Friday 1 May 2009

A Tasty Asian Treat


The thing I love about Asian food is, it is designed for the shared table: a few dishes, a bowl of rice, some nice wine with good company - to me that makes good eating. I have put together a cheap simple menu ideal for a midweek supper or, with a few more dishes added, could be a more formal menu. Pork ribs are such good value, try to choose the smaller ones as they tend to be sweeter and more tender. The shaoshing wine can be bought in some supermarkets or in Asian stores. If you can’t find it, sherry is equally as good. Again all can be prepared in advance with little effort, especially good after a busy day, and for some reason there is something really wholesome about chewing bones and getting in a sticky mess. Enjoy! Sheng ti jian kung. (Good health).

Sticky Chinese Ribs:

Ingredients Serves 6

For the ribs:
2 x 1.3 kg rack of ribs
Black pepper

For the marinade:
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 tblspn ginger finely grated
250 ml soy sauce
125ml honey
3 tblspn shaoshing wine or sherry
1 tblspn Chinese five spice
125ml Hoi Sin sauce

To Serve:

2 tblspn coriander leaves
2 spring onions chopped on the diagonal
3 dried chillies split and chopped (optional)
Lime wedge quartered

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 160C/gas 2. Put the ribs on a baking tray and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 1 hour, or until the ribs are tender.
2. While the ribs are in the oven, put the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, honey, wine, five-spice powder and Hoi Sin sauce in a small saucepan. Place the pan over a medium heat and cook the sauce for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened.
3. Baste the ribs with the sauce and continue roasting for another 20 minutes.
4. Put the ribs on a chopping board, baste again with the sauce and cut into individual ribs.
5. Garnish with coriander, spring onions and chillies and accompany with lime wedges.

Warm Rice Salad:

Ingredients:
300g jasmine or long grain rice
1 red pepper finely chopped
1 yellow pepper finely chopped
2 spring onions finely chopped on the diagonal (green bits as well)
1 tblspn toasted sesame oil
A few splashes of Tabasco
salt and pepper

Method:
Place the rice in a heavy based pan, add the water and a pinch of salt and bring to the boil.Cover with a tight fitting lid, reduce the heat to low and cook for approx 15 to 20 mins until all the water has gone and the rice is soft. Fluff up the rice and mix all the ingredients into the warm rice putting the oil and Tabasco in last. Check for seasoning

Wilted Sesame Spinach:
Ingredients:

1 pack of young fresh spinach leaves
1 teaspn toasted sesame seeds
A splash of light soy sauce
A splash of sesame oil

Method:
Place a small amount of water into a large pan and bring to the boil. Add the whole bag of spinach for about 30 seconds just enough to wilt and drain well, carefully removing the liquid. Then toss in the sesame seeds, soy sauce and sesame oil.

5 comments:

  1. I have been really getting into my Asian food recently so will have to give this a try, ribs aren't my favourite though never enough meat on them. Do you use any in particular?

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  2. I find the smaller ribs better they have less fat and are more tender, ask your butcher to cut you some, or often the supermarkets have them. you could use the marinade on chicken if you prefer. I am doing more Asian next month for the barbie!

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  3. Barbie food sounds great, got any good homemade burger recipes? They always taste so much better.

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  4. Try...
    500grm minced lamb
    1 sml onion finely chopped 2tbspn chopped fresh mint, 2tbspn chopped fresh parsley,115grm mozzarella cheese salt and pepper.
    Mix everything together except the mozzarella, roughly divide into 8 flat rounds cut mozzarella into 4 chunks and place on four of the rounds placing the other four firmly on top to make four flattish burger press edges to seal, brush with olive oil and cook. Try serving with a caramelised onion chutney.

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  5. D E L I C I O U S ! !

    I also have a recipe blog that are a compilation of family recipes, you can check it out when you have time @ http://FoodRecipesMadeEasy.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete