Sweet and sour spare ribs
From Cookipedia
| Sweet and sour spare ribs | |
|---|---|
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| Servings: | Serves 4 |
| Ready in: | 1 hour 40 minutes |
| Prep. time: | 1 hour 10 minutes |
| Cook time: | 30 minutes |
| Difficulty: | 
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A simple and tasty way to serve economic spare ribs. Serve as a starter with finger bowls and napkins or as a main course with plain boiled rice.
Ingredients
Ingredients
Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩🍳 method for this recipe
- 675 g (1.5 lb) spare rib chops or escalopes of pork tenderloin fillet
- Juice of 1 lemon or lime.
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ½ cup of water
- ¼ cup jaggery or brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornflour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons of Szechuan peppercorns
- 1 dried red chili, crushed.
- ¼ cup vinegar of your choice. Chinese black vinegar is nice with this.
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- ¾ cup sweet peppers, deseeded and chopped (any colours)
- ¼ cup onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- 1 cup pineapple chunks
- * 1 medium can of pineapple chunks will provide enough juice and chunks for this dish.
Method
- Cut the ribs into individual chops, if they are long, cut them in half lengthwise too.
- Marinade the ribs or escalopes of pork tenderloin fillet in lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of crushed Szechuan peppercorns and a little salt for an hour or so to tenderise.
- Heat the oil in a wok and brown the ribs for 4 minutes, turning often.
- Add the water and vinegar, the remaining teaspoon of crushed Szechuan peppercorns, the crushed chili and bring to the boil and simmer until properly cooked (about 10 to 15 minutes) - just 5 minutes if using thin fillet.
- Remove the ribs set to one side, leaving a little liquid/oil in the wok.
- Add the onions and peppers and sauté for a few minutes.
- Pre-mix the cornflour in a little cold water.
- Add the pineapple juice, salt, jaggery, soy sauce to the wok, stir in the cornflour and mix well.
- Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often as the mixture thickens.
- Add the ribs back to the wok together with the pineapple chunks and simmer for 5 minutes.
Serving suggestions
Serve hot with plain boiled rice or noodles.
Variations
Made this with escalopes of pork tenderloin fillet in place of the spare-ribs as they were on special offer.
Some fresh green vegetables, such as peas would have been nice, added at the very end to contrast with the highly flavoured sauce.