Monday, May 18, 2009

Hoisin-Glazed Barbecued Ribs - No Photos, but Many Delicious Memories

One of the victims of my recent hard disc crash was a roll of photos taken during the filming of this Hoisin-Glazed Barbecued Ribs video recipe. Usually as I cook and film, I have my camera at my side to snap shots along the way. This is especially important at the end of the recipes when I like to get what we call in the business "the money shot."

All those sharp, well-lighted, color-corrected still frames you see in my videos are done with a digital camera, as my cheap camcorder doesn’t perform nearly as well. Here you can see a huge difference in quality, as I had to rely on some frame captures instead of photos.

Adding to the problem is the dark red color of the Hoisin glaze (a very hard hue to film), and the distortion the heat waves add. The result is one slightly annoyed video recipe producer. Thus concludes the venting portion of today's recipe post.

Notwithstanding the photographically challenged nature of this recipe, it sure tasted good. When I do pork spare ribs I usually go with the standard American barbecue rub and sauce, but an abundance of leftover Hoisin sauce and a stray can of pin
eapple juice nudged me further east.

I mention in the video that Hoisin sauce has an interesting story behind it. I probably should have said confusing, rather than interesting, but here it is. According to my extensive research (5 minutes on Wikipedia), "Hoisin" is a romanization of the Cantonese word for seafood. What? Why? It's traditionally served with pork, isn't it?

That was all they had. So, if you have any ideas why Hoisin means "seafood," please let me know (even if you have to make something up). Enjoy!



Ingredients:
Full rack of pork ribs

For the marinade:
1/2 cup Hoisin sauce
6-oz pineapple juice
1 tbsp sambal chili sauce or hot sauce

For the rub:
2 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp 5-spice powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
pinch of cayenne

For the basting sauce:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Asian fish sauce
2 tbsp Hoisin sauce

40 comments:

Pyrofish said...

Hoisin sauce is from the days when aquatic pigs still roamed the world's oceans. How I long for the days when one could head out to the open sea and troll for pork. Overfishing due to the global phenomenon "Hoisin glazed spare ribs" spelled doom for the tasty-porcine-paddlers. All we know now, are their land based cousins, which will do in a pinch.

Unknown said...

ohh we miss the "Money shot"...but still love it....delicious BBQ ribs

Asian Malaysian said...

You know how tuna is the chicken of sea? Same difference except read from right to left since thats how chinese is read. ok, I may have just violated rule two of your Food Bloggers Code of Ethics but at least Im honest about it. As my inaugurial Food Wish, Id like to see you cook a vindaloo curry dish sometime.

Anonymous said...

I am feeling the real impact of your HDD crash only now. Chef, you don't realize you have turned your followers into perfectionists (Well, bit of an armchair perfectionist, and a kitchen amateur for me ;-) ) and nothing but the best will do for them henceforth. The absence of the plated shots was felt very acutely.

I'm so sorry you lost those shots :-( Take care, and be covered from now on. We want you to save every snap for the posterity!

CollegeGourmet said...

I love spare ribs, but I never know what kind of sauce to make/use, so I usually end up being lazy and using store-bought BBQ sauce. This is a great recipe, and I always have hoisin sauce, I just never thought to use it with pineapple juice to marinade anything in. Thanks Chef!

Úlfar said...

Well, the Cantonese pronunciation of "Hoisin" is "Si Fu" or "See Foo" for you Americans which has since evolved into "seafood", the closest word English has!
It's lost in translation, that's all.

Anonymous said...

What a great recipe. By the way, Hoisin sause is the kind of sause people used to (they also do it today) use it to dress the "steamed rice rolls" (a Cantonese dish). The sause is also called "sweet sause" because it is actually not made of Season (Hoisin).

Chef John said...

cool, thanks, but what does Si Fu mean?

Asian Malaysian said...

"Si Fu" simply means "teacher", Si Fu John. Ulfar, Ive got to hand it to you. That was the best mind-frak yet.

tetra said...

Ok. Let's get some Chinese lessons here.

Hoisin is 海鮮 in Chinese. This spelling is based on Cantonese dialect (used in Hong Kong, Macau, and oversea Chinatowns around the world). In mandarin (which is now the 'standard Chinese' used in countries like China, Taiwan, and Singapore) the pronunciation is HAI XIAN.

Hoi/Hai/海 = sea
Sin/Xian/鮮 = fresh

Hoisin means fresh delicacy from the sea. Seafood it is!


Si Fu is 師傅. The spelling should be SHI FU in Pinyin system based on mandarin Chinese.

Shi/師 = teacher, master
Fu/傅 = teacher

When these two characters combined together to form a word, Shi Fu means someone who can teach you something with his/her specialty. In this sense, it's also commonly referred to a person with advanced skills in his/her profession, such as a kongfu master, an experienced carpenter, and, of course, a fine chef!

PrimeBrit said...

Hey Chef

Can I grill 'em? Maybe do them in the oven then finish on the grill?

Chef John said...

sure, but you probably know the challenges of grilling sauced ribs. tough to not burn.

Anonymous said...

Chef, that photo of the ribs gleaming in the oven light made me think of the "ribs" from the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" - they look absolutely blood red in the picture ;P

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

YUM! Marinading, a rub, then a glaze...DROOLING! I have to try this 8^)

What is that mat on the cooking sheet? Is it better than using foil?

Chef John said...

its silicon mat, foil works fine

Unknown said...

Thanks Chef John!

Charlemange said...

I made these on the grill using indirect heat. My sauce was a little different, but it contained Hoisin and fresh pineapple juice.

Just set up your grill with coals on the side and a foil pan in the middle. Cover and baste every 20 mins. They came out great.

Anonymous said...

Chef,

How would you revise this recipe for barbecuing on a fire or grill?

Chef John said...

I wouldn't. You can finish the ribs on the grill for a short time to get a little smoky flavor, but the glaze with burn if you try this recipe on the grill all the way. IMHO ribs are only good on the grill if cooked very low (hard to control with fire) and then sauced afterward.

Unknown said...

would beef work?

Chef John said...

sure!

Anonymous said...

"hoi" means sea and "sin" means fresh

Anonymous said...

HI John,

are you sure with the 2 tbsp salt and the extra 3 1/2 hours in a 300 degree oven?

I did it, it had a blackish hard crust on it ... and concerning the salt is it really the whole 2 tbsp salt rubbed on the ribs or do you mean 2 tsp salt ?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

HI John,

are you sure with the 2 tbsp salt and the extra 3 1/2 hours in a 300 degree oven?

I did it, it had a blackish hard crust on it ... and concerning the salt is it really the whole 2 tbsp salt rubbed on the ribs or do you mean 2 tsp salt ?

Thanks!

Chef John said...

worked for me! :-)

Unknown said...

Chef, can I place these in a slow cooker? If so, for how long would you suggest?

Thank you.

Chef John said...

Sorry don't use a slow cooker. But there are lots of SC websites w recipes you can check.

ChurroPhan said...

Hi Chef John,
2 Tbsp of salt is a bit much. I agree with one of the posts. My entire family said it was too salty. Maybe 2 tsp was what you meant?
Thanks for the recipe by the way. I follow your blog religiously and this was considered my first failure.

Chef John said...

All seasoning should be to taste so you need less it seems. About 2 tbsp works for me (I never measure rubs, but just sprinkle until coated. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I have the same problem with other post that 2 tbsp of salt is toooo salty. I made this last time and I end up throw a whole rack in the trash because of salty....

I think you use 2 tbsp of salt and other stuff combines in a small bowl then you take that mixture and sprinkle all over the meat but you didn't actually use ALL the dry mixture, right?

This is the first time I try your recipe but I was fail. I don't know I am brave enough to try second recipes from you or not. Anyway, thanks for posting the recipes.

Some suggestion if you don't mind, PLEASE use measurement when you do this because I saw you just dump all ingredient together then you write out recipes in measurement with TBSP which is not accurate when people try to follow your RECIPES. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Cheif John, can I attempt this receipe with baby back ribs. They are smaller so I assume cooking time will differ. Any suggestions? Should the temperature go down as well. I looked at a couple other recipes for your baby back ribs and you backed at 200 degrees, then bast every 10 means (5x's). I think I will try this method. BTW, you are the BEST! I refer my friends and family to your site all the time. I'm made so many of your dishes.

Chef John said...

Yes use that recipe. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Chef John, this recipe is perfect! But recently i had a delayed in my party time and i do not know how to preserved the final product warm. I ended up keeping it in the oven at 100F for an hour end up the meat was kinda dry when i served. Can you advise how can i handle if i faced another similar situation?
Many thanks
Rence

Chef John said...

Don't try to keep warm. Just let cool, and reheat when the guests arrive.

Anonymous said...

Re-heating as in the same cooking temp and basking them additional time? What temp shuld i use and for how long? Chef John can you be more specific n the instructions?
Very much thank you!

Chef John said...

You can use 350, but I can't give you times. Just do until heated through.

Anonymous said...

I'll try it and let you know the timing. thanks Chef John!
Rence

cookinmom said...

Did your wife see you wipe that brown sugar on the floor??? I'm tellin'!!! :0)

danfieldinthekitchen said...

Hoisin sauce (as by the german wikipedia) consists of fermented red soy beans, sugar, wheat flour, garlic, chilli, vinegar, salt, sesame oil.

Traditionally it would have sweet potatos in it, so they say.