Dry-Fried Meatballs (Gan Zha Wan Zi)
A classic of Shandong cuisine: deep-fried pork meatballs with a crisp exterior and tender interior, served with a salt-and-pepper dip.
Ingredients
ground pork (fatty/lean)
250 g
yellow soybean paste
a pinch
soy sauce
1 g
chopped scallion
2 g
chopped ginger
2 g
egg
1
water starch slurry
100 g
salt
2 g
cooking wine
10 g
cooking oil
500 g (about 50 g actually used)
Sichuan peppercorns (for pepper salt)
to taste
Instructions
1
Step 1
Combine the ground pork with the chopped scallion, chopped ginger, cooking wine, beaten egg, salt, soy sauce, yellow soybean paste, and water starch slurry, and mix until well blended. Lightly toast the Sichuan peppercorns in a dry pan, then crush them into a coarse powder to make pepper salt.
2
Step 2
Heat oil in a wok to about 60 percent of smoking point. Squeeze the meat mixture into evenly sized small meatballs and fry until golden brown, then remove from the oil. Gently flatten and loosen each meatball with the back of a spoon, return them to the hot oil, and fry again. Repeat this frying and loosening process several times until the meatballs are crisp and deeply golden. Remove, drain, and arrange on a serving plate. Serve hot with a small dish of the prepared pepper salt on the side for dipping.
