All about pearl balls, the fuzzy Chinese banquet snack

This is what happens when sticky rice rises to the challenge.

Get into this sticky situation Source: Camellia Aebischer

At first glance, you might wonder why these fuzzy meatballs are named after a smooth shiny trinket. Unsurprisingly, the pearl part of the name is not a reference to the round meatball that’s hidden beneath a woolly layer of sticky rice, it’s named for the rice itself.

Pearl rice is just another name for glutinous/sticky/mochi/sweet rice. For this special occasion dish, rice is first soaked and drained, then meatballs are rolled in the rice before steaming. As they steam the rice cooks and comes away slightly from the meatball to create the fuzzy effect.

The wow factor of opening up a steamer of pearl balls lends them well to being a special occasion dish. They often appear at banquet dinners, birthdays, or Lunar New Year celebrations in the Hunan/Hubei region of central China.

Watching a recent episode of The Cook Up, I was excited to see Aaron Chen make this dish and share fond memories of eating these as a kid, something I also hold close. Naturally, I had to make some too and take a trip down memory lane. You can use short or long-grain sticky rice, either is fine.

It looks like a long list but you really just put it all in a bowl and mix. Source: Camellia Aebischer

Pearl balls

Serves 4

In a medium-sized bowl soak

• 1 cup sticky rice

For around 2 hours, though I have pushed it to half an hour with good results in the past.

Then, in a separate large bowl combine:

• 500 g pork mince
• 6 water chestnuts, finely chopped
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, stalks discarded, caps finely chopped
• 5 spring onions, white ends only, finely chopped
• 3 tsp ginger, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp cold water
• ½ tsp ground white pepper
• 1 tsp chicken stock powder
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 2 tsp cornflour

Mix well with your hands, massaging the meat to form a paste, like sausage mince. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

Drain your rice and place in a bowl, then working with about 1 tbsp of mince at a time, roll meatballs, then coat evenly in soaked rice.

Line a large steamer with cabbage leaves or cloth and steam for 15-20 minutes. I used a large double-decker steamer so if you don’t have one, you may need to steam in two batches.

Just look at how cute they are. Source: Camellia Aebischer

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