Lion Head Meatballs

In the spirit of Chinese New Year, I made a Chinese traditional dish at home last night. A braised pork meatball in a soy based sauce with napa cabbage and glass noodles. If you're wondering why I didnt't make this dish on New Years Day, it's because my parents are buddhist and I grew up eating vegetarian meals on the day of. But also because I was down in Chinatown having two seperate dinners with friends... That's just how much of a fattie I am.

After talking on the phone with mom for about an hour about the correct way to make these Lion Head Meatballs, I decided that I had absorbed as much as I could and I would wing the rest. However, she made sure to emphasize the two most important parts. Water chestnuts are necessary and re-chopping the already ground meat is essential, both for the correct texture.


Ingredients:

1 lb fatty ground pork
1/2 head napa cabbage
1 small package of glass noodles
1/3 cup water chestnuts, chopped
1/2 inch knob ginger
4 scallions
1 egg
1 T sesame oil
2 T vegetable oil
5 T soy sauce
3 T ShaoXing wine (dry sherry)
2 1/2 T cornstarch
1 can chicken stock (14oz)
4 cloves garlic
1/2 inch rock sugar (1 T brown sugar)
Salt & Pepper

Put the ginger and scallions in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add 1/3 cup of water to the mixture and set to the side to allow flavor release into water. Chop the ground meat with a cleaver for 20-30 minutes until the meat has a paste like consistency. Then strain the scallion/ginger infused water into the meat and incorporate with a little more dicing.

Put the meat into the bowl and mix in 2 tablespoons of the soy, 1 tablespoon of the ShaoXing wine, and 2 tablesoons of the cornstarch.  In a seperate bowl slightly beat an egg with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper. Do not over beat the egg. Mix the egg mixture and sesame oil into the meat with your hands.

Heat a pan with the vegetable oil over medium high heat and start forming meatballs in your hand about the size of your palm. Toss the meatball from one hand to the other with a little force. This helps give the meatball nice chew besides the soft fall apart quality (according to my mom). Then start placing each formed ball in the pan. You should get 6 meatballs from this recipe. Do 3 at a time in the pan, giving space between each meatball as they brown. Give each side 3-4 minutes.

In a round bottom pot (like the Asian clay pots) arrange the largest napa cabbage leaves on the bottom of the pot coming up the sides. If they are too long cut them in half. Place the dry noodles in pot with the garlic and the rock sugar. Traditionally thin glass noodles are used in this recipes but I find they fall apart and dissolve after the cooking process so I use much thicker glass noodles. Here is where preference comes into play. In my mind, recipes are guidelines that should be Place the meat balls on top of the noodles.

Pour the remaining soy sauce and ShaoXing wine over the meatballs. Then add the can of chicken stock to the pot and fill the can with water and add that too. If you have any leave napa cabbage left, you can place those on top of the meatballs. Bring the pot to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

Mix the last 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch with a splash of water and pour the slurry into the simmering pot. Cover for another 5 minutes and turn off heat. Serve hot.