honey glazed pork ribs

When I was a small girl, I always loved it when we have honey glazed pork ribs (baikut madu) on the table. It seems like such a luxury to have, with its golden honey coating the crisply fried succulent pork ribs pieces. I used to think that cooking them must be so complicated and hence never tried it.

One day, though, I woke up early, my mum was serendipitously cooking the pork ribs, so I stayed and watched. I don't know what I was so hesitant about, because it was nothing difficult, it only needed minimal ingredients and it's bloody delicious!


Honey glazed pork ribs
by my grandmother

Ingredients:

• 1.5kg pork ribs (pick ones with a lot of meat on the bone), cut into bite size pieces
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 4 egg whites
• Corn flour, enough to coat the pork rib pieces thinly
• Honey, enough to coat the pork rib pieces
• Soy sauce, salt, sugar, white pepper to taste

Method:

1. Peel and crush all of the garlic, except for 2 cloves, which we'll use later. Blend together the garlic, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp of salt, 2 tsp white pepper, 2 tsp sugar and 2 tbsp of canola oil, to make a smooth paste.
2. Pat the pork pieces dry and marinate them with the blended garlic concoction above. Don't be shy to use your hands, you need to coat every surface of the pork pieces. Leave for an hour, or if you can overnight in the fridge.
3. When you are ready to eat, take the pork out, first coat it with the egg whites, then coat it thinly with the corn flour (shake any excess)
4. Heat enough oil to drown the pork pieces. When oil is hot, slide in the pork pieces slowly, be careful of splash-backs. It took me about 15-20 minutes for mine to cook, but every pork pieces are different, so you need to check by taking a piece out and cutting it near the bone to see if the meat is cooked.
5. When you're done frying all the pork pieces, set them aside and pat the oil off the pork pieces.
6. Take one spoonful of the oil that you've used to fry the pork above, throw away the rest, especially the burnt pieces of garlic, etc.
7. Slice thinly the remaining two cloves of garlic. With the one spoonful of oil, sauté the garlic in medium heat until golden, mix in 1 tsp of white pepper, 1-3 tbsp soy sauce. Add the fried pork pieces and stir well. When the pork has been coated with the soy sauce, add the honey until all the pork pieces are all coated. Keep stirring to prevent burning (turn the heat to low, if need be) until the honey is not thick anymore.
8. Serve warm, as is, as an appetiser. Or, how I like mine, with a bowl of warm rice, as a main.

I always have leftovers when I cook this. I would put them in a container and store them in the fridge, making sure I get lots of the honey sauce coating the pork. Then, the day after, I'd reheat them in the microwave and it's just as delicious as if I've just cooked them then.