Sichuan-Style Braised Spare Ribs (紅燒排骨)

This recipe is based on one I meant to post back in May, but I wasn't quite satisfied with how it turned out. The original was my version of Pei Mei's Sichuan-style beef stew. It is a dish in the hongshao (red cooked) style of braised meat, similar to Chairman Mao's pork belly. This time, though, I decided to adapt it to spare ribs, which I had in the freezer. The result was thoroughly enjoyable. Although I still prefer the pork belly version, this is a nice change of pace. The ribs fall right off the bone and the sauce pairs well with rice. While I'm not sure this would be considered an "authentic" Sichuan-style recipe, I do think I've respected the style, and it turned out well.

The main difference in terms of seasoning between this and Chairman Mao's pork belly is that it swaps out the sugar for doubanjiang, the hot bean paste which is a cornerstone of Sichuan flavor. Using just two tablespoons gives the sauce a background heat, but doesn't take over. It is, however, very salty. This makes it effectively immortal in the refrigerator, but can be overpowering. While the rice does balance this out, I might compensate by cutting the soy sauce back a bit next time. Other than the garlic, everything else here has appeared in my previous hongshao recipes. The pork stock I used is the same as in the Chairman's pork. If you like Sichuan peppercorns, they can also be added. With how big the flavors are in this dish, it works well with a simple green vegetable as a side. We had stir-fried snap peas.

Chairman Mao's Red-Cooked Pork Belly (毛氏紅燒肉)

Red-cooked pork belly is popular in many parts of China, with each region having its own version. I first mentioned this dish in this year's birthday special, but I have been working on the recipe since last year. My love for red-cooked pork belly goes back further still. I still remember eating Dongpo pork belly, the local specialty, in Hangzhou back in 2009. It's become almost a must-order at Chinese restaurants. My recipe is based on the Hunanese version, which first came to our attention at the wonderful Lao Szechuan restaurant in Sioux Falls. Maoshi hongshaorou translates to "Mao family red-cooked meat," though rou by itself typically implies pork. The name refers to this supposedly being the favorite food of Chairman Mao, who was a native of Hunan. He may have been wrong about many things, but definitely not this. In my opinion, it's one of the world's most delicious foods, and as you will see, not too difficult to make.

This recipe is my own, but I used several different sources in my research. These included Peimei (volume I, in the Western China section), The Woks of Life, The Kitchn, and Asian Dumpling Tips (based on Fuschia Dunlop). My main frustration making this and other hongshao dishes is what to do with all the liquid. Many recipes claim it will reduce during cooking, even though that cooking is covered. This makes no sense. Peimei says nothing at all about it. What I did here is uncover the pan and continue cooking for another 30 minutes, then remove the pork and boil it down. I don't go as far as some, which reduce it to just a coating for the pork as I like a little to soak into the rice when serving. The extra uncovered cooking also ensures the pork gets incredibly tender, which the initial hour does not always achieve. A lot of fat renders out of pork belly during cooking, but no source I have found mentions skimming. The fat left in the sauce is what gives the pork its characteristic sheen when coated.

The Mao-style pork belly seems to differ from other hongshaorou varieties in its inclusion of spices. The seasoning profile is quite similar to my recent post on Noble Consort Chicken. I used ginger, star anise, and Chinese cinnamon. Chinese cinnamon, also known as cassia, is distinguished by thicker bark than the more common Ceylon cinnamon. The sauce is sweetened with rock sugar, which I got at a Chinese store, but it should work fine with regular white sugar. With my supply of Shaoxing wine gone, I've gone back to Amontillado (Pastora, a cheap one from Trader Joe's). It's definitely not the same, but it does work. The pork is from Costco. We usually cut it up when we get it home, and then freeze in two batches.

The last ingredient I want to mention is pork stock. I made this myself from two pork butt bones, simmered for about 5 hours with ginger and scallion. It's super meaty tasting and I'm looking forward to trying it in other dishes. I also stripped the meat off the bones and added some light soy sauce and scallions for a delicious treat Ariel called "the most unbelievable thing you've ever made." Since I had it, I threw it in here, but you can certainly just use more water. As with all my homemade stocks, I don't add salt until I actually cook with it, and this dish is a perfect example for why that is. With the amount of soy sauce I used, hongshaorou the salt level is just about right as it is. Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take it away.

Noble Consort Chicken (貴妃雞)

A few weeks ago, a recipe in the Joyce Chen Cook Book called "Empress Chicken" caught my eye. I did a little translation of the Chinese name guifei ji, and discovered the real name is a little more interesting. The Chinese word ji means chicken, but guifei is more accurately translated as "noble consort." In Chinese history, a noble consort was one of the emperor's high-ranking concubines, who ranked just below the empress. I found a few websites claiming the dish was named for a specific Tang dynasty concubine, but like most food origin stories, this is almost certainly apocryphal. What the dish has to do with concubines is anyone's guess.

The dish itself is a classic example of a Chinese-style stew, known as hongshao, or "red cooking." I've made a few of these over the last couple of years, but this is the first to make it to the blog. The basic ingredients are soy sauce, sugar, and a selection of seasonings. Seasonings can include ginger, star anise, cinnamon, or bean pastes. This is the first one I've made that included mushrooms, and I found them a terrific addition. I use black mushrooms (dried shiitakes) a lot in various dumplings and stir-fried dishes, but stewing brings them to life in a new way. They basically last forever, so I tend to stock up when we go to Chinese stores. I used Chinese rock sugar in this dish, which is the traditional choice for this type of stew, but white sugar is fine if you can't get it.

Chen calls for 4 wings and 4 legs. Although I like chicken legs, I went with all wings for consistent cooking time. I scaled the whole thing up a bit to use a full package of wings I found at Walmart and played around with the proportions of ingredients based on what I like. The chicken comes out very tender, and the stewing liquid is full of flavor boosted by the mushrooms. That being said, the difficulty I tend to run into with hongshao dishes is that you have a ton of liquid at the end that is too watery to work as a sauce, but as you reduce it down it gets too salty. I don't think this is the traditional choice, but I think corn starch or some other thickening agent is the way to turn it into a sauce. I used 1/2 tablespoon, but I do think it needed more. I plan to experiment more with honghsao dishes, so you can expect to hear more on this soon.