.be/Mdwo742mmDg

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mdwo742mmDg

About Pork Riblets
I’ve only seen pork riblets at Asian supermarkets and Costco only has St.Louis Ribs, not Spare Ribs which have more marbling. If your market or Costco don’t have riblets option, tell butcher to cut ACROSS the ribs to bite size chunks. It’s more versatile, you can make so many kinds of stews, soups and curries. I’ll share more soon.  

The secret to getting these little pork riblets tender is to steam long and on low heat in your wok. Yes, another way of using your cast iron wok. Choose a dish that’s wide and can hold some sauce! 

About Brown Beans
Steamed Ribs in Black Beans are typically made with fermented black beans but I didn’t have any and I find they are too salty and overpowering. Don’t confuse these fermented black beans with the Latin Caribbean Frijole.

The Koon Chun Brown Bean Sauce I use are more mellow and easier to prepare. They come ready mashed in a saucey consistency. This is the same sauce that comes in your Wok Star Kit. I also use this sauce in my cooking class to poach Tilapia and it’s always a big hit.

NOTE: Fermented Black Beans come in a sack and will take you a year to get through them, ha, ha. They have to be rinsed and mashed. If interested in its origins and want to try them, Chef Norman Van Aken does a great job explaining.

What to pair with?
Because Steamed Ribs in Brown Beans has quite strong flavors, it’s best to pair with a simple stir fry or blanched vegetable to complement each other. I chose Baby Bok Choy and brown rice, yum. My hubby raved about my traditional Chinese dinner, a rather rare occasion! He slurped down all the sauce with rice.

Here’s how to make this dish so you can have it anytime, it’s SUPER EASY and what a WINNER..

Serves 2 
Ingredients:
6 ribs cut across
2 scallions cut diagonally

Brown rice 

Ribs marinade:
TSPC…
Koon Chun Brown Bean Sauce
Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce
Toasted Sesame Oil
Garlic and Ginger Chopped 

Vegetable:
6-8 Baby Bok Choy bunches, split lengthways
Garlic and Ginger thwacked
Avocado Oil

Seasoning:
San-J Tamari
Medium drinking sherry wine (from your local supermarket, NOT sherry vinegar)

Method:

  1. Start with cooking brown rice.
  2. Marinade ribs in wide dish.
  3. Put steamer rack OR pair of wooden chopsticks in your wok, add water to just reach top of rack.
  4. Put dish of ribs on rack and close with wok lid, switch stove to high. As soon as water boils, switch to medium low. Check every 15 minutes and add more water if needed. 
  5. After ribs finish steaming, sprinkle chopped scallions and cover to keep warm. Remove rack and empty any water. Wipe wok clean and dry.
  6. Start with stir frying Bok Choy with a squirt of avocado oil and garlic and ginger. Add a little water and cover with lid. When Bok Choy is tender, drizzle San-J tamari and sherry and squeeze of fresh lime or lemon. Done.
  7. Zap steamed ribs if needed.

ENJOY! 

Garlic & Ginger (aka G&G)
Start with TSPC; add Koon Chun Brown Bean Sauce, Kadoya Toasted Sesame Oil and Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce.
Use metal or bamboo rack to set dish of ribs. In my video, I show how to use a pair of wood chopsticks set apart to balance the dish. Do NOT use disposable wood chopsticks.
My wok lid is stainless steel but very light.
TA DA! Taste better than it looks. You’ll want to drown your rice in this sauce!
Look how simple this Baby Bok Choy Stir Fry is!
Split Bok Choy lengthways, they’ll cook faster!
Self Explanatory! But PLEASE use AVOCADO OIL instead of Grape Seed Oil.
Fry Bok Choy with avocado oil, garlic & ginger, add a little water and cover with lid. When tender, sprinkle San-J tamari, sherry, squirt of lime juice, DONE!

