Cooked Asian style, this braised pork ribs dish is salty and spicy with a hint of sweetness. That might sound like a description of a myriad of Asian dishes but let me tell you that saltiness and spiciness can be either flat or nuanced depending on the ingredients you use.

Pork spare ribs with black beans and chili garlic sauce

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian fusion

Tag: Pork ribs

Cook’s notes

I like nuance. How to get from plain and flat to nuanced can be achieved in two ways:

Pounding and grinding a multitude of herbs and spices or
Using sauces that are easily available from Asian groceries

We always have bottles and jars of Asian sauces in the pantry and fridge, and I like combining two or more in different ways to create variety. So, I picked the second option to cook this dish. I combined black bean sauce with chili garlic sauce.

Okay, so, chili garlic sauce doesn’t sound complicated nor intimidating. Chili and garlic, both pantry staples in Asia, are combined and you can imagine how wonderful that tastes.

But what is black bean sauce? It’s fermented black beans that had been crushed coarsely to form a thick paste. It comes in jars. If you have issues finding it, you may use regular fermented black beans. Just pound with a little water to form a paste. More about fermented black beans.

Reminder: This is a braised dish so you don’t want the ribs to be swimming in thin sauce by the time they’re done. The broth should be added sparingly at intervals so that by the end of cooking time, the sauce should have reduced and thickened considerably.

Pork spare ribs with black beans and chili garlic sauce

Prep: 10

Cook: 2

Total: 2 10

Servings: 3 people

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Ingredients

600 to 750 grams pork spare ribs (1.3 to 1.6 pounds) cut into 2-inch lengths
1 whole onion finely chopped
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon ginger powder
1 star anise
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 heaping tablespoons black bean sauce (available in the Asian section of groceries and supermarkets)
2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce (available in the Asian section of groceries and supermarkets)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups bone broth (you may need more)
salt if your bone broth is underseasoned
sliced scallions to garnish
sliced chilies to garnish
fried garlic to garnish

Instructions

Place the pork ribs in a pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil and allow to boil for 10 minutes.
Drain the pork ribs and discard the water. Rinse the pork ribs under the tap to remove any impurities.
Wash the pot (or use a clean one) and put the rinsed ribs in it. Add the rest of the ingredients.
Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for an hour and a half to two hours until fork tender.
Taste the sauce every 20 minutes or so. Add salt, if needed. If the cooking liquid dries out during cooking, add more broth, no more than a quarter cup at a time.
Pile the pork ribs in a shallow bowl and pour some of the sauce over them. Garnish with sliced scallions and chilies, and fried garlic before serving.