{"id":2842,"date":"2014-10-15T08:45:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T14:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=2842"},"modified":"2014-10-15T08:49:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T14:49:09","slug":"favorites-pearl-balls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=2842","title":{"rendered":"Favorites: Pearl Balls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Pearl Balls&#8221; are pork meat balls, seasoned with ginger and soy sauce, rolled in soaked rice, and then steamed. I forget when I first discovered these treats, but I always go back to my 1968 <em>The Cooking of China<\/em> Time-Life Books cookbook when I get a hankering for these. (I have admitted here before that I love meat balls so my current hankering isn&#8217;t out of character.)<\/p>\n<p>The recipe below is adapted for my tastes. I believe the fresh ginger and water chestnuts to be essential in Pearl Balls, and I buy the best quality ground pork that I can find. These can be used as appetizers or to round out a Chinese-style meal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pearl Balls<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>serves about 4 as part of a Chinese-style meal<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1\/2 cup rice, preferably a glutinous or starchy rice like a sushi rice<\/li>\n<li>1 pound ground pork<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup finely chopped water chestnuts<\/li>\n<li>1 green onion, finely chopped<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup finely chopped mushrooms (use fresh white or shitake mushrooms, or reconstituted dried shitake mushrooms)<\/li>\n<li>1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 teaspoon sugar<\/li>\n<li>1-2 tablespoons soy sauce<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 teaspoon salt (adjust this amount to your own taste)<\/li>\n<li>1 lightly beaten egg<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Start the rice soaking in a cup of water before you begin the Pearl Balls. About an hour&#8217;s soak is enough.<\/p>\n<p>Combine the pork with the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Form the mixture into 1-inch meat balls.<\/p>\n<p>Drain the soaked rice through a strainer and lay it out on a paper towel. Roll one pork ball at a time in the rice, pressing down gently but firmly as you roll so that the rice grains adhere to the meat.<\/p>\n<p>Steam the pork balls for about 30 minutes. I use an electric steamer; a bamboo steamer set in a wok also works.<\/p>\n<p>Serve at once! (Although, I enjoyed one of these cold out of the refrigerator the next day.)<\/p>\n<p>Preparing the Pearl Balls:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/pearlballs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2845\" src=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/pearlballs.jpg\" alt=\"pearl balls\" width=\"450\" height=\"252\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/pearlballs.jpg 450w, http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/pearlballs-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a>Cooked Pearl Balls along with <a title=\"250 Cookbooks: The Wide World of Fillo\" href=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=2808\">Egg Rolls in Phyllo Dough<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/eggrollsandpearlballs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2824\" src=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/eggrollsandpearlballs.jpg\" alt=\"Egg Rolls and Pearl Balls\" width=\"450\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/eggrollsandpearlballs.jpg 450w, http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/eggrollsandpearlballs-300x226.jpg 300w, http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/eggrollsandpearlballs-397x300.jpg 397w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Pearl Balls&#8221; are pork meat balls, seasoned with ginger and soy sauce, rolled in soaked rice, and then steamed. I forget when I first discovered these treats, but I always go back to my 1968 The Cooking of China Time-Life &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=2842\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,24,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appetizers","category-favorites","category-main-dishes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2842"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2848,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2842\/revisions\/2848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}