braised pork ribs

YyTried these a few times and they are awesome! Never gotten around to keeping them for the next day though as they are usually gone on the day itself.

Pork Riblets Braised in Vietnamese Caramel Sauce
modified from Molly Stevens’ All About Braising (Serves 2 as a meal or 4 as a starter)

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup sliced shallots

1 bulb garlic smashed, skin removed
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 slab baby back ribs (1.75 to 2 lbs)
sawed lengthwise in half

Spread the sugar in the bottom of a wide heavy-based skillet/crock pot. Pour over 1/4 cup of the water and the lemon juice. Let it sit for a minute. Then heat over medium heat until the sugar begins to liquefy. Reduce the heat the medium low and let the caramel boil until it turns red.

Remove it from the heat and slowly pour 1/4 cup water and the fish sauce into the caramel. Return to the heat and stir. Let boil for a few minutes, until the sauce is smooth and a bit thick. Add the shallots and pepper and garlic and simmer for another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Separate the pork ribs into individual riblets by cutting down between the bones. Blanch with 2 slices of ginger. Drain. Add them to the caramel sauce, stir to coat, and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cover and braise, stirring every 15 minutes with tongs, for 90 minutes, up to 3hrs for large ribs Don’t let the caramel sauce boil; if the heat is too high then use a diffuser. The ribs are done when they have become tender enough to pull easily away from the bone and are a deep mahogany colour. At this point, you can serve them or store them.

If you want to store them, let them cool and then store in the fridge for 1 to 3 days. To reheat, pop them in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

Alternatively, the sauce can be modified by heating in a wok and adding a splash of shaoxing wine.

Braised Pork Belly (adapted from Sam Leong's)

I've been salivating at the picture of braised pork belly with pickled bamboo shoot in A Taste of Home and today seems to be a good day to try it since we've got a nice piece of meat from the market. I love braised pork belly, especially when it's cooked to perfection. One bite and the flavour bursts into your mouth. The balance of sweetness and saltiness, the aromatics and not to forget the fat that melts in your mouth.. Mmmm


Braised Pork Belly (adapted from Sam Leong's book)

400g of pork belly cut into 1inch cubes
1tbsp light soy sauce
cooking oil for frying
1.5L chicken stock
2tsp potato starch

seasoning: 300ml chinese cooking wine (hua tiao) + 100ml tomato sauce + 2tsp oyster sauce + 2 slices of ginger + 1 bay leaf + 1 cinnamon stick + 5 spring onion + 10 cloves garlic + 100g rock sugar + 3tbsp dark soy sauce + 1tsp black peppercorn + 1/2tsp salt

Marinate pork belly with light soy sauce.
Heat oil in skillet and pan-fry pork belly until lightly browned. I decided to pan-fry instead of deep-fry because I can't bear the thought of wasting so much oil on deep-frying. Remove pork belly and rinse with cold water to remove the oil.

Put pork belly, chicken stock and seasoning ingredients into a pressure cooker. Pressure cook at high for 35 minutes, allow it to release the pressure slowly. Alternatively, simmer over low heat for 1.5hours.

Skim off and discard layer of fat from stock, then strain and reheat stock. As I pressure cooked the meat, I ended up with a lot of stock, hence I only used about 5 cups of it and thickened it with 2tsp of potato starch.

I made braised eggs to complete the meal. This is easily done by putting clean eggs into a small pot and fill the pot with water such that it barely cover the eggs. Bring the water to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the eggs in the pot covered for 5 minutes. Remove the shell and put the eggs in the hot stock for at least 15 minutes.

There, a quick and easy dish which goes exceptionally well with fluffy white rice. And yes, you can add a dish of vegetables to make it a complete meal.

Serves 4

fast & yummy Lotus Root Soup

I love soup. Soup is transcultural, it evokes warmth, is a great comfort food, and reminds me of home. Plus, soup is easy to cook, difficult to fail but hard to perfect. In the modern kitchen where time is a luxury, it always helps to have the niffy little device called the pressure cooker. Now, I'm not sure if pressure cooker made soup taste any different from the traditional Cantonese slow-cooked soup (made over charcoal fire nonetheless), I'm happy with homemade soup any day.

So, here's the recipe for lotus root soup with peanut and pork ribs

Ingredients (serves 4-6)
1 kg pork ribs
Handful of red dates washed
2 bulbs of garlic washed & separated into cloves
1 big bowl of shelled peanut
1 big lotus root ~1 kg washed, peeled and cut crosswise into 0.5cm slices
Bones from 2 chicken
1 muslin bag
Marinate for pork ribs: 3-4tbsp light soy sauce, 1-2tsp of sesame oil, sprinkle of shaoxing wine, dash of white pepper. Exact measurements not required as soup is very forgiving

Put chicken bones, garlic and red dates into muslin bag. Option to add couple of pieces of dried cuttlefish. Some feel that it helps with the umami flavor of the soup but I find that it detracts from the natural sweetness of the soup. There are also others who advocate adding carrots/tomatoes which I feel is unorthodox and does not add to the flavor of the soup.
Place lotus root, peanut and muslin bag into pressure cooker and fill it with water with water level about 2cm just above the bag. (It's always easier to add water to dilute the soup later) Cook in pressure cooker under high pressure for 30minutes.

Meanwhile, wash and blanch pork ribs. Blanching means putting pork ribs into a pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes. It helps to remove any excess fat/blood/smell from the meat and ensures clear soup.
Marinate the blanched pork ribs for 30mins.

After 30minutes, mash up the contents of muslin bag with a wooden spoon to release all the goodness into the soup. Remove bag from the pot.
This forms the soup base.

Add the marinated pork ribs to the soup base. Pressure cook under high pressure for 15-20minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. And voila! Yummilious and hypernutritious lotus root soup. The natural sweetness of the soup coupled with the soft boiled peanuts and crunchy lotus roots brings about great comfort.
The soup can be served immediately. However, I find that placing the soup in the freezer helps remove the excess oil (oil floats to the surface and freezes which can be scraped off easily) and enhances the flavor when it is reheated the next day.