Spare ribs with black beans and pepper sauce

This doesn't even have to be a dim sum dish. The dim sum variation uses small, chopped pieces of meat, but it works on big ribs too. You can eat that for dinner. Highly seasoned, this is served as an dim sum appetizer. The black beans are critical in the dish, the more the better.

Ingredients

1 pound pork spare ribs

Marinade

• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon fermented black beans
• 1 pinch sugar
• 1 teaspoon garlic and red chili paste (available at Chinatown)

1. Blanch the ribs in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain well. Rinse the black beans and mix with other marinade ingredients. Soak ribs in the marinade for 20 minutes. Heat a wok and stir-fry the ribs until lightly browned. Remove from the wok and drain the oil.
2. Add fresh peanut oil, garlic and salt. Stir-fry until the garlic browns a bit, then add the remaining ingredients. Return the ribs to the wok and toss in the sauce. Place in a steaming dish and steam for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the ribs are very tender.
3. Serve hot.