Chinese sticky ribs recipe

FELLOW Too Many Cooks columnist Dave Stanford loves his slow cooker. Wondering what I was missing out on, I bought one and began experimenting.

After trying some of Dave’s brilliant recipes (his sausage casserole from last April is a thing to behold), I found a recipe online for slow-cooked pork ribs.

I love pork ribs, but never made them, fearful they would be a faff. With a slow cooker, nothing is a faff. With this recipe, adapted from Heather Whinney’s The Slow Cook Book, I could have put the ribs in the slow cooker, poured over the marinade and turned up eight hours later, dinner done.

But I couldn’t resist letting the ribs soak overnight in the lovely treacly-looking marinade. I’ve no idea how this affects the ribs, but the end result was sensational. The meat was dark on the outside, amazingly tender and flavoursome underneath.

I have given the method too for cooking these ribs in the oven. Serve with rice and some stir-fried veg to make a meal of it.

Chinese sticky ribs

(serves 4-6)

Ingredients

Two racks of pork ribs, about 20 ribs (about 1.5kg – ask your butcher to chop them up for you)
salt and pepper to season

For the marinade:

2 tbsp oil
4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp clear honey
6 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tsp five-spice powder
Juice of two limes
Pinch of dried chilli powder or flakes.

Method

In the slow cooker:

You can either:

1. Season the ribs, put them in the slow cooker, pour over the marinade, and cook on the “high” setting for four hours or “low” setting for eight hours.

OR

2. Season ribs, pour over marinade then leave overnight in fridge. Then cook in slow cooker as above.

Oven method

1. Season ribs and put in a large heavy-based pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, partially cover with the lid, and cook for 1–1½ hours until the meat starts to come away from the bone. Remove the ribs from the pan with tongs and set aside in a baking tin until they are cool enough to handle.

2. Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3. In a bowl, mix together all the marinade ingredients. Put ribs in a large flameproof casserole. Pour over the marinade and turn the ribs to coat. Cover with the lid and put in the oven for about one hour, keeping an eye on them to check they don’t dry out completely – they may need turning in the marinade.

To serve

Eat on their own, or for a more substantial supper, serve with egg-fried rice, sprinkled with spring onions. If you are really hungry, make some stir-fried veggies using some of the left over marinade as a sauce.