Chinese Sticky Rice Meatballs
Seasoned ground pork is formed into balls, rolled in soaked sticky rice and steamed until the rice grains puff. Chinese sticky rice meatballs make a delicious dim sum dish.My best tip for making this dish? Don't take short cuts with the soaking and marinating time. The rice needs to absorb water before it goes into the steamer to cook properly. The meatball mixture benefits tremendously from long hours of marinating.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sticky rice
For the meatballs
- 300 grams ground pork, with at least 20% fat
- 2 tablespoons finely sliced scallions
- ¼ cup finely chopped carrot
- ½ teaspoon grated garlic
- ½ teaspoon grated ginger
- 2 shiitake, caps only, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- ½ teaspoon sesame seed oil
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
Instructions
Soak the sticky rice
- Place the rice in a glass or ceramic bowl.
- Pour in enough water so that there is an inch of water above the surface of the rice.
- Cover the bowl loosely and allow the rice to soak in the fridge for at least eight hours.
Prepare the meatball mixture
- In a bowl, mix together the ground pork, carrot, scallions, shiitake, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper.
- In another bowl, mix the soy sauce, rice wine, oyster sauce, sesame seed oil, sugar and cornstarch to make a thin paste.
- Pour the starch mixture over the ground pork mixture. Mix well.
- Cover the bowl and allow to marinate in the fridge for at least four hours (see notes after the recipe).
Make the sticky rice meatballs
- Drain the sticky rice in a colander positioned over a bowl. Leave to drain while you make the meatballs.
- Using a small ice cream scoop or teaspoon, scoop enough of the ground pork mixture to make two-inch meatballs.
- Roll each meatball in the drained sticky rice, pressing the rice grains onto the entire surface of the balls.
- Line two steamer baskets with non-stick paper (see notes after the recipe).
- Place the rice-coated meatballs in the paper-lined steamer baskets, about an inch apart to allow space for the rice to expand.
- Steam over medium heat for 30 to 35 minutes.
- Serve the meatballs with chili oil sauce on the side for dipping.
Notes
For convenience, we let the ground pork marinate for the same length of time that the rice grains require to soak up water to plump up.
How many steamer baskets you need to prepare depends on the size of the steamer.
To avoid pools of condensation from collecting around the sticky rice meatballs during steaming, cut several small holes through the non-stick paper.
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