According to the luna calendar, today (January 28, 2017) is Chinese New Year 2017, the year of rooster! Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival in China. Chinese families gather together to celebrate a year of hard work, spend time relaxing with family and wish for a lucky and prosperous coming year.
Although the Chinese New Year is celebrated in different ways in different parts of the country. Having a “reunion dinner”on the New Year’s Eve is a “must do” and is believed to be the most important meal of the year.
There are several essential and symbolic foods to eat at the dinner, rice cake is one of them. The Chinese word for rice cake, or 年糕 (“niao gao”), correlates to the phrase 年年高升 (“nian nian gao sheng”) which means “increasing prosperity year after year.”
Different parts of China prepares the rice cake dish differently. Typically, they come in both savory and sweet variations. For my family, we like to prepare the rice cake by making this slow-cooked pork rib and rice cake dish, the savory version.
Rice cake comes in different shapes, the specific shape dramatically affects the texture. Thin or sliced rice cake is less chewy and good for a stir-fried dish. For making a slow-cooked dish like this, I chose to use the thicker cylinder-shaped rice cake. It takes more time to cook but maintains chewy after being cooked for a longer period.
The rice cake tastes pretty bland by itself but they are great at absorbing flavors of the other meat or vegetable you add into the dish. The rich pork rib flavored rice cakes are my favorite parts of this dish.
I hope you enjoy making Slow-cooked Pork Rib and Rice Cake at home. If you like this recipe, don’t forget to leave a rating and share it with your friends!
- 1 pound pork short ribs (ask the butcher to help cut into bite-size pieces)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 stalks green onion, cut into long strips
- 2-3 ginger slices
- 1 cinnamon stick, break in half
- 3 star anises
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon cooking wine
- 1 cup cylinder-shaped rice cakes
- a handful of chopped scallion for topping
- a touch of toasted sesame seeds for topping
- Marinate the pork ribs:
- 1 tablespoon cooking wine
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon potato starch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- In a ziploc bag, add in cooking wine, soy sauce, potato starch and salt, transfer in the pork ribs and marinate 15 minutes.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat, stir in the pork rib, stir fry 4-5 minutes or until no longer pink.
- Toss in soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar, cook 3-4 minutes or until the sugar has melt, stir to mix and coat the pork ribs well with the seasonings.
- Transfer everything into a large ceramic pot, add green onion, ginger, cinnamon, star anise, water and cooking wine into the pot.
- Cook until the water starts to boil over high heat, keep cooking about 10 minutes or until about ⅔ amount of water left in the pot, add in the rice cakes, stir occasionally to avoid sticking.
- Turn the heat back to low, cover the ceramic pot with a lid and continue cooking 10-15 minutes or until the rice cakes are cooked through and the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Sprinkle on top scallion and toasted sesame seeds to serve.