By Phyllis
Louise Harris
September
2015
When
people talk to me about Chinese food they usually mention their favorite dish.
Egg rolls, dumplings, sweet and sour pork, sesame chicken, fried rice and chow
mein are some of the choices that come up most often. The trouble is there are
thousands of Chinese dishes and we only seem to focus on just a few.
Even the
huge menu at Shuang Cheng does not begin to list them all. And dim sum
restaurants still fall short on the choices that could be included. My own
childhood world of chow mein and chop suey from the Nankin or John’s Place was
so limited that is all I thought was available. And, then I went to the China
Institute in New York City and had a culinary awakening.
In the 14
years I spent in cooking classes at the Institute with the talented Florence
Lin I probably cooked more than 300 Chinese dishes and tasted another 200
dishes on my travels through China. I still have the recipes with class notes
and sometimes I just page through them to remember the fun of discovering
marvelous classics or remembering that pig snout was not my favorite flavor.
Then there were pigs’ ears, chicken feet and, of course, intestines as well as
chicken brains and every part of every creature imaginable. It always amuses me
when people say they want to have “authentic” Chinese food as I wonder if they
really mean all the parts that are used in traditional Chinese cooking.
But, one
of my favorite dishes actually came from a Chinese restaurant in New York City
that has since closed, the House of Tu. It became so popular so quickly that
the owner was lured away to Texas where he was set up in his own restaurant
there. The dish is pearl balls.
They
looked appealing on the menu and even more interesting when they arrived. Here
were delicious pork meatballs coated in sticky rice and steamed for two
wonderful bites of flavor. Dipped in a Hunan pepper sauce, the mellow ball took
on a spicy accent. When I asked Florence about making them in class she came up
with a recipe the following week and they have been a favorite in my household
ever since. They are easy to make and freeze and reheat well so I usually make
two or three recipes at a time and have them on hand for easy meals or
appetizers. Unfortunately, I have only seen them on one menu in the Twin
Cities. But we did feature them in “Asian Flavors” along with a photo in a
bamboo steamer basket. Here is the recipe:
Pearl
Balls
From
“Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesotans since 1875”
By Florence
Lin, adapted by ACAI
1 cup
glutinous (sweet) rice
1 pound
lean pork, ground (or ground beef plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil)
1 egg
1
tablespoon cornstarch combined with 1 tablespoon water and 1 tablespoon white
wine
1 teaspoon
salt
¼ teaspoon
sugar
1
tablespoon Chinese light soy sauce
4 fresh
water chestnuts, peeled and minced (or canned water chestnuts)
1
tablespoon minced scallion, white part only
vegetable
oil
Hunan
Pepper Sauce or other Chinese hot sauce
1.
Rinse
the rice several times and cover with cold water to soak for at least 1 hour.
Drain well and spread rice on a clean cloth or paper towels to dry for at least
1 hour.
2.
In
a large bowl, combine the pork, egg, and cornstarch mixture, mixing well. Add
the salt, sugar and soy sauce and stir in one direction with a chopstick until
the meat holds together. The texture will change from ground pieces to little
strings of meat all pointed in one direction. Add water chestnuts and scallions
and continue to stir. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3.
Set
up a wok with racks for steaming. Fill the wok about 1/3 full of water and
bring to a boil.
4.
Lightly
oil the inside base of each rack. Moisten your hands with water and scoop up
about 1½ tablespoons of the pork mixture, rolling it into a ball about 1 inch
in diameter. Roll each pork ball in the dried rice to completely cover the meat. Set the balls
on the steamer rack about ½ inch apart. When the rack is filled place it over
the boiling water, cover and steam over medium high heat for 20 minutes. (If
you are using bamboo steamer racks, steam two racks at a time.) Remove the
balls to a platter or individual plates. Repeat with the remaining meat and
rice. Serve hot with pepper sauce.
Note: Pearl balls freeze well and may be reheated.
Place the cooked and cooled balls on an oiled cookie sheet and freeze until
firm. Store the frozen pearl balls in freezer bags up to 6 weeks. Defrost at
room temperature and steam to reheat approximately 8 minutes until heated
through.
_____________________________________
Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com.
Buy online: Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875
Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0
_____________________________________
Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com.
Buy online: Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875
Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0
