Chinese Spare Ribs -Courtesy of Lin!

JJ, Wee Bear, TT and I went on our annual ski trip, this time to Whistler for a nice 10 days. During our time there we visited a couple times with a close friend of JJ and Wee Bears. They met him many years ago here in Washington (lives in the same neighborhood) and he spends the winter in Whistler as he loves to ski. Gerry and his wife, Lin invited us all for dinner a couple nights and on one of those nights, Lin treated us to a delicious meal of Chinese Ribs! 

JJ and I were lucky to be able to watch her make this dish in her kitchen and she was so kind to tell us what ingredients she used for the making. I did not get the exact measurements so I scoured many recipes and found a recipe that has the same ingredients but with a different cooking method. These ribs smell amazing during the cooking process and they taste even better! They are fall off the bone delicious. The spices and sauces used make these lick your fingers good! She served these along side some simple steamed broccoli and cauliflower using a bit of the broth she cooked the ribs in. Also, she treated us to her homemade fried rice, which we will feature in a future blog post!

Chinese Ribs
Linn Williams and food.com

Ingredients:
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons rice or white vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon five-spice  powder
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon cold water
4 lbs country-style pork ribs, seperated
hot, cooked rice (optional)

Directions:
1. In a 3 1/2 quart crockpot, combine ketchup, honey, vinegar, soy sauce, five-spice powder, onion, ginger and garlic.
2. Position a broiler rack 6 inches from the source of the heat and preheat the broiler.
3. Broil the ribs, turning once, until browned -about 10 minutes
4. Transfer the ribs to a crock pot
5. Stir to coat the ribs with the sauce
6. Cover and slow cook until ribs are tender, about 5-6 hours on LOW
7. Transfer the ribs to a platter and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.
8. Skim the fat from the surface of the sauce. 
9. In a medium saucepan bring the sauce to a simmer over a medium heat.
10. Cooked until reduced to about 1 cup, 6-8 minutes.
11. Stir in the cornstarch mixture and cook just until thickened. 
12. Pour the sauce over the ribs and serve immediately with hot cooked rice (optional)

After the ribs came out of the broth they were cooked in, Lin sauteed them with olive oil, garlic, ginger and green onion.

Lin used some of the stock from the ribs in the sauteing process. She also mixed some cornstarch and water and added that as a thickening agent.

Lin then added the soy sauce mixture which had in it: soy sauce, vinegar, and the Chinese five-spice.

Lin set a beautiful table and served all dishes "family style"

Look at those ribs!!

I hope some of you make these (think Superbowl!!), they were seriously a treat and a different flavor profile to the American style ribs with BBQ sauce. Lin was smart to pair them with some simple steamed veggies as it was refreshing along side the sauced ribs. You can easily serve these by themselves and at a party with a variety of other snack-able dishes.

Hope you all enjoyed the blog today! As JJ mentioned in her last post, look forward to next weeks posts' as we will have some more ideas for the upcoming gathering of all gatherings....Superbowl! Plus, some fun ideas for Valentines day!

Have a great weekend~
Amy