Lion’s Head Meatballs (狮子头); Pearl Rice Meatballs

Gigantic but tender pork meatballs; serve over rice as a main course dish.

Source: Omnivore’s Cookbook

INGREDIENTS

• 500 grams (1 pound) ground pork (lean fat ratio 7:3)
• 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or Japanese sake)
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 1/2 cup minced scallion (or green onion)
• 1 tablespoons cornstarch
• 12-15 water chestnuts, finely chopped (generate about 1 cup)
• 3 eggs
• 100 grams (1 cup) panko (Japanese style breadcrumb)
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil)

Instructions 

1. Place ground pork in a bowl and mix in 4 Tbs water with a spatula. Add wine, both soy sauces, salt, sugar, ginger, scallions, and cornstarch. Mix well.
2. Add chestnuts and eggs, mix well.
3. Add panko, mix well. Add sesame oil, mix well.
4. Heat oil in a heavy skillet. Form meatballs of 1/3 c each and brown on all sides in skillet, then set aside in a pan or dish. (I can fit 7-8 in either a shallow blue dish OR an 8” cake pan.)
5. Heat water in a steamer and steam meatballs 40 min per batch. (Original chef says you can stack the meatballs but I haven’t tried it.)
6. Serve over rice, or freeze. Reheat either by steaming OR 30 seconds intervals in the microwave.

Notes: 

• I’ve been grinding my own mix for this – a minimum of 70-30 pork shoulder to pork belly. You can either ask your meat counter to run your meat through the grinder for you (Wegmans is particularly nice about doing butchery things for me), or else chop into chunks and run it through a food processor. (Haven’t tried the food processor model but Cuisinart can do anything.)
• Update: cube meat. Freezer 15 min. Run through food processor on pulse. Works *great*
• I reduced the salt to 1 tsp (from 3) because it was so salty on it own. Interestingly enough, the salty taste is mitigated if you eat it over rice.

Pearl Rice Meatball instructions:

1. Soak 2 cups of short grain sweet rice 3 hours to overnight.
2. Prepare meat mixture.
3. Start heating water in a stacking steamer. You’ll need 25 minutes worth.
4. Drain rice. Using spoons, scoop golfball size meatballs and roll them in rice to coat. Place in a serving dish or cake pan small enough to fit in your steamer basket. Repeat until filled.
5. Steam meatballs 25 min. Serve immediately, or cool and wrap or freeze for later.