Taiwanese Style Steamed Pork Ribs

I had been making the same pork dishes, so it was overdue to try something new. I love these pork ribs–They become fall off the bone tender when steamed! Not to mentioned that they’re pretty low maintenance to make, despite the longer preparation and cook time. But what’s nice is that you could focus on cooking other dishes for your meal while this is in the cooker.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs pork ribs (approx.)

Marinade:

• 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 tablespoons rice wine
• 1/4 cup black vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons water

Aromatics for steaming:

• 1 by 1 inch ginger
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 3 Thai chilies for mild spice

4 servings

Total preparation and cook time: approx. 2 hours

I used a Tatung rice cooker (6 cups) to steam these ribs. **When first purchased, these rice cookers come with an inner pot, but the cooker that I have is 20+ yrs old passed down from my mother, and the inner pot that came with it has been lost. Instead of finding a bowl to fit into the rice cooker, you should use the inner pot instead to steam the ribs in.

Directions:

Boil the ribs for about 2 mins, or until you see some bone marrow start to float up to the surface.

Remove from heat, rinse the pork ribs with cold water, and set them aside to cool. In the meantime, prepare the marinade. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, rice wine, black vinegar, soy sauce, and water. The sugar takes a while to dissolve to make sure to mix thoroughly.

Place the ribs in a large ziplock bag, and pour the well mixed marinade into the bag. All the ribs should be soaking in the marinade. Let it marinate for 1 hour. (if for some reason they are not all soaked in the marinade, check back in 30 mins to adjust the ribs so that the other side will be soaked)

When the ribs have been soaking for 50 mins, prepare the aromatics. Peel and slice the ginger into semi-thin pieces. Peel and chop the garlic into halves. Remove the seeds from the Thai chilies.

Temperature at medium high, add very little oil, and sauté the ginger, garlic, and Thai chilies. Sauté until garlic and ginger lightly browned.

Place the ribs and marinade in a large bowl (large but small enough to fit into the rice cooker). Then add the aromatics into the bowl.

Place the bowl into the rice cooker and add 1.5 cups of water on the outside of the bowl. When it is done steaming and the switch switches up (approx. 30 mins), open the lid and flip the ribs. Add another 1.5 cups of water on the outside of the bowl. Once the switch switches back up again (approx. 30 mins), your delicious ribs are done!

Tags: pork