Steamed Spareribs with Rice Flour

Steamed Spareribs with Rice Flour is the rib version of fen-zheng, the steaming-in-ground-rice technique found across central and western China, from Sichuan through Hubei and Jiangxi. The method itself is old and practical — coating meat in toasted ground rice before steaming both seasons it and lets the grain soak up the rendered juices — and it is the parent technique behind the better-known steamed pork belly (fen zheng rou). The Sichuan version is set apart by its seasoning: Pixian doubanjiang and fermented chili give it a savory, faintly spicy edge where Hubei and Jiangxi versions often run plainer or sweeter. No single inventor or date attaches to it; it is a documented regional home-style and banquet dish, the ground rice traditionally toasted with a little Sichuan peppercorn and star anise and coarsely milled by hand.

The ribs come piled under a soft, ruddy crust of swollen ground rice, no sauce in the bowl — everything has been absorbed. The meat is meltingly tender and lifts straight off the bone; the rice coating is moist and almost custardy where it met the meat, looser and nubbly on top, carrying a toasty grain fragrance over the savory-spicy doubanjiang base. If there is sweet potato underneath, it has gone soft and sweet with the dripping fat. The whole dish is unctuous and aromatic, the opposite of dry.

The technique turns on the ground rice and on long, gentle steaming. Raw rice is dry-toasted in a pan, often with Sichuan peppercorn and star anise, until golden and fragrant, then coarsely milled — toasting gelatinizes and browns the starch for aroma and keeps the grain from going pasty. The marinated ribs are tossed in this rice so each piece carries a thick coat, then steamed over high steam for over an hour. During the long steam the collagen in the ribs converts to gelatin and the meat falls tender, while the rice coating absorbs the rendered fat and juices and swells, the starch hydrating into a soft, cohesive crust that locks the flavor in rather than letting it drip away. A little water or stock mixed into the rice before steaming keeps it from drying; a bed of sweet potato or pumpkin underneath catches the fat and steams sweet.