Dao Si Pai Guet Recipe

aka Black Bean Spare Ribs

I grew up in a Chinese household that spoke primarily English, some Mandarin, and some Cantonese. As a kid, I thought it was all just one Chinese. Turns out, when I spoke Chinese at restaurants I would mix Cantonese and Mandarin (whoops). I’d get funny stares. I didn’t realize until high school that I was speaking CantoMando. To this day, I still don’t know all the Cantonese or Mandarin names for one dish.

That being said, I learned Dao Si Pai Guet in Cantonese. This recipe was passed down to my mother from my Grandmother. It’s one of my favorite go-to, comfort, home cooked meals. I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb pork spareribs

• 1/4 cup salted black beans, ground up (honestly, the more the merrier. The more dao si you use, the more intense and rich fermented black bean flavor you get)

• 1 head of garlic, minced (My mom typically uses 2-3 cloves. I love garlic!)

• 1 Tbsp water for paste | 1-2 cups of water for pot | 1/4 cup water for starch

• 2 Tbsp Tapioca Starch

Chef, your three star ingredients.

Instructions:

1. Wash the spareribs.

2. Follow the bone and cut into ~1.5 inch pieces.

3. Grind the whole beans, minced garlic, and 1 Tbsp of water together. This makes your yummy, dao si, garlic paste. If you’d like to be old school and get a work out in, feel free to grind the beans in a mortar and pestle.

4. Brown the spareribs in a pot.

5. Add the black bean garlic paste and 1-2 cups of water to the pot (You want to add enough water that it just barely covers the spareribs)

6. Mix so the ribs are evenly coated.

7. Bring to boil and then simmer for 40 min. Make sure the sauce is bubbling over the meat in its simmer phase.

8. Check at 20 min. to make sure you still have enough liquid to boil over the dao si. If you do, then just let it cook for another 20 min. If you don’t, then I recommend adding another 1/4 of the black bean garlic paste mixture + 1/4 cup of water to the pot.

9. After 40 min., taste test your dao si pai guet. It should be delicious and tender. Feel free to cook another few minutes if you feel it isn’t quite at that tender point.

10. Mix tapioca starch with water and add to pot to thicken the sauce. You can always add more tapioca starch mixture to thicken the sauce up further.

Browning process | Garlic bean paste and water mixture added | Final product

11. Serve with rice and your favorite vegetable!