Oven-Baked Maltose Pork Ribs

Maltose. Sticky, syrupy and it looks like honey.

It was an old store. Sacks of rice were piled high on one side. The floor was plain grey cement that had gone dark from years of use. Curiosity brought me to a corner where the shelves held containers and plastic bags of food items that were rarely seen in modern supermarkets. A small layer of dust coated the top. It was here that I stumbled across this little tub of sticky sweetness that was maltose.

I had no idea what it was for, but that's why a smartphone is always a handy thing to have around. Meat roasts came up plenty. When husband noticed several 'char siew ' recipes displayed, he promptly insisted that we should get this.

I reached out for one. He grabbed a second one and justified the purchase by saying that we may not be passing through this neighbourhood again for some time. For me, this enthusiasm translates to, "Let's have maltose-roasted meat every week! "

A couple of days of 'research' later, I narrowed my choices down to this recipe by WokkingMum and adapted it to suit my palate. It turned out really yummy.

Oven-Baked Maltose Pork Ribs

Oven-Baked Maltose Pork Ribs
Ingredients: 
- 315g pork soft ribs
- 1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
- 1 tbsp chili sauce (sweetish spicy, like Kimball Chilli Sauce)
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce (sweetish, salty)
- 1 tbsp maltose (I used a solid small spoon to twirl it out)
- ¼ cup hot water

How-to:
1) Mix maltose and hot water together. Stir until maltose syrup is easy to handle. Let it cool.

2) Mix pork ribs with cooking wine, chilli sauce, soy sauce and maltose (from 1) together. Cover and leave it to marinate for two hours in the refrigerator (don't freeze it).

2) Take it out from the fridge and stir it up. Line baking tray with foil. Line the pork ribs in a row (meaty part down) and drizzle some of the marinade over. Keep aside a little marinade for later.

3) Bake at 180C in a pre-heated oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

At the 30th minute, it begins to sizzle. Flip the pork over on the 40th minute and baste with juices from the tray and brush on the remaining marinade. Bake for another 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

4) Remove from oven. Some gravy would have accumulated in the baking tray. Plate the pork ribs. Drizzle or brush the gravy over.

1) Slice pork ribs.
2) Add soy sauce, chilli sauce and cooking wine.
3) Pour maltose in.
4) Marinate for 2 hours.

1) Line the pork ribs in a baking tray. Drizzle marinade over.
2) Bake at 180C.
3) Turn ribs over.
4) Bake until brown and beautiful.

Taste-wise, this is what I would describe as something pleasantly sweet and savoury. It's not spicy even though I added chilli sauce into the mix because I used a mild variety.

Oven-Baked Maltose Pork Ribs

Best enjoyed with fluffy white rice or on its own.