After watching Kylie Kwong make this recently on her programme, tonight I made braised Lion's Head with bok choy in a claypot. I kept it very simple; minced meat marinated with light soy, Chinese cooking wine, white pepper, sesame oil, dash oyster sauce and a pinch of sugar. Added some sliced shallots and mixed them into the meat mixture. Roughly shape them into even sized balls and pan fry till browned. Half the meat balls became dinner for my kids and the other half for the stew. Kylie's recipe has grated ginger and spring onions added into the meat mixture.
The claypot was lightly 'seasoned' with a bit of oil the meat had been fried in, garlic, Chinese cooking wine, light and dark soy. The pot was lined with vegs, then topped with meatballs and more vegs was added.
Here is the stew after 15 minutes over a very low flame.
After half an hour, I tasted it and it was awfully bland and lacked flavour/taste. What next? Half a teaspoon of chicken stock, quarter teaspoon of five spice powder, a splash of cooking wine and another pinch of sugar was added and it made a huge difference in taste. I also added a corn starch solution to thicken the gravy at this stage.
And after 20 mins, here is the dish; it's cooling in the kitchen and soon I will put it into the fridge for tomorrow night's dinner.
I hope my kids will like the meat ball stew. (On reflection, maybe the vegs should be added tomorrow to retain crunchiness - oh well..)..
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