Rice Cooker Sichuan Vegetable Soup 电饭锅四川菜排骨汤

An easy to prepare soup using the steam and soup functions of a rice cooker :)

Equipment: rice cooker with "Soup" function

Ingredients

400g prime pork ribs

1 tomato

1 packet Sichuan preserved vegetable, 80g

1~2 cloves garlic

1 slice ginger

3cm red chili

1 stalk coriander root (optional)

400g water

Salt & sugar

Directions

1. Wash and rinse pork ribs. Season with 1/4 tsp of sugar and low-salt light soya sauce for about 15 minutes.

2. Pour in the boiling water and parboil the ribs for 10 to 15 minutes. 

Pour a little rice wine for added fragrance to the ribs.

Drain away the water and set aside.

3. Cut 1 slice of ginger, lightly crush the garlic , and cut out about 3cm length of red chili.

4. Cut tomato into wedges. It's optional to remove the tomato skin.

5. Rinse the Sichuan preserved vegetable. This step is optional.

I prefer to wash off the oil from the vegetable before cooking.

6. Turn on the "Steam" function of the rice cooker to heat up the inner pot.

Heat up about 1 tsp of olive oil and add in the ginger, garlic, red chili and coriander root. 

Stop the "Steam" function when the ingredients become fragrant.

6. Turn on the "Soup" function, 

and set the "Cooking Time" to 1:20 minutes.

7. Pour in the Sichuan vegetable and ribs to stir-fry for about 1 minute.

8. Pour in about 400g of water to cover about 3/4 of the ingredients' height.

Close the lid and let the rice cooker continues the cooking process. 

Stir the ingredients once in a while to ensure even heating.

9. After about 1 hour into cooking, drop in the tomato wedges.

10. When the cooking process ends, season the soup with sugar and salt to taste.

11. Let the ingredients simmer for another 1 to 2 hours for a softer texture using the remnant heat of the rice cooker.

Enjoy :)

The bone can be easily dislodge from the fresh after longer hours of simmering :P