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Braising is also one of my favorite cooking methods besides steaming and stir-frying. Braising is also pretty common in the Chinese kitchen, especially when it comes to meat and vegetable dishes.
Like in typical braising, these meatballs are browned by pan-fried and then braising sauce is poured in to let the meatballs slowly and gently cooked further to absorb flavor. The Chinese likes to use dark soy sauce as one of the ingredients in braising sauce, which explains why the braised meat or anything braised in Chinese dishes are usually dark brown in color.
Braising the meatballs results in a moist and flavorful meatballs. Love this dish and not too much fuss in the kitchen to whip it up either.
BRAISED MEATBALLS
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef (or use pork if you prefer)
- ½ lb of napa cabbage (cut into 3-inch pieces)
- 3 2- inch slices of ginger
- 1 Tbsp of shao xing wine
- 1 Tbsp of dark soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp of corn starch
- Dash of salt
- 1 large egg (beaten)
- 4 stalks of spring onion (cut into 2-inch pieces)
- 2 Tbsp of grape seed oil or oil of your choice
Braising liquid:
- 2 cups water
- 6 Tbsp of dark soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp of soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp rice wine
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, place the ground meat and add in the salt, wine, dark soy sauce, beaten egg and corn starch. Using your clean hand, knead the meat until everything is well mixed. Cover with plastic wrap and eave in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes
- Prepare the braising liquid in a small pot by bringing it to a boil and the sugar dissoves completely. Set aside. When the meat is ready, wet your clean hands with water and shape the meat into about 6-8 large meatballs. Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a large heavy-bottom cast-iron pot if you have one and brown the meatballs until they are brown on all sides and remove and set aside. You'll have some bits and pieces from browning the meat, leave them in. Add in the spring onion and ginger and saute until fragrant. Place the meatballs back into the pot and pour in the braising liquid you prepared earlier. Bring the liquid to a boil and then lower the heat and cover the pot with a lid to let it simmer for about 1 hour
- After 30 minutes of cooking, uncover the lid and add in the napa cabbage on top of the meat balls and cover the lid back and let it cook for another 30 minutes. Serve warm or hot with rice as part of multi-course meal
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