Beef Short Ribs
Bones are where the flavours hide.
Dear vegan friends, please look away. Dear meat eaters, please read on.
Many Chinese people love eating meat cooked with bones. The longer you cook them, the more flavourful the food becomes. Deep fried, steamed, boiled, braised… There are so many ways to prepare them traditionally.
My favourite kind of ribs, aside from the classic steamed pork spare ribs, are the ones coated in some sort of sticky glaze or sauce. This recipe that I am sharing is spicy and sour, with a hint of sweetness.
Beef Short Ribs (up close with Sichuan peppers)
The backstory to creating this recipe goes back to 2011. I was a design student creating a gluten-free cookbook from scratch for my Book Design class. It was about a 3-month process – I gathered and adapted recipes, wrote the entire copy, designed every page, cooked, photographed, printed and hand-sewn/bound three copies of the cookbook. It was quite intense. As I was gathering inspiration during the research process, I intentionally adapted a recipe with Sichuan peppers because I somehow found a bottle of it hiding in the cupboard. After about a decade, I revisited this recipe and evolved it into the version that I’m sharing now.
Sichuan Peppers in a jar
Sichuan peppers, also known as mala pepper, is a very distinctive ingredient originated from Sichuan, China. It is often mistaken as a spicy ingredient because it is often in dished made with chili pepper. In fact, Sichuan peppers have a citrus, floral fragrant, almost sweet, and often cause a tongue numbing effect when you bite into them.
This recipe is really about the sauce, which goes really well with ribs. I usually make them with pork spare ribs. I also tried it with beef ribs, which also turned out really good!
Pork Spare Ribs
Pork Spare Ribs (up close)
Sour & Spicy Ribs
Yield: 2 main servings or 4 side servings
INGREDIENTS
- 2-lb of Beef Ribs (cut into individual ribs) or 2-lb of Pork Spare Ribs (cut into 1-inch pieces)
- star anise, optional
- salt, optional
- 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, and maybe more
- 1 to 4 dried or fresh small chili peppers (adjust based on your preference), chopped
- 2 large shallots or 2 tbsp of white onions, finely diced
- 1 tsp of fresh ginger, grated
- 1 scallion, white part only, chopped (you can save the green part for garnish)
- 1 tsp of Sichuan (mala) peppers
Sauce Ingredients
- 2 tbsp of gluteinous rice vinegar, or regular rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp of lemon juice
- 1 tbsp of tamari (I use San-J Organic Tamari)
- 1 tbsp of tomato paste
- 1 tbsp of water
- 1 tsp of sugar
- salt to taste
- sesame oil, optional
INSTRUCTIONS
Ribs Preparation
If you are using Beef Short Ribs, use either one of the following methods:
- Oven Roasted: Place short ribs in a roasting pan. Add 1 cup of water. Optionally, add 1 or 2 pieces of star anise. If you like, you can add 1/2 tsp of salt now. Cover the roasting pan with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 325ºF for 3 hours.
- InstantPot: Place short ribs in the pot. Add 1 cup of water, 1 or 2 pieces of star anise. If you like, you can add 1/2 tsp of salt now. Place the lid on, making sure the it is set to seal. Cook on high pressure for 1 hour. Let it release pressure naturally for at least 15 minutes.
If you are using Pork Spare Ribs, tightly wrap the spare ribs in foil. Place it in a roasting pan, and baked in a preheated over at 350ºF for 1 hour.
Cooking Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix together all the sauce ingredients except for salt and sesame oil. Set aside.
- In a large pan, heat up the vegetable oil. When the pan is hot, brown the prepared ribs on all sides. Remove ribs from the pan.
- In the same pan, add some oil, if needed. Add in the chili peppers, shallots/onions, ginger, scallion and Sichuan peppers. Stir fry in the oil until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add in the browned ribs and pour in the sauce mixture. Stir and coat the ribs in the sauces evenly. Let it cook and reduce until the sauce is no long runny, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Season with salt to taste.
- Drizzle with sesame oil and serve.
Notes: Serve this as a main with some potatoes of your choice and veggies, or serve it as a side dish with fresh steamed rice!
