#1 “What’s in a dragon ball?” I asked the waiter at the dim sum place.
“Seafood,” he said. “Shrimp, squid… like that.”
As you can probably guess, I was merely playing discerning diner. Who was I kidding? The photograph looked good enough to eat. Maybe too good. I knew my paws would never be capable of such delicate and intricate construction: those curlicued spheres were bona fide works of art. But that’s what restaurants are for, no?
The dish arrived last, as in long after we had cleared away the rest of our meal. The balls came as pictured, encased in tentacles of delicate wonton wrapper and fried to golden perfection. Otherwise they weren’t worth the wait.* They were devoid of taste, and if there was seafood in them I was hard-pressed to tell what, exactly. My best guess would be flavored white fish (like in imitation crab sticks). Shrimp? We should’ve stuck to shrimp balls.
Shrimp Balls
Peeled and cleaned, shrimp can lose about half its weight. I bought half a kilo and it yielded 300 grams after prepping. Make sure that the pork fat is finely minced (I recommend grinding it) to avoid chewy lumps. Use these balls in seafood broccoli (recipe below), but without the breading.
- 300 grams minced shrimp
- ½ cup finely minced (or ground) pork fat
- ½ cup shredded singkamas (jicama)
- 1 medium red onion, minced
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon egg white
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped spring onion leaves
- 1 cup Japanese breadcrumbs
- Put all the ingredients (except breadcrumbs) in a food processor and pulse a few times until you get a rough paste. Check for taste by frying a teaspoon’s worth. Adjust to your liking.
- Allow to rest in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours (or overnight) to let flavors come together and make the paste easier to work with.
- Take out of the refrigerator and form into balls; make them as big (or small) as desired. Roll in breadcrumbs and let them sit in the freezer for 15 minutes to firm them up.
- Deep-fry balls until golden brown, then remove from pan and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain excess oil. Serve with sweet chili sauce (or your dipping sauce of choice).
#2 I’m not an adventurous eater. Dining out, I stick to the familiar. Chinese? Dumplings, steamed rice, sweet and sour pork. Italian? Pasta, pizza. Asian fusion? Too familiar. Hand me a blindfold and some darts; maybe I’ll chance upon something new.
I had never had broccoli with seafood before. Until my cousin pointed it out, I wasn’t even aware the dish was on the menu. We asked our waiter about the seafood part.
“It’s mixed,” he said. Not the most satisfying answer to an inquiry about food, but he said it with a bedimpled smile, so I let it slide. I’m easy.
The plate came ringed with blanched florets. Within sat slices of squid and some pale balls in a watery sauce. Fish? Shrimp? Popping one in my mouth, I decided on the latter. Who knew for sure? We were fresh off the boat and pretty ravenous from the long trip. The dish was satisfying in that context.
The cousin was more enthusiastic. “Can you replicate this? This is really good.”
Now that was one challenge I was more than willing to take on. Perhaps you had not noticed, but I needed an ego boost on the heels of my near-disastrous forays into baking. Ma had suggested I try making siopao for a change. I couldn’t. Wouldn’t. It would have extinguished whatever self-esteem I had left had I tried and botched that, too. You think siopao’s easy?
I should do fusion more often. What’s not fusion these days, anyway? If you ask me, fusion is just shorthand for “whatever works.” I would have preferred using peeled shrimp in the dish, but I guess the shrimp balls are what make it fit the “fusion” bill — even if that doesn’t impress me as particularly novel or inventive. It’s good either way; why sweat it?
Seafood Broccoli
If you do not want to go to the trouble of making shrimp balls, you can use peeled shrimp. As always, taste your sauce mixture before cooking.
- 1 head broccoli
- 10 shrimp balls, unbreaded (see recipe above)
- 6 small squid
- 1 medium red onion, quartered
- ½ cup vegetable (or chicken) stock
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- dried chili flakes
- salt and ground black pepper, to taste
For the sauce:
- Clean squid by first detaching the head (tentacles), then removing its innards (including cartilage and ink sac). If you’re going to use the head, remove the beak. Slice into bite-size pieces, rinse, then drain well. Set aside.
- Wash broccoli under running water, then trim the florets, leaving a half-inch of stalk. Blanch them in boiling salted water for 2 to 3 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and plunge into a bowl of iced water. When completely cooled, drain well and set aside.
- In a bowl, combine vegetable/chicken stock, sugar, sesame oil, and cornstarch. Adjust to your taste and set aside.
- Heat a little oil in a pan and sauté squid slices until they turn opaque. After a minute or two, remove from pan and set aside.
- In the same pan, sauté sliced onions until opaque, then pour in the sauce mixture. Stir until it thickens but is still on the watery side. Put in the shrimp balls and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Return squid pieces to pan and mix well. Season to taste.
- To serve, ring your plate with the broccoli florets and spoon the squid and shrimp balls in the center. Garnish with dried chili flakes.
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