Braised vinegared pork ribs
Oh how much I miss mum’s home cooking! Whenever I have those cravings, I will make one of my favorite dish that I’ve learnt from my mum, the braised vinegared pork ribs (with lots of hard-boiled eggs!). I love this dish so very much, and have cooked this dish so many times on so many occasions, I think this is probably the only dish that I’ve mastered pretty well. (Mum would be proud)
This is a very popular traditional Hokkien dish and the main ingredient of this dish is actually pig’s trotters (Tu Kar Cho). The pig’s trotters has a very thick layer of fat and a lot of Chinese love trotters for that reason, consider the best bit of this dish. I love my trotters, the braised skin and fat becomes so tender and aromatic once cooked, but definitely not good for my diet. Besides, I doubt my friends would like the idea of sucking on a pig’s leg. That’s why I have replaced the trotters with pork spareribs and some pork belly instead. But make sure there are still a lot of fat on those pork that you are going to use. It is very important to have some fat in this dish.
Even though the white vinegar is the main ingredient that gives this dish the sweet and soury taste, but one of the most important ingredient that gives this dish its characteristic is Star Anise. I can’t describe the taste of star anise but without it, this dish will be just another dull sweet and sour pork dish.
My version will be bit different from the other recipes that you can find on internet. (Sorry I maybe bit biased, this version is inherit from my mum, gotta be the best!) I will include my own tricks and tips on how to make my version of the braised vinegared pork ribs.
Ingredient
1. 500g spare ribs (with fat) – chopped into 1-2inch bite size
2. 500g pork belly (with fat) – cut into big cubes
3. ½ cup of white vinegar
4. 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
5. 5 tbsp of light soy sauce
6. 1 cup of sugar
7. 5 slices of ginger
8. 1 garlic
9. 10 star anise
10. 5 dry chillies (optional)
11. 7 peeled hard-boiled eggs (tips – serves 6 people (2 eggs each plus one extra) , explain below)
12. 2 ltr of Water
Method
1. pour water into a large saucepan.
2. put all the pork in the water.
3. put ginger slices, a whole garlic, star anise, dry chillies, and bring to boil on high heat.
4. Scoop out all the yucky stuff floating on top if any.
5. Turn down to a medium heat, add white vinegar, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, and give it a stir.
6. Add hard-boiled eggs and break one of the eggs in half ( tricks – explain below)
7. Turn the heat down to low, and let the pork braised for at least 2 hours. Keep stirring occasionally.
8. When the sauce starts to thicken, give it a taste. If is too soury or too salty, add more sugar. If is too sweet, add more soy sauce. DO NOT add more water unless if is dry out too quickly because the heat is not low enough. (explain below)
9. When the pork is falling apart from the bone, it is ready.
10. Serve hot in a big bowl with lots of the sauce.
This dish is best served with steamed white rice, and pour the sauce all over it. As you can see in the pictures, I also washed some iceberg lettuce and wrap the pork with it like a “San Choy Bau”, hmmmm…. the crunchiness of the lettuce with the hot steamy tender pork meat inside are just a perfect match. Alternatively, you can also wrap the pork inside a plain steamed bun, which you can get from asian supermarket. Then dip the bun into the sauce and let the bun soak up all the juicy goodness… I feel like some right now!
Tips and Tricks
1. If there is a layer of fat on top of the sauce, DO NOT scoop it out! It is the goodness of this dish, and also if you are going to keep the leftover in the fridge, the layer of fat will act like an airtight seal and it can be kept for more than a week or so.
2. Why the extra hard-boiled egg? The number of eggs are depends on how many people you have invited. But always make sure there is an extra egg. For eg,
3 ppl x 2 eggs each = 6 eggs + 1 extra = 7 eggs
2 ppl x 2 eggs each = 4 eggs + 1 extra = 5 eggs
4 ppl x 1 eggs each = 4 eggs + 1 extra = 5 eggs
While cooking, we will need to break the extra egg in the saucepan and squash the egg yolk inside. The mashy egg yolk will makes the sauce thicker and a silky smooth texture.
3. Adjust the taste accordingly with only salt, vinegar, sugar and soy sauce. Do not add more water, because this will dilute the taste of the sauce and you will have to start mixing that flavour from the beginning again. Only add a very small amount of water if the sauce getting too low and dry out too quickly.
4. Even after you have finished the pork inside the dish, KEEP THE SAUCE! Put it in the fridge, and the sauce will set like jelly, thanks to the gelatine from braising the bones for hours. The sauce is full of flavour and you can use it on many other dishes, like on steam vegies, instant noodle, but I am happy to just simply pour the sauce all over steamed rice and call it a meal.
A Table For Two (ATFT) is Billy Law's food blog that features best eats in Sydney and around the world with drool-worthy food photography to salivate your appetite. I also throw in a smidgen of my food and travel photography for good measure. Billy Law also happened to be a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011. 
Mmmm…. brings back the memories. I haven’t attempted this dish yet, but now I’ll have to.
I want your camera!!!!
pink parisian: yeah… this dish is really a classic home cooked dish. You gotta try it and let me know what you think of my recipe.
pablopabla: LOL! Your camera is just as good!!!
It is almost creepily weird how I just sent my mother a text message asking for recipe on this dish.
Then I found this on your site. I will try yours soon. I don’t think my mother is going to reply my text anyway.
It looked really good.
This is similar to what my mother cooks. Hooray for homestyle dishes. Love it! Just wandering your site for more yummy goodness.
I won’t mind trading mine with yours if mine is as good
Hey is this the dish that I was unable to stop eating at your place before??
Yas: That’s the one.
Now you can try and cook for yourself!
I tried making this dish 2 nights ago. It turned out really good.
Thank you very much for sharing your Mom’s wonderful recipe! I gave some to my friend to try and she liked the taste too. We both enjoyed the springy texture of the eggs. I followed your recipe very closely with the exception that I use only pork belly with lots of fat removed but the skin was intact and I also used a little less than 2 ltr of water (I forgot to measure it but the amount that I used wasn’t off by much). Since I don’t have a claypot and was cooking out of a metal pot, I modified your recipe by pouring in the vinegar after I transferred everything from the metal pot into a crockpot for the final phase of cooking. I wonder how different this dish would taste if I were to use black vinegar instead? BTW, which dark and light soy souce brands did you use? Adding the dark soy sauce is mainly to give it color, I guess?
@Kate: I’ve heard about metal pot and vinegar thing, but I actually did use metal pot as the quantity of water will dilute the vinegar fair bit so shouldn’t worry too much. Also, I think you do need to cook the meat with vinegar from the start, as the vinegar will penetrate and marinate the pork. The dark soy sauce I used is the “Cheong Chen” cooking carame, with red label in square glass bottle. (apparently, no more glass bottle, the new one I bought is in plastic bottle, I am dumbfounded!) The dark soy sauce does give it the color but its sweetness also harmonise the sour taste of the vinegar.
Boy does this look good -I’ll definately be making it for my parents. Dad will probably like it -we’re Teochew which is simlar enough to Hokkien lol.
Is the dish similar with the black vinegar one that I have in this link?
http://www.michelle-chin.com/2010/05/confinement-period.html
Michelle´s last [type] ..Pentatonic Scales
Thought “what the…” regarding the watermark until I saw the date of the post.
Looks like your photos were good even back then. Dish looks awesome too
Simon @ the heart of food´s last [type] ..Outback Steakhouse