Nyonya pork spare ribs

SERVES 4 AS PART OF A SHARED MENU // PREP TIME 30 MINS // COOK 2 HRS

“The origin of this dish is from the Penang Peranakan community. It’s super delicious and addictive with tangy, savoury notes, made with blended chillies, garlic, ginger and tau cheo or fermented yellow soy beans and finished off with tamarind and plum sauce. Ask your butcher to cut the ribs in half horizontally so the ribs are shorter in length,” says Tan. 6-8 red fresh or dried cayenne chillies 2 tbsp vegetable oil

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger 2 golden shallots, finely chopped 2 tbsp yellow bean sauce (see note) 600 gm pork ribs (see intro)

750 ml chicken stock or water

2 tbsp tamarind extract (see note) Dash of dark soy sauce

1 tsp sugar or to taste

2 tbsp plum sauce

Chopped coriander and spring onions, to serve 1 For fresh chillies, slice and blend in a blender to a paste. If using dried chillies, snip with scissors and cover with boiling water in a heatproof bowl and soak (20 minutes). When soft, discard water and blend in a blender to a coarse paste.

2 Heat oil in a wok or large frying pan. When hot, add chillies, garlic, ginger and shallots and stir-fry until golden (5 minutes). Reduce heat to low-medium and add yellow bean sauce. Continue to stir-fry (3-4 minutes), then add pork ribs and cook until golden (2-3 minutes).

3 Add chicken stock or water to the pan. Bring to the boil and add tamarind, soy and sugar. Cover and reduce heat to low, and simmer until liquid is reduced to a syrup and meat is tender (11/2 hours). Stir through plum sauce; adjust seasoning. Scatter over coriander and spring onions. Note Tan serves this dish with an acar of pickled sliced cucumber and chillies, with salt and sugar to taste, and a splash of rice wine vinegar. Yellow bean sauce (tau cheo or taucu in the Hokkien dialect) is made from soy beans that are salted and fermented. If unavailable, substitute miso. To make 80ml tamarind extract, combine 1 tbsp tamarind pulp with 100ml water, and stand until pulp softens. Break up pulp in water with back of spoon and strain through a coarse sieve.