Chinese pearl meatballs (Zhenzhu Wanzi)

Cooking time: 25 minutes | Preparation time: 12 hours and 20 minutes | Serves: 4

Chinese pearl meatballs, written 珍珠丸子, are delicious pork balls coated in rice and steamed. Their name comes from the translucent color of the glutinous rice used for the coating and their spherical shape. Once ready, dip them in soy sauce while still hot. You'll taste the flavor!

Ingredients

• 150g of Arnaboldi Sushi Rice
• 1 tablespoon green curry powder (optional)
• 500g minced pork
• 5 cm fresh ginger root (grated)
• 1 clove of garlic (grated)
• 2/3 fresh spring onions (stem included, chopped with a knife)
• 4 dried porcini mushrooms (soaked in boiling water, squeezed and chopped)
• 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 pinch of fine salt
• 2 tablespoons of Arnaboldi soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon potato starch ( you may need more depending on the meat you use)
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil (optional)
• white pepper powder to taste

Preparation

Rinse the Arnaboldi sushi rice under running water in a fine-mesh strainer until the water runs clear.
Place the rice in a bowl with a generous spoonful of curry powder and cover with warm water. The curry powder is optional, both in terms of type and whether or not to use it.
Place the bowl in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, prepare the meatball mixture by mixing the minced pork with the sugar, fine salt, dried porcini mushrooms soaked in boiling water and chopped with a knife, chopped spring onions, stems included, peeled and grated ginger, grated garlic clove (or crushed with a garlic press), soy sauce, pepper, sesame oil, and starch.

Depending on how tender the meat is, the starch may not be enough, in which case more should be added, but only a little at a time.

Form small meatballs of about 25/30 grams each.

Drain the rice from the resting water, fluff it with a fork and use it to coat the meatballs.

Steam cook the meatballs thus composed, placing them in bamboo baskets, covered with perforated sheets of baking paper (or the special perforated sheets, suitable for steam cooking).
The steamer can be made with just water, or you can create a broth flavored with the same herbs used for the meatball filling. Blogger Profumo di limoni, who created the recipe for us, made a quick broth with curry, ginger, and spring onion peel.

Cooking time depends on how large you made the meatballs, from a minimum of 15 minutes to a maximum of 25 minutes.

The meatballs, which should be eaten hot, can be enjoyed as they are or dipped in soy sauce.

Recipe by

Scent of lemons