Sweet and Sour Ribs

Sweet and sour ribs (糖醋排骨) is a classic Chinese dish, popularized in Shanghai and most recently featured in the hit drama Meteor Garden. In the drama, this dish is the chef’s special at a family run food delivery service. The daughter of the delivery service owners delivers this dish to an arrogant classmate who ordered takeout from her family, only to have the ribs be thrown at her during an argument. The ribs make a recurring appearance throughout the movie (in much better situations than the first scene) and becomes the inspiration for the protagonist as she prepares for a famous cooking competition. Even though the drama was a love story, I paused Netflix for many screenshots of the delicious food throughout the entire series

I’ve actually tried sweet and sour ribs before, but with mixed results. With renewed interest in this dish after watching the drama, I set out to figure out how to improve from prior versions. The most difficult part of making sweet and sour ribs is caramelizing the sugar just right and coating the ribs without burning the ribs. The first time I made sweet and sour ribs I burned the sugar right onto the ribs. In subsequent times, I found that constantly flipping the ribs and tilting the pan left and right during the last 3 minutes of cooking to assess for how much sauce is left is the key to not burning the ribs. You don’t want to be too greedy and expect to condense all the sauce onto the ribs, as once the pot has no sauce everything burns very fast. You want to condense almost all the sauce but still have a good 1/4 cup total or so of sauce left when you turn off the stove – this comes out to just enough sauce to cover 3/4 of the surface area of the bottom of the pan. When you tilt the pan left and right the sauce should be sticky and follow the ribs but not flow past the ribs.

Has anyone watched any Asian dramas recently? Meteor Garden is the first drama I’ve watched from beginning to end since middle school. Usually my attention span is too low to sit through 50 episodes of any TV show, but Meteor Garden with all its food and the ups and downs of the plot captivated my attention for an entire 50 episodes. The Spork has been enjoying the side benefits of Meteor Garden, as new foods are showing up on the dinner table (or rather coffee table since I don’t have a dinner table in my LA studio). Prior to this the Spork’s favorite ribs recipe was the Chinese BBQ ribs however these sweet and sour ribs top even those according to him. Let me know what you think if you try!

Sweet and Sour ribs

Savoring Spoon

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

  

• 1 lb pork ribs diced to 1.5 inch x 1.5 inch pieces
• 10 slices ginger
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Sauce

• 45 g granulated sugar
• 5 preserved Chinese plums
• 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar 1 tbs for sauce, 2 tbs to add to ribs at end of stir frying
• 3 tablespoon black or basalmic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons shaoxing wine
• 350 mL of water

Garnish

• 1 teaspoon toasted white sesame seeds for garnish
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onion for garnish

Instructions

 

• Cut ribs into bite sized pieces, often the supermarket will do this for you if you ask!
• Make sauce. Put preserved Chinese plums, soy sauce, both rice and dark vinegars, in a small bowl. Add 350 mL water and set aside as you prepare the rest. This waiting time is important to let the plums release their flavor.
• Add ribs to a large pot, add cold water to cover ribs, 5 slices of ginger, and then boil on high until the pot is actively boiling. Turn off the heat, filter the ribs out with a colander and discard the water. This step is to remove excess blood from from the ribs.
• In a non-stick pot, add vegetable oil (about 2 tablespoon), and heat for 20 seconds on high. Then add sugar and cook until the sugar is golden yellow. Stir while you cook, and don't allow the sugar to burn.
• Add remaining ginger slices.
• Add the ribs and stir fry fast so the sugar does not burn. Coat all the ribs with the sugar, the mixture will be golden brown.
• Add the prepared sauce and keep fire on high until the sauce boils.
• Once sauce boils, cap the pot and then turn heat to low and let cook for 30 minutes to 40 minutes, until the ribs are soft.
• Open the cap, and stir fry for 3-5 minutes until the sauce thickens. Make sure you keep the cap off and keep stiring, because when the sauce thickens it will become sticker and be more likely to burn onto the ribs.
• Add a few drops (~ 2 teaspoons) of basalmic vinegar to taste if you wish to enhance the sour part of sweet and sour ribs.
• When the ribs are cooked, add sesame seeds to coat and remove from the fire. Add some chopped scallions for garnish.

Notes

The most important part is after you open the cap to let the sauce thicken. It's very easy to burn the sauce onto the ribs during this part, because the sugar burns very easily. Make sure you keep stirring and keep an eye on the ribs, if any signs of burning then add sesame seeds and remove from the fire immediately.