The Quest for the Perfect Spare Ribs

I much prefer Chinese flavoured ribs rather than American style. A combination of sweet and sour and saltiness from soy rather than an overpowering smoky thing. My mum used to make a sauce that seemed to be based on everything in the pantry with fried onion to which was added tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder, ground ginger, cloves, brown sauce, soy sauce, tomato puree, golden syrup and ordinary malt vinegar. Maybe some 5 spice. The resulting sauce was reduced a bit and then mixed in to the ribs which were then baked until tender and the sauce now sticky and dark. Fantastic! And great for sending 2 kids in to sugar overload. Doesn't hurt once in a while. 

This is still my usual way but perhaps using hoi sin sauce from a jar as a base and then add in the rest haphazardly maybe with some chilli and fresh ginger. Bashed up caraway seeds give a great aniseed flavour as well. Provides loads of sauce that can be mopped up by some trailer trash homemade special fried rice. 

My next mission having mastered the above in my tastebuds opinion over a couple of decades was to try to create ribs from a Chinese I'd had once which were a typical flavour but had obviously been deep fried as they were crisp, crunchy on the outside. So I made a sauce and then simmered the ribs to get the flavour in and tenderise them. These can then be left to cool and some of the sauce thicken up and stick to the ribs. Next was the experimental part, I rolled the ribs in plain flour before plunging them in to hot sunflower oil for long enough that it seems to seal the outside and goes crispy/crusty but not drying out the middle. I fried some sliced garlic and green chilli until the garlic was golden and the chilli softened a bit. Using kitchen towel get as much residue oil off all the elements and sprinkle the chilli and garlic over the top of the ribs.  Pretty damn successful leaving a nice messy oil and sauce spattered kitchen behind. 

A simpler thin marinade works pretty well with soy, honey, 5 spice, ginger, chilli but left for a good couple of days but floured and fried from raw. Can be a bit tougher but ok on smaller ribs although I prefer big meaty ones cut in half with a mighty swipe of a big cleaver. 

Note that there are no quantities above as I've never measured anything so it's all down to educated guesswork as to how sweet, spicy, saucey, sticky you want it. Throw in all manner of left over sauces and relishes you find in the fridge, the flavour always seems to balance out. 

Eat in front of the telly when everyone else is out throwing knawed bones over your shoulder behind the sofa for the dog to find. My mate and rib enthusiast Foxy hasn't tried these yet but would be a fan.