In an earlier post, I've mentioned that I had tried a recipe that came with the operating manual of my 3.2L slow cooker. This is it: Oriental Spareribs.
It couldn't be easier and it tasted pretty good too. I guess I can categorize this as a one pot dish, just serve it with rice or for my case, soba salad.
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| Soba salad |
Now that I am writing this up, I think I could even add some cucumber, tomato and pineapple chunks into the thick sweet and sour sauce that's cooking the spare ribs. I bet it will taste sweet (pineapple, provided you've chosen the sweet ones), tangy (tomatoes I buy are always tangy) and refreshing (cucumbers always add a refreshing touch to rich food, don't they?) too.
Unlike the Easy sausage and beans, this cooked faster since the heat used is HIGH. It took only 4 hours to cook. But I guess the cooking time can be extended to 9-10 hours using LOW heat to produce the same result. I am just guessing, I have yet to try this out in LOW.
But why this sudden interest in making things using the slow cooker? There are two main reasons. So far, I had been using my slow cooker to make soup. Of course there are many types of soup that can be simmered in a slow cooker, but I'd like to make dishes other than soup. I like to make braised meat dishes and stews that either need to cook for long hours on the stove top or bake in the oven for 2-3 hours. To me, there is a problem. Making stew or braised meat dishes on the stove top spells wastage for me. You see, I am those traditionalist who is still sticking to her guns by the blue tank, 12.7kg of LPG. Yup, I still order my gas for cooking. And every time I cook things for long hours, I can practically see the gas level depleting in the tank (^_^) okay, I can't, but I can feel it! Right, I am stingy in that sense. How about letting the oven do the job? Stews and casseroles are no strangers to ovens. Yes I know that too. But my humble oven is a 20L baby, don't think my pots can fit in without scratching the top and sides of the oven. So oven is also a no-go for me. To solve this, slow cooker seems to be the answer.
I have also been secretly (now that this is published, no longer a secret) nursing a plan to rejoin the workforce. I didn't want to just rejoin the workforce full-time, leaving the kids at a student-care centre or get a domestic helper. I mean there is nothing wrong with the two options. But these are not what I want for the family, or for that matter, how I would like to contribute to the family. I want to be there for the kids when they are at home and I want to place homemade food, made by me, on the dining table for them and the Hubby. The Tiny Man will be joining my girl in primary school next year. The school operates in single session, so that means I have the morning free, until school is over. That means there is a chance to fit in some part-time work and still be there in school to fetch them, get home and make dinner. Of course there are other housework to do, but I suppose those can wait a bit. Dinner is more important. Stir-fries top the list of quick-cooking meals I could slot in between the time I imagined I would get home to the time for dinner, with possible delays from some imagined episodes of the kids throwing tantrums about homework or fighting about the slightest thing. But 5 days a week of stir-fries is no joke. I think I will run out of ideas faster than they get sick of my cooking. In this sense, I'd like to think that someone up there is helping me along in my planning. "The Complete Slow Cooker" book "jumped" into my sight at the library. This basically provided me with a platform for experiments to turn some of the braised meat dishes I make into slow cooking meals that do not need to be watched over while cooking.
Okay, enough ranting already. On with the recipe.
Oriental Spareribs
(adapted from Recipe cookbook, Takahi Slow Cooker)
Ingredients
750g pork spareribs
280ml sweet and sour sauce (I made mine which I'll share below)
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch
Sweet and sour sauce
(using a 200ml capacity cup)
2/3 cup rice wine vinegar
8 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 tbsp ketcup
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornstarch mix with 4 tsp water
Method
To make the sweet and sour sauce
- Mix the vinegar, sugar, ketchup and soy sauce together in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Mix cornstarch with water and add to other ingredients. Stir until thicken.
To make the Oriental spareribs
1. Trim off excess fats from the spareribs and blanch the ribs. Rinse and set aside.
2. Place the ribs into the slow cooker.
3. Mix the cornstarch with teriyaki sauce and stir this mixture into the sweet and sour sauce.
4. Pour mixture 3 into the slow cooker. Press any pieces of spareribs that may be jutting out above the sauce.
5. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours.
This is the result of that 4 hours of cooking on high heat in a slow cooker. A note on the sweet and sour sauce. When preparing it, I thought the acidity from the vinegar was so overpowering. But after 4 hours of cooking it down, it actually mellowed out a little. It wasn't as sour as when I was preparing it.
