Dad's Steamed Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce, Perfected Over 61 Years
Why this recipe
Most steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 990.1K views, 16.6K likes on YouTube.
I feel like my dad makes steamed spare ribs (aka "pàaih gwāt" in Canto) for us at least once a month at home, and I can't even begin to imagine or count how many times he's made it over his career as a chef.
Steamed spare ribs is a classic dim sum dish, and actually one of the easier dim sum recipes to recreate for your loved ones at home.
Before we get into the recipe, you might enjoy these interesting tidbits about our beloved pastime — dim sum — and our favorite dish.
Dim Sum: A Touch of Heart
The way "dim sum" is pronounced in English is very similar to its Cantonese pronunciation, "dím sām," which roughly translates to "a touch of heart."
The characters are a reference to the sweet and savory snacks that 10th century teahouses in Guangzhou served to traveling merchants the large international port as part of their journey along the Silk Road.
Dim sum is widely considered a Cantonese delicacy, but it evolved from a wide range of influences, since Guangzhou was and still is a critical multicultural hub for Chinese trade.
How to make black bean sauce like a Chinese chef
We don't recommend using pre-mixed or pre-made black bean sauce because they may include additives and preservatives that you're not familiar with, and making your own is so easy!
Our recipe for black bean sauce calls for salt, sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, garlic, ginger, rehydrated mandarin orange peel, cornstarch, sesame oil, and of course, black beans. We also have red chili pepper and green onion for garnish on top.
Check the ingredient list above to see precise amounts, and how to mix them into the spare ribs. Don't forget that you can scale the recipe up and down!
Ingredients
Instructions
Wash and rehydrate black beans, orange peel
Place our fermented black beans (1 tbsp) in a bowl, and rinse them under running water for 15 to 20 seconds. Gently massage the beans as you do this.
Drain the water, and set the bowl aside to let the beans rehydrate a bit as we prepare our other ingredients.
Break off the amount of dried mandarin peel (1 tsp) you need and soak it in warm water for 5 to 10 minutes.
Cut spare ribs
Cut the spare ribs (1 lb) between the bones into small pieces (about 1 to 1.5 inches), and place them into a bowl.
As we mentioned above, when selecting spare ribs, go for cuts that are less fatty (the tail-end ribs). If you can't find pre-cut ribs at your store, ask your butcher to cut them across the bone for you.
Rinse and dry ribs
This step is done in three parts.
- Cornstarch:
- Add cornstarch (1 tbsp) to the ribs, and massage the ribs around to evenly mix the cornstarch around the surface of each rib.
- The cornstarch helps bind to the myoglobin and juices that we're looking to cleanse out.
- Rinse:
- Rinse the ribs in running water for at least 1 to 2 minutes, massaging the ribs as you go.
- Dry:
- Pour out all of the water, and press and squeeze the ribs against a colander to get rid of excess water
- Take a thick paper towel and wrap the ribs in it, pressing and patting to absorb moisture.
Marinate ribs
Before we start marinating, if you want to save time for later, start boiling 3to 4 cups of water. This will be added to our wok when we start steaming.
Let's prepare our marinade:
- Add salt (0.50 tsp), sugar (1 tsp), light soy sauce (0.50 tbsp), oyster sauce (1 tbsp), Shaoxing wine (0.50 tbsp) to a bowl.
- Finely mince garlic (1 clove), ginger (1 tsp), and rehydrated mandarin orange peel (1 tsp), and add them to the bowl.
- Cut a few slices of red chili pepper and our scallions (2 pieces). These will be used as garnish for later.
- Combine the bowl of seasonings into the bowl of ribs. Mix and massage the bowl of ribs for 45 to 60 seconds to distribute all of the flavors.
- Mince the black beans (1 tbsp), add to the bowl of ribs, and mix and massage the ribs for 20 to 30 seconds
- Add sesame oil (1 tsp) and cornstarch (2 tbsp), and mix / massage the ribs around for another 60 seconds to evenly coat each rib with cornstarch.
Chef’s Tip: Massaging the ribs (i.e. applying a little bit of pressure) helps the meat absorb the flavors and tenderizes the pieces a bit.
Prepare to steam ribs
We'll start heating our wok on our stove, placing our steamer rack in the center of the wok. Add enough boiling water so that it just barely covers the entire steamer rack.
Transfer the ribs into the plate you'll be steaming with, being careful not to let any ribs be covered by one another. This is to ensure that the ribs all cook evenly.
Add the chili pepper slices, and pour vegetable oil (0.50 tsp) on the ribs. This will give our ribs a nice and shiny shimmer when we're done.
Cover wok and steam
Carefully place the plate of ribs on top of the steamer rack. Double check to make sure that there's a little bit of water touching the bottom surface of the plate.
Cover the wok, set the stove to its highest heat setting, and steam the spare ribs for 20 minutes.
Garnish and enjoy!
Do you smell the deliciousness yet?
When the 20 minutes are up, we're done! Turn the heat off, uncover the wok, garnish with the green onions, and carefully remove the plate from the wok.
My dad isn't using any sort of gloves or mitts (what a boss!), but I would if I were you.
Call your loved ones over! Time to eat 🙌
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We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.
