Sticky masterstock pork ribs with kimchi

The purchase of a pressure cooker has made getting Zoya’s favourite ribs to the table a breeze. The whole house smells delicious and Zoya loves leftover ribs in her sandwiches the next day. She can’t eat the kimchi yet but loves to get stuck in and help make it. It’s fun to show her how fermentation works and she checks on the kimchi everyday, gingerly poking it in its container.

You can use store bought kimchi if you like. The masterstock can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge. Although the ingredients may seem a bit alien, they are easily sourced from any Korean grocer.

For the ribs

150 ml	Soy sauce
200 ml	Shaoxing wine
1 ¼ Ltr	Chicken stock
100 g	Brown sugar
6 cloves	Garlic
1	Orange, zest only, or use the zest of 2 mandarins
10	Star anise
1	Cinnamon stick, or 2 cassia barks
1 tsp	Szechuan peppercorn
6 cm	Ginger, peeled and julienned
1 ¼ kgs	Spare ribs, pork (Main)

For the kimchi

1	Wombok, or use a cabbage of your choice (Main)
¼ cup	Salt
2 Tbsp	Rice flour
1 tsp	Sugar
1 Tbsp	Ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves	Garlic
¼ cup	Saeujeot (fermented salty shrimp), with the salty brine
1	Pear, cored and quartered
3 Tbsp	Fish sauce
2 cups	Daikon, or a bunch of radishes, julienned
4	Spring onions, chopped
1 cup	Hot pepper flakes, (gochugaru)

Directions

To make the ribs

1. To make the masterstock, place all the ingredients except the ribs in a stock pot, bring to a boil. Boil for two to three minutes then turn the heat down to allow the stock to simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Turn off heat and cool if storing.
2. Pour the masterstock on the ribs and cook in a pressure cooker for 35 minutes, a slow cooker for 6 hours on low, or in a roasting tray covered in foil in the middle of the oven for 3 hours at 160C.
3. Once the ribs are coming off the bone, place them on a roasting tray. Turn up the oven to 200C and brush generously with the masterstock used to cook the ribs. Place the roasting tray in the oven and cook for about eight minutes, glazing with the masterstock every minute until the ribs are sticky. Serve hot with kimchi.

To make the kimchi

1. Cut the hard bottom stem of the cabbage and cut into quarters. Rub the cabbage with salt. Cover it with cold water in a bowl and leave for at least two hours or overnight. Remove the cabbage from the salted water and squeeze any excess water out.
2. In a small bowl mix the rice flour with a couple of tablespoons of boiling water. Let it rest for five minutes then add the sugar to start the fermentation.
3. In a food processor, blitz the ginger, garlic, shrimp, pear and fish sauce. Add the rice flour mixture to the processed mixture and then add the daikon, spring onion and red pepper flakes. Mix well.
4. Wearing kitchen gloves rub this mixture on the cabbage, store the kimchi in a clean plastic container at room temperature for a week and then refrigerate. The kimchi can be consumed in a few hours but keeps fermenting and developing intensity with time. Should be consumed in three weeks at the latest.