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These ribs are delicious. It’s the recipe my sister bugs my mom to make all the time, the one she misses watching a movie with her friends for. Pork ribs are braised in dark soy sauce and rock sugar, with a hint of ginger and garlic, until the meat is tender and practically falling off the bone. Then the braising liquid is reduced until it forms a glaze, coating the meat with a delicious depth of flavor.
They’re actually really easy to make, with just a handful of ingredients – my favorite kind of recipe. We made two racks of pork loin back ribs tonight, and between the five of us, demolished the mountain of ribs in no time flat.
I wouldn’t say they’re healthy by any means, but they are pretty darn yummy. While I was living in China, I heard that these ribs are pretty good made with Coca-Cola. I haven’t tried that yet, cause Coke kind of scares me, but it sounds interesting.
Mom’s Chinese-Style Sticky Ribs
Dark soy sauce is essential in this recipe – it is less salty, but has a more intense flavor, than regular soy sauce.
2 racks pork loin back ribs
1/4 cup dark soy sauce (must be dark, not regular!)
1/3 cup Chinese rock sugar*
3 cloves whole garlic, peeled
1-inch piece of ginger, sliced
2 tbsp corn oil
water
*can substitute 1/4 cup brown sugar, but this will change the taste
Cut up the racks into individual ribs. Put into a large bowl and pour the dark soy sauce over. Using your hands, mix the soy sauce into the ribs until they are covered. Let marinate at least 1/2 hour (place in refrigerator if marinating longer).
Heat oil in a wok over high heat. When oil is hot, add garlic cloves and ginger slices, and stir around a little bit until aromatic. Sear the ribs in batches until browned on the outsides. Put all the ribs in the wok, arrange them as compactly as possible, and add water just to cover (tops of ribs should be poking out). Add the rock sugar and cover wok.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes.
Uncover wok, turn heat up to high, and let the liquid boil off, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced to a brown glaze and coats the ribs, another 10 minutes or so.
Serve and enjoy!
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You know when you crave a big bowl of steaming chicken pho (Vietnamese chicken noodle soup), but you can’t be bothered to make stock and everything from scratch? But more than anything, you want that heady fragrant broth filled with cilantro, chewy rice noodles, and chunks of tender chicken? Yes? Do you know what I’m talking about?
Enter…Costco rotisserie chicken!
Now YOU, yes YOU, can have your very own steaming bowl of chicken pho ready within minutes, with the help of precooked chicken and chicken broth doctored up with a few special ingredients.
Let’s begin.
Cheater’s Chicken Pho
Serves 2
I don’t put bean sprouts in my pho, because to be honest, I hate bean sprouts. But if you like them, feel free to add a handful of raw, washed bean sprouts to your bowl when it’s ready to serve.
4 oz rice sticks (Asian rice noodles)
4 cups low sodium chicken broth (homemade or store-bought)
1 bay leaf
pinch of five-spice powder
1 tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce
2 cups shredded chicken
1/2 cup edamame or other vegetable
1 lime
Cilantro
Hoisin Sauce
Sriracha
Sliced jalapeno
Put the rice sticks in hot water (hot like tapwater, not boiling) in a large bowl to soak for 10-15 minutes. When they are tender and pliable, but still have a bit of chew, rinse and drain them and set aside.
Heat the chicken broth, bay leaf, five spice powder, and fish sauce together over medium heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the chicken and edamame and simmer for another 5 minutes, until heated through. Add rice sticks and simmer another 30 sec until hot.
Pour into 2 bowls. Top with cilantro, and serve with lime wedges, hoisin sauce, sriracha, and jalapeno.
Enjoy your super fast 15-minute chicken pho!
You know what? These muffins are good. Real good.
What you don’t see in the picture are the four muffins I’ve eaten already. And it’s been less than 12 hours since I made ‘em. Must…not…eat…another…one… Aghhh! I can’t win this fight.
Thankfully, they’re supposed to be healthy, so I don’t feel too bad about myself. Yep, these muffins have cornmeal, oatmeal, and flax meal in them, and they taste YUMMY! They’re moist, healthy, and delicious, with a complex flavor from honey as a sweetener and the genius addition of lime zest.
They have less fat added than usual muffins, just 1/4 cup of heart-healthy canola oil, and a bright kick of antioxidants from organic blueberries!
They come from this cookbook that I picked up at the bargain rack at Barnes&Noble. I don’t always find good books there, but the James Beard Foundation Award was quite a recommendation. And it was pretty bargain-priced.
I made hardly any changes to the recipe. I just subbed blueberries for the raspberries, and flax meal for the wheat bran. Flax meal does have a bit of an aftertaste, so you might want to go the wheat bran route if you don’t like it.
Multi-Grain Blueberry Muffins
Adapted ever so slightly from The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook
1/2 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1 cup low-fat milk or soy milk
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup wheat bran or 1/8 cup flax meal
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup (scant) canola oil
zest of one lime
1 egg
3/4 cup blueberries
Preheat oven to 400 F.
In a microwave-safe bowl, mix oats and milk together and microwave on high for about 3 min until oats are cooked. Or cook them on the stovetop if, like me, you don’t own a microwave.
Whisk together flour, cornmeal, wheat bran/flax, baking powder and salt. On top of the combined dry ingredients, dump the cooked oats, honey, oil, lime zest, and egg. Mix just until combined. Fold in blueberries.
Grease a 12-hole muffin tin or line with muffin liners. Divide batter into muffin holes. Bake 16-18 minutes, or until gently browned on the top and a tester inserted into muffin comes out clean.
Cool and enjoy! (They’re really good warm).
Sometimes I crave Chinese food so bad I don’t know what to do with myself.
Usually, though, I get a grip and make a stir-fry.
This isn’t, as far as I know, a traditional stir-fry, but I really enjoyed it and it satisfied my cravings for Chinese food, so it’s all good. I’m not usually a cauliflower fan, but I like it prepared like this, a bit browned and a bit charred, so that the earthy flavors are teased out. The edamame’s nutty-earthy flavors are similarly enhanced by browning, and I think complements the cauliflower really well. Plenty of freshly ground black pepper and a squirt of sriracha give this dish some kick.
Edamame can be found in most well-stocked supermarkets now (I get mine at Trader Joe’s). I find that getting the frozen, shelled variety is the easiest. They’ve already been blanched before being frozen, so they cook quickly.
If you don’t have sriracha, you can substitute another hot sauce as long as it is not too vinegary. You can usually find sriracha in the Asian section of your grocery or at Asian food stores.
As with most stir-fries, you’re going to be working with a hot and fast wok, so having your mise-en-place ready to go makes things much easier. Have everything chopped and your sauces ready at hand before you start stir-frying.
Cauliflower and Edamame Stir-Fry
2 tbsp canola oil
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets
1/2 cup shelled frozen edamame
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp sriracha hot sauce
fresh black pepper
salt
Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat until oil is hot and shimmering. Add cauliflower, and stir around to coat with oil. Cook, tossing frequently, until parts of cauliflower are browned. Lower heat to medium.
Add edamame and minced garlic. Stir around briefly, trying to avoid letting the garlic burn. Add 1/4 cup water (it will sizzle vigorously). Put cover on wok, and let steam for 4-5 minutes, or until cauliflower is crisp-tender.
Uncover wok. Stir-fry all the vegetables together until the last of the water has evaporated. Add sriracha, soy sauce, and season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Stir-fry briefly until cauliflower is coated (this is a relatively “dry” stir-fry…there won’t be much sauce).
Serve immediately with steamed rice and optionally, a few other Chinese dishes.
It’s HOT right now. As in, 75 degrees F (23 C). And it’s mid-January. Oh how I love living on the Central Coast. In Toronto right now it’s 21 F (-6 C) and snowing.
This past weekend we had a bonfire on the beach, went for a bike ride up on the cliffs by the ocean, and basically enjoyed this lovely summery weather we’ve been having. Try not to be too jealous.
And lighter, spring-timey meals have suddenly become more attractive. As has the unheated outdoor pool in our apartment complex.
Technically, these are called tuna CROQUETTES. But for some reason, the word “croquettes” sounds to me really hokey and old-fashioned. It might just be me. Anyway, these easy tuna cakes have become a regular in my kitchen repertoire, for several reasons:
- They’re light and a nice alternative to meat, especially as we’ve been trying to eat lighter after the New Year =).
- They’re SUPER easy and fast to make and can be mixed up in one bowl, but you get a home-cooked meal instead of prepackaged junk.
- They use panko breadcrumbs, and everything is better with panko.
- They use canned tuna, which I ALWAYS have in the house. But are quite elegant, not what you’d expect from canned tuna. Would even make nice appetizers.
So without further ado, here’s the recipe from Mr. Alton Brown!
Tuna Cakes (or Croquettes)
Serves 2 as a light meal with a salad.
1 7-oz can of tuna
2 tsp dijon mustard
2 green onions, chopped
2 eggs
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs + another 1/2 cup for breading
salt and freshly cracked black pepper
squeeze of lemon juice
olive oil
Mix together tuna, mustard, onions, eggs, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
Using your hands, pat into 6-8 patties. Roll in remaining breadcrumbs. Place on a flat dry surface for 15 minutes (this allows them to firm up and the breadcrumbs to absorb excess moisture).
Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil over medium heat. Fry tuna cakes about 3 minutes per side until golden brown and cooked through.
Serve with tartar sauce and wedges of lemon.
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About Us
We are a Canamerican (Canadian-American) couple who recently relocated from China to the Central Coast of California. Camilla loves to cook, and Chris loves to eat. Join us on our culinary adventures!
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