蒜香骨 | Air-fried garlic spare ribs!

November 18, 2020

Back home at restaurants, garlic spare ribs are ordered every now and then. Since they are usually DEEP FRIED, they can rarely appear MORE OFTEN! Now I have my PINK air fryer, I can make this delicacy much healthier! Usually, garlic spare ribs has a slight kick of sweetness from Chenpi 陳皮 and are sprinkled with zest, both of which I do not have. But if you have them, add them for marinating! If you don’t, I think fermented bean curd 腐乳 (and sugar 😉 ) will do the trick for giving it extra flavors closer to home!

TAKEAWAYS

blending garlic, ginger, green onions and fermented bean curd with WATER, AND mixing corn starch & glutinous rice flour in the mix right before air-frying, rather than coating ribs with dry corn starch & glutinous rice flour, make the marinating sauce wet enough and prevent the air-fried spare ribs from being too dry~
check ribs every 5 mins and flip in air fryer!
if you have Chenpi 陳皮, chop them out and add in marinate. Sprinkle zest on top!

RECIPE

Seasoning for around 1lb spare ribs:

one WHOLE garlic (not one clove! just use as many garlic as you like!)
a few slices of ginger
1-2 green onions/scallions
1-2 cubes of fermented bean curd 腐乳
1 tsp salt
1-2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper powder
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine 料酒/紹興酒
1 egg
30g corn starch
30g glutinous rice flour

Step 0: dip pork short ribs in water for 2-3 hours to get rid of blood and dirt; drain well so the pork short ribs are “thirsty” enough to drink up our seasoning sauce later!

Step 1: blend the following ingredients in a bender:

one WHOLE garlic (not one clove! just use as many garlic as you like!)
a few slices of ginger
1-2 green onions/scallions
1-2 cubes of fermented bean curd 腐乳
1tsp salt
1-2tsp sugar
1tsp white pepper powder
1tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp dark soy sauce
1tbsp rice wine 料酒/紹興酒
1 egg

the liquid seasoning (soy sauce, dark soy sauce and rice wine) should give the ingredients enough liquid to blend; if too dry, add 1-2tbsp water.

2nd video below, first marinates with 1tsp salt, 2tsp sugar, 1tbsp soy sauce and 1tbsp rice wine for 30mins, then add in the blended mix of the rest of seasoning ingredients. I have not tried it this way, can give it a try next time.