Hakka White Radish Meatballs (客家清蒸萝卜丸)

Hakka White Radish Meatballs 客家萝卜丸 is a traditional dish among the Hakka Hor Poh 客家河婆 clan. This is my late grandma's super dish. Why I said so? Because whenever she make this, everyone will come home just for this dish. This is also our CNY dish (年菜) in our family too.

This dish is not appealing in appearance. But again, Hakka dishes are usually concentrate more on richness in flavors and balance in texture. No fancy color. Sadly. 

This White Radish Meatballs has very nice soft and springy texture. The umami taste from the dried prawns and dried cuttlefish complement very well with the white radish taste. We love dipping white radish meatballs with soy sauce. It's nice! 

My mom came to my house to make this White Radish Meatballs with me. The tradition is well maintained one generation after another. This recipe makes 35pcs

Ingredients 
(Source : My late grandma Mdm. Chong, and my mom Mdm. Chai)

• 400g White Radish, shredded or julienned 
• 400g Minced pork with good amount of fats
• 40g Dried Cuttlefish, snip it into tiny dice
• 40g Dried Shrimps, chopped
• 100g Tapioca Flour
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Chicken Powder (Optional) *See Note

Note :
My mom says adding chicken powder taste better. She's not wrong. My grandma didn't use chicken powder. There's no such thing during my grandma's time. Haha..

Method 

1. Radish must be shredded using the coarse shredder. Drain away the water if there's any.
2. Heat up oil on a wok, fry dried cuttlefish, dried shrimps and garlic till fragrant. 
3. Add in shredded radishes, salt, sugar, (and chicken powder if you are using it). Fry until radishes are half cooked. Heat off. 
4. Add in half portion of tapioca flour. Mix well and let the heat on the radish cook the tapioca flour.
5. Add the other half portion of tapioca flour and minced pork. Mix well.
6. Use spoon to form into individual balls, and steam it for 20mins. Let radish balls cools down abit before serving. This gives you better bouncy texture. Serve with soy sauce. 

Here's the tutorial picture for your easy reference.

My mom says, she likes the radish balls to have more homely look. So, she just casually scoop the mixture and drop it on the plate.

This is how it looks like before steaming. But if you prefer, you can roll them into a nice ball. It's up to you.

Let it steam for 20mins and it's done. I always adore my bamboo steamer. The size is huge enough for me to do steaming in big portion! 

When the radish balls is cooked, remove from the steamer and let it cool down. Hot radish balls is too soft to be eaten, and it doesn't represent the right texture. Once it is cooled down, it will be bouncier and nice to eat.

We love dipping radish balls in soy sauce.

So yumms!

Other than Thunder Tea Rice (河婆擂茶) that I've posted back in 2012, this radish balls recipe is definitely a keeper to keep up my family tradition.

I hope you like as much as I do.