Braised Pork Spare Ribs with Coconut Sauce & Taro Recipe

Ingredients

• 200g pork spare ribs, diced

• 300g taro

• 3 shallots, thinly sliced

• 4 sprigs spring (green) onions, cut into ~3 cm length

• 1/3 tsp salt, for marinating taro

• 2 tbsp oil

Sauce

• 250 ml coconut milk

• 1 1/2 cup water

• 1/3 tsp salt

• 1/8 tsp ground white pepper

Marinades for pork

• 1/3 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp sugar

• 1/8 tsp ground white pepper

• 1/4 tsp yellow (Shaoxing) wine

• 1/4 tsp cornstarch

• 1/4 tsp ginger juice

Instructions

1. Wash pork ribs clean, pat dry, and marinade for no less than 15 minutes.
2. Peel taro, wash it clean, pat dry and cut into slices, about 3/4 cm thick. Uncooked taro can cause itchy skin, so wear hand gloves when peeling.
3. Heat oil in wok over medium heat, pan-fry sliced taro until turned slightly golden, 2 to 3 minutes for each side. Transfer taro to a dish, marinade with salt and set aside
4. saute shallots and fry spare ribs for 1 to 2 minutes until they are lightly seared (to save time, just pan-fry pork and taro together if your wok is large enough, but you also need to remove the taro from wok before braising the ribs).
5. When pork is seared, drop in spring onions (reserve some for garnishing). Pour in 1 1/2 cup water and about 1/3 of the cans of coconut milk. Stir well and bring it to a simmer. Cover wok and turn heat to the lowest.
6. I simmered the spare ribs for about 40 minutes when the meat was just tendered and about 1/2 cup of the sauce was left. You may want to check it a couple of minutes earlier to make sure the liquid is not drying out, otherwise add some hot water.
7. Put in reserved taro, remaining coconut milk, salt and ground white pepper. Gently stir and turn to assemble well.
8. Transfer all in ingredients, including the sauce, in wok to a pot for serving. Over a moderate heat, let the sauce simmer, bubble and reduce for a minute or so. Garnish with green onion. Serve hot.