Dim Sum - Rice Pearls

Christmas Day here ... outside my family is having a party.  My wife invited our workers and their families over for a Christmas Day Party.  From the laughing outside, they're having a good time.  Here, with my sore throat, I'm having not-so-great of a time ... but, I'm doing OK. 

I just plugged my phone/camera/note-taking-device into my computer for the first time in a week and realized that I had a lot of pictures in it from foods that I'd cooked.  And, I just looked at my posting history for the past couple of weeks ... dismal!

I guess that means that I'm going to have to be serious about my New Year's resolution: be more disciplined.  I'll believe it when I do it. 

Those spotty blobs you see in the picture to the right are actually rice pearls.  Sorry about the bad picture, I had to take it very quickly while serving them at the Board of Directors meeting for my local Rotary club. 

December was my turn to sponsor the food.  I brought Dim Sum.  If it didn't turn out well ... well, the food was free for them.  Grin and eat it.  Haha.

Apparently, the food wasn't bad as all but four small pieces were eaten.

This recipe is from the Smith Dim Sum book that is in print.  So, I'm not going to list the precise ingredients.

Ingredients

• Ground lean beef
• Pilit (sticky rice)
• Tapol (purple sticky rice)
• Chinese spices
  

Procedure

I took the two kinds of rice and boiled them separately for about 10 minutes to briefly pre-cook the rice.  Not completely cooked, though.

I mixed the rices together.  Not completely as I wanted the colors to have nice areas.

I mixed together the ground beef and Chinese spices.  I made little meatballs, about one tablespoon each in size.

I rolled each meatball in the rice.  Using my hands, cupped to form a crude sphere, I molded each into balls.  I put each molded rice pearl into a steamer on parchment.

Steam for about 30 minutes to cook everything thoroughly.  When you remove the rice pearls from the steamer, remember this one little fact: live steam is really, incredibly hot.  Don't ask me how I know.

Serve with some kind of sauce.  I happened to like them with a sweet chili sauce.

Test Results

Primary Test Group:  Good, tasty!

Test Group Rotary:  No direct comments.  However, all but three were eaten.

Potential Improvements

I would steam them longer.  Maybe 45 minutes to an hour.  Make the rice more tender.

Conclusions

These are good.  They make great h'oeur deurves.  If you make these, make sure you serve them with some kind of sweet sauce.  They're fantastic that way.