[Recipe] Japanese-styled Honey-Sake Pork Ribs with Asparagus using Airfryer

I recently took up the "Foodie At Home Challenge" by Shopee to try out their online grocery-shopping and cook up various dishes using a list of ingredients pre-selected by them. Hence, in this 3-part series, I will be sharing 3 recipes:

PS: I have included an exclusive Shopee Promo Code for my readers below too, so do look out for the surprise at the end! 

To be honest, I am someone who takes a more conservative approach when buying perishables, such as fresh meat, vegetables and fruits. I prefer to see and feel the fresh produce before buying them, because they are more delicate. A dent or a slight fingernail mark in the packaging could cause a whole product to go bad very soon.

As part of this challenge, I would be using various ingredients purchased from their online platform to create some dishes. The ingredients were fresh pork loin prime ribs, fresh kampong chicken, pumpkin, black fungus, beetroot, asparagus and sake.

Our groceries arrived very punctually during the stipulated time slot. Kept in styrofoam boxes during transportation, the fresh produce were still very cold when they arrived. All the items were fresh and kept safe in cling wrap/ bubble wrap, in perfect condition.

Overall, I was really quite pleasantly surprised. To be honest, I think this experience totally changed my perception about online grocery shopping.

I have to commend the Shopee seller, Mr Tan from QQ Mart, for his great service. In particular, he updated me on the delivery schedule twice (once after my groceries were ordered and the other just a few hours before the delivery).

Even after delivery, he shared with me with some tips on how to handle the fresh chicken which was just slaughtered the night before. Totally unexpected and I really appreciate that!

One thing I learnt from this experience is to try out a service at least once, before jumping to conclusions. I definitely saved a lot of time for this week's groceries and reduced all the inconveniences from the various Circuit Breaker rules if I had to physically go to the supermarket to get all those groceries.

You can also browse through Shopee's various food-related offerings here. If all it takes are just a few clicks and this service negates the need of having to lug everything home, why not? :)

And so, here are my 3 recipes. Enjoy!

Even though I used the airfryer, these ribs came out really flavourful because of the marination. I also really like the light tinges of sake aftertaste as I sink my teeth into the ribs.

For this recipe, I used pork loin. This part is a little bit more fatty and is usually more tender. Yummy!

Serves: 2 pax

(A) For ribs:

500g pork loin prime ribs*

50g dark sauce

35g sake*

1 tsp honey

20g ginger, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

(B) For asparagus:

200g asparagus*

2 tbs olive oil

Pepper and salt, to taste

*Items available from Shopee (under QQMart or Sake Inn).

Remove membranes from ribs, if any. (Mine from QQMart were already removed.)

To marinate the ribs, mix (A) ingredients together. Cover with cling wrap and keep in fridge for at least 2 hours.

After marination, the ribs are ready for cooking. Preheat airfryer at 190 degrees Celcius for 5 minutes.

Place the ribs in a baking pan. Cook at 190 degrees Celcius for 15 minutes. Flip, and continue for another 5 minutes.

While the ribs are being cooked, trim the base of the asparagus and brush with olive oil. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Cook at 190 degrees Celcius for 5 minutes. Toss, and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.

Serve with Japanese rice. Enjoy... And feel free to eat the ribs with your fingers! :)

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