Sweet and sour baby ribs – Tang Cu Pai Gu

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 500 g spare ribs (baby ribs), cut into meaty pieces, frozen
• 2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
• 1 tsp, leveled Szechuan pepper
• 1 tsp, leveled baking powder
• 1 liter of frying oil
• 6 leaves of pak choi
• 200 g water
• 4 g chicken stock powder
• 3 tbsp butter, salted
• n. B. flowers and leaves
• n. B. Marinade, leftovers
• Cooking water (from the pak choi)
• 700 g chicken broth, purchased or homemade
• 30 g onion(s), red, small
• 10 g garlic clove(s)
• 20 g ginger
• 40 g carrot(s)
• 2 small spring onions
• 3 small tomatoes
• 2 medium-sized potatoes, waxy
• ½ tsp tapioca flour
• 2 tbsp rice wine, dark, spicy-mild
• 60 g cooking water (from the baby ribs)
• 30 g tomato ketchup
• 1 tsp XO sauce
• 1 tbsp, levelled sugar, fine
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar, dark, mild

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 50 minutes

A Chinese delicacy from the southern Nonya cuisine. Recipe from Hong Kong.

Separate the thawed baby ribs into individual pieces along the bones. Make a marinade from the remaining meat ingredients and marinate the baby ribs for 3 hours at room temperature. Stir occasionally. Strain and drain well before use. In the meantime, select the bok choy leaves, wash them, and trim about 2 cm off the bottom end. Place the water in a sufficiently large pan, bring to a boil, and dissolve the chicken stock in it. Blanch the leaves in two batches for 1 minute each. Set the blanching stock aside. Place the cooled leaves on serving plates. Set aside the butter and, if desired, the flowers and leaves. Heat the frying oil in a wok to 180°C and fry the baby ribs in two batches until medium brown (caution: risk of splashing). For the stock, place the rest of the marinade, the blanching stock, and the chicken stock in a 2-liter saucepan. Peel and roughly chop the onions, garlic cloves, ginger, and carrot. Cut the washed spring onion into approximately 5 cm pieces. Wash, peel, and quarter the tomatoes lengthwise. Add everything to the pot along with the baby ribs. Bring to a boil briefly, then simmer gently with the lid on for 90 minutes. 25 minutes before the end, wash and peel the potatoes, cut them into bite-sized pieces, and add them to the broth. For the sauce, dissolve the tapioca flour in the rice wine. Mix the cooking broth from the baby ribs, the tomato ketchup, the XO sauce, and the sugar in a small pan and simmer briefly. Just before serving, stir in the rice vinegar. To serve, remove the potatoes from the broth, toss in butter, and divide between serving plates. Top with cooked ginger, if desired. Remove the cooked baby ribs from the broth and place them on serving plates. Drizzle the sauce over the baby ribs, garnish with flowers and leaves if desired, serve, and enjoy. Enjoy! A cold beer goes well with this. Notes: There are many imitations of the XO sauce, but we advise against it. It’s relatively expensive, but it’s only used by the teaspoon. Many nonya restaurants, and others, allow you to choose as many side dishes as you like. The baby ribs and potatoes are side dishes in the Asian sense. You could also have ordered rice, noodles, or corn with them. The potatoes cooked in the broth were a special treat, however. The strained broth provides an excellent base for a hearty soup.