Sweet and Sour Riblets 糖醋排骨

If you order sweet and sour ribs 糖醋排骨 at Chinese restaurants, you will most likely be served flash fried ribs covered with a thickened soy sauce heavy sauce. I rarely order it in restaurants because I like my ribs falling-off-the-bone tender….and because my mom makes a stellar version at home.

Her recipe is super easy to make and insanely delicious! You don’t have to marinate the ribs before hand, there is no need to caramelize the sugar and there is definitely no deep frying involved. This is a home version that anyone can make with confidence.

But rest assured, there is no compromise on flavour. The flavour profile goes beyond the sweet and the sour because there is a ton of aromatics used to cook the ribs.

Cook’s notes:

- One thing that I have to underline is that you must use spare ribs. Have your butcher cut them into smaller pieces so they can soak up and coat as much of the sauce as possible.

- Keep a close eye on the wok towards the end of the cooking process. As it's cooked over high heat, the liquids will evaporate quickly and can be reduced too much. The sauce should be thickened but still a bit runny so it can coat the ribs well. And trust me, you'll want to mop up all that sauce as you eat the ribs.

- We used a huge range of aromatic spices to flavour the broth, but don’t rush out and buy them all if it isn't already in your pantry. The recipe is forgiving and any combination of ginger; green onions; star anise; cinnamon; cloves; fennel seeds; bay leaf and/or Sichuan peppercorns will go a long way to make the broth super interesting.