Spare Ribs has its Own Attitude

Pork spare ribs are one of Chinese delicacy since long time ago. Spare Ribs can be cooked in different Asian styles. As we grow up, we were familiar with pork spare ribs  cooked with pork belly in Burmese Pork curry and spare rib broth with different vegetables.
After being in Minnesota for more than 10 years time, it is amazing to see the growing economy, growing diversity and different types of food.

More and more Asian groceries, Asian fusion restaurants and Chinese restaurants can be seen every year. It is also exciting to see diverse culture and people adapting their taste to Asian food. Raman Stores are now biggest trend in growing food culture also in the Food service industry.  When we arrived in 2001, City of Minneapolis not much choices of Ethnic food. Now we can have different type of food of our interest in Asian food. Every time, I shop at the Asian grocery store, I see more and more European people shopping for asian ingredients. It means that they have interest in those food and they open their option too. But  pork bones are used for broth when I learned at my culinary class and not more than that. In Japanese Raman broth, Pork bones are also playing the big part of making broth for Raman.

 One memory that stay with me is the walk with my dad in the weekends. On some Sunday Mornings, my eldest sister and I had to wake up early in the morning to go for a walk to Shwedagon Pagoda ( "Famous Landmark of Burma"). At that time we stayed in Downtown Government Residence which was walking distance to the Shwedagon Pagoda. Sometimes he treat us Authentic Chinese Tim Sum at a crowded little shop that on ( Maung Khine Street (old name) or Bo Ywae Road ( current) in Downtown Yangon. It was 1978 and China town was also popular food paradise as today.

But one sweet memory associated with the pork was the weekend dinner and movie treats with family. In some weekends, our mom and dad treated us at the Chinese restaurant followed by movies as a family outing. We packed the deep fried spare ribs to eat in the
movie theatre. He treated us dinner at Chinese restaurant and we watched the movie after that dinner. The regular item that we mostly ordered as an appetizer is the deep fried rib coated with bread cramp batter.

Now back to my recipe that I am going to write, as I am saying too much to sell my food story rather than food. You might think it is not fair. The steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce can be made at home like Tim Sum place. And it can be eaten with bread or Chinese style steam buns.

Steamed Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients

1 lb       Pork Spare Ribs
1 Tbsp   Dark Soy sauce
1 tsp     Oyster Sauce
1 tsp     Black Pepper
1 tsp     White Pepper
1 Tbsp   Sugar
1 Tbsp   Light soy sauce
1 tsp      Salt
1 tbsp    Corn Starch
1 tsp      Black bean sauce
1 tsp      Garlic chopped
1 tsp      Fresh Red thai chili Chopped
1 tsp      Fine chopped Ginger
1tbsp     Canola Oil

Instructions

1. In the wok on the stove top with medium high heat, heat the oil then add the sugar to make it brown in the heated oil.

2. Then add the pork ribs marinated with the rest of the ingredients other than oil, sugar, ginger garlic.

3. Stir fry until all the ingredients are blended and fragrant.

4. When all the water from the ribs are gone, transfer those into the ceramic bowl or steel bowl.

5 . Cover the bowl with aluminum foil and put that bowl in  bigger pot. The Pot should be filled with 2-3 inches of water to steam that bowl. Steam that pot with medium low heat for 1 hour. Add more water and cook more time if the meat is not tender.

6. We may also use the baking tray fill the water and cover everything and put in the oven with 380 Degree F. Bake it for 1 - 2 hr depends on your own preference of meat tenderness.

7. After testing the tenderness of the meat, we may  serve with Chinese style steam buns. or French Bread to skip the hassle of steaming buns.

Chinese Style Sweet Rice with Meat

This dish is not very strange to anyone who is familiar with Chinese Tim Sum. I t is not really hard to cook and it has the flavorful ingredients too. This dish is served in Cantonese style Chinese restaurant in some other countries and in most south east Asian countries. In America, we could easily find it in most Chinese restaurant which serve Tim Sum.

I made the dish during this Chinese New Year and it was a big thumb up and Crowd pleaser. It is also easy to make and can be stored in the fridge for more than a week. For the home_made version, to skip the hassle, the rice need not  to be wrapped in the Lotus leaves for steaming.
It could be cooked in the rice cooker and also one pot dish.

I did not realize previously, how really good this dish is, as it contains dried shrimp. My cousin who is now retired from her teaching job as she is in her retired age. She told us that food story when we were in middle school. As she was a single who spend time with us every summer. And those days are quite memorable summer in our younger days. She joined our family wherever we travelled during those memorable summers of our younger days.

Some of her funny stories and her love story were like the movies. I believe that she  longed for her first and last love that stayed forever in her heart. She is really kind to me and my sisters. She always in tear when we meet again in our trip. As a human being how could I control my tears when I experience memories related with our dearest friends or family.

Chinese Style Sweet Rice with meat ( Pork or Chicken)( 4-5 serving)

Ingredients

4 cups    Glutinous Rice
1 lb        Pork (or) Chicken ( boneless any type but prefer chicken thigh or pork belly)
2 pieces  Chinese Pork sausage
2 Tbsp    Dried Shrimp
4 Tbsp     Light Soy sauce
2 Tbsp     Dark Soy sauce
5 pieces   Dried Shiitake Mushroom
3 tbsp      Peanuts
2 tbsp      Thin sliced Ginger
1 tbsp     Sliced garlic
1 tbsp     Sesame oil
2 tsp        5 spice powder
1/2 tsp    White pepper
1/2 cup    Canola Oil (or) Groundnut Oil

Meat Prep

1. Cut the pork or chicken into one inch cubes.
2. Mix the pork with one tbsp ginger, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp light soy sauce , and white pepper.
3. In the small pan, add all the meat that is mixed, add enough water to cover,then  boil. Simmer till water has evaporated and the meat should be well-cooked.

Instructions 

1. Thinly slice the Chinese sausages.
2. Soak the dried Shiitake mushroom in water for 2 hours then squeeze out all water and slice thin.
3. Soak the rice in water over night.
4. Soak the dried shrimp for 1 hour
5. In the cooking wok or skillet, add the oil and heat medium high.
6. Then fry the sliced sausage pieces slightly red at the edges, then strain from the pan and drain the excess oil with paper towel.
7. In the pan, add ginger, garlic to stir till fragrant. Then add the meat, dried shrimp,mushroom and peanut and stir for 3 minutes.
8. When all the ingredients are mixed, Add the soaked rice and the rest of the ingredients such as sausages (fried), sesame oil, soy sauce, 5 spice powder and whit pepper.
9. We may also add 1 tbsp of sugar if we like sweetness in the food.
10. Stir it  thoroughly and transfer that rice mix to the rice cooker. Add chicken broth or water about 3-4 cups just above the rice to cook evenly well .
11.we may follow the instruction of the automatic rice cooker, we may skip the rice cooker procedure by cooking on the stove top.

( Note: If we want the rice color to be whiter, we may skip using the thick dark soy sauce.)