Thai Savoury Pork Ribs with Snake Beans

This recipe although requires a number of ingredients and a bit of prep work, is well worth it.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 675g Pork Spare ribs or Belly of Pork (Time saving tip: in the frozen pork section there is a pack of frozen pork labelled Sweet and Sour pork, basically it's pork with some fat on it that's been pre-cut. Use this, it's quite tasty and tender.) If you don't like pork, sub with chicken.
  
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 150g snake beans, or fine green or runner beans, cut into 5cm lengths
• 2 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
• 2 red chillies, finely sliced, to garnish.

For the Chilli Paste

• 3 dried red chillies, seeded and soaked
• 4 shallots, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
  (For the above 3 ingredients, you could get away with bottled minced chilli that already has shallots and garlic in them. And then add a couple of extra fesh garlic/shallots if you wish)
• 1 tsp chopped galangal (if you cook a lot of thai food, keep some sliced galangal in the freezer, ready to use).
• 1 stalk lemon grass, chopped (lemon grass also freezes really well, I always have some in the freezer).
• 6 black peppercorns (just sub with ground black pepper)
• 1 tsp shrimp paste/belachan
• 2 tbsp dried shrimp, rinsed
  

1. Put all the ingredients for the chilli paste in a mortar and grind together with a pestle until it forms a thick paste.
2. Slice and chop the spare ribs (or belly pork) into 4cm lengths.
3. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the pork and fry for about 5 minutes, until lightly browned.
4. Stir in the chilli paste and continue to cook for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly to stop the paste from sticking to the pan.
5. Add the water, cover and simmer for 7-10 minutes or until the spare ribs are tender. Season with palm sugar and fish sauce.
6. Mix in the snake beans and kaffir lime leaves and fry until the beans are cooked. Serve garnished with sliced red chillies.