186: Chinese broccoli, p97

An easy, quick side/main dish which is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. I wasn't sure about using this much ginger and garlic for a relatively small amount of veg, let alone only chopping it into matchsticks rather than chopping finely, but it works and neither was overpowering. Worked well as a simple, light lunch, during a week of lunches out with various teams at work, and also as a side dish with the slow-cooked duck we had the other night. Yum! Definitely to be repeated.

32: Pork ribs with honey and anise, p300

Oooooh, proper meaty tasty Chinese ribs, with sticky very-star-anisey sauce.

Made a bit of a boo-boo, after defrosting the ribs last night, and getting all the rest of the ingredients in the bowl, I found that the big bottle of oyster sauce in the cupboard was actually another bottle of thick dark soy sauce. There's a fantastic Asian supermarket not far from us in Richmond, and they sell great big bottles of soy, nam pla, oyster sauce, sesame oil, etc which I stock up on from time to time - and which last ages, hadn't realised that one had run out. Ooops... So I improvised with nam pla and soy sauce, so fingers crossed it wasn't too far from the actual recipe.

It's a really easy recipe, mixed up the marinade this morning and coated the ribs with it, leaving them in the sauce, and roasting the ribs this evening for an hour. Served with basmati rice and steamed winter greens, that was it! Scrummy.