Filed Under: blog, cast iron wok, spare ribs, Steaming, wok cooking Tagged With: "weeknight dinner", "brown bean sauce", "steamed ribs", cast iron wok, wok cooking

BBQ Spicy Hoisin Ribs

July 14, 2012 By Eleanor Hoh 12 Comments

BBQ Spicy Hoisin Ribs are so easy and ALWAYS turn out juicy and tasty AS LONG AS you use these 3 specific brands of seasonings: San-J tamari, Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce and Huy Fong chili garlic sauce!  Sorry, there’s no comparison or compromise. Start with good ingredients and you’ll have less work to make your dish tasty. My husband swears when we ‘retire’, we’ll go on a road trip in a winnebago and flip up the back and serve my BBQ Spicy Hoisin Ribs and he’ll make wok omelets and make a killing!

My sister and I have had not such stellar experiences when using other brands.  She made my signature Hoisin Ribs for a friend in Key West and they didn’t have the Koon Chun Hoisin sauce. She was so disappointed with results.  Even in Hong Kong, where Koon Chun is manufactured, I couldn’t locate it at my Kowloon market and experienced same blah results.

Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce is the STAR of this dish!
This sauce is what MAKES the dish and gives it the caramelization and crispy edges yet juicy and succulent inside. It has the right texture and balance of flavors and clings to your ribs instead of falling off.
The soy beans are from the first pressing, so you have quality and not the dregs like other brands, made from many pressings. With the right mix of sweetness together with the sour vinegar and spiciness of the Huy Fong chili garlic sauce and the saltiness from San-J tamari. If you don’t have lime, not to worry, the vinegar from the chili sauce is enough. Double up if you need more!
I always get asked how long do I grill/broil/BBQ the ribs, your nose will tell you and you can peek to see when they are slightly burnt before turning over. You don’t need to ‘marinade’ ribs for a while before grilling. I slather right before I grill and ONLY ON ONE SIDE. When you slather on both sides, it makes the side that’s not being grilled soggy and yukky. My ‘scientific’ lingo. I’m not allowed a BBQ grill in our building but I find it’s just as good under the broiler.  So excuse me when I say ‘grill’.

A butcher said 3 ribs per person plus 1 extra.  When they’re huge, I only eat one! Buy individual ribs if cooking for just a few but get the slab if you’re cooking for many cause it’s too much work to flip each individual rib! I grill all of them so I have leftovers, yum, the best.
I made this for 4th of July and had with a lovely red quinoa salad with mini sweet peppers, scallion and an avocado, grape tomatoes, pineapple, chicory, shallot salad.  They were both a perfect complementary side dish to Grilled Spicy Hoisin Ribs.

PROCESS:
1. Get ribs to room temperature.  Wash & dry completely. Place on rack on baking tray or if you’re BBQing on an outdoor grill, line them on the rack.
2. Here are the proportions for the marinade: 4 hoisin, 1 tamari, 2 chili garlic sauce, 1/4 lime juice.
3. Grill till crispy with burnt edges.  Turn over each rib or if you got a slab, slice down each rib then slather more marinade on the uncooked side and grill till crispy with burnt edges.  If you have patience, turn the rib on both its sides as well.  Just test the thickest rib with fork to see if juice runs clear. Ready to chomp on them?
Do you have inside tips how you make your ribs?
#LetsLunch is a monthly virtual lunch of bloggers whose posts are based on a theme. Don’t forget to check out all the Let’s Lunchers’ BBQ posts below! And if you’d like to join Let’s Lunch, go to Twitter and post a message with the hashtag #Letslunch — or, post a comment below.
Aleana‘s Home-made Ketchup, Relish & Mustard (BBQ-Friendly Condiments) at Eat My Blog
Charissa‘s Grilled Pulled-Pork Pizza with Roasted Corn (Gluten-Free) at Zest Bakery
Emma‘s Miso-Glazed Grilled Veggies and Polenta at Dreaming of Pots and Pans
Grace‘s Working Mama’s Pork Tenderloin Bao at HapaMama
Jill‘s Steven Raichlen Ribs Interview at Eating My Words
Joe‘s Grilled Cabbage (and Smoky Cabbage and Udon Slaw) at Joe Yonan
Juliana‘s Grilled Wagyu and Turbot with Bearnaise Sauce at J. Loh
Lisa‘s BBQ Salmon with Tahini Dressing and Fresh Herb Salad at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Lucy‘s Taj Ma Hog & Not-So-Secret BBQ Sauce at A Cook and Her Books
Nancie‘s Thai Grilled Chicken Wings with Sweet Hot Garlic Sauce at Nancie McDermott
Pat‘s Korean-Style Beef Shortribs (Kalbi) at The Asian Grandmother’s Cookbook
Renee‘s Steamed Buns with BBQ Pork at My Kitchen And I
Disclosures:  

  1. Koon Chun sponsors my Wok Star project by providing Hoisin Sauce and Brown Bean Sauce to include in my Wok Star Kit.  However, I must state that I have been using this product for over 19 years and contacted them because I love their products. 
  2. I’m finally an Amazon affiliate, so if you purchase any of the products from here, I will get a commission.

