Steamed ribs and butternut squash with black bean sauce - 豉汁排骨蒸南瓜

Had this last night it was very tasty. It's steamed pork spare ribs with black bean sauce on a bed of butternut squash. The ribs were tender and juicy coated with lots of black beans mixed with garlic, ginger and chilli. The butternut squash was soft and sweet. A recipe to keep.

Here is the recipe to share with you.


Ingredients:

450 - 500g pork ribs**, chopped into small chunks or buy them ready cut in small pieces
500 -60 peeled butternut squash or pumpkin, cut into chunks
5 level tbsp (1/4 cup) fermented black beans or dousi, (whole dried beans not those blended into sauce), rinsed and roughly chopped
1 small piece of ginger, chopped
2 - 3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large red chilli (or to your taste), chopped
1.5 - 2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 - 3 tbsp cooking oil
1 heap tsp of cornflour (cornstarch) mixed with 2 tbsp water

a little spring onion (scallion) as garnish

** If you want to use black beans sauce in a jar, reduce the qty to about 2 tbsp because most of the Chinese brands black bean sauce is very salty.

Method:

1. Heat a small pan or wok. Add in cooking oil, black beans, garlic, ginger, chilli and sugar together. Stir and simmer till the mixture is hot and fragrant, about couple of minutes. Heat off and let this cool a little then stir in soy sauce and slackened cornflour.
2. Mix this black beans mixture with the ribs. If you have time leave to marinate for about 1 hour, the meat will be more flavourful. If you don't have time can go ahead and steam right away.
3. Line a deep dish with buttenut squash chunks. Top with the ribs.
4. Steam at medium heat for about 1 hour or till the ribs are tender.
   
5. Sprinkle with a some spring onion as garnish.
   
6. Serve with plain rice.
   

** You can sub pork ribs with pork belly, beef frying steak or chicken. Steaming time for pork belly and beef will be about the same 1 hour. Chicken will take about 25 - 30 min.

If you don't have a large enough steamer. You can cook this in the oven. Add about 1/3 cup of water or stock to provide the steam, then cover the dish with foil and cook in a moderate oven for about the same time. Check after 30 - 35 minutes to ensure the juice is not drying up.