golden garlic ribs
2 min readSuen houng gwut are mainstay of the Cantonese menu-a- dish bursting with enough garlic to wipe out a whole colony of vampires. We’ve learnt that the secret to frying up the most sumptuous garlic rib is to marinate the meatiest rack you can find with plenty of garlic for a good few hours, then pack a dense crust around each individual rib. This way, they will be crispy on the outside, heavenly moist on the inside, and intensely garlicky all over.
Serves 1.2kg rack of pork ribs vegetable oil, for deep-frying handful shredded iceberg lettuce, to serve for the marinade 12 cloves garlic, very finely diced 1 tsp Shaoxing rice wine. tsp light soy sauce 1 tsp salt grou 14 tsp ground white pepper 2 tsp cornflour 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda for the coating 100g cornflour 60g fine breadcrumbs Slice the rack into individual ribs and rinse them thoroughly in cold water. Shake off any excess water then transfer the ribs to a large bowl. Use your hands to massage the marinade ingredients into the ribs. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 3 hours. 2 Before deep-frying the ribs, par-cook them in two batches to help them retain maximum juiciness.
To steam, arrange the ribs on a steam-proof dish in a single layer and steam over vigorously boiling water for 5-6 minutes per batch. To microwave (in an 800w machine), arrange the ribs in single layer, cover and cook for 4 minutes per batch 3 Fill a large, deep saucepan two-thirds with oil and place over a medium-high heat. If you are using a deep-fryer, set the temperature to 180C/350F. Mix the cornflour and breadcrumbs together in a bowl, then use your hands to coat one rib at a time, packing the coating on as densely as you can.
To test that the oil is ready, dip the handle of a wooden spoon into the oil. It should fizzle immedi-ately, but the oil should not be smoking.
4 Carefully lower half the ribs into the hot oil deep-fry for 1 minute, then drain and transfer to a wire rack with baking tray set underneat. Repeat with the second batch. Return each batch to the hot oil to fry for a further 3-4 minutes, then drain and serve on a bed of shredded lettuce.
