Ingredients
2 pounds of rib tips or baby back ribs separated into singles
½ cup cooked rice, packed
1.5 tablespoons kosher salt or 1 tablespoon regular table salt
10 large cloves of garlic, peeled
Instructions
With a mortar and pestle, pound together the garlic and the salt until you get a fine paste. Add the rice and pound until you get a fairly smooth paste. This step can be done in a small food processor.
Rinse the ribs and dry them thoroughly with a cleankitchen towel.
Mix the garlic-rice paste and the ribs together, making sure every piece is well coated.
Transfer the ribs to either a very clean glass jar or a sealable plastic bag. Get rid of the air as much as you can, close the lid or seal the bag, and let the ribs cure at room temperature, undisturbed, for 3 days.
After 3 days, check for sourness. That can be done by removing one piece of rib from the jar with a clean utensil, cooking it all the way through in a microwave oven, and tasting it to see whether you like the taste. If so, the curing can end at that point. If more sourness is desired, let the ribs continue to cure for up to 5 days.
To cook the ribs, you can either deep-fry them or bake them in an 375°F oven on a cookie sheet until golden brown.
Prepared soured pork ribs are best served with rice and fresh vegetables such as cucumber or sliced raw cabbage or lettuce.
Notes
You can use commercial naem powder mix which works very well and requires much less curing time. Feel free to use curing salt — the type that contains nitrite — if you feel safer that way. This post, however, is written for those who wish to avoid food additives of which the mix is entirely made.