Chinese Pearl Meatball Cooking Demonstration

This month we were lucky to have Juying do a cooking demonstration for our group!  She showed us how to make a beautiful Chinese Pearl Meatball - a traditional food to serve for the Chinese New Year.  

It's called a pearl meatball because the rice covering the meatball adds a beautiful shimmer to the dish,

 making it elegant and delicious!

The recipe below is a basic recipe to follow, but can be adjusted to taste:

1 cup of soaked glutinous rice (soaked for 2 hours)
1 lb ground pork
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2-3 Tbsp sesame oil
1 spray green onion (chopped)
1/2 can water chestnuts (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 egg
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
Optional: Dried Shitaki mushrooms (3-4) (soaked and chopped)
Optional: Dried shrimp (soaked and chopped)


How to Make a Chinese Pearl Meatball:


1. Soak the rice for 2 hours.


2. Mix the rest of the ingredients with ground pork in a mixing bowl and add 1 to 1.5 cups of water. Mix well and let sit for 30 minutes.

4. Roll the meat into a small ball.

5. Gently roll the meatball in rice to cover the meatball.

6. Place onto a plate that can sit inside of a bamboo steamer.


*If you do not have a bamboo steamer you can steam your meatball in a steamer rack on top of a rice cooker or other steaming system*


7. Bring 1/2 pot of water to boil and place the stacked bamboo steamer on top.  Make sure there's a good seal between the pot and the steamer.


8. Steam for 30 minutes.


9. Let cool and serve.

This dish was delicious and elegant! But even more importantly, it was a great education for everyone there to learn some of the tricks to cooking this traditional Chinese dish.  Thanks to Juying for all of her work and great cooking!