Filed Under: #LetsLunch, fourth july, grilling, Koon Chun, spare ribs

CurrySimple Baked Ribs

July 3, 2010 By Eleanor Hoh 4 Comments

CurrySimple Baked Ribs

We’re not hosting July Fourth this year, it’s kind of a relief because it’s not the cooking but the cleaning and tidying up that takes so long, don’t you find? You can see our last year’s celebrations with Hoisin Spare Ribs and tons of salads etc.

I particularly wanted to share this dish because instead of BBQing your ribs, you can bake them with an Asian twist!
This dish is so easy because with CurrySimple’s readymade sauces, you just open and pour. I am not a fan of premade foods but I must say CurrySimple’s curries are really the best outside of homemade curries.

I discovered CurrySimple when I saw Mike Moran, the founder/owner on Donny Deutsch’s TV show, The Big Idea. His philosophy, “we make Thai food easy’ was such an “AHA” moment. I’m always on the lookout for products that make life easy for people. So, I immediately contacted him and am thrilled to include a pouch of his CurrySimple when folks purchase my Wok Star Kit! Everyone who’s tried it always wants more.

There are some things that should be made fresh like using fresh veggies vs frozen or fresh garlic vs ready peeled in jars of oil. But there are some things like this fantastic idea of combining curry paste and coconut milk in a pouch just makes our lives so much easier. I remember when I was young, my mom used to have the four of us sisters pound curry spices from scratch in a mortar and pestle. I mention this in my Malaysian Chicken Curry blog. Unbelievable amount of work and time which no-one has nowadays.

So, when you crave a good Thai curry, you can make it right at home with the proteins and veggies you have/like and it’s just as good as a Thai restaurant. The Thai restaurants in Miami are so generic like the Chinese restaurants, you might as well open a can of curry sauce and just pour. Sorry to my Thai friends but that’s how I feel. The CurrySimple flavors however, are spot on and the convenience factor is what wows me. I know this sounds crazy but when I came back from my Hong Kong trip, the first thing I wanted was to make a Thai CurrySimple dinner because I was so homesick for the Asian flavors I just left behind. I wanted the spicy, pungent flavors without having to slave at it.

Here’s my really simple CurrySimple Baked Ribs with vegetables you can get all year round – cabbage and red potatoes, a complete dinner:


I didn’t add any liquid to the spicy curry sauce but just poured from the pouch to cover the slab of spare ribs, covered with foil and baked between 1 1/2 – 2 hours. Half way through, I added in the potatoes and cabbage. Easy as that, the meat was tender, juicy and tasty!

A few dishes I made: Curry Salmon and Salmon Salad, enjoy. I’ve got lots more dishes using a variety of their sauces/soups, so keep stopping by.

Take a tour of CurrySimple’s site for tons of cool stuff to try, you can also interact with other fans and upload your photos to share recipes. My favorites are their curries, nice variety from mild to spicy. I got my own personal Badge with my photo on it! Look over the right ->.

I love his site, he keeps improving it. In fact, Mike is so brilliant at marketing his brand that he’s now started another business to help other folks set up their e-commerce sites. I’m very impressed with how much he’s accomplished and love supporting a fellow entrepreneur.

Love to hear your experiences using CurrySimple and if you’ve not tried it yet, hurry over because you’ll wonder what all the fuss is with making an authentic Thai

I leave you with a few articles from New York Times you may have missed. Oh, they want your BBQ photos and stories on their site!

The Secret to Ribs is already in the kitchen: The Oven by Harold McGee, NYT

When Grilling Today Fills Tomorrow’s cravings

Simplify Greek Fish for Summer

Filed Under: curry, currysimple, spare ribs, Thai

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