Stewed pork meatballs and escarole with crisped shiitakes
Ragout and stew
This recipe is an adaptation of a recipe for Lion’s Head Meatballs from Pei Mei’s Chinese cookbook. Pei Mei was an amazing female chef in Taiwan in the 1970s and my mom learned to cook many dishes using this book. My mom has passed on her set of Pei Mei’s cookbooks, which are now out of print, to me. The original version of this recipe is the most authentic Chinese dish I make. It has my dad’s seal of approval for not only how to make it, but also the taste and texture of the final product. I’ve modified the standard by using escarole instead of napa cabbage and adding the water chestnuts and shiitakes for texture. However, I didn’t mess with the technique. It is old school and makes me feel like I’m following the traditions of centuries of Chinese cooking. You might ask “why stir in only one direction?” or “why throw it back into the bowl?”…I don’t know. But I do know that it is clearly the technique that makes these meatballs amazingly light and tender. This is home-style Chinese cooking. I hope you enjoy it. - monkeymom
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