The Food Site

I have been reading too many of Jessie’s (The Hungry Mouse) meaty posts and finally, I gave in and tried one of her pork ribs recipe.

Except that I didn’t follow the recipe.

Again.

I just borrowed her recipe and substituted some of the stuff…okay, okay, so I practically added a whole lot of different ingredients except for the pork ribs…so, it is definitely different from her recipe. But still, I do owe it to her as I got the idea for this recipe from her Aleppo Chili Pork Ribs with Peach and Lime Recipe.

Alright, let’s get down to the meat of this post. Here’s my final creation:

Spicy Pineapple Pork Ribs

I know it doesn’t look as juicy as Jessie’s recipe but hey, give me a break okay?

This is my first attempt and I am using a microwave which works as a convection and a griller so I had to try out the various temperatures and functions before these darn ribs are finally cooked!

Anyway, it tasted much, much better than it looked. Honest. Really. My personal chef, TH, polished it off and declared that it is the best he has ever had. And I seldom get praises like that from him, okay? He’s the number one food critic at home (and number two is of course my toddler who turns his nose up at anything without rice to go with it).

Okay, enough of my rambling…here’s my recipe:

Spicy Pineapple Pork Ribs

Spicy Pineapple Pork Ribs

Ingredients

About 1kg pork ribs

1 lemon

1 tbsp diced garlic

1 tbsp mixed fresh herbs

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp chilli powder (I used the normal paprika chilli powder)

5 tbsp pineapple paste (the types you can get from bakery shops which is used to make pineapple tarts, or you can get plain old pineapple jam)

Instructions

1. Season your pork ribs with the salt

2. Zest the lemon

3. Place the pork ribs in a plastic bag and add the lemon zest to it. Also add in the garlic.

4. Squeeze the lemon juice onto the pork ribs and mixed it and the zest around to coat the ribs evenly.

5. In a separate bowl, mix together the chilli powder and the pineapple jam paste

6. Pour it onto the ribs and mixed well to coat the ribs evenly.

7. Chop up some fresh mixed herbs

8. Sprinkle it onto the ribs and then shake it around to coat the ribs evenly

9. I let the ribs marinade overnight in the fridge (so that the lemon can do it’s work and soften the meat) but you can let it marinade for about an hour before cooking.

10. After marinating it…

11. Drizzle some oilve oil in a pan lined with foil and place the ribs on top

12. Then roast the ribs for around 30 minutes or up to an hour, depending on the temperature of your oven.

I tried baking, roasting and finally grilling and realised that my 900w microwave /oven/convection/griller contraption cooks the ribs using it’s grill function within 40 minutes. Of course, I’ve baked it first and realised it didn’t work so I grilled it but hit the wrong button where only the top griller was on and then finally got the right button but ended up overcooking the ribs, thus the lack of stickyness to it with traces of burnt meat.

Spicy Pineapple Pork Ribs

Anyway, I find that using lemon instead of lime, pineapple jam instead of peach and normal chilli flakes instead of the Aleppo Chili do give great tasting ribs too. I also left out the mushroom dark soy sauce (unintentionally…I meant to add some dark soy sauce but somehow forgot all about it!).

Fortunately, thanks to the overnight marinade, these ribs are tender and also, thanks to the pineapple paste, it did not dry out at all although it looks dry in the pictures. In fact, it is crispy on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside. The flavour is one of sweetness due to the pineapple paste and it has a sourish tang due to the lemon. It also has a hint of the herbs, a slight touch of spiciness since I didn’t add too much chili flakes  and a really full-flavoured taste to it.

Next time, I’ll probably add some sesame seeds and remember to add the dark soy sauce!

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Asian-style fried spaghetti

Asian-style Fried Spaghetti Recipe

Ingredients

Spaghetti, enough for three adults (about 200gm)

1 clove garlic, diced

10 fresh basil leaves

1 red / yellow capsicum (bell pepper), cubed

4 - 5 chili padi, chopped

1 tbsp chicken stock

1 pc chicken breast, sliced thinly

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter

Instructions

1. Season the chicken with satay powder (which you can find at most grocery stores) and 1 tbsp dark soya sauce for a couple of hours.

2. Heat up a pot of water till it boil and add in the spaghetti. Add in 1 tsp of salt and 1 tbsp olive oil. Let it cook for about 10 minutes. Check to see if the spaghetti is cooked and remove once it is cooked, when it is soft. Make sure you don’t overcook it or else it will become soggy.

3. Heat up some olive oil in a pan and sautee the garlic till fragrant.

4. Add in the butter. Then add the basil leaves, capsicum, chili padi and chicken. Stir fry till the chicken is cooked through.

5. Add in the chicken stock and stir to make sure it is evenly distributed.

6. Add in the cooked spaghetti noodles and stir it to mix the ingredients around evenly over medium heat.

7. Remove from heat and serve while warm.

Asian style fried spaghetti

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