Sticky Asian pork with jasmine rice

Really, the only complicated part is getting the right ribs. The ones you need aren't ribs at all: they're also known as pork belly. It's the boneless strips of meat from the undercarriage of the pig. If you get the ones that look like ribs, with the rows of bones in them, that's fine, but they are not very meaty and they won't work for this particular dish. They need a strip of crackling along the top.

Sticky Asian pork with jasmine rice (feeds 3)

• 1 or 2 ribs per person
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 crushed cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp peanut oil
• 2 tsps Chinese five-spice powder
• Half a tsp of chili powder (optional)
• 1 cup of jasmine rice
• Shallots
• 4 oranges or mandarins

Mix together the garlic, powder(s), hoisin and oil. Squeeze one or the oranges or mandarins and add to the mixture. Keep the two squeezed halves. Coat the pork thoroughly in the mixture and leave for an hour or so, or as long as overnight. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 200C. Squeeze the remaining fruit and arrange the eight halves on a baking paper-lined oven dish, round side up. (Enjoy the fresh juice!) Drain the pork. Sit the pork strips on the fruit, skin-side up. Sprinkle the skin with a tiny bit of fine salt. Bake for about 25 minutes or until skin is crispy and pork is cooked through.

Meanwhile, wash the rice well. then put the rice and 1 and a half cups of water into a saucepan. Bring to the boil, cover, simmer for 8 minutes, turn off heat, leave with lid on for at least 5 to 6 minutes. Stir through the finely sliced shallots.