The satisfying spicy ribs just crumbled off the bone, and with all of those savory seasonings as an added bonus. It is inspired by a trademark dish from Three Guizhou Men, my all-time favorite restaurant in Beijing that offers authentic Guizhou Cuisine. Guizhou Province borders Sichuan thus is similar in that the food is spicy. Unlike Sichuan food though, it does not prominently feature those numbing peppercorns. The food tends to be mildly sour instead.

 Serves 4-6,  

• 1500g   pork spareribs 整条猪肋排

Seasoning paste

• 1 tablespoon                           coriander seeds香菜籽
• 1 tablespoon                           white peppercorns (or use the same amount of white peppercorn powder)白胡椒粒或者白胡椒粉
• 1 teaspoon                               salt
• 1 tablespoon                           light soy sauce生抽
• ½ tablespoon                          dark soy sauce老抽
• 10 – 12 cloves                         garlic, peeled
• 1 cup                                       fresh coriander stems and roots, minced香菜梗
• 2 tablespoons                         Chinese cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon                           cooking oil

Toppings

• 1 tablespoon                           Cooking Oil
• 8-10                                           mix of green and red chili, cut into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons                         Fermented Black Beans干豆豉
• 2 tablespoon                           Seasonings made as indicated above
• 1 tablespoon                           light soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon                         sugar
• ½ cup                                        water
• 3 tablespoon                           unsalted peanuts, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1 cup                                         Coriander leaves, roughly chopped, for garnishing

Method

Make the seasoning paste

1. Wash the ribs and pat dry with paper kitchen towel. To make the meat absorb the seasonings better, you can use a sharp knife to remove the membrane from the back side of the ribs. Line up a baking try with aluminum foil. Place the ribs on top of the tray.
2. Let’s make the seasoning paste. Place the peeled garlic, coriander seeds, peppercorn seeds, fresh coriander stems and roots, soy sauce, salt and Chinese cooking wine in an electric blender. Pulse until finely minced.
   

   

Marinate the ribs

4. Now let’s coat the ribs with the two tablespoons of the seasoning paste, then drizzle 1 tablespoon of  cooking oil on top of the ribs. The oil helps lock the moisture of the meat when it is cooking in the oven. Cover the ribs completely with another layer of the aluminum foil. Place the baking tray in the middle rack of the oven. Set aside for about 60 minutes.
   

   

Grill the Ribs

5. Turn the oven on and bring it up to 180C°. And bake for 2 – 2.5 hours till the bones are exposed. The slow cook time ensures the seasoning flavours are to be very absorbed by the ribs.
6. Remove the aluminum foil on the top of the tray. Bake the ribs for another 30 minutes (no need to cover the ribs). The ribs are ready to serve when it is nearly falling off the bone.

Cook the toppings

7. Place a sauce pan on the stove. Add one tablespoon of cooking oil over low medium heat, add chopped chili peppers and stir fry for a few minutes, add into 3 tablespoons of fermented black bean, stir fry for another 2-3 minutes, add into 2 tablespoons of seasoning paste, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ½ tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce and ½ cup of water. Once it starts boiling, turn off the heat. The toppings is done.
   

   

   
8. Place the ribs on a serving plate. Arrange toppings and peanuts. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
   

   

Cook notes

1. The seasoning paste can be made ahead and refrigerated for two weeks.
2. You can always make large quantity of the slow cooked ribs ahead of time (until step 5) and store it in the fridge or freezer. When ready to use, just place the desired amount of ribs and bake another 30 minutes then add freshly cooked toppings.

The dish is insanely simple to make yet out of this world satisfying! The ever so popular kimchi, the national pickle of Korea, is also praised as a probiotic food. It makes the dish more digestible, nutritious and flavourful, as well as breaking down toxins. If you don’t like pork belly, then by all means switch to pork tenderloin or a lean pork of your choice. However, added oil will be necessary when using a lean cut.

Serve 2-4

• 1-2 tablespoons    cooking oil
• 200g  pork belly, very thinly sliced, 五花肉肉片
• 100g                         golden mushroom金针菇
• 100g                        bamboo shoots (optional)
• 2 to 3 cloves          garlic, peeled and sliced (optional)
• 200g kimchi (available at most of the Asian markets or click here for home-made kimchi) 韩国泡菜
• 2 to 2.5 tablespoons light soy sauce生抽
• 1 tablespoon         caster sugar白糖
• 1 tablespoon          corn starch (mix it with 2 tablespoons of water to make water starch)           玉米淀粉
• 3-4 sprigs              green chives韭菜, cut into pieces of 5cm in length

Method

1. Slice the pork belly as thin as possible or buy pre-cut ones from the store.
2. Heat a frying pan or wok over high heat. While the pan is very hot, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and pork belly – adjust the amount of cooking oil depending on the fattiness of your pork belly. Stir fry until turned pale, for approximately 5 to 6 minutes.  You should see some fat being cooked out of the pork belly at this point.
   

   
3. Add the bamboo shoots, garlic, golden mushroom and cook for 2 minutes, then add kimchi into the pan, stir fry for another 2-3 minutes. Mix well. Add 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of sugar and continue to cook for another 1 minutes. Stir into the water starch (by mixing 1 tablespoon of corn flour and 2 tablespoons of water in a bowl). Fry for another 2-3 minutes till the sauce thickened.
   

