I love ribs.  All kinds of ribs.  Short ribs.  spare ribs.  baby back ribs.  side ribs.  pork ribs.  beef ribs.  you name it, I love it.  When I buy a pack of side ribs to throw on the Barbie, there’s always that end piece that doesn’t quite grill well.  Being Asian, I can’t just throw that out!  This is a great recipe to use up all of those end pieces!

What you’ll need:

• Spareribs from the end of a rack of side ribs
• 1 can flat cola
• Soy Sauce, both dark and light
• Garlic, onions, green onions or chives
• Cooking Wine
• Salt, pepper
• Hot peppers (thai chilli, habanero, jalapeno .. suit to your heat level)
• Optional recipe – Brown Sugar and Honey

The first step is to braise the spareribs – fry up all of the spareribs in a pan to get a nice brown on each side, then throw them into a sauce pan.

Chop up your basics of every meal — 1 onion, and half of a garlic (yes, overkill! I love my onions and garlic!)

If you have hot peppers, this is the time to chop them up as well.  throw everything into the stock pot.

Empty a can of cola into the pot.  The flatter it is, the better!  If you don’t have cola, use the optional recipe which is adding 2 heaping tablespoons of brown sugar to a couple cups of water.

Add in the flavour — a few dashes of dark soy, twice as much light soy, and a splash of cooking wine.

Raise to a boil

Cover, and let simmer for at least an hour.  This will make the meat nice and tender, and infuse all of the flavours into it.  After an hour, uncover and reduce all of the liquids down to a glaze.  I generally leave a little bit of moisture for sauce.

Remove from heat when ready to serve, and top off with some green onion or chives.

Serve with your favourite veggies, and … cauliflower rice!

Ta da!  There you have it — Asian-esque cola spareribs!  These will have so much flavour you’ll want to suck on the bones to draw out every last remnant of sauce!