The meat was really soft, practically tearing away from the bones. Kids and the Hubby liked the taste especially paired with this soba salad.
This is actually the second time I am making this soba salad, this time with a slight variation. I introduced stir-fried vegetables into the noodle salad. The first time I made it, it was just soba and dressing, sprinkled with nori and sesame seeds.
Soba Salad
(inspired by "Soba salad with tempura fish fillets", Today and modified to include some fiber for that night's dinner)
Ingredients
200g soba
1 small stick of carrot, julienned to matchstick fatness
1 king oyster mushroom, julienned, slightly fatter than matchstick
10 pieces of sugar snap peas (cut into 2 or 3 parts)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Dressing
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp Gold kiwi vinegar (optional, can be replaced with lemon juice, or just rice wine vinegar)
1/2 tomato ketcup
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
Method
1. Heat vegetable oil in a fry pan and stir-fry the carrots and mushrooms for about 2 minutes. Add in the sugar snaps and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Lightly season with salt and pepper.
Turn off the heat and set aside.
2. Cook the soba according to instructions on the packaging.
3. When the soba is ready and drained dry, transfer over to the fry pan of stir-fried vegetables.
4. Toss the soba and vegetables without turning on the flame.
5. Pour the dressing over mixture 4 and toss to coat everything as evenly as you can get. Taste along the way to find out if the soba and vegetables are well coated. But do make sure enough is left for the family to eat at the dining table!
Okay, enough ranting already. On with the recipe.
(adapted from Recipe cookbook, Takahi Slow Cooker)
Ingredients
750g pork spareribs
280ml sweet and sour sauce (I made mine which I'll share below)
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch
Sweet and sour sauce
(using a 200ml capacity cup)
2/3 cup rice wine vinegar
8 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 tbsp ketcup
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornstarch mix with 4 tsp water
Method
To make the sweet and sour sauce
- Mix the vinegar, sugar, ketchup and soy sauce together in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Mix cornstarch with water and add to other ingredients. Stir until thicken.
To make the Oriental spareribs
1. Trim off excess fats from the spareribs and blanch the ribs. Rinse and set aside.
2. Place the ribs into the slow cooker.
3. Mix the cornstarch with teriyaki sauce and stir this mixture into the sweet and sour sauce.
4. Pour mixture 3 into the slow cooker. Press any pieces of spareribs that may be jutting out above the sauce.
5. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours.
The meat was really soft, practically tearing away from the bones. Kids and the Hubby liked the taste especially paired with this soba salad.
This is actually the second time I am making this soba salad, this time with a slight variation. I introduced stir-fried vegetables into the noodle salad. The first time I made it, it was just soba and dressing, sprinkled with nori and sesame seeds.
Soba Salad
(inspired by "Soba salad with tempura fish fillets", Today and modified to include some fiber for that night's dinner)
Ingredients
200g soba
1 small stick of carrot, julienned to matchstick fatness
1 king oyster mushroom, julienned, slightly fatter than matchstick
10 pieces of sugar snap peas (cut into 2 or 3 parts)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Dressing
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp Gold kiwi vinegar (optional, can be replaced with lemon juice, or just rice wine vinegar)
1/2 tomato ketcup
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
Method
1. Heat vegetable oil in a fry pan and stir-fry the carrots and mushrooms for about 2 minutes. Add in the sugar snaps and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Lightly season with salt and pepper.
Turn off the heat and set aside.
2. Cook the soba according to instructions on the packaging.
3. When the soba is ready and drained dry, transfer over to the fry pan of stir-fried vegetables.
4. Toss the soba and vegetables without turning on the flame.
5. Pour the dressing over mixture 4 and toss to coat everything as evenly as you can get. Taste along the way to find out if the soba and vegetables are well coated. But do make sure enough is left for the family to eat at the dining table!
There really is no necessity to use Golden Kiwi vinegar for this recipe. I just bought a bottle of this vinegar and was excited to try it out.
The Golden Kiwi vinegar was so sour that it practically burned my throat! There wasn't any golden kiwi taste in the vinegar. But doesn't matter, it still looks exotic to me. Maybe I can use it in dressings for seafood salad and chunky vegetable salad. There are suggestions printed on the label, so it is only a matter of time before I try them out.
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