Chinese BBQ ribs.

[jeff]

You can make this recipe with any type of ribs, you can choose to clean the ribs or leave all the extras on, from fat to sliver skin. If you're cooking them for westerners I'd trim everything the best you can. I'm making this batch of ribs for an Asian, if I trim them, I'll get yelled at. =)

The base sauce. This sauce is first used to marinate the ribs, then the sauce is turned into the BBQ sauce. This recipe will make enough sauce for around 6 to 8 racks of ribs. Once the sauce is done I end up putting it into a container for later use on other items.

Base sauce.

7 Star Anise
1 Cup Hoisin
1/2 Cup Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Ketchup
1 Cup Sugar
2 TBS Rice Wine
1 tsp White Vinegar
1 TBS Wet Bean Curd
2 TBS Ground bean paste
1/4 Cup red food coloring (optional, I only use if doing making a party)

Place everything but the food coloring into a pot and heat until the sugar is fully dissolved and the sauce is fully combined. Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit, place into a large enough plastic container so it only fills it 1/3rd of the way up. Add the food coloring at this point and mix until incorporated, adding it last will help keep your kitchen and pots from turning red.

Once the ribs are removed from whatever they came in, dry them off then lay them on a piece of foil, take only enough sauce to lightly rub a light coating onto the ribs both top and bottom side. Wrap in foil and place in the fridge for 12 hours.

Cook the ribs in a 250o oven until you start to see the bones starting to poke out of the meat, you should also be able to pick the ribs up on one side with tongs and the ribs should bend down 90o yet not break apart.
If they fall apart, you've cooked them too long unless your goal is fall off the bone (over cooked) ribs. =) Yes, some people like that, cook them how you want them. I would cook them for 3.5 hours before checking them, then maybe check them every 30 minutes after that. Today I cooked 3 racks at the same time It took 5 hours, however every time I make them I always check in on them since cooking time can vary.

To make the BBQ sauce.

2 parts base sauce. (what you made up top)
2 parts honey
1 part ketchup

After letting the base sauce sit over night while the ribs do their thing, go ahead and remove the star anise. Then mix everything, the base, honey, and ketchup together, if needed you can heat it in a pot or if its in plastic, lightly heat it up using the microwave to help mix the honey in.

Once the ribs are done, place them on a grill, or place them in a oven directly under the broiler, I like too leave them on just long enough to remove any liquid that might still be on the ribs from baking them. Once the ribs look nice hot and dry, brush on some of your bbq sauce and grill or broiler until the sauce starts to char just a bit. Flip them and allow the other side to char just a bit.

Slice up or give them out as whole racks.

Enjoy!

[jeff]

P.S if you want these to taste like the ones you normally find in American style Chinese Restaurants, cut them into smaller pieces then deep fry them for a minute or two, then sauce.

This makes for a dry rib and isn't something I enjoy, but that is how you will normally get them from the Chinese Restaurants.

TIP when ordering ribs from a Chinese Restaurant, ask for them cold, with BBQ on the side. Go home and heat them on the grill and sauce them.