Unusual Name for a Wonderful Dish

三粒狮子头 by AT

Literally translated - Lion's Head.

But do not worry!!! I did not have any real lion's meat or any parts of a lion. It is a unique dish name the Taiwanese created for this dish which is actually green cabbage stuffed with minced meat stuffing. 

As you may have noticed, a lot of dishes in Chinese cuisine consist of 'something' stuffed with 'something'. The stuffing is most of the time marinated with soya sauce, cornflour, salt etc. and contains chopped garlic, onions, shallots or ginger etc.

三粒狮子头 

Lion's Heads - by AT

The soup was very sweet and fragrant, full of flavours from the sweet, spicy star anise; salty, sweet soya sauce; with 'sulphurous' garlic drawing out the flavours of the different ingredients and also sharpening their flavours.

1 Lion's Head

Opening up the 'Lion's Head', we exposed the stuffing inside. The stuffing was meaty, sweet, salty, full of flavours from garlic, shallots and spring onions. Again, the 'sulphurous', well-cooked green cabbage goes well with pungent ingredients like the garlic and shallots used in the stuffing.

Opened up

A very good-looking dish with many wonderful and complimentary flavours - absolutely delicious! 

Recipe:

Stuffing:-

Ingredients:

Minced pork

Chopped Spring Onion

Chopped Garlic

Minced ginger

Chopped Shallots

Soya sauce, Salt, White pepper

Method:

Season the minced pork with soya sauce, white pepper and salt.

Stir-fry garlic and shallots then add to the mixture with the rest of the ingredients. Then leave to marinate while preparing the soup and cabbage.

Make meatballs from the mixture then fry in some oil. 

Soup and Cabbage:-

Ingredients:

Green cabbage

Star anise

Salt, Soya sauce and Olive oil

Method:

Immerse the cabbage in some hot water for about 10 seconds to soften the stem and make it easier to wrap the meatballs. (Do not immerse in hot water for to long to prevent over-cook).

To prepare the soup, boil water with star anise, salt and olive oil until fragrant. Then turn the heat to low once the water is boiling.

Wrap meatballs in cabbage leaves then add one by one into the soup and turn the heat to medium until the cabbage is cooked.

Add soya sauce to the soup with some stir-fried garlic and shallot. 

Boil until all ingredients are cooked.

PS: 42 more dishes to go......