Sweet and Sour Ribs (Tang Cu Pai Gu, 糖醋排骨)
A beginner-friendly recipe for Chinese sweet and sour ribs. It provides a well-balanced condiment ratio, an approachable cooking method and delivers a restaurant standard result.
- Prep time
- 2 min
- Cook time
- 1 hr 10 min
- Yield
- 3 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 700 g pork ribs, about 1½ lb, see note 1
- 1 tablespoon neutral cooking oil
- 10 cloves garlic
- 1 thumb-sized ginger
- 2 stalks scallions (cut into halves)
- 5 tablespoon white sugar (or 70 g/2½ oz rock sugar)
- 4 tablespoon black rice vinegar (divided)
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Toasted sesame seeds (for garnishing)
- Scallions, finely chopped (for garnishing)
Instructions
- 1
Put pork ribs into a large cookware. Fill it with plenty of room temperature water. Bring it to a boil then leave to simmer.
- 2
Skim off the foam appearing on the surface with a spoon. After about 3 minutes, drain the ribs.
- 3
Pour oil into a clean wok (or deep pan, pot) then add the drained ribs, garlic, ginger, and scallion. Stir fry over medium heat until the ribs become a little golden on the surface.
- 4
Add sugar, black rice vinegar (keep 1 tablespoon for later use), light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and salt. Top up with hot water enough to just level with the ribs (I used about 400ml/1¾ cups).
- 5
Bring to a full boil then turn the heat to low. Cover and leave to simmer for about 50 minutes (see note 2).
- 6
When the time is up, uncover and pick out all the garlic, ginger and scallions. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of black rice vinegar. Turn the heat up to high to boil down the liquid.
- 7
Stir from time to time. Once the liquid becomes just thick enough to coat the ribs. Remove from the heat immediately. Be attentive not to overcook as it’ll cause the sugar to burn. It took me about 8 minutes but it may vary in your case.
- 8
Transfer the ribs to a serving bowl/plate. Sprinkle sesame seeds and scallions over to garnish.
- 9
They may be eaten while warm or at room temperature. Serve them with plain rice and vegetable dishes.