   

   

   
4. Turn off the heat. Add sliced green chives. Mix well.
5. Ready to serve.

Notes

1. If you use a store-bought kimchi, make sure to check the ingredients. I use home-made fermented kimchi that’s free of MSG and excessive sugar. Click here for recipe.

This classic Cantonese braised beef stew is served from almost all traditional restaurants around the world. Traditionally, this dish calls for beef brisket which is relatively tough cut but really flavorful when prepared properly. If you can access to Chinese butchery, look for the brisket with a layer of membrane attached to the meat. The membrane is a little tougher than the meat but adds even more flavor to the dish.

One of the key condiments for this dish is Chu Hou Sauce柱侯酱, a soybean based sauce commonly use in Cantonese cooking. It tastes and looks somewhat like hoisin sauce but more garlicky. It comes in glass jars under different brands and it can be found in most local Chinese supermarkets. If you can’t get a hold of it, you can substitute with hoisin sauce with additional garlic.

Serves 4-6,

• 600g beef brisket, blanched and cut into bite size牛腩
• 20g ginger, sliced
• 2 spring onions roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon  cooking oil
• 1tablespoon   rock sugar冰糖
• 4 clove garlic    roughly chopped
• 5 tablespoons chu hou sauce 柱候酱
• 1 teaspoon  oyster sauce蚝油
• 1tablespoon light soy sauce to taste生抽
• ½ tablespoon  dark soy sauce老抽
• 2 and ½ cups water
• 300g daikon radish, cut into bite size白罗卜
• 200g carrots, cut into bite size 胡罗卜
• ½ teaspoon Salt or salt to taste
• Water Starch by combining 1 tablespoon corn starch and 2 tablespoons of water. This is to help thicken the sauce
• Scallion for garnish

Method

1. Blanch beef brisket – place the brisket in a pot of cold water. Add into 10g sliced ginger, spring onions and 1 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine. Bring it to a boil. Cook for about 5 minutes. Rinse under the running water. Drain the excess water, cut into bite size. Set aside.
   

   

   

   

   2. Heat up 1 tablespoon of cooking oil in a clay pot or wok. Add rock sugar. Add into rock sugar and cook over low-medium heat for about 3-4 minutes till sugar melted and caramelized. Add into chopped garlic and sliced ginger on low heat until aromatic. About 30 seconds. Add into beef brisket pieces.

   

   

   

   

   3. Add chu hou sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese cooking wine, light soy sauce and dark sauce and stir fry on low heat for 2 minutes. Add 2 and half cups of water and bring to boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer with lid on for about 1.5 hours until tender. Turn the beef with a spatula every now and then.

   

   

   

   

   4. In the meantime, peel the daikon radish and carrots. Cut them into bite-size small pieces.5. Add daikon radish and carrot pieces and mix with the beef. Bring the stew to boil and simmer with lip on until the radish is soft. Add salt. Use a spatula to move around the beef and vegetables to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cook about 30 minutes.

   

   

   

   6.Pour into the water starch (by mixing 1 tablespoon of corn starch and 2 tablespoons of water). Mix well. Cook until sauce thicken. 7. Sprinkle some scallions and serve with rice or as a noodle soup topping.

I personally think that fresh fish is best eaten steamed in addition to Sashimi and Sushi. For me, nothing tastes as satisfying as delicately steamed fish with a bowl of rice. Though few ingredients are involved, you will need a very fresh fish and a high-quality Chinese cooking wine to make it Chinese-restaurant worthy. The perfect, right amount of steaming time is also critical so that cooked flesh is tender, moist and silky. Never overcook.

 Serves 3-4,  

• 1  Whole red snapper (or seabass), about 600g红鲷鱼或者海鲈. You may use fish fillet if you find deboning fish troublesome.
• 4 slices   ginger  姜片
• 2 tablespoons  premium Chinese cooking wine (click here foe homemade Chinese cooking wine)
• 3      spring onions, cut it into slices in 5cm

For sauce

• 2 tablespoons        cooking oil
• 1-2 tablespoons     soy sauce生抽

Method

1. Scale the fish, discard the guts and clean well (hopefully you can get the cleaned one from your grocery store.) Pat dry with kitchen paper towel. Slice the ginger. Slash the fish on the both sides of the back to allow your seasoning to penetrate evenly later.
2. Place the fish in a serving plate (should be able to fit into the steamer pot). Tuck 2 slices of ginger in the belly of the fish then place the other two slices on top of the fish. Sprinkle the fish with two tablespoons of Chinese cooking wine. A high-quality cooking wine is critical for the success of the dish.
3. Place a steamer pot in the stove. Add into a big pot of water and bring it to a boil. to Place the serving plate in a steamer. Cover the steamer with a lid. Steam over high heat for 10-12 minutes. You will need reduce 1-2 minutes if your fish is smaller. Use the shortest amount of time you to get the fish cooked but NEVER overcooked.
4. Remove the serving plate from the steamer. Spread evenly the spring onions and on top of the fish. In the meantime, let’s cook sauce. Heat the cooking oil in a sauce pan over medium heat for about 2 minutes, then add soy sauce sugar, mix well. Once you see bubbles, turn the heat off. The sauce is done now. Pour the sauce onto the fish in the serving plate.
   

   
5. Serve the dish with a bowl of rice. By the way, the slightly chewy texture of fish cheeks is simply divine.