Chinese Pearl Balls
These chinese appetizers are so christened from how their shell of glutinous rice turns to pearly grains when cooked. These chinese pearl balls are favorite mainstays in dimsum houses but can easily be made at home with a little bit of rolling and…quite a bit of time.
For successful pearl balls, glutinous or “sweet” rice need to soak in water for 5 to 8 hours. The inner filling was my basic recipe for chicken-filled wontons but the couple of modifications here and there I did to the mixture definitely kicked these balls up a notch.
Makes 36 Pearl Balls
Ingredients
1 cup glutinous rice
1 lb chicken or pork, ground
1 green onion, finely chopped
6 dried chinese black mushrooms (shitake)
1/2 cup water chestnuts, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 thumb-sized fresh ginger root, peeled and finely minced
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp pepper
Procedure
Soak glutinous rice in enough water to cover for 5 hours. Drain well and using paper towels, pat grains dry. Set aside.
Reconstitute mushrooms in hot water for 40 minutes to 1 hour. Discard stems and chop the caps finely.
In a bowl, combine all ingredients except the rice. Form around a teaspoonful of meat mixture into 1-inch diameter balls.
Spread rice in a wide dish or in a baking sheet. Roll meat balls, one at a time, in the bed of rice grains, coating them completely with the grains. Arrange coated balls on a wax-lined sheet. At this stage they can be refrigerated or frozen for later use.
Set up steamer with water. Bring around 1-inch of water into a boil. Arrange balls on a plate that will comfortably fit in steamer, or, alternatively, layer cabbage leaves on steamer rack and arrange pearl balls on top of leaves. Cover and steam until rice and meat are cooked, around 30 minutes. Serve with soy sauce.
Soy Sauce Dipping Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tbsps rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp chili garlic sauce
1 tsp minced scallions
1/4 tsp sugar
Recipes with an Asian Flair in The CookMobile Archive:
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Oh, yum! These look great! I’ve never made rice balls and you’ve totally inspired me to give it a shot.
+Jessie
a.k.a. The Hungry Mouse
p.s. I left a reply to you about the squaw bread on my blog. I’m very interested in finding out more about it. Never had it before…
Hey these look like my kind of appetizer. I will have to try these. I am the bad lady at any party that parks herself by the appetizer table and totally stuffs herself! Great website you have here, I will have to spend more time looking around!
These balls are my absolute dimsum favorites and I am glad I learned how to make them. Thanks for the visit, Jessie and Robin.
my dad used to cooked these delicious recipe since high school and i would like to reminisce by trying it out today. im a filipina so it’s unusual to try chinese food if you’re not familiar with it but i did. thanks to my dad. pearl balls are terrific as an appetizer or a meal by itself.
Interesting, I remember my father as a pro in the kitchen too! He beats my mother’s cooking everytime. Enjoy the recipe.