Recipes: xiu mai

1. Add all meatball ingredients into a medium sized bowl and mix well. Cover and chill for 30mins.
2. Form 25 meatballs from your marinated mince (I used a ¼cup ice cream scoop do this quickly). Place meatballs on heatproof plates then steam for 10 minutes. Make sure you keep the juices collected at the bottom of your plates.
3. To make the sauce, heat 3T oil in a deep large skillet or wok. Add annatto seeds and stir to release their colour. This will only take a minute or two. Be careful not to burn your seeds. Turn off the heat, remove the seeds and discard.
4. Heat the vibrantly coloured oil in the wok and add the onions. Sweat down the onions on medium heat then add garlic. When the garlic is fragrant, add tomato paste and saute for 30 secs. Add tomato sauce and fish sauce and saute for 30 secs. Add chopped tomatoes and mix through before adding back the steamed meatballs into the sauce. Pour in all of the steaming liquid. Cover and simmer on low for about 20 mins.
5. Season to taste, garnish with spring onion and coriander, then enjoy!

1. Finely dice water chestnut and tomato .

2. Finely chop eschalot, brown onion and garlic. Thinly cut shallot for garnish and set aside for later.

3. In a medium bowl, add the pork mince, water chestnut, brown onion, garlic, fish sauce, salt, pepper, sugar and corn starch. Mix together by hand to combine all of the ingredients well. Let this marinate for 30 minutes. 

4. Using your hands, roll the meat into a golf ball size (or you can use ice-cream scoop to keep size consistent). 

5. Place the meatballs into steamer and steam for 10 minutes.                

6. In a medium pot on medium high heat add oil, garlic, eschalot and fry until frangant. Add tomato paste and cook this down. Add the diced tomatoes and mix together. Add water, fish sauce, salt, sugar and chicken powder for seasoning. Bring sauce to boil then reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 5 minutes.

7. Gently add meatballs into the sauce and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

8. To make the sauce thicker, mix 2 teaspoons of corn starch and 1 tbsp water until smooth. Add the mixture to the sauce, combine gently. 

9. Place meatballs into a bowl and sprinkle the top with shallots and some pepper. 

10. Serve with bread roll.