Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

Be a Wok Star!

Steaming

Dream Dish: Steamed Ribs in Brown Bean Sauce

By 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!

Wok 3 Ways: Steam meatloaf, Fry and Boil

By 1 Comment

Have you ever had a craving that needs to be satisfied like immediately?  I had one of those earlier this week.  It’s a dish my mom used to make with ground pork and Tianjian preserved vegetable, it’s so moorish. I call this dish ‘Chinese steamed meatloaf’ because it’s a similar concept to meatloaf: densely packed meat.

Steamed Chinese meatloaf and rapini is such an easy, weeknight dinner!

Both cooked in my wok using three different methods, steaming, parboiling and frying.

Apart from minced pork, Tianjian preserved vegetables and rapini, I always have garlic and ginger, scallions and my handy caddy basket with seasonings and oil for stir frying.  This dinner came together quickly. Always prep everything prior to turning on wok and stove!

I usually use ground turkey but fancied pork for a change. The butcher ground about a pound of pork butt fresh for me.  I “seasoned” the minced pork with my usual TSPC: tamari, sherry, pepper and cornstarch, then sprinkled 1/2 of shredded ginger on top.  My blue and white ‘fish’ motif dish was a perfect steaming dish and can be found at Asian markets.  A coup dish is good too.

Tianjian preserved vegetable comes in a lovely ceramic jar.  You can recycle those jars to use as a vase or pen holder, I love them.  If you aren’t able to get Tianjian preserved vegetable or don’t want to use it, the “seasoned” pork on its own will still taste SUPERB.

Cooking is about making your own rules and having FUN and that’s what Wok Stars do!

When you open the jar, PONG! it’s strong smelling cause it comes from the you guessed it, cabbage family!  It’s chopped up already and preserved with salt, so rinse in a little tap water to get rid of some of the salt, then drain well.  Because I don’t measure, I used just enough vegetable so you get a bite in each mouthful but not too much!  Use chopsticks or a fork to fold the vegetable gently into the pork, the pork should be chunky and intact, not mushy.

Rapini (also known as broccoli rabe) has a slight tang like Chinese broccoli and complemented the steamed meatloaf perfectly. When chopping bottom of the stems, I noticed they were a bit pithy, so parboiling rather than stir frying would make them more tender. This is a good example of my thought process and how it determines what cooking method I use.  It’s also one of the reasons why you should not just follow a recipe blindly because if an ingredient doesn’t look good, you should substitute it and not feel like you cannot make the recipe!

Boil a wokful of water till bubbling, squeeze in a few drops of oil to prevent rapini going grey.  If you have a lot of mouths to feed, parboil rapini in several batches.  I only did one batch and kept rest in fridge.  Parboil rapini till a little wilted, test for doneness the way you like to have it, then drain.  Place on plate and keep warm.  Return wok to stove, wipe very dry.  Heat your wok, then add 4-5 swirls of oil into wok and quickly fry squished garlic and rest of shredded ginger.  Fry & swish around with spatula till slightly golden. Don’t burn them otherwise they become bitter.  Pour this goodness all over the rapini. This dish is DONE.

Yes, another great use of a wok is steaming.  My mom showed me how to use wood chopsticks and lay them across the wok as a platform to steam the plate of minced pork and then put the wok lid on, such a clever idea! No steamer rack necessary and the plate used for steaming goes straight to the table. So, make sure you use a plate that’s big enough to spread the pork and has a little dip to it, cause there’ll be a little sauce from the steaming and seasoning, yummy.

Note:  I got this tip from one of my favorite Wok Stars: Dr. Maritza Paz.  Do NOT use disposable wood chopsticks which are not sturdy so they bend and she nearly lost her dish of food!  Melamine chopsticks are O.K.

Sprinkle chopped scallions right before serving. Slice the Chinese meatloaf into wedges and eat with rapini.  Notice we didn’t have any rice with this dish and we didn’t miss it, yummy.
Wok 3 ways is another illustration of the versatility of a wok, don’t waste it by using it just for stir frying!  Please share ingenious ways you’re cooking in your wok in comments below!