Location: My tiny kitchen
Once having dim sum at a Chinese restaurant, I saw shrimp balls on the menu. Since shrimp balls are not a common dim sum item, I was curious to find out what it is. I was astonished when I saw melted cheese oozing out of the centre. It is very rare to see cheese used as an ingredient in a Chinese dish and surprisingly, the shrimp balls tasted delicious with the cheese. At that moment, I was determined to recreate this dish.
Once in awhile, I like cooking a dish that takes a lot of work and time to prepare. The bolognese sauce that involves 2 hours of shimmering and crab cakes made from picking meat out of whole crabs are two examples. But compared to making the shrimp and cheese balls, making these dishes are as simple as heating up frozen dinners in the microwave. This dish could easily be the most labour-intensive dish that I have ever made. The most time consuming step is turning whole fresh prawns into a paste, which would be easy using a food processor or a good chef knife. But it wasn’t as simple. The shrimp balls have a somewhat chewy texture that made them taste delicious. To create the chewy texture, the prawns must be pounded and not minced or chopped. Unlike chopping, pounding uncoils and stretches the protein strands in the meat and therefore creates the chewy texture. It was a lot of pounding. To make 8 shrimp balls, I pounded the meat for a good 15 minutes!
This is the first time I make the shrimp balls and I’m happy that it was a success. But with the amount of trouble involved, I don’t recommend any one (that’s including myself!!!) to make this at home.
But if you are curious and feel that you want to exercise your wrist, here’s the recipe. If you know of a better and more efficient recipe, please let me know.
This recipe makes 8 shrimp balls.
You will need the following:
- 8 medium sized prawns
- 1/3 cup of Japanese breadcrumbs, Panko
- 8 small cubes of cheddar cheese
Special equipment that you will need: Chinese cleaver
To turn the prawns into paste:
- Peel the prawns. Using a paring knife, make a slit on the back of the prawns and take out the vein.
- Place the prawns in a bowl and mix them with 3 tablespoons (yes, 3 tablespoons!) of salt.
- After the salt is mixed into the prawns, immediately rinse the prawns under cold water for 2 minutes to wash off the salt.
- Using paper towel, dry the prawns thoroughly. I was told this is an important step. The prawns must be completely dry.
- Cut the prawns in half vertically. Place the prawns on a thick wooden cutting board.
- Using the flat surface of a Chinese cleaver, take one prawn and mash it by pressing the cleaver on it and sliding the cleaver to one side. Repeat this for a few times.
- Using the flat surface of a Chinese cleaver, pound on the prawn. Between each pounding, lift the prawn up from the cutting board and splat it on the cutting board. Repeat this step for 2 minutes or until the meat has turned into a paste.
Once the prawns become a paste, they become very sticky. Place the paste into a bowl and add:
- A few drops of sesame oil
- 1 tsp of cornstarch flour
- A dash of white pepper
Using a pair of chopsticks, mix the seasonings into the prawns in a circular motion.
Form the paste into balls about an inch in diameter. If your hands become too sticky, you can wet your hands with water. Insert a cheese cube into the center of the ball. Make sure the cheese is totally covered by the paste.
In a quart pan, put in oil (make sure the oil doesn’t fill up more than 1/2 of the pan’s height). Heat oil until it reaches 350F.
Roll the balls in panko. Fry the balls in the oil for 2 and 1/2 minutes at 350F. Once the balls are taken out of the oil, sprinkle them with a little bit of salt.
Serve and enjoy the products of all the hard work!
