K-Food: Sticky, Spicy Pork Ribs
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10 minutes prep time
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120 minutes cook time
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Intermediate
This recipe is an extract from K-Food: Korean Home Cooking and Street Food by Da-Hae and Gareth West, a stunning and comprehensive guide to Korean cuisine. Read more about Da-Hae and Gareth here.
These pork ribs are a tender, juicy, joy to eat. In fact, they’re so good, we’ve even managed to convince our friends to help us move house on the promise of payment with them a couple of times. If you want to use these ribs as a new form of currency like this, just boil them up and pop them in a ziplock bag full of the sauce the night before, then finish them in your new oven as you kick back and enjoy a well-deserved beer the following day.
Ingredients Serves: 6
- 500g (1lb 2oz) pork spare ribs
- 50g (1¾oz) fresh root ginger, roughly chopped
- 5 whole garlic cloves, peeled
- 125ml (4fl oz) light soy sauce
- 2 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped, to garnish
Sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 4 tbsp gochujang (Korean red chilli paste)
- 4 tbsp apricot jam
- 1 tbsp regular soy sauce
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp white rice vinegar
- 8 garlic cloves, minced
- 5-cm (2-inch) piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and very finely chopped
Method
- Put the ribs in a large saucepan or stockpot with the ginger, garlic, soy sauce and enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and leave to cook gently for 1½ hours, until the ribs are tender and cooked through.
- Meanwhile, combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix together well. Line an oven tray with foil (this will make everything a lot easier to wash up later) and preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F), Gas Mark 6.
- Arrange the cooked ribs on the prepared tray and brush with the sauce to coat evenly. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, turning and basting the ribs with more sauce halfway through cooking.
- Remove the tray from the oven and put the grill on to high. Brush the ribs once again with the remaining sauce, then grill for 2–3 minutes until the sauce is sticky and is just beginning to char at the edges. Scatter over the spring onions and serve.
