Shanghainese sweet & sour porks ribs (糖醋排骨）

I've always loved these sweet & sour pork ribs, with their sticky molassy brown sauce and the meat meltingly tender just about pulling away from the bone.

I found a recipe from Meishi.com Chinese website, which is surprisingly quick.  I would have thought it takes hours to get the ribs tender and sticky but you could get this dish sorted within an hour.  The original recipe is here in Chinese, and I've posted my English translation below with a few of my own additions.

Ingredients:

• pork spare ribs - 1 kg
• salt - 3 grams
• spring onions - 6 stalks, sliced into 5-6 cm lengths
• ginger - 6 slices
• rice wine - 2 tbspn
• light soy sauce (生抽) - 3 tbspn
• dark soy sauce (老抽) - 2 tbspn
• rice vinegar - 5 tbspn
• white sugar - 45 grams
• white sesame seeds - 1/2 tspn
• springs of coriander (as much as you like)

As with most Chinese cooking, the above quantities are suggestions and while it works well, you can definitely adapt it to your own taste buds.

Method:

1. Cut the pork ribs into 4 cm lengths.  I use a large cleaver for this and swing it down heavily to get a clean cut.  Place ribs in a bowl with the rice wine and 1 tbpsn of the light soy sauce.  Mix well and leave to marinate for 20 mins. 
2. Heat up a saucepan, then add around 2-3 tbspn of oil and heat using a high flame.  When the oil is hot, turn the heat to medium and pan fry the ribs until they are half cooked, moving the pieces about when they are frying.  Remove the ribs from the pan.
3. Add a little more oil to the pan.  Once the oil is hot, add the spring onion and ginger and cook for a minute or two until fragrant.  Add the half cooked ribs, the remainder of the soy sauce and sufficient hot water to just cover the ribs.  Then add the white sugar and rice vinegar.  Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
4. After 30 minutes, check the flavour of the sauce.  If its not salty enough, add a little bit more sauce.  Afterwards, turn up the heat to high to reduce the sauce. Keep on high heat until the sauce has reduced and thickened to a nice sticky gravy.  This may take 5-15 mins depending on how hot your high heat is! 
5. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and coriander. 
6. Serve with plain white rice & lots of Chinese greens like baby bok choi (these are so rich you'd want something quite light).

I've found that this sweet & sour sauce is also great for coating a crispy pork belly (I'll post the recipe to that next time!).