Chinese🥩 Meat

Crispy Mint Ribs

Name: Crispy Mint Ribs
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 500 g spare ribs; 1 inch ginger; 2 scallion; 1 cup hot water; ¾ tsp salt; ½ tsp sugar; 1 tsp red fragrant chili powder; ¼ tsp white pepper; ¼ tsp chicken bouillon powder or MSG; ½ tsp baijiu or Shaoxing wine; 1 tsp soy sauce; ½ tbsp oyster sauce; 3 tbsp cornstarch; 15 sprigs fresh mint leaves; oil; 2 cloves garlic; 4-5 dried chilis

⏱ 70 min

A traditional Yunnan appetizer made by deep frying crispy mint, marinated ribs, and aromatics together using the 'sheng zha' (raw deep fry) technique. The fried mint becomes subtle and tea-like in flavor, making an ideal pairing with baijiu or spirits.

Adapted from a video by Chinese Cooking Demystified

Crispy Mint Ribs (traditional Yunnan drinking food)

Watch on YouTube

Ingredients

spare ribscross-cut into roughly 1 to 1.5 inch pieces500 g
gingersmashed, for making ginger-scallion water1 inch
scallionsliced and crushed, for making ginger-scallion water2
hot waterto steep the ginger and scallion for about 40 minutes, then strain1 cup
salt¾ tsp
sugar½ tsp
red fragrant chili powder1 tsp
white pepper¼ tsp
chicken bouillon powder or MSG

Steps

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1
Make the ginger-scallion water: smash about an inch of ginger and crush 2 sliced scallions together. Place in a cup, pour in 1 cup of boiling water, cover, and let cool naturally for about 40 minutes. Strain and squeeze out the aromatics.
2
Marinate the ribs: place the ribs in a bowl and add salt, sugar, red chili powder, white pepper, and chicken bouillon powder or MSG. Mix well.
3
Add the ginger-scallion water gradually: add the ginger-scallion water bit by bit, stirring constantly until the ribs completely absorb it (about 1-2 minutes). For this recipe, about 6.5 tablespoons of ginger-scallion water was used.
4
Add seasoning: sprinkle in baijiu (or Shaoxing wine), soy sauce, and oyster sauce, mix well. Then add cornstarch and mix until all the ribs are evenly coated.
5
Fry the mint: heat oil to about 150°C and add about 15 sprigs of picked, well-drained mint. Fry for about 30 seconds until beginning to crisp, then remove and drain well. Place on a serving plate and reserve some mint for later.
6
Fry the ribs: in the same oil, add the marinated ribs and lower the heat to medium or medium-high to maintain about 120°C. Once the coating is set, give it a quick stir and fry for about 6 minutes.
7
Remove the ribs and reheat the oil: take out the fried ribs and drain well. Heat the oil back up to about 150°C.
8
Add garlic and dried chilis: add 2 cloves of sliced garlic and 4-5 dried chilis cut into sections, and stir quickly.
9
Final fry: return the ribs to the oil and fry together with the garlic and chilis for about 30 seconds, then remove and drain.
10
Plate and finish: once the ribs are no longer very oily, toss in the reserved mint leaves and mix well. Serve over the bed of fried mint.

Crispy Mint Ribs

Ingredients

Steps

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