[Recipe] Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs, using Casa Manila’s adobo sauce

During a media event for Casa Manila in March 2015, I was able to sample their new line of refrigerated sauces that is available for purchase. Their Mabuhay collection of sauces includes the creamy coconut ginger sauce (ginataan), adobo (tangy soy garlic sauce), and the savoury peanut sauce (kare kare).

First off, this is not a sponsored post, I decided to test out one of their sauces at home and see if I could get a tasty dish on the table in 20 minutes. I have both the adobo and savoury peanut sauce, but decided to try the adobo one first.

I had adobo chicken at many of my friends houses before but I really loved Casa Manila’s strong, tangy and acidic version.

It reminded me a lot of my mom’s sweet and sour spare ribs, so that is how I used the sauce. I cooked the spare ribs as I normally would if this was a Chinese style dish, using a Filipino style sauce.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds of spare ribs- Cut into pieces
5 cloves of garlic-minced
2 shallots- minced
1/3 cup of Chinese cooking wine
1 tsp of soy sauce (optional)
Cooking oil
Half a bottle of Casa Manila’s adobo sauce (187.5 ml)
Handful of green onions-Sliced

Cooking steps:

1. In a pot, add a splash of oil. Once the pan is heated, sautée the shallots and garlic without browning it.

2. Add the spare ribs and cook through.

3. Add the cooking wine and let the wine cook down. Add half a bottle of the adobe sauce and reduce the heat.

4. Cook for about 10 minutes and taste. Adjust with soy sauce if desired. I added soy sauce.

5. Serve and garnish with green onions.

The outcome was delicious, sweet, sour and garlicky. Plus, I was able to cook a dish within 20 minutes once I had my ingredients ready and prepared.

You can buy the sauces at Casa Manila (879 York Mills Rd, Toronto, ON) for $8.99 a bottle which is worth it. My next experiment will be trying out their peanut sauce. I’ll keep you posted.