红烧狮子头紅燒獅子頭
hóng shāo shī zi tóu hung4 siu1 si1 zi2 tau4
A single fist-sized pork meatball, so big and dimpled that diners thought it looked like a lion's mane — a centerpiece of Huaiyang banquet cooking from the canal cities of Yangzhou and Zhenjiang.
The story behind it
"Lion's-head" (狮子头) is a signature of Huaiyang cuisine, the refined river-city cooking centered on Yangzhou along the Grand Canal, prized in imperial times when salt merchants brought wealth and elaborate dining to the region. The dish exists in two famous forms — clear-stewed (清炖, often with crab in autumn) and the red-braised (红烧) version here, simmered slowly in soy and sugar. The texture is the whole point: the pork is hand-chopped rather than ground, and mixed loosely with a little starch and water so the meatball stays soft and almost trembling, never dense.
Ingredients
- 500g pork belly and shoulder (roughly 2 parts fat to 3 parts lean), hand-chopped into small dice
- 2 stalks green onion plus a thumb of ginger, finely minced (plus extra for braising)
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp cornstarch (or water chestnut, finely chopped, for crunch)
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine and 1 tsp sugar
- A few leaves of napa cabbage or baby bok choy
- Salt and white pepper to taste
Steps
- Hand-chop the pork into a rough mince (do not use a food processor — you want some texture). Mix with minced green onion and ginger, egg, Shaoxing wine, salt, white pepper and cornstarch. Stir vigorously in one direction, adding a few splashes of water, until the mixture is sticky and springy.
- Wet your hands and gently shape the meat into 3-4 large balls, tossing each lightly between your palms so the surface is smooth.
- Heat oil in a wok and brown the meatballs on all sides over medium heat until golden, handling them gently so they hold together, then lift out.
- In the same pot add light and dark soy sauce, sugar, a little Shaoxing wine and enough water to nearly cover the meatballs, with a few slices of ginger and green onion.
- Return the meatballs, bring to a boil, then cover and braise on low heat for 40-60 minutes until very tender, spooning sauce over them occasionally.
- Lay blanched napa cabbage or bok choy underneath, rest the meatballs on top, reduce the sauce until glossy, and serve.