Pork Siu Mai meatballs with Spicy Garlic green beans and carrots

[Vian]

I used to love Dim sum. I'd never heard of it before until my friend moved here from Texas and stumbled upon a Chinese restaurant that served it. We went, and the best thing we ordered was the Pork Siu Mai. Randomly the other day, I thought it sounded really tasty, but alas, Dim sum is not paleo and there is lots of gluten and wheat products. The Pork Siu Mai has gyoza wrapper around it like a little basket normally, but I never really noticed the wrapper. It was just there, the deliciousness was in the filling, so I decided to make my own!

 

Meatballs:

 

1 lb. ground pork

1/2 lb. shrimp, thawed, peeled, and deveined (take the tails off too)

1 tbs. grated fresh ginger

1-2 tbs. coconut aminos

1 tbs. fish sauce

4-5 green onions, diced

4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms

1 tsp. sesame oil

1 tbs. rice wine or dry sherry (omit for whole30)

salt to taste

 

Spicy Garlic Green Beans and Carrots

 

1.5 lbs. hericots verts (small french green beans)

3 medium carrots

1 tbs. fresh grated ginger

2 cloves garlic, grated

1/4 c. coconut aminos

1 tbs. fish sauce

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 tsp. sesame oil

2 tbs. cooking oil

 

For the meatballs:

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and place the caps in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped (or chop very small by hand). Place in a small skillet with a little oil and sautee until the mushrooms have some color and have released some of their moisture. Place in a mixing bowl to cool. Meanwhile, process the shrimp in the food processor until ground, then add to the bowl with the mushrooms, along with the pork and seasonings. Add a pinch of salt if desired, then mix well and form into small 1-1.5" balls and arrange on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes until the center of the meatballs are no longer pink. Alternately, the meatballs can be steamed for about 15 minutes (pork siu mai is traditionally steamed).

 

For the green beans and carrots:

 

Peel the carrots. Use the peeler to peel long, thin ribbons from the carrots until they are nearly gone. Steam or blanche the green beans and carrots until they are slightly tender, but still very crisp. Combine the remaining ingredients in a cup and pre-heat a large skillet. Drain the veggies and add to the warm skillet, then pour the sauce over and toss to coat. Let the veggies heat up and the sauce reduce and coat them well, then serve along side the Siu Mai Meatballs.

 

I'm really pleased at how this recipe turned out, it will definately be in the rotation. Also, the meatballs can be made ahead and frozen, then just pulled out to thaw and tossed in the oven.

 

[Nadia B]

Omnomnomn what's for dinner moment!

[Kmlynne]

This looks so good! It is on my list of things to try!

[LadyM]

Looks wonderful! Mel has a recipe for gyoza meatballs that is similar but uses only pork and has the addition of cabbage and water chestnuts in them. I might combine the recipes. Well done!