Black Bean Spare Ribs

My training run called for seven miles today. Unfortunately the weather did not feel like cooperating with me this morning. Right when I was about to step out the door, the sky turned dark, the wind started whipping up branches, and then came the downpour. So I knew if I waited until lunch time or after to run, one of two things would happen, it would be really hot and humid, or I would forgo my run in favor of lunch. And well...knowing me...I would much rather have lunch than run!

So I headed to my gym and ran on the treadmill. Go me! So for lunch I decided I should treat myself make one of my favorite dishes, black bean spare ribs. And I figured it would be a good way to use up some of my onion and green pepper.

So let's talk about black beans. I am not referring to the black bean you are used to seeing in a black bean corn salad. These black beans I am referring are called Douchi. They are fermented chinese black beans. See link below for more info if you are interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douchi

They smell kind of stinky so you will know if you are using the right ones. They come dried so before I use them, I usually soak them in warm water for a couple minutes. Be careful to not use too much - for a small dish of spareribs, I use probably about 2 TBSP of black beans. A little goes a long way, be careful not to use too much, otherwise it will make your dish really bitter.

Ingredients:

Meat - Spare Ribs

Sauce - Soy sauce, minced garlic, black beans, white pepper, sesame oil, chili sauce, worchester sauce (I didn't have any on hand so I omitted it but when I have it I like to add a bit to the sauce)

Mix in all sauce ingredients with the spare ribs. (I like to use my hands to mix all the sauce ingredients with the meat, that is where the real love comes in :) ) I threw in chopped onion and green pepper for extra veggies and flavor. Then I steamed the ribs for about 10-15 minutes.