Anna's No-Fail Pork Spareribs

Main:  Pork Dish

During our first round of living in Singapore, I met +Anna Castro who used to be my hubby's ad agency colleague and so with her husband, +Ron Castro, who was more senior.  Anna became my regular ciggie + coffee companion and really energetic retail therapy partner.  We were each others' rocks too going through the emotional roller coaster of going to a fertility expert doctor to have our second child and their first-born.

After a few years and residing in different countries,
our families meet yet again in Singapore part II and we
even lived in the same condo complex.

Every Friday afternoon, we would all meet up at their condo for tennis matches.  The piece de resistance was the pot-luck dinner after the friendly, albeit competitive, tennis matches.  A consistent favourite was Anna's Pork Spareribs which she perfected during their stay in Sydney.  It was such a low-maintenance recipe.  She just left the tray of ribs in the oven on low while we play tennis and it was tenderness perfection when we've all freshened up for dinner.

This recipe is for a kilo of ribs.  You can always adjust if you increase the amount of ribs.  I usually add a smidge more of the marinade because I have used it successfully for chicken drumettes too.  It's that flexible.

Ingredients:

1 kg pork spareribs

1.5 cups of banana catsup 

I have tried using tomato catsup (I don't know why we're always based in countries where banana catsup is not that accessible) or combining tomato & banana catsup.  Doesn't really work.

5 slices ginger

2 tablespoons each of:  soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, brown sugar

Tabasco or Sriracha hot chilli sauce

The marinade is not that much so you can just use Mr Buzzy/hand blender.  Just ensure that the ginger slices are really minced to bits.

Process:

• process or hand blend all ingredients
• marinade the ribs (better overnight; ensure you mix them around before you go to sleep and right before baking)
  
• bake a total of 1 hour at 400 degrees; 30 minutes per side but baste per side; would do the same for chicken drummettes
• can store the cooked ribs or chicken in the ref but before serving, broil 1 side for about 10 minutes.  Just eyeball it. We like the fat or chicken skin a little scorched.
  
  
  

  

  The meat juice is perfect for mixing in the rice.
  Served this with Beef Carpaccio Rocket Salad.  We just love meat :)