Cooking with Xianyitang dried ingredients
Fragrant dried citrus peel, fermented black beans and garlic mingle in the savoury juices around small steamed pork riblets. Tender with a little bite, they make a sharing dish for a family dinner with rice or a weekend dim sum meal.
Quantities, yields and timings are adaptation estimates. Allow the soaking, marinating, cooling and chilling waits shown, overlapping only where stated. Check texture and doneness as described.
Recipe illustrations; measure ingredients using the written quantities.
Choose one form of dried chenpi and weigh 3 g in total before rinsing briefly. Soak larger Xinhui peel in clean water for about 15–20 minutes until flexible, then slice very finely. For ready-cut shreds, start with about 5–10 minutes and check that no strips remain firm; continue if thicker pieces need longer. Discard the water and drain either form well. Cut any wide shreds finer. Do not add 3 g of each. Weigh 0.5 g whole white peppercorns and grind finely in a dry mortar or pepper mill. The shop product is whole peppercorns, not ready-ground powder. If the fermented bean label calls for rinsing, rinse briefly, drain well and chop.
Pat the ribs dry with kitchen paper and check for small bone fragments left by cutting, removing any you find. There is no need to repeatedly wash raw meat under a running tap. Mix the beans, garlic, ginger, peel, freshly ground pepper, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, 15 ml water and oil. Toss with the ribs and cornflour until lightly coated. Cover and refrigerate at 5°C or below for 30–60 minutes. Marinating does not cook the meat.
Choose a wide, shallow heatproof dish that fits your steamer. Spread the ribs and marinade in one layer with minimal overlap. Use separate batches if needed rather than a deep mound. Set a stable rack in a deep pan with water below the bottom of the dish. Bring to the boil, place the dish on the rack, cover and steam steadily for about 30–40 minutes. Top up with hot water around the pan edge if needed without letting it boil dry.
Use a clean food thermometer in the meatiest parts of several thicker pieces, keeping the probe away from bone. Reach 75°C for 30 seconds; steam for another 5 minutes and recheck if necessary. The meat should be cooked and easy to bite through; colour or juices alone are not a reliable test. Lift out with oven gloves, scatter over the spring onion and serve hot. Rice is an optional separate accompaniment and is not included in the recipe yield. Watch for small bones.
Contains soya in the beans and soy sauce, usually wheat in the soy sauce, and molluscs in oyster sauce. Check the actual sauce labels for any additional allergens. The Xianyitang dried-ingredient packs state that they are packed in a facility also handling peanuts, tree nuts, sesame and soya. Check the actual labels of every brand used.
Keep raw meat and rehydrated ingredients awaiting cooking refrigerated at 5°C or below, following their pack dates. Separate raw and cooked utensils, and clean hands and surfaces after handling. Cool cooked leftovers promptly in shallow containers, refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking, and eat within 48 hours or freeze. Reheat only once until steaming hot throughout.
