aromatic steamed beef meatballs
2 min readFeeling tense and dreading the idea of having to cook dinner? If so, this is the dish for you. The best part of putting these meatballs together is that you literally get to throw them around, releasing any pent up frustrations in the process It’s this very technique that gives Chinese meatballs such a special mouthfeel. In contrast to Italian-style meatballs, the hallmark of these ow yook yuen is a surprisingly daan(springy) and waat(smooth)texture.
Makes 400g lean beef mince 34 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 large egg 40g water chestnuts, drained and roughly diced fresh coriander, roughly chopped vegetable oil, for oiling Worcestershire sauce, to serve for the marinade 1 tbsp cornflour youid 4% tsp ground white pepper tsp granulated sugar 12 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine 34 tsp sesame oil tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for oiling 1 tsp light soy sauce 12 tbsp finely diced ginger 1 Use one hand to fold together the beef, bicarbonate of soda and egg in a large bowl until well com-bined. Form the beef into a ball inside the bowl, then pick up the ball and hold it about 30cm away from the bowl. Daat the meat, which means to throw it with force into the bowl so that you heara crisp slapping sound. Have some fun daat-ing the meat 30 times.
Add the water chestnuts, coriander, 2 tablespoons water and all the marinade ingredients to the meat. Use a pair of chopsticks to vigorously stir the contents of the bowl in one direction (e.g. clock- wise). Notice how the mince starts to take on a smoother and paste-like consistency. At this point,daat the mixture 10 more times. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
To prepare the meatballs, wet your hands and roll the mixture into 16 balls. Try to compact the balls as tightly as you can so that they will retain their shape while steaming.
4 Lightly oil a steam-proof plate. Steam the meatballs in three batches over vigorously boiling water for 8 minutes per batch. Devour each batch as soon as it comes out of the steamer with a generous splash of Worcestershire sauce on top.
