Growing up my mom cooked a lot. She cooked a lot of different Chinese dishes. One of those dishes were Sweet and sour pork ribs. It’s a simple and classic Chinese dishes that only utilizes one main ingredient: pork ribs. The sauce is simply sugar and vinegar. The ingredients are simple but it does require some time to braise (but it’s still simple to make).

Ingredients:

Pork Ribs: Sweet and sour pork ribs use the same ribs as the pork rib soup. The centre pork ribs are just the pig’s chest ribs and are usually cut in multiple sections. These ribs can be found in most Asian grocery stores. I find these ribs to be very flavorful, with plenty of meat on it. Once cooked the meat falls off the bone.

Vinegar: I would recommend using black Chinese vinegar. It’s not as acidic like a regular white vinegar. It also has a more complex flavour which compliments the pork ribs. The one I’m using is called Chinkiang vinegar which is a Zhejiang vinegar. It has a less of smoky flavour than Shanxi vinegar. Zhejiang vinegar is made from glutinous rice with combination of wheat and sorghum. Whereas Shanxi vinegar is made from sorghum barley and wheat and has a much stronger flavour. Taste the vinegar before adding. If it’s very acidic or very strong in flavour, consider adding slightly less in the beginning and you can finish it off with bit more.

Sugar: In Chinese cooking, we like to use rock sugar. These are typically less sweet than than granulated sugar. You can find the rock sugar online or in Chinese grocery store. I substituted rock sugar with regular granulated sugar. I used less than what I normally use. However rock sugar gives a nice sheen on the food (not necessary).

Other ingredients: typically sweet and sour pork ribs doesn’t contain any other ingredients but you can choose add other ingredients like veggies. I would recommend using sweet bell peppers. If you ever had sweet and sour pork, you will find sweet bell pepper. Thus, if you like to add vegetables, sweet bell pepper is one of the veggies you can add.

How to make sweet and sour pork ribs

There are 3 major steps to making the pork ribs, you don’t need to marinate ahead of time, the sauce is made as you are cooking. This is a great dish to make during weekend or weekday when you do have the time as you do need time to braise it but you don’t need to constantly be by the stove.

Preboiling: Preboiling any meat is important because the meat cook faster but also get rid of the blood inside the meat (it spoils the flavour).

Stir frying: Stir frying helps to bring out the meat flavour. The sugar needs to be stir fried with pork ribs to coat the ribs. After the vinegar is added to braise the ribs. The soy sauce and dark soy sauce add umami and coloring respectively.

Braising: in order for the meat to cook fully, you’ll need to add water and let it braise for about 30-40 minutes. This way the ribs are tender and also you get a nice reduction of the sauce which will coat the ribs. The one thing I would recommend is only add enough water to cover the ribs. The reason is that if you are trying to reduce the water to a thick sauce, you will need to braise for a long time. This would mean that you might overcook the leaner meat.

Pro-tips:

The scallions and ginger in pre-boiling helps to get rid of any off-tastes of the pork. The scum that comes out of the pork ribs should be discarded as it would affect the flavour.
I added a bit of sugar and vinegar at the end, taste the ribs and see if you need to add a bit of sugar or vinegar depending on your taste.
Only add enough water to cover the ribs, no more. This is because you want reduce the water into a thick sauce, if you have a lot of water then it would take longer to reduce, then you might overcook the ribs.
SET a timer and braise on medium low. I can’t say this enough, don’t braise on high heat and without a timer, you will forget and burn the ribs. Check periodically to see the ribs and stir if needed.
If setting a timer, set a lower time i.e. 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes, check and see if you need to braise for longer. This will prevent burning your food!