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Lion's Head Meatballs

Lion's Head Meatballs

Fluffy, tender, flavourful pork meatballs are nestled into a delicious broth, bok choy and cabbage to simmer until tender.  Serve as is or over rice or noodles, and you will have made many bellies very happy!

Course Main Course
Cuisine Chinese
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

Meatballs

  • 1.5 lbs ground pork 80% lean, 20% fat / 70% lean, 30% fat
  • 4 bulbs scallions, chopped small
  • 1 tbsp ginger grated or minced
  • 1 ½ tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce or tamari
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • ½ tsp coarse sea salt if using kosher salt increase it to 3/4 tsp
  • 1 large shallot finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli pepper halved with veins and seeds removed
  • 2-3 tsp arrowroot powder + more for dusting
  • 1 egg
  • 1-3 tbsp water or chicken/veggie stock

Braising mix:

  • 3 thin slices ginger
  • 3 scallions root and dead green ends removed, diced to large sections (about 2-3 inch)
  • the other half of the red chilli pepper see above
  • 3 cloves of garlic skins removed and crushed
  • 4-5 halved baby bok choy
  • 1/4 one whole napa cabbage or half of one whole savoy cabbage separate the stems from leaves, cut into largish pieces.
  • 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • 2 tbsp coconut aminos
  • 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • Coarse sea salt lightly sprinkle over cabbage
  • Avocado oil/ghee to pan-fry the meatballs (to keep it paleo)

Instructions

Meatballs

  1. Add all the meatball ingredients together in a large bowl, with the exception of the chilli pepper and the liquid.

  2. Take one half of the red chilli pepper and finely mince it. Add it to the mixture.
  3. Use your hands to gently mix and press the ground meat in circular motion until the ground pork becomes almost like a soft paste-ish texture.
  4. Optional, add 1 tbsp water/stock at a time to the mixture to keep it moist during mixing. Use up to 3 tbsp per 1.5 lbs ground meat.
  5. Before making your meatballs, take a small section (a pattie about the size of a quarter) and sauté it. Taste it. You like the way it tastes? Great, move on to making the meatballs. If not, add more salt or pepper etc.

  6. Form about 12 2-inch size meatballs. I ensure that they are all the same size by gently patting down the mixture in the bowl so that the top is level. Then use the side of your hand to score it into four equal sections. Then you know that each quarter section will make three meatballs. I find that periodically wetting my palms helps the meatballs from sticking to my hands.

  7. Place them all onto a parchment or wax paper lined baking sheet.
  8. Using a small sieve, lightly dust each meatball with a bit more arrowroot powder. Use both hands to gently toss the meatballs from one hand to the other again so that the arrowroot powder will coherent well and spread evenly with the meatballs.
  9. Heat 1 ½ tbsp avocado/ghee (or grapeseed oil) in a heavy bottomed dutch oven or wok over medium-high heat, when hot, lower the heat to medium. Carefully sear the meatballs on all sides, until the surface is golden brown but not cooked through. Do this in batches so not to overcrowd the skillet. Set aside. If needed, add more oil for the remaining batches.

Braising Liquid

  1. In the same dutch oven or wok (cleaning out any burnt bits) add 1 tbsp more oil.

  2. Sauté 3 thin slices ginger, scallions, remaining half of the chilli pepper, and the crushed garlic over medium-high heat with a bit salt until fragrant (about 10 seconds).

  3. Place the bok choy, all over the sautéed aromatics, as well as any stem pieces of the napa cabbage.  You can also save some of the smaller bok choy leaves (the ones with less heavy stem) for the next step.  This will keep them from wilting too much.

    At first it may look like there is too much room being taken up by the bok choy, how on earth will the meatballs fit?  Don't worry.

    Stir the greens till they just start to wilt.  They will cook down just enough to make room for the meatballs.

  4. Add meatballs on top of the greens. Add the remaining cabbage pieces around and over the meatballs.  Some of the bok choy leaves can be added here as well.

  5. Pour the remaining braising mix (chicken stock/coconut aminos/sesame oil) over everything, and season with a pinch of coarse sea salt over cabbage. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to low to a gentle simmer. Close with a lid. Check occasionally to ensure that a gentle simmer is happening.

  6. Half braise and half steam the meatballs and cabbage until the meatballs are completely cooked through and the cabbage turns soft. This should take between 40 and 45 minutes, depending on the thickness of cabbage stems.

  7. Serve by placing some meatballs and bok choy and cabbage in a bowl. Drizzle the braising broth over this. You can also serve rice or noodles with it.
  8. Drizzle the braising broth over meatballs and cabbage. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

I say that this feeds four.  It could easily feed six, depending on how hungry ones are.

If you want to freeze some of these, keep the ones you want to cook with right away off the baking sheet. Place the remaining meatballs on the baking sheet into the freezer. Once frozen, transfer the meatballs to a freezer bag and label. These will keep in the freezer for a couple of months.

You could replace the cabbage with more bok choy.  It doesn't have to be baby bok choy.  A variety is fun.  Just make sure that you have enough for the bottom and to cover the meatballs.  More is better than too little.  They will wilt and taste amazing.  The ones on top will wilt less, so make sure they don't have thick stems attached- use those pieces for the bottom layer.

Recipe inspired by 'Salt n Pepper Here' as well as 'I Heart Umami'  Links above in blog.