The lovely gave me a photocopy of the recipe for Ching Du Pork Ribs, from her mum’s cookbook. She actually gave it to me like 2 months ago, but I never got round to cooking it. But I got my act together and decided to jump in head-first into cooking Chinese food. Y’see, I normally don’t cook Chinese – I’m really critical about it (obviously) and I’m convinced I’ll never be able to cook it as well as a restaurant would. Plus, it requires tons of different sauces and steps.. and is just generally really difficult to get right. With my standard Western-style food, I find it really easy to cook and I’m used to it.. so I’ve never really ventured into the Asian food cooking – and definitely not from scratch!

So I was pretty eager to see how it would turn out. I’ll start with the bad bit first: it was SO messy! Well, basically as messy as Chinese cooking gets – lots of oil splattering everywhere, and stuff stuck all over the wok which is a bitch to clean afterwards. But apart from that, the food was good :)~ It’s definitely not a simple dish though, lots of steps and such.. so I’d recommend it only if you’re cooking for 4 people. But it turns out like it had come straight from a Chinese restaurant – with the sauce perfectly just-so and the meat looking all succulent and juicy. Was quite pleased 🙂 The pork wasn’t melty soft though, so I need to figure out how to make it super tender. But perhaps I never can since these were fried and not braised/stewed?

Cooking the pork

Ching Du Pork Ribs with choy sum and rice

Ching Du Pork Ribs (serves 2)

1 lbs pork back ribs
3/4 tsp salt and sugar
1/2 tbsp sherry
1 garlic clove, chopped
1.5 tbsp cornstarch
Oil
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1.5 tbsp ketchup
1/2 tbsp sugar
1.5 tbsp water
Spash of sesame oil
Sprig of fresh coriander, chopped

1) Cut the ribs into smaller pieces, mix with salt, sugar, sherry, garlic.
2) Add cornstarch and mix thoroughly
3) Fry ribs in a generous amount of oil in a wok over medium heat, for 4 mins until golden brown. Remove.
4) Reheat the oil, fry ribs again over high heat for 1 min. Remove and drain. Clean wok.
5) Bring worcestershire, ketchup, sugar, water, sesame oil and coriander to a boil in wok.
6) Add cooked ribs, stir-fry over high heat until liquid is almost evaporated.
7) Serve with choy sum vegetables and rice.