Pork Rib Porridge
With porridge, beside making Vietnamese-style tamarind pork ribs or baked pork ribs, Pork Rib Porridge is another favorite recipe of mine. Why I love it? Pork Rib, if we just fry or boil, it is still very chewy. Therefore, grilling, baking or stewing method can work better as they tenderize the ribs. Pork Rib Porridge is made by stewing pork ribs and jasmine rice until all are softened. Moreover, its high nutrition makes it a very good choice for baby.
Table of Contents
What are Pork Ribs?
Ribs are tasty pieces of meat that come from the bones inside the pork. People enjoy eating pork ribs because they have a strong flavor with a firm but juicy texture. Pork ribs can be separated into baby back ribs, spare ribs, and ribs without bones. Baby back ribs, coming from the top portion of the rib cage, are small and more tender. Spare ribs are big and have lots of meat because they are the bottom portion of the ribs. Ribs without bones are a good choice for people who don’t want to eat around the bones.
Nutrition Facts of Pork Ribs
Let’s first look at what’s inside Pork Ribs to see if it’s a good source of nutrition for you. Ribs give you protein and important vitamins and minerals that your body needs, such as iron, zinc, and B vitamins. However, ribs can also have a lot of fat as well. Therefore, we should eat them with other foods instead of having ourselves a meal full of grilled ribs and beer.
Ingredients of Pork Rib Porridge
For Pork Rib Porridge, I can say you can use every type of pork ribs, because you’ll cook it for long together with the rice. However, if you use baby pork ribs, the porridge may achieve the perfect tenderness in shorter cooking time. Therefore, just grasp the ribs available at home or the nearby supermarket for this recipe.
For the rice, jasmine rice is a good option for you. I don’t recommend basmati rice as it is less sticky than jasmine rice. If possible, you can try other long-grain rice such as Vietnamese ST24, ST25, Dai Thom Rice, or Thai long-grain rice like Khao Leuang Patew Chumphon. Brown rice is also an interesting type of rice for making porridge. However, remember that you shouldn’t use sticky rice (glutinous rice) to cook porridge, because it is too sticky that could make your porridge become super thick.
Beside pork ribs and rice, you will need several slices of shallot and ginger to help eliminating the strong smell of pork ribs before cooking.
Cooking Instruction
Let’s start cooking Pork Rib Porridge. The total cooking time depends on the pot you use: if it’s an instant pot or pressure cooker, you can save a half of cooking time.
Step 1. Preparing rice
- (Optional) Wash the rice 2-3 times to remove dust and a part of the rice bran. However, if your rice is stored well, you don’t have to do this step.
- Soak the rice in water (ideally hot water) in at least 30 minutes. The longer time you soak it, the shorter cooking time is. In case you forget to soak it, don’t worry, keep cooking a bit longer.
Step 2. Pork Ribs Processing
- While soaking the rice, start to process the ribs. With the whole pork rib slab bought from stores/supermarkets, cut it into pieces. Wash them under cool water.
- In a pot, boil water with your prepared slices of ginger and shallot. Once the water starts to boil, blanch the ribs in boiling water for 1 minute then remove them from the pot. Pour away the water.
Step 3. Simmering the Pork Rib Porridge
- In a pot, instant pot, or pressure cooker, add the soaked rice, pork ribs, 1 tbsp of salt and water in.
- If you cook it with pressure cooker/instant pot, close the lid and cook the porridge in high pressure in 30 minutes. If you cook pork rib porridge in a regular pot, simmer the ingredients on medium heat in 1 hour or until the rice is all broken down and the pork ribs are softened.
- Finally, check the doneness of rice and pork ribs if they reach your desired consistency and tenderness. You can cook them longer to achieve smoother and thicker texture. The ribs are perfect if you can easily remove the meat from the bones. Seasoning by salt and pepper. Add a little by little to adjust the taste.
Step 4. Serving
- For the pork ribs, if desired, you can remove the bone of pork ribs and serve boneless ribs with porridge.
- With the porridge, there are two versions: you can either blend it into a very smooth version or enjoy the cooked rice porridge as it is without doing anything else. The blended porridge is great, and especially suitable for kids.
- To garnish the porridge, you can sprinkle a variety of toppings, such as chopped green onions, fried shallots or soy sauce/fish sauce/sesame oil/chili oil depend on your preference.
Storing Pork Rib Porridge
If it’s cold season, you can keep your porridge at room temperature for a day or two, with the condition that you use a separate ladle for it, and when you reheat, cook until it boils hardly.
It’s still better to store overnight Pork Rib Porridge in fridge. In fridge, it can lasts 3-4 days. You can easily reheat it by microwaving 3-4 minutes or cook on stove until boiling.
Freezing the porridge is also possible, in an air-tight container for 1-2 months. However, to reheat frozen porridge, you should cook it on stove, or let it thaw completely and microwave until boiling.
Pork Rib Porridge is such a simple yet nutritious dish for your family, especially in cold weather. Don’t hesitate to try it!
Pork Rib Porridge
Equipment
Ingredients
- 150 g jasmine rice 2/3 cup
- 300 g pork ribs 11 oz
- 5-6 slices of shallot and ginger
- 2 tbsp salt
- 3 liter of water 0.8 gallon
Instructions
Step 1. Preparing rice
- (Optional) Wash the rice 2-3 times to remove dust and a part of the rice bran. However, if your rice is stored well, you don’t have to do this step.
- Soak the rice in water (ideally hot water) in at least 30 minutes. The longer time you soak it, the shorter cooking time is. In case you forget to soak it, don’t worry, keep cooking a bit longer.
Step 2. Pork Ribs Processing
- While soaking the rice, start to process the ribs. With the whole pork rib slab bought from stores/supermarkets, cut it into pieces. Wash them under cool water. Cut the porridge slab in to pieces (left bowl)
- In a pot, boil water with your prepared slices of ginger and shallot. Once the water starts to boil, blanch the ribs in boiling water for 1 minute then remove them from the pot. Pour away the water.
Step 3. Simmering the Pork Rib Porridge
- In a pot, instant pot, or pressure cooker, add the soaked rice, pork ribs, 1 tbsp of salt and water in.
- If you cook it with pressure cooker/instant pot, close the lid and cook the porridge in high pressure in 30 minutes. If you cook pork rib porridge in a regular pot, simmer the ingredients on medium heat in 1 hour or until the rice is all broken down and the pork ribs are softened.
- Finally, check the doneness of rice and pork ribs if they reach your desired consistency and tenderness. You can cook them longer to achieve smoother and thicker texture. The ribs are perfect if you can easily remove the meat from the bones. Seasoning by salt and pepper. Add a little by little to adjust the taste.
Step 4. Serving
- For the pork ribs, if desired, you can remove the bone of pork ribs and serve boneless ribs with porridge.
- With the porridge, there are two versions: you can either blend it into a very smooth version or enjoy the cooked rice porridge as it is without doing anything else. The blended porridge is great, and especially suitable for kids.
- To garnish the porridge, you can sprinkle a variety of toppings, such as chopped green onions, fried shallots or soy sauce/fish sauce/sesame oil/chili oil depend on your preference.Left: original pork rib porridge, Right: Blended pork rib porridge
Nutrition
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