Sweet-Sour Spareribs

I love spareribs. Instead of going out for some, I tried to cook it for the first time today. Here is the recipe from the cooking guide that came with my Fagor pressure cooker. I didn’t follow this recipe exactly, as I’ll explain later.

SWEET-SOUR SPARERIBS
3 tablespoons oil
3 pounds lean spareribs, each rib cut in 3 pieces

Sweet Sour Sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons honey
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons apricot marmalade
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, or to taste

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients.
Heat the oil in the Cooker until very hot, then add as many ribs at a time that will comfortably fit, and brown well. Pour off all fat, then stir in the sauce. Close the lid and bring to pressure. Cook for the suggested time. (Suggested cooking time at 250F and 15 PSI was 15 minutes.)

My way:
I made a few changes to the recipe since I didn’t have all of the ingredients available. I had apricot preserve, so I used that instead of marmalade (for the difference between the two, click here). I didn’t have sherry on hand, so substituted red wine. No hot pepper sauce either, so in went ground pepper and a few chili flakes. I cooked it at 20 minutes in the pressure cooker, instead of 15. Finally, when the ribs came out, I left the remaining cooking liquid in the pan, and thickened it with a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in cold water, to make a sauce.

The final product came out well, though it could do with some improvements. Next time, I’ll marinate the ribs before cooking to make them even better. I’d also add a little salt to the recipe. All in all, it made for a good dinner at home.