baby spareribs - cantonese style

It has been a long time since I made Cantonese style spareribs.

If you like dimsum you might have tasted the steamed baby ribs served in a small tapas-like dishes. All too often Westerners tend to be attracted to deep fried varieties when it comes to dimsum. Authentic dimsum actually are mostly prepared by steaming, while deep fried ones are the relative uncommon than the norm. So too are overly sweeten dimsum all too common now in the west. Traditional dimsum tends not to be sweet - with the exception of a few dessert dishes.

I bought a pack of spare rib and I wanted to prepare them in Cantonese style. I decided to prepare two different but related flavors. Both are classic Cantonese using traditional ingredients. I modified the cooking techniques a bit to save time and labor. Instead of steaming them I just simmer them under low heat.

The flavor that I prepared use salt brine preserved sour plums. This salted sour plums is one of many Chinese cooking "condiments". See also Shanghai grocery store and Chiuchow grocery store.

 i first browned the ribs in a pan under high heat and then cut them into small bite size

 next i braised them at low flame with just a bit of salt and pepper till they are half-tender

next the ribs are ready to be seasoned and further cooked in two different flavors - this one with salted sour plums

 this are the ingredients for the fermented soy beans and garlic

The one with the salted sour plums requires adding more sugar to balance out the sour. The one with the fermented soy beans requires less sugar.

this one is braised with fermented beans and garlic

 this one is braised with salted sour plums - I prefer this more

 i ate them with some blanched (in corned beef stock) cabbage and steamed rice

and yes, this has to be one of my most despised Asian (or BS fusion) cooking shows - all gimmicky shows and no go; the host is the male equivalent of Rachael R; it is my opinion this guy cooks at the level of my teen years