Beef It Up

Ingredients
Beef Ribs with Special Sauce

Beef:
  • 4 beef ribs [Note 1]
  • 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Special Sauce
Sauce recipe from Eggplant in Special Sauce (pg 164), Chinatown by Ross Dobson (All rights reserved)
  • 1 tablespoon ground bean sauce
  • 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
  • 1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 2 spring onions (scallions), white part chopped, green part thinly sliced on the diagonal
  • 2 teaspoons grated ginger

Instructions
Beef
Wash and pat dry the ribs with paper towels. Place the oil in the wok and heat it at middle low heat. When hot enough, carefully [Note 2]put in the ribs, thinner side first, and cook for 2 minutes. Then turn over to the meatier side and cook for another 3 minutes.

Turn the heat to low and continue to cook the meatier side for 4 or 5 minutes until it's cooked. Thicker meat takes longer to cook [Note 3]. Lastly, turn the over to the thinner side for 1 or 2 minutes before turning the heat off.

Dish it out on a plate lined with paper towel to soak up the excessive oil.

Proceed to make the sauce*.

Sauce
Put the bean sauce, hoisin sauce, sugar and 3 tablespoons water in a small bowl and stir to combine.

*Following the beef spare ribs --> Drain all but 1 teaspoon of the oil from the wok. Add the sesame oil, garlic the white part of the spring opnion and ginger and cook over high heat for 10 seconds, or until aromatic, taking care that they don't burn, Add the sauce mixture and bring to the boil for 3 minutes, or until the sauce begins to thicken and become syrupy.

Turn off the heat, serve the ribs on a plate, pour a little bit of the special sauce and then sprinkle the remaining spring onions onto the ribs. Transfer the rest of the sauce into a bowl for dipping.

NOTES
[1] Not spareribs. The beef rib is a lot meatier and thicker. However, do try and choose ribs that is not too thick. Otherwise, you might need to increase your cooking time.
[2] Beware of splattering hot oil when you cook or flip over the ribs. If need to, half cover the wok with a lid . Make sure the opening faces away from you.
[3] If it's not entirely cook on the inside, put in the microwave for one minute. Cheating to save time and effort. That's not bad....