大錘私房菜022丨外焦里嫩的干炸丸子，是過年最好的下酒菜，祝大家團團圓圓！dry fried meatballs, Great appetizers for pairing with drinks

Hello, everyone. I'm DaChui. During the Chinese New Year, an indispensable dish on our dining table is meatballs. Meatballs are round in shape, symbolizing the hope that everyone will be happiness in the coming year. There are many ways to make meatballs across China. So today, I'll share you one a classic method more common in the northern China Dry-fried meatballs. This is an excellent appetizer to go with drinks. During the New Year, making this dish while gathering with family, having a bit of wine, and chatting – that's the essence of the New Year. Alright, let's start learning how to make this dish today. First, let's prepare a starch paste. For the dry-fried meatballs. Be sure to use sweet potato starch. Everyone, pay attention. Sweet potato starch. You'll need approximately 150 to 200 grams of dry powder. Pour the finely chopped green onions, and the infused peppercorn water we prepared earlier into the starch. Be careful and pour it slowly. Because the paste must not be too thin. Let's start with a small amount. A significant change in quantity leads to a change in quality. Keep stirring continuously, and suddenly you'll notice, hey, it has thickened. This is the process of preparing the starch mixture. That's about it. Later, the starch will settle, but that's okay. We've reached a good consistency at this point. Now, let's prepare the meat for the dry-fried meatballs. Any cut of meat will be OK. Around a bit more than a kilogram. Regarding the fat-to-lean ratio, it can range from 3:7 to 5:5. It depends on your taste. It's up to you. Now, we need to cut the meat into pieces about a few centimeters, about 3 centimeters square. Then, place them in the food processor. We want to grind it into minced meat since we are making meatballs. The meat filling needs to be finely ground, so we can say it needs to be minced meat. Make sure to grind it well. Now, the meat filling is ground to about this level. You can't see the graininess, and when you squeeze it, it sticks together. Ah, there's a slightly sticky feeling. That's good. Now, the next step requires us to do a little check because this meat, there might be tendons in it. For making meatballs, the meat filling must be completely free of tendons. We need to inspect it carefully. So, some say that dry-fried meatballs require skill, and indeed, it's true. In ancient times, there was a tradition during the New Year in some places where they wouldn't cook during the New Year, meaning they wouldn't light a fire to cook. In advance, they would prepare the ingredients, and fried foods, once fried, could be stored for a long time. So, when frying meatballs, it serves such a purpose as well. Ah, not bad. Today, I didn't find any tendons or anything. Pretty good. Now, let's start preparing the filling. First, add some seasonings to the filling. First, our yellow sauce. Use this Northeast soybean paste, or you can use old Beijing dry yellow sauce. As long as it's this brownish or deep yellow color. What's its purpose? Mainly for coloring. There's one thing to note about this. Absolutely, absolutely do not add too much. Guess how much it is? Haha. Just, just, just a little. Just a liitle. Spread it like this, done. I think, well, about 2 grams should be enough. If you add too much, it will quickly turn into a dark brown color in the hot oil. It won't look good at all. Finely chop the ginger into small pieces. About 30 grams will do. Then, salt. We don't need to add too much salt. Around 5-8 grams will do. Don't make the meatballs too salty. Alright, white pepper. And one more thing, roasted sesame seeds. It must be roasted. Add some sesame seeds. Now Now, add the sweet potato starch. The starch mixture. The next step is to slowly mix it thoroughly. Let the pork filling gradually absorb all these ingredients. In some recipes, they also ask you to add Chinese five-spice powder. I absolutely disagree with that. Because the flavor of five-spice powder is too strong, especially after frying, you won't be able to taste anything else in these meatballs. For dry-fried meatballs, the focus is on the relatively mild pork flavor. Alright, it's about done. Finally, add one more thing. About 30-50 grams of melted lard. This lard, in various recipes, not suggests using it But why do I add a bit? You'll know the answer later. Uh, the meat filling. It looks like this. See, it's about right. It's much finer than dumpling filling. Now, we need to roll this meat filling into meatballs. Uh, about the diameter, 2.5 to 3 centimeters. Slightly smaller than a ping pong ball. A bit smaller. Look at these meatballs, the shapes aren't perfect, right? Not very round. That's why I added lard. We're not professional chefs, our skills might not be very refined, but we clever folks have clever ways. Before putting them in the pan, This lard has partially solidified, so the meatballs will become very easy to shape. Before putting them in the pan, just hold them in your hands and gently knead them a bit. You can see they become round and smooth. Then you can fry them. Now the oil temperature is 160 degrees Celsius. Let's put in the meatballs. After they slightly take shape in the pan, use a skimmer to gently push them, breaking them apart. If the pan is small, fry them in batches. For the first round, fry them at an oil temperature of around 160 to 170 degrees Celsius for 3 minutes. For these fried meatballs, the most crucial aspect is controlling the oil temperature. Once the oil temperature is too high, the outside will quickly turn dark. The color will darken. But the shell texture is still not very crispy. Now the oil temperature is 200 degrees Celsius, and we're going to do the second round of frying. The second frying time is 40 seconds. For the second round of frying, or the third round of frying, we'll raise the oil temperature to 230-240 degrees Celsius and fry for 30 seconds. Fried meatballs, let's have a taste. Ah, look, we just pinched it for you. For a well-fried meatball, it must be crispy on the outside with a very tender inside. It has a very crispy shell on the outside, but the meat inside is very tender. You can hear that crispy sound. This proves that This meatball is fried very well. Crispy on the outside and tender inside. This Beijing-style dry-fried meatball is usually dipped in salt and pepper. Dip it in salt and pepper to eat. But you can also dip it in tomato sauce, for example, or honey mustard sauce. It's up to you. Different flavors. A great appetizer with alcohol. With this dish, you can have a little more drink. Haha. This dish, especially suitable for Chinese New Year. During the New Year holiday, try making it for your family. The meat is rich and flavorful. And I put sesame seeds in it. I can also taste the fragrance of sesame. Don't use soybean oil or peanut oil for frying. I recommend using corn oil or rice bran oil. Or rapeseed oil. The taste will be better. Okay? That's it for the dry-fried meatballs. See you next time. Do you want one? Too crispy!