One of the first bloggers that I met when I started this blog is Conor Bofin of “One Man’s Meat.” What we have in common is a love of food! The first recipe of his that I tried was Black bean beef in 30 minutes. This dish was so easy to make, and it was so tasty, that we ate the whole dish in one sitting! He recently featured another recipe that caught my eye, and that recipe is Open your mind with lions head meatballs! My husband and I loved this dish too, and Conor gave me permission to feature his recipe on my blog! Thank you Conor, not only for allowing me to do this, but for being a long-distant friend!
Conor’s List of Ingredients
5 pork chops
6 heads of bok choi
1 pint of chicken stock
1 TBS of garlic
1 TBS of ginger
3 or 4 spring onions
1 heaped TBS of cornflour (cornstarch here in the U.S.)
a splash or two of soy sauce
a splash of rice wine or sherry
salt and pepper to taste
Now Conor’s recipe calls for grinding your own meat (including the fat). Not having a meat grinder, I went off to the grocery anticipating having the butcher do this for me but I was able to find a nicely marbled ground pork. Not sure how much to buy, I bought two packages to make sure that I would have enough meat.
Heading into the kitchen, I began to prepare this easy dish. I apologize now for not taking a lot of photos…
Starting with the pork, I added this to a mixing bowl. The recipe calls for adding the garlic, ginger, spring onions, cornstarch, rice wine and soy sauce. I got busy chopping. I used 3 large garlic cloves which came up to a good heaping TBS which the recipe calls for. Next I cut the ginger into chunks, then peeled and chopped this up too. Another good heaping TBS! Next on the chopping block: The spring onion, of which I used 3 as they were fairly big. Then I added the rest of the list.
Now Conor has a fancy device in his kitchen and his photos show mixing the meat up with