Working Mother's Steamed Pork Ribs / Sio Pek Chye

Was dreaming of eating assam fish curry the whole day at work. Made a mad dash to the supermarket to buy some brinjals (just in case I really wanted to cook the fish curry) and some canned porridge condiments before rushing home to cook dinner yesterday. At lunch, I had walked past a Chinese Medical Hall with packets of food seasoning (what's medical halls and cooking spices got to do with each other???) hanging outside their shop. I purchased Seah's seasoning for Steamed Pork Ribs for S$2 (This is not an ad endorsement. I get paid nothing - but it might give ideas to any working people out there who need to cook food in a hurry like me). Since I had already defrosted some pork ribs overnight thinking to stew or oven bake them, the seasoning would come in handy. I went home and  just rubbed the seasoning all over. Put it IN a big but shallow bowl ON a metal rack IN a pot of water OVER the stove and steamed (prepositions for you)! Cut some chilli and served! Voila!

Steamed Pork Ribs

Hubs was initially quite sceptical when I had told him I was steaming this dish. He kept asking me if I shouldn't fry it instead. In the end, he agreed it turned out delicious but because it involved the steaming of pork ribs, it took a tad longer to get dinner ready. Fortunately, both kids had fallen asleep (after returning home from school) and hubs was busy watching TV whilst I was cooking. I could afford to slave over the stove longer than usual. I didn't add anything else to this dish except for the cut chilli. The gravy you see in the pic was formed naturally through the steaming process. Had a nice peppery taste. Not too salty not too sweet. Pretty tasty seasoning.

Hubs agreed it was delicious. The meat was cooked and not tough but hubs felt the meat should have 'fallen off the bones' and it did not. He probably got that idea from eating canned stewed pork ribs. They DO fall off the bones. One wonders how many days THOSE have been stewed and if the stew is ever changed (or just reused, over and over - BAH! Dun wanna think about it. Just eat it! The canned stuff I mean!)
I did agree and think that it would have been nicer if my steamed pork ribs had beens softer but I would have required a much longer steaming time.

I'm glad hubs comments and criticizes my cooking. It's a learning process for me and if he fakes it and tells me everything is wonderful all the time, I might never learn! He did eat plenty of the pork ribs and that's proof of the pudding. However, later that night, as he was dozing off, he told me he was having a stomach ache. I understood what he was trying to say, glared at him for a moment than asked him what he had eaten for lunch. Hah!

Also boiled some Sio Pek Chye (Siau Bai Cai) and made some seasoning with oyster sauce and hot water.

Sio Pek Chye

I got to eat all the Sio Pek Chye by myself. Hubs only took a bite to taste my cooking. He isn't a big fan of most types of veg.

As for kids....sigh. Son wasted my time slaving over the Steamed Pork Ribs. He took one bite and said he didn't like the taste and that he was eating left over corned beef instead. As I predicted, he made instant noodles later that night. I pretty much just left him alone when he said he wasn't eating the ribs. You could say both guys are easy to please, yet the most difficult to please. If father and son could have their way, their menu would be limited to bread and butter, spam, corned beef, fried eggs, otak, sweet and sour pork, chicken rice or nasi lemak everyday of their lives. Daddy repeatedly tells me he is easy to please with just bread and butter but he doesn't eat a multitude of stuff, so to me, he's super fussy. Son likes pasta and  japanese but dad dislikes both. What am I supposed to do? Pander to their needs? Son needs to learn that Mummy isn't going to cater to his limited eating repertoire and if he's going to go hungy, he's going to go hungry. (Anyway, he likes it cos he's losing his baby fat). Daddy on the other hand - he has a choice to eat the meaty dishes his wife cooks up, go hungry or take over the cooking.

Daughter wasn't feeling well so I'd made a bowl of instant porridge for her instead. Tried to make it as 'not' bland as possible. She played around with the pickled veg but refused to touch the peanuts.

Instant porridge with pickled veg and sweet peanuts

Tonight! Ah, tonight, I'm gonna cook assam fish curry with loads of brinjals. For the fussy eaters whom I know will not be touching my fish curry, I'll be cooking pork rib soup with corn and....and....I dunno....as usual, will just go with the flow...