Ribs were on sale at Farm Boy (my favourite grocery store! We'll save that for another post, hehe), so I tried my mom's recipe - Braised Pork Ribs with Chestnuts. I have made this three times. Definitely yummy. Degree of difficulty - depends.
The "depends" is because the chestnuts. Chestnuts have a hard outer shell but also a hairy/waxy coating that wraps the nut completely. I never worked with them prior to this so I am no expert, but here are three different peeling methods that I've tried:
1. Roasting them over the pan. Here is Martha Stewart's step by step guide..
PROS: Relatively fast if you're good with a knife. Quick clean up.
CONS: The nut is basically cooked through and has a distinct roasted taste after braising. Maybe that's not a CON but I didn't like that taste for this dish.
NOTE: I got carried away and removed huge parts of the shell before putting it on the pan - DON'T DO THAT. The nut will burn and then you'll have to remove those black parts.
2. Par-boiling for about a minute. You have to make the X slit first.
PROS: Nut is heated through just enough for the skin to come off but not cooked through, so the flavours of the sauce will be nicely amalgamated during the cooking process. Also, since there's no danger of burning the nut, you will see the condition of the nut very clearly. Bad and/or moldy parts will not go unnoticed!
CONS: Could take a while...like an hour. But that's also because I did it wrong!
NOTE: Boil the nuts in batches. Once they cool down, the skin isn't going to come off anymore! I made this giant mistake and re-heated 5 nuts at a time in the microwave.
3. Buying pre-peeled nuts. I really want to try the vacuum sealed kind but haven't seen them yet. We bought some dry and peeled ones at a Chinese grocery store yesterday so here's what I thought about those.
PROS: Super fast, just need to rehydrate and them throw them in the pot!
CONS: Lacks flavour and chewiness.
NOTE: I was very reluctant to buy these but Kelvin insisted that I at least try. When I picked them up they smelled like beans! Kelvin thought they tasted fine. I think he just doesn't want to hear me whine as I peel 'em nuts! I think if I really can't spend the time to peel the nuts I will just make the dish without them.
Onto the recipe:
- 1/2 lbs pork back ribs (I asked the butcher to cut them in three lengthwise and then I cut them between each rack at home, so they're essentially riblets)
- Chestnuts (sorry I really don't know how much. I just envisioned how many I wanted to eat with the amount of ribs above. If you're buying fresh in the shell, get 1.5 the amount. There are always duds that need to be thrown out.)
Here's why my mom calls this the 1-2-3-4-5 ribs:
1 part wine
2 parts vinegar
3 parts sugar
4 parts soy sauce
5 parts water
Throw all the sauce ingredients in a pot, bring to a rolling boil. Place ribs and chestnuts in and bring it back to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Then lower heat and let the goodies braise for at least an hour. I did it for an hour and 25 minutes, turned the heat back on high for 5min and put a tbsp of honey to thicken the sauce. My mom serves it with malt sugar but leaves the sauce watery, so it's all up to you!
I adjusted the sauce by using only 2 parts soy sauce. I found it too salty the first time. Also on the second try, I browned the ribs first. I liked the smokey flavour on the meat but I did not enjoy the tougher texture. I probably won't do that in the future. A 1/8 measuring cup should cover 1/2 lbs of ribs and chestnuts. I guess it depends on what kind of pot you're using.
And yes, the photo is sort of blurry because I wanted to eat this! I had two more bowls of rice with just the sauce. yum yum yum yum yum!
No comments:
Post a Comment