Lion Head Meatballs

I'd always eaten them, but never knew what they were called in English, or Chinese for that matter. Lion Head Meatballs are a Shanghainese dish that are basically made of large pork meatballs with some napa cabbage and glass noodles, or bean vermicelli. Lion Head meatballs aren't made from Lionhead rabbits Kathy!! After doing some searching the best recipe I found was from About.com. I've used some of their recipes before, one of the most memorable ones is the Green Tea Ice Cream, but that's for another post ;)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup canned water chestnuts
• 2 slices minced ginger
• 2 green onions
• 1 large egg
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• Black or white pepper, to taste
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 pound greens, such as spinach or bok choy
• 1 - 2 cups chicken broth, as needed
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil, or to taste

As with all recipes, feel free to create some wiggle room for yourself! These are only guidelines. Personally I used napa cabbage because that's what I've had it with more often.

Ingredients... hmm.. check! Time to start! I didn't really measure much, I just eye balled everything. First I took and peeled some of that ginger you see and grated/minced it. After opening up the can of water chestnuts and draining I did some quick slice and dice on it and added it to the metal bowl I set aside. I diced about 2 or 3 green onions and added it in bowl; make sure you watch it first! Poured some soy sauce, to taste of course, into the mix. Added some salt and pepper and some sesame oil (potent great fresh flavor). Then I just added this big chunk of ground pork butt, I probably had around 1~1.5 lbs or so. I opted to go with two eggs and less corn starch. The eggs will actually help bind the meat together, similarly to how eggs help in American meatloaf. Then I added in the some sugar and some cooking wine. I used Japanese cooking wine, but I don't think it really makes a difference. Since I like sesame seeds, I threw a couple in there as well. Now...

Everything's ready to mix!

Mix mix mix and you get this. You can actually see the yellow color from the egg yolks haha. I used those plastic food handling gloves to keep my hands clean, but it didn't really work. Feel free to get your hands dirty though. It could be a great way to relieve some stress. You know those sand stress balls? Yeah, just like that.


I used two spoons to ball up the meatballs, but next time I'll probably just use my hands.



I used a wok and heated some oil to give these meatballs a quick fry on the outside. I used olive oil, since that's the only oil I have at home, but any oil will do. After you let it brown then flip and brown the other side.


Don't worry if they're not fully cooked since you'll be boiling them later on in chicken broth. You just want to get a nice brown on the outside. Obviously I've got some more meatballs coming. The rest were more reasonably sized. The original recipe says to make them the size of tennis balls lol. That's HUGE O_O. Whatever floats your boat though right?



Here's the plate of all the meatballs. The meat part of the recipe really reminds me of dumpling meat, or even shu mai if I wanted to wrap it in egg wrapper and steam it. I could almost eat these just like this hahaha =P



I cleaned the wok up and then boiled the chopped napa cabbage in some chicken broth, sesame oil, salt, and soy sauce.



Time to add the meatballs! After letting it boil for a bit I added more chicken broth and the rest of the napa cabbage.



I turned the heat down to low and let it simmer for about an hour or so, basically until I couldn't wait anymore and was hungry hehe. One last thing I did was put in the glass noodles. I added in some more chicken broth since some boiled away lol.



Then just serve however you like. I personally like this with some hot bean sauce on top of rice. The meat was a bit bland, so that was disappointing. Next time I'll add more salt to the mix. The napa cabbage and noodles were delicious, as they absorbed the porky flavor and the chicken broth. Personally I enjoy my napa cabbage a bit soggy and soft. If you prefer them with a bit more bite and al dente, then I'd advise adding them later in the cooking process. Bon appetite!








Good puppies! They were behaving really well, so they each got some hehe. Enjoy! If there's anything you want me to try or if you have any comments then go ahead and feel free to leave me one =D