Crispy spare ribs

I have been trying to find a good recipe for crispy but baked spare ribs and watching some of the Nigella programmes gave me an inspiration.

I used back my usual char siew sauce recipe, but tweaked it a bit. I added in cinnamon and cumin, which are Morrocon influences, seem to go well with this predominantly Chinese dish.

Both the cinnamon and cumin give a kind of sweetness to it and also a certain earthy heat. But avoid putting too much, especially cumin, which are very potent spices and could easily overpower everything else.

Ingredients

350g spare ribs

1 tbls oyster sauce

1 tbls dark soya sauce

1 tbls light soya sauce

1 tbls chinese rice wine

1 tbls sesame seed oil

1 tbls sugar

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp cinnamon

corn flour for coating

Method

1) Pour the spare ribs into a bowl with all the ingredients for marinading. Marinade overnight if possible, or at least for 3 hours in the fridge.

2) Take the spare ribs out of the marinade and squeeze each rib dry to get rid of all excess liquid. Set aside the marinade. This will be used as the sauce later.

3) In a baking tray, oil the bottom of the tray. Put in the oven (set at 180 C) to warm up the oil.

4) Coat each spare rib with corn flour. Ensure proper thorough coating all over. Put straight into the hot oil.

5) Put back into the oven and bake at 180C for 30-40 mins or so (depending on how thick the meat and bone are. The thicker, the longer!) Turn halfway through the cooking time and brush over a thin layer of oil.

6) At the last 5 minutes, turn up the heat to 200C to crisp the outside.

7) For the sauce, simmer on low heat to reduce until thick and syrupy. Add a bit of water to dilute if too salty. This can be the dipping sauce or drizzled on top.

7) Serve with oven baked vegs (I laid these at the bottom of the pan) or steamed rice, or both!