Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

• servings: 3 servings
• active time: 30 minutes
• total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

1 pound spare ribs (, cut into 1 to 1.5 inch sections)

cold water to cover

4 green onion

3 ginger slices

2 tbsp. cooking oil

35 g rock sugar

2 tbsp. light soy sauce

2 tbsp. shaoxing cooking wine

3 tbsp. black vinegar

1 star anise (, optional)

hot water as needed

1 tbsp. extra black vinegar

1/2 tbsp. white sesame seed for garnishing

Spring onion for garnishing

Directions

Cut ribs into 1-inch to 1.5-inch sections. Load a wok with cold water, add the ribs, ginger, scallion, and Shaoxing wine. Continue cooking for around 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer out and rinse under running warm water. Set aside to drain. For beginners, I recommend pat dry the ribs with kitchen paper to avoid oil sprinkling.

Melt the sugar – Add cooking oil and smashed rock sugar in a wok, and heat over a slow fire. Keep stirring until the sugar melts and turns into dark red.

Add ribs to coat the sugar color, fry until the ribs are well colored.

Pour enough hot water to cover. Add light soy sauce, black vinegar and optionally add star anise to add a naughty flavor.

Cover the lid and simmer for 25 minutes over slowest fire. Stir once or twice in the process.Turn over the fire to the middle, remove the lids, and start thickening the sauce. Keep stirring at the last stage so the sugar can cool down during the moving and attach to the ribs.

Add extra 1 tablespoon of black vinegar before transfer out. Watch out carefully at this stage, don’t get the ribs burnt.

Garnish chopped spring onions before serving.

Nutrition

• Calories: 457 kcal
• Total Fat: 34 g
• Saturated Fat: 8 g
• Cholesterol: 84 mg
• Sodium: 759 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 15 g
• Total Sugars: 12 g
• Protein: 18 g