Chinese Meat Ball Soup - AKA Lion Head Soup

Originally posted May 2009 on my Facebook:

I grew up eating this soup and it is so easy to make I wanted to share it with my friends. The end product is a light broth infused with the sweetness of Napa cabbage and the flavor of the meatballs.

Serves 4-6

You'll need for the meatballs:
1 - 1.5 lbs of ground pork
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 cup of chopped green onions
3 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 eggs
2 tbsp corn starch
1/3 tsp sesame oil (optional)

For the broth:
1 large head of Napa cabbage, chopped into 4 inch pieces
Salt to taste, 1-2 tbsp
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar

Optional: pieces of soft or medium firm tofu, which will puff up luxuriously in the broth

Put 4-6 cups of water in a large pot to boil. When the water hits boil, put in the cabbage and reduce to medium heat. In a large bowl, combine all the meatball ingredients until well mixed. Keep mixing depending on how firm you want the meatballs to be. The more you mix the more elasticity will develop and the harder the meatballs will be.

Heat some oil in a large skillet and prepare to brown the meatballs. I make mine about 2.5 inches in diameter but my mom used to make them 3-4 inches! Hence the name lionheads. But since the smaller meatballs brown better, I suggest the 2.5 inch size. Don't go smaller because then it loses that nice mouth feel of biting into a large meatball floating in sweet broth.

Wet your hands! This is important or the meat will sticking to them! Scoop up the meat and gently but quickly squeeze it out of the top of your fist through your thumb and index finger. This gets rid of air bubbles. Pat the meat blob into a ball and place in skillet. Turn after one sde is brown. Toss the browned meatballs into the pot of cabbage broth. Add the remaining broth seasonings and tofu. Bring back to high boil and reduce to low heat. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Serve with rice! We used to love mixing in the rice as a kid into the broth!

You can sub turkey or chicken for the pork. I don't recommend beef because that would make the broth too rich and fatty. It's meant to be a "clean" broth. Great for when people are sick.

Easy Steamed Chinese Meat Balls

Originally posted February 2009 on my Facebook:

I seem to be posting lots of recipes lately. But it's all because I've been cooking at home more often. Here's a super easy recipe for when you want a fast tasty dinner.The meatballs are pretty low fat and should be golf ball sized.

You'll Need

1- 1/12 lb ground pork (you can sub in ground turkey too)
1/3 jar of Chinese Pickled Cucumbers, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks of green onions, minced
1 tsp rice wine (or mirin)
2 tbsp pickled cucumber liquid

For sauce:
3 tbsp soy sauce
1/3 cup water

To Make:

I usually just toss all the vegetables to be minced into my food processor before add the pickled cucumber, garlic and green onion to the pork. Add in the liquids and mix in a large bowl. Make sure you mix in one direction only to create chewier meatballs.

Make the meatballs by placing about 1 1/2 tbsp of the meat mixture in the palm of your hand and then squeeze the meat through the opening between your thumb and index finger. This gets rid of air bubbles. Then shape the blob into a ball. Place on a lightly greased dish. Pour on the sauce mixture. Make sure the dish is at least 1-2 inches deep to hold the liquids.

Prepare a steamer. If you have a small steaming rack that would fit on the bottom of a large pot, it would be perfect. Just fill the pot with water up to the top of the steaming rack and place the dish with the meatballs on top. Cover the pot with its lid and cook on high for 15 -20 minutes or until meatballs are firm.

If you don't have a steaming rack, you can use one of those vegetable steamers that has holes and just make a little aluminum foil tray for it or use a pie tin (something light weight) to hold the meatballs. I tried the foil trick for steaming fish and it worked like a charm.

Serve over hot rice. Enjoy!

Pressure Cooker Chinese Braised Ham Hocks

Originally posted February 2009 on my Facebook:

This is my grandma's recipe. I refer to it as the Chinese Ossobuco, with pork shank used instead of veal shank. To clarify, the shank is the foreleg section of the animal, not the thigh (ham) or the feet. I prepared this in a pressure cooker, which really sped up the cooking process. If you don't have a pressure cooker, the cooking time would be doubled in a regular pot or a lot longer in a crock pot (which you could then leave unattended).

You'll Need:

2 lbs pork shank with skin intact (but no hairs!), cut into big hunks
2 pieces of sliced ginger with skin on
3 stalks of green onions chopped into 3 sections (minus bulb)
1/2 bottle (1 cup) of oyster flavored sauce (made really with mushrooms...)
1/3 bottle (1 cup) of Shao Shing Cooking Wine
1 cup of water
1 piece of rock sugar (garlic clove sized)

To make:

Chinese ppl always parboil meat prior to braising to clean it. Boil water and place meat into water for 1-2 minutes. Pour off the dirty water. Dry off the meat.

Heat 2-3 table spoons of oil in the large cooking pot you're going to use. Lightly crisp the meat with skin side down. Remove when skin is golden and crispy and reserve on the side. In same pan, drop in the ginger and green onions and let them infuse the oil. Pour in the oyster sauce, wine, water and rock sugar, mix until combined. Let the mixture come to a boil and then add the browned meat back into the pot.

If using a pressure cooker, close the lid and let the pot reacher proper pressure. With my pot, I let the pressure gauge rock for 55 minutes. Then I removed the lid and turned the flame on high to reduce the liquide by about 1/3. The end should be dark brown and glossy gravy over tender meat.

If you're using a regular pot. Follow the same instructions except let mixture come to boil, introduce the meat, reach boil, then reduce to smallest simmer for at least 2 hours covered tightly. After 2 hours, check the meat. It should be falling off the bone. If not, continue cooking. If tender, reduce liquid on open flame.

Best served hot with sauce over steamed rice or thin Chinese noodles (maybe even soba?) with a side of steamed bok choy.

Enjoy!