Sweet and Spicy Pork Ribs

Sweet and spicy pork ribs is a Filipino dish, made by boiling pork spare ribs with ginger and salt, then it is sautéed in a wok with oil, ginger, garlic, pepper, sprite, soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar, and seasoned with green chilis, red chilies and spring onions. This sweet and spicy pork ribs is also popular in China and southeast Asia and this recipe would make a delightful dish for family for the weekend. You can marinate it ahead of time and braise the next day for an ultimate flavourful spicy pork ribs that have sweetness of sugar and spiciness of chilies.

SWEET AND SPICY PORK RIBS RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo pork spareribs
• 1 small bottle Sprite (or 7 up)
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 thumbs of ginger
• ¼ cup of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• Red and green chilies
• Spring onions (or green onions)
• Oil for sauteing

Directions:

1. Heat a lot of oil in a pot. Add the spareribs, salt and ginger. Let this boil for 5 minutes. Once boiling, remove the scum or impurities. Then, drain the ribs.
2. Heat some oil in a pan. Add the pork ribs and saute them for a few minutes. Add the ginger, garlic, pepper and saute for a few seconds.
3. Add the Sprite, soy sauce, oyster sauce and brown sugar and then stir to mix well. Cover the pan and let this simmer for 30 to 45 minutes or until the ribs are tender.
4. Once the ribs are tender, raise the heat into high heat and cook until the sauce is reduced.
5. Add some green and red chilies, and the spring onions. Let this cook for a minute.
6. Transfer the sweet and spicy pork ribs to a serving plate. Enjoy this with some hot steaming rice or with an ice cold beer. Yum!

SWEET AND SPICY

We eat with our senses, but most especially with our sense of taste. We know that the five basic tastes are sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Fusing flavors have been practiced for a lot of centuries now. We have dishes which are both salty and sour, like our adobo, and some bitter and salty, like the sauteed ampalaya. One of the fused flavors which we love the most is the sweet and spicy.

During the ancient times, there exist combinations like chili-dusted mangoes and pepper-like hot chocolate. Why we love this combination the most is that the sugar (and other sweetening agent) tames the capsaicin, the compound that contributes to the spicyness. With this, most spicy dishes are toned down, making them more enjoyable to eat.

The defining ingredient of most sweet and spicy dishes is their sauce. If you want to try different sweet and spicy dishes, you might want to check out this list of ingredients you can use to make them.

For the sweet and spicy pork spareribs featured in this recipe, we will be using the simple sugar, soda and red chilies combination to create this lovely dish.

Spicy Spare Ribs Recipe Filipino Style

I belong to a family who likes most of their dishes spicy. Even with some fried rice, we usually use the chili garlic oil for the base for some kick, then we will partner this with some spicy sausage in the morning or spicy kalderetang kambing for lunch. But since there are kids now at the home, we toned down our spicy dishes, or made them less spicy to make it tolerable for the kids.

I let my niece taste some sauce of the spicy pork adobo I prepared once, but she cannot take it since I added too much chilies (this amount is normal for us). I separated some sauce and meat for her, and added some sugar to mellow the spice level. As kids also loves sweet dishes, introducing them with sweet and spicy dishes can help build their tolerance (and love) for spicy food.

If you have the similar situation or simply wants to prepare some sweet and spicy pork spareribs, read and follow the simple steps below. Happy cooking!

HOW TO COOK SWEET AND SPICY PORK RIBS

Making some sweet and spicy pork ribs has never been easier when you follow this recipe. Have this appetizing dish on your table in around 1 hour of preparation.

Start this recipe with boiling the spareribs with salt and ginger. This is done to pre-cook the meat and to remove the scum or impurities. These are not dirt, but are gelatin proteins which comes from the meat. It makes the dish less appetizing if not removed, so make sure to skim them off.

Saute the aromatics and the meat. Then, add the rest of the recipes. The Sprite is already sweet but you can add further sugar if you like it sweeter. It will take around 30 – 45 minutes for the spareribs to become well cooked and tender. The last step is to raise the heat to make the sauce reduced faster. Just make sure that it would not burn.

To make it spicy, add some chopped red chilies. You can also opt to just make this sweet spareribs and not spicy (especially for kids)

I love my sweet and spicy pork spareribs together with some hot rice for lunch. During dinner, we add a lot more chilies in it to be the best pulutan ever partnered with some ice cold beer. Yum!

Sweet and Spicy Pork Ribs Recipe (in Tagalog)

Mga Sangkap:

• 1 kilo ng pork spareribs
• 1 maliit na bote ng Sprite (o 7 up)
• 5 butil ng bawang
• 2 luya
• ¼ tasa ng toyo
• 1 kutsara oyster sauce
• 2 kutsara ng asukal
• ½ kutsarita ng paminta
• Siling labuyo at siling haba
• Spring onions
• Mantika pang gisa

Paano Lutuin:

1. Magpainit ng mantika sa kaldero. Ilagay ang spareribs, asin at luya, at pakuluan nang limang minuto. Kapag kumukulo na, alisin ang mga bula-bula o yung mga namuong latak sa ibabaw nito. Hanguin ang ribs.
2. Magpainit ng mantika sa kawali. Ilagay ang ribs at igisa nang ilang minuto. Idagdag ang luya, bawang, paminta at igisa nang ilang segundo.
3. Idagdag ang sprite,toyo, oyster sauce at asukal na brown, at haluing mabuti. Takpan ang kawali at hayaang maluto sa loob ng 30-45 na minuto hangang lumambot ang  spareribs.
4. Kapag malambot na ang karne, lakasan ang apoy hanggang maiga ang sauce.
5. Magdagdag ng siling labuyo at siling haba pati na rin ng spring onions. Hayaang maluto nang ilang minuto.
6. Ilipat ang sweet and sicy pork ribs sa serving plate. Enjoyin kasama ng mainit init na kanin o kaya naman isabay sa malamig na beer. Yum!