sweet sour spareribs

Sunday, I was looking at some of the market's ads.

Since we needed rice, I chose a market that was having a sale.

They also advertised spareribs, so we picked that up as well.

This was the first time I used this recipe (I think), it was so easy and the meat was fall off the bone tender!

The amount of meat I used was a less than the recipe called for, but I made the full amount of gravy.

With some of the leftover gravy, I made ajitama.

The other night, I sauteed some lotus root in a little oil then added 3 tablespoons of the leftover gravy and cooked it until the gravy evaporated and caramelized the lotus root...so ono!

Satoshi said I should use the leftover gravy for fried rice, so we'll try it that way too.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to make the spareribs.

From "Recipes Please"

2 pounds spareribs

3 tablespoons flour

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup oil

Gravy:

1.5 cups water

3/4 cup brown or white sugar

1/2 cup vinegar

1/4 cup shoyu

1/2 teaspoon salt

Coat spareribs with flour

Brown spareribs in heated oil

Add the browned spareribs to gravy and boil until tender, approxiamately 1.5 hours.

NOTES: I didn't use the amount of oil it called for and only sifted a little flour onto the ribs.

I brought the gravy up to a boil then simmered the ribs for the 1.5 hours turning the meat every so often because I used a shallow pan.

Luckily I made this early enough in the day so I was able to scrap off lots of the oil before dinner.

My cousin saw my post on Instagram and asked if I used Grandma's recipe, I think it is similar but not the one she used when she used to make this dish.

Our weather still isn't cool enough to be cooking like this but it was definitely comfort food.

yuzu marmalade spareribs

I've been working through a book about using the fish grill drawer.

One recipe that caught my eye was a marmalade sparerib.

The spareribs they use were not too meaty.

Here is the recipe if you'd like to try...

500 to 600 grams spareribs
3 tablespoons marmalade
1/4 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
1/4 cup sake (rice wine)

Marinade the ribs for 30 minutes to half a day.
Preheat the fish grill on high for 2 minutes
Place the ribs on the grill and cook for 5 minutes.
Flip the ribs over and cook for another 5 minutes.

NOTES: Since my ribs were meaty and thick I marinated them overnight.

Instead of cooking it in the grill for 5 minutes on each side, I put the the ribs into a pan (with the marinade) and cooked it on low for 10 minutes on each side.

Then I put the ribs into the fish grill for 3 minutes on each side to get a nice char on it.

I shouldn't have put the marinade in the pan with the ribs as it made the ribs more salty and the yuzu that was in the marmalade was also too salty to eat.

Now I know and will try this again.

I like cooking in the fish grill because it gets rid of some of the fat from meats.

I look forward to cooking more things this way.

sweet sour spare ribs with pineapple (juice)

The weather is getting cooler here and I had some time on my hands on Tuesday, so I tried this recipe from my grandma's stash.

She actually had a lot of recipe variations for sweet sour spare ribs.

Love how she pasted it to an index-like card...probably so that she wouldn't lose the newspaper clipping.

This was a little more puckery than my mom's and aunties' versions, but this type of spare ribs are still comfort food for me.

Especially putting rice into the gravy...

I'm not sure where she got the recipe from, but if you try this, I hope you enjoy it.

Have a nice weekend.

sunday dinner

So yesterday it rained all day, perfect for simmering something on the stove...spareribs.

I used this recipe.

Super easy and the perfect comfort food.

I served this over brown rice with some steamed broccoli and gravy over everything.

These ribs were super meaty!

What did you have for dinner?

ige's lunchwagon

Mom's been wanting to eat these BBQ spareribs for some time now.

They're from Ige's Kitchen. Ige's is a popular catering company in our area, I think the owners are Okinawan?!

Growing up, I swear at almost any graduation or funeral, you'd find their food being served.

Anyway, their food is good, well, except their mac salad, in my Mom's opinion.

Mom was bummed because their mac salad only had macaroni and mayo. She was also jealous, because in my bite of mac salad, I had bits of celery.

Their BBQ spareribs are super meaty and fall off the bone tender. And I love the cartilage part of the pork.

And for $6.75 (tax included) this was a steal, not to mention we have enough for another meal.

We'll be back.

Ige's Lunchwagon
98-025 Hekaha Street #16 (Harbor Court)
Aiea, Hawaii
Phone: 808.486.8728
Monday-Friday: 10:00-13:00

anniversary

Tuesday was our anniversary. Though we plan to celebrate this weekend, I wanted to make something special for dinner, even though we probably wouldn't be able to eat dinner together (because of Satoshi's work hours).

There were beautiful local strawberries in the market. I picked them up and made chocolate dipped strawberries.

I also had some for my mid-afternoon snack as chocolate fondue.

When I was through dipping, I heated some milk and added it to the chocolate, like the matcha fondue place did and had a nice, little chocolat chaud.


So what did I make for dinner? Sweet sour spareribs. The market had a great sale. You could buy two packages of different meats for 1000 yen (about US $10). So, I picked up one package of spareribs and one package of chicken.

These ribs were very meaty and tender.

Happy Anniversary, Satoshi. Thanks for 8 great years, I'm looking forward to the adventures that 2008 will bring us.

leftovers

You ever have a craving for something and then when you go to eat it, the place is either closed or not in business? That is what happened to me for lunch today. I was so bummed that I wandered around for an hour or so aimlessly, trying to figure out what I should eat. (sad, yeah?)

Changing the subject, after I posted yesterday, Nate emailed me to say that my mom's recipe was similar to Big Way Burger's spareribs--a local eatery in Hawaii. I then googled them and found this article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, a local newspaper.

The article mentioned serving the ribs with kim chee and rice...luckily, I had some kim chee in my refrig...dinner is served!

spareribs

Well, after the huge typhoon, there was a huge earthquake. Luckily, Osaka was not affected. I hope the people who were, will be able to get the help they need to get back on their feet as soon as possible.

Changing the subject...As you can tell (because I'm posting), I couldn't stay away from the kitchen.

Today, I was walking the aisles of the supermarket when I spotted spareribs. Usually, they are priced really high (from 680 yen about US$7 or higher) for 6 pieces and not very meaty looking--more bone than meat.

But today, they were reasonably priced and really meaty looking---only 365 yen (about US$3) for 6 pieces. I guess I could have bought something pre-made for dinner since it is only me, but for only 365 yen, it seemed cheaper than to buy something pre-made and plus, this should last for two dinners.

The recipe I used was my mom's...I think. (Awhile back, I had scribbled it on a piece of paper with no notation of where I got the recipe from.)

3 lbs. spareribs
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
pinch of salt
ginger

Bring to boil. Simmer. Cook for 45 minutes.

NOTES: At first, I had cut the sauce amount in half because I only had six pieces, but mid-way through cooking, I noticed that most of the liquid had evaporated, so I added some water and the other half of the sugar, vinegar & shoyu. I only used 1 clove of garlic and an inch sized nub of ginger. Also, I ended up cooking this for 1 hour.

Be sure to pour some of the gravy on your rice (it's one of my favorite ways to eat this dish!)