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Japanese Chicken Meatballs in Broth
On Food Talk a few days ago, I mistakenly said this recipe was on my website. I surely remembered cooking it, and enjoying eating it, and even why I bothered to prepare it. I would have sworn I shared it with everyone.
I ate these chicken balls in broth, or "golden chicken dumplings," as Hiroko Shimbo calls them in her wonderful book, The Japanese Kitchen, at my local Japanese restaurant, Geido on Flatbush Ave., in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I was so enamored of them, and also thought they must be very low in calories – an important consideration on some days of my life – that I called Hiroko to ask if she knew how I could make them. She told me there were not at all unusual. They were a fairly standard home dish. She was surprised they were being served in a restaurant and speculated that Geido was probably more adventurous a restaurant than the Japanese restaurants in Manhattan. Sushi and "Westernized creative dishes" are what Manhattan restaurants serve, she said. They rarely serve real Japanese food.
Golden Chicken Dumplings In Broth with Vegetables
(Tsu-Ku-Ne)
Serves 2 to 3
As I have adapted the recipe, making use of my food processor, this perhaps isn't as authentic as the recipe in Hiroko's book, but she gave me special dispensation. The seasoning for the dumplings is hers. The broth is not hers, but what I figured out from eating the dish at Geido. Don't be daunted by the long list of ingredients. The recipe is very simple and can be prepared in short time. The meatballs themselves can be formed ahead – say in the morning or afternoon before an evening meal -- and kept refrigerated until you are ready to cook them in the broth.
For the dumplings:
7 ounces skinned and boned chicken thighs (2 large thighs should be enough)
7 ounces skinned and boned chicken breasts (1 double-breast should be enough)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
3 scallions, both green and white parts, cut in big pieces
1 teaspoon peeled, finely grated ginger
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons sesame oil
For the soup:
5 cups water
2 teaspoons dashi (fish stock seasoning) or 2 chicken bouillon cubes
6 leaves Chinese cabbage (Napa cabbage), cut crosswise into 2-inch wide pieces
1 carrot, cut either into thin rounds or matchstick-size lengths
3 scallions, white and green, cut on a sharp diagonal into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 large mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons soy sauce
Sansho pepper or black pepper (optional)
To make the dumplings;
Cut the chicken into big pieces and place it in a food processor. At first pulsing, then letting the machine run, process the chicken to a coarse paste. Transfer the chicken to a medium bowl. Add the salt and pepper to the chicken.
Place the big pieces of scallion in the processor and chop them very fine.
Return the chicken to the processor and process again briefly, just to blend the chicken with the scallions. Now add grated ginger, the egg white, and the sesame oil. Process once again, until the mixture is very fine and very well mixed. Stop the processor a couple of times to mix with spatula, if necessary to get the mixture homogenous.
Lightly grease a 10-inch pie pan or dinner plate. This is just to hold the meatballs while you are preparing them. The oil is so they won't stick to the pan.
Grease your hands with a little vegetable oil, and, using a heaping tablespoon for each, form the chicken mixture into 20 balls, each about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Place balls in the prepared pan and refrigerate until needed.
To make the broth:
Bring the water and dashi seasoning or chicken bouillon to a gentle simmer. Add the chicken dumplings all at once and cook, always at the merest simmer, for 5 minutes.
Add the carrot and cook for 1 minute.
Next, add the cabbage and cook for another minute.
Lastly, add the scallions and mushrooms and allow to cook for 1 final minute.
Add the salt and soy sauce to flavor the soup.
Serve the soup in a soup bowl garnished with, if desired, a pinch of sansho pepper powder or freshly ground black pepper.
