Braised pork spare ribs with pumpkin

My family’s favourite Chinese restaurant in Perth is the Northbridge Chinese Restaurant on Roe Street, just across from Wellington Bus Station. If you are after looking for somewhere to have dinner and want to eat some authentic and tasty Chinese dishes, I recommend this restaurant (this is where we have our Chinese New Year dinner each year). 

One of our favourite things to order is a braised pork spare ribs and pumpkin dish. When we eat this dish, my dad and I would always discuss what ingredients we thought was in the dish and how we could replicate it. 


My dad’s restaurant is open for lunch from 11am to 3pm and then for dinner at 5:30pm to 10pm. Between 3pm-5:30pm, this is the time where everyone gets to relax and eat, my dad cooks up a few dishes and all the staff at the restaurant sit down together and eat lunner (lunch+dinner – what do you call that? breakfast and lunch = brunch? so maybe I can call it ‘lunner’). My dad uses this meal time to try out new dishes and all the staff at the restaurant are the guinea pigs. 


My dad has been cooking various iterations of this braised pork and pumpkin dish at his restaurant for his staff to try. One day my dad finally showed me the results. It’s not exactly the same as the dish that we have at the Northbridge Chinese Restaurant but it does contain many key elements and flavours, and it’s delicious!


What makes this dish so tasty is the use of pastes and condiments which you find aisles of at Asian supermarkets.

The Chu Hou paste and Ground Bean paste used to braise the pork spare ribs are the key flavour components of the dish (they are made up of a combination of soy beans, sesame, garlic, ginger, fermented bean curd and some spices - it’s packed with umami!). It’s hard to describe the flavour - I guess it’s provides a licorice-y, anise-y, savoury flavour but along with the other ingredients it’s quite subtle, and you get a bit of heat from the curry powder and chilli, and the hoisin sauce and the pumpkin provides sweetness, and the addition of Shaoxing wine rounds out all the flavours The pumpkin is delicious as it absorbs all the wonderful flavours of the braise. All I can say is that I find this dish very rewarding to eat!


Ingredients
• Peanut oil
• Pork spare ribs ,1 kg chopped into 3cm cubes
• Pork stock or water 
• Star anise, 3
• Garlic, 3 cloves smashed
• Ginger, 2 slices with skin left on
• 10-15 small dried red chillies, soaked until softened
• Curry powder, 1 tablespoon
• Hoisin sauce, 1 heaped tablespoon
• Chu Hou paste, 1 ½ heaped tablespoons
• Ground Bean paste, 1 heaped tablespoon
• Dark soy sauce, ½ tablespoon
• Shaoxing wine, 1/3 cup
• Salt, 1 teaspoon (I used rock salt)
• Sugar, 3-4 teaspoons (I used rock sugar/yellow lump)
• Pumpkin, quarter of a whole pumpkin chopped into bite sized pieces

(cane sugar)

Method
Par-boil the pork cubs and rinse with cold water.


Heat peanut oil in a wok. Add in garlic, ginger, star anise, chillies, Hoisin sauce, Chu Hou paste, Ground Bean paste and fry over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until aromatic.


Add the pork cubes into the wok and fry for 7 minutes until the pork pieces are browned and coated in the sauces/pastes.


Then add in the curry powder and dark soy sauce and fry for 1 minute.

Add in the Shaoxing wine to deglaze the wok and fry for 1-2 minutes. 

Transfer the pork to a pot and add in hot stock or water to just cover the pork.

Bring to boil and then simmer on low heat for 1.5 hours until the pork pieces are tender.


Bring to boil again to season with a little salt and sugar to taste.

Then add in the pumpkin pieces (move to the bottom of the pot) and cook for 15-20 minutes until tender.

Serve with rice. 

Here are some of my other pork belly recipes:

• Vietnamese braised pork belly with eggs in coconut juice (Thit Heo Kho Trung)
• Twice cooked pork (Sichuan style)
• Roasted pork belly - sui yuk
• Kakuni (Japanese Braised Pork)
• Braised pork belly with daikon
• Chinese BBQ Pork 
• Communist Pork (Red Cooked Pork)
• Baki Kecap (Indonesian braised pork in sweet soy sauce)