Hot meal for a hot day: Chinese spare ribs and Kung Pao noodles

A quick and tasty meal that doesn't heat up the kitchen. Inspired by a recipe in Everyday Food, June 2008.

Shopping list
1 watermelon
1.5 lbs boneless country style pork ribs
1 pkg Simply Asia Kung Pao noodle bowl
1 9 oz pkg Green Giant Simply Steam sugar snap peas (frozen)
5 spice powder
cayenne
hoisin sauce

Put the watermelon in the freezer when you get home from the store.

Wash and trim the pork and pat dry. The rest of this meal goes really fast, so take the time here to do a good job trimming. I didn't and ended up with pretty greasy ribs. One good way to get rid of a lot of fat is rip or cut the meat apart at the fat seams and then trim the pieces with scissors.

Mix 1 T 5 spice powder and 1/8 t cayenne (more if you like it spicy). Add salt and pepper. Rub the ribs with the mix and place in a glass pie plate.

Put the pork (uncovered) in the microwave and cook for 20 minutes. Check for doneness - pork should be opaque throughout. When done, remove from oven, slather with hoisin sauce, tent with foil and let sit.

While the pork is cooking, put the peas in a large glass bowl. While the pork is resting, microwave the peas for 3 minutes. Add the noodles, the sauce and the freeze dried vegetables, 1 T water and stir. Microwave for 3 more minutes and stir. Sprinkle with the peanut topping.

Serve the pork and the noodle dish with tamari on the side. For dessert, serve sliced watermelon (it should have cooled off pretty well).

This meal's virtues are: it's speed, it's not too expensive, one can find all ingredients at Nilssen's (except tamari and 5 spice powder), it doesn't heat up the kitchen, it's easy to clean up after. Made enough for me and Dan and Dan's lunch (a little shy on the noodle dish).