The tender and moist pork meatballs are covered with gooey rice. Fun to cook and great tasting! When I was a kid, both of my parents worked and neither really had time to cook complicated things for dinner. So my grandma used to make meat dishes for us, to free my mom from spending time in the kitchen after a long, busy day. She would cook various dishes in large batches, transfer them to small bowls to cool, bag and freeze them in meal-sized batches, then pass them to my parents every few weeks. She was very proud of her cooking, and for good reason. Her braised pork ribs, braised pork feet, beef and tendon stew, and lion’s head meatballs were amazing. They tasted much better than what you’d get in a restaurant. Every morning, my mom would take out a prepared meat dish to thaw, then reheat it by steaming right before dinner. At the same time, she’d cook some rice in the rice cooker and prepare one or two stir fried veggie dishes and a simple soup. The whole dinner usually took 30 to 40 minutes to get ready. Just like this, I grew up with very satisfying and nutritious meals every day.
Among the meat dishes my grandma made, the pearl balls are one of my favorites. We also call them snow meatballs in my family. They’re basically steamed pork meatballs, covered in sticky rice. The sticky rice is cooked until translucent, as if covered in snow. The meatballs are very tender and juicy, with a rich umami from the dried shrimp, toasted sesame oil, and fresh herbs. The glutinous rice is soaked with meat juice. Rich and gooey, we didn’t need any dipping sauce to enjoy them. When it comes to making pearl balls, I’m obsessed with flavor and stick to the ingredients my grandma used to use. That’s the reason you’ll find this version has a longer ingredient list than any other recipe out there. The recipe also calls for pre-soaking the glutinous rice and dried shrimp a day ahead, instead of just a few hours. I tried soaking the rice for less time, but the finished meatballs just didn’t taste right.
On the other hand, I took a shortcut in order to make the cooking process less tedious – I used a food processor. You can make this dish without one, but a food processor will save tons of chopping time and give you perfectly consistent meatballs.
I have attached numerous cooking notes at the end of the recipe, so I won’t repeat them here in the post. However, I do want to emphasize that you need a relatively fatty grind of meat to make the dish work. I tried using ground turkey, and I won’t say it tasted bad, but it was a bit off for me. Just like with a good sausage, you need 25% to 30% fat content to make it GOOD. Hope you enjoy the dish!
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it once you’ve tried it, and take a picture and tag it #omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with. Cheers, friends!
