My mom made the absolute best simple, sweet, and sticky spare ribs. For every major holiday celebration with family, she would make spare ribs using her signature sauce. Everyone goes straight for her spare ribs without hesitation. She uses the same all-purpose sauce to stir fry or bake pretty much all meats. She has used this sauce for chicken wings, beef cubes, and pork chops. These ribs are so good, I always end up eating one too many during the holidays. Earlier this week, I had a sudden craving for spare ribs. I picked up a rack of spare ribs on Friday night, called my mom to confirm the instructions for making her version of spare ribs, and then started on the preparation. My mom’s instructions always sound like a little bit of this, dash of that, scoop of this, and so on. Since I’ve watched my mom make ribs so many times, I can pretty much remember most of the steps, but I wanted to call my mom to confirm. I followed my mom’s method of rubbing the ribs in a cornstarch rub, rinsing off the cornstarch rub, and marinating the spare ribs in sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce the evening before. The next day, I preheated the oven to 375°F, brushed on some additional sauce, and then baked up the delicious ribs in the oven. In the final stage of baking, I brushed on some barbecue sauce, and then let the ribs finish browning in the oven. My family always connected over good food. These spare ribs were always the center of all food conversations. They brought together my family, relatives, close friends, and neighbors. I consider the sweet and sticky spare ribs to be one of my mom’s defining dishes. These ribs are so easy to pull together and are always stunning when served to guests. I haven’t met a single person who has not enjoyed these ribs. After a long week of work and classes, I am super excited to just enjoy some spare ribs, Asian greens, and rice with Kevin for lunch. When Kevin found out I was making spare ribs for lunch, he was absolutely delighted. He never turns down meat, and these ribs are no exception.
Sweet and Sticky Spare ribs:
· Large rack of spare ribs, cut in half
· ½ cup cornstarch
· ¼ cup granulated sugar
· ¼ cup soy sauce
· ¼ cup oyster sauce
· ¼ bottle barbecue sauce
Directions:
The evening before:
1) Rub both sides of the ribs with cornstarch. Let the ribs sit for 45 minutes before completely rinsing off the cornstarch. Dry the ribs with paper towels.
2) In a bowl, combine the sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Pour half of the sauce all over the spare ribs. Place the spare ribs in a large container. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Place the container on the bottom section of the refrigerator. Let the ribs sit in the marinade overnight. Wrap up the remaining sauce to use the next day.
The next morning:
3) Preheat oven to 375°F. Remove the ribs from the refrigerator. Brush on the rest of the sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce mixture onto the ribs. Place the ribs over a rack. Gently wrap the ribs with aluminum foil. Bake the ribs in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove the ribs from the oven. Take off the foil.
4) Turn up the heat in the oven to 400°F. Brush on the barbecue sauce. Place the ribs back in the oven for another 30-45 minutes, until the ribs turn golden brown in color. Let the ribs cool for 10 minutes before digging in. Garnish with thinly sliced scallions.
Takeaways: My mom insists the cornstarch rub is a must. If the step is skipped, the spareribs may retain a meaty pork flavor (kind of like gaminess). The basic sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce works very well with all types of meat. If you have leftover spareribs, you can cut up the meat and add it to fried rice. I ended up using some of the meat from the leftover spareribs to make a fried rice similar to char siu fried rice.
