Thermotwinning: Taiwanese Rice Balls

Sunday, 5 June 2016

Taiwanese Rice Balls

This is my mum's recipe for Taiwanese Rice Balls! These are soooo much easier than it looks and look AMAZE-BALLS!!!

These are great to eat with baby cos lettuce leaves as a healthy main meal, can also be served as an impressive entree, a cocktail style party food, and can also make for a very impressive lunchbox meal!

Taiwanese Rice Balls

Water chestnuts can be bought from Coles/Woolies - usually in a 230 gram tin. I have put 100 grams in the list of ingredients which is approximately half of the tin (and freeze the other half for the next time you make these).

Fish paste can be bought from your local Chinese grocery shop - scroll down to the bottom of this page for a photo of the fish paste used. You can also make your own with certain types of fish - here is a good Thermomix recipe to make your own fish paste (Steps 1 to 3 and use 330 grams for this recipe).

These rice balls taste like very moist Chinese meat balls usually served with noodle soup, with a little bit of crunch from the water chestnuts, and added texture from the rice coating. They are delicious served warm but also taste fantastic at room temp or cold from the fridge. They are great served with a dipping sauce i.e sweet chilli sauce.

TAIWANESE RICE BALLS

Ingredients:

100 grams long grain rice (i.e basmati, jasmine)
100 grams water chestnuts
1 teaspoon minced garlic
500 grams pork mince
330 grams fish paste (1 packet)
50 grams soy sauce

Method:

1. Soak rice in water for a minimum 1 hour. Strain rice and lightly pat dry with a paper towel.
2. Add water chestnuts and garlic in bowl - blitz 3 seconds/Speed 5.
3. Add pork mince, fish paste and soy sauce - mix 50 seconds/Speed 9.
4. Roll mince mixture into teaspoon sized balls, and roll these balls in the rice. Place rice balls in the two levels of the Varoma steaming tray.
5. Wash bowl and fill with 1200 grams water. Place Varoma steaming tray into position - steam 20 minutes/Varoma/Speed 4.