I’ve been swamped with work and life lately — both have been chaotic, and the blog went on hiatus. Should I write about tech or food? Food, of course.
Today I’m making radish balls. While I was cooking and tasting, I suddenly remembered a day back in eighth grade when we pooled our money to buy five jin of radish balls and sneaked them during English class. Fifteen years later, the memory is still vivid.
1. Ingredients
Green radish, carrots, sweet potato starch, flour, eggs, chili, pepper, scallions, ginger, garlic, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, rock sugar.
2. Preparing the Batter
First, shred the radishes.
Next, we need to blanch the radish to remove its raw smell and excess moisture. I’ve been watching a cooking show called “Old Fan Gu” (老饭骨), and one of the chefs shared this trick: add rock sugar to boiling water, then blanch the shredded radish in it. I tried it today and the results were excellent. Highly recommended.
Now mix the batter. Stir in one direction with chopsticks until the mixture is thick enough to be picked up. This step, called “shang jin” (上劲, building gluten/strength), is critical.
Before mixing the batter, you can start heating the oil.
When the oil is about 70% hot, form the batter into balls and drop them in one by one. If the oil is too hot, the balls will burn; too cold and they’ll absorb too much oil. To check if the oil is 70% hot, drop a small piece of batter in first. If it sizzles vigorously but doesn’t turn yellow right away, you’re good to go.
Fry on low heat for 20 minutes until golden brown, then remove.
Since the balls go in at different times, they might come out with slightly different colors. If you’re a perfectionist, do a second quick fry to even out the color.
Radish balls can be eaten as a snack, or added to soups.