I had my first taste of steamed spare ribs in the old Le Ching dim sum place in Greenhills. My fiancee ordered it for me on my first visit there. It's one of the house specials. The ribs were flavorful and partnered perfectly with rice.

This is the first time I am attempting to make my own steamed spare ribs. My initial goal is to get the spareribs to my desired tenderness. I want the meat to be  firm but tender and have an almost gelatinous texture. I think it's something to do with what part of the ribs you use and the steaming process. I estimate that I'll go through a few more batches before I get it right.

This is a fairly straightforward dish to cook. The only special requirement is a decent steamer. Some rice cookers come with a steamer attachment which should be fine for smaller batches. Just make sure you adjust the amount of soy sauce and black beans if you use less than a kilogram of ribs. The black beans already add a bit of saltiness to the marinade. It is quite easy to end up with an inedible batch of salty ribs.

Ingredients :

1 kg spareribs chopped into about 1.5 inch pieces, preferably the pieces with less bone and more cartilage
1/4 cup fermented black beans, drained
1 tbsp soysauce, preferably light soy sauce
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
1/4 cup minced ginger
1/4 cup minced garlic

1  tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp corn starch
salt to taste

Procedure

1. Thoroughly mIx all other ingredients except for ribs.

2. Add ribs to mixture and mix well to ensure all pieces are coated. I used my hands to toss the ribs vigorously into the mix.

3. Let ribs marinate for at least an hour.

4. Prepare steamer and place ribs in a dish then steam at high heat for 20 to 30 minutes. The steaming time depends a lot on the size of your rib cuts and the initial tenderness of the meat. You might want to check if the meat is done after 15 minutes of steaming.

Use a fork to check meat for tenderness. It shouldn't be too tender that it drops off the bone. The ribs should be done once the meat is no longer pink. Also make sure the water in the steamer never dries up.

5. Serve with a side of roasted garlic-chili sauce and with a soy sauce and calamansi dip.

Here are two sites whose steamed spare ribs version I took my inspiration from :
Steamykitchen's & Egullet forum


Until next time!