Simple Chinese Pork Ribs Stew

A classic dish among us Chinese with many variations among the clans.   Essentially a meat dish (pork, chicken or duck) but sometimes one get extras like hard-boiled eggs, tofu puffs or shitake mushrooms thrown in.  This is one dish that I am sure many of us grew up with.    The choice of meat stewed in a combination of soy sauce and spice makes it very aromatic and tender. It goes very well with steamed rice or congee.   The steps to make this dish are easy and manageable plus one can make a bigger portion to keep for more than 1 meal as the flavor gets more intense when left overnight.  This makes it a good choice for busy mums who want to prepare some good home-cooked dish despite their busy schedules. Add a green to this and you will have one complete and balanced meal for the family. 

Although this is a familiar dish, I referred Ann of Anncoo Journal's recipe for it, simply because she has good recipes for everything, never failing me! Do hop over to her blog for a more exact recipe, I didn't follow everything to a T.  A good choice indeed, it tasted really good. Thanks, Ann!

Recipe
Source : Anncoo Journal

Note : I used 500g of pork ribs with the same amount of other ingredients and the flavour was just nice for our family

Ingredients:

• 1 Star anise
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 shallots, chopped
• Ginger, 3 slices
• 2 Dried chilli - remove seed (optional)
• 400-600ml Water
• 600g Pork Ribs (Ann recommends with some fats in it although I trimmed off most of it) , cut to about 4" length

Seasoning:

• 1 tbsp White vinegar
• 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
• 1 1/2tbsp Dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Five spice powder
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Hua Tiao Chiew)
• 1 tbsp Corn flour + 2 tbsp water

Method

1. Marinate pork ribs with seasoning for 2 hours.
2. Heat wok with about 2 tbsp cooking oil.  Add ginger, garlic, shallot, star anise and dried chilli, fry till fragrant.
3. Pour in the pork rib together with seasoning sauce, fry well and add about 400ml water.
4. Bring to boil and simmer at low heat for about one hour or cook the pork rib till tender (add a little more water when pork rib dries up a little).

Posted in: Chinese Dishes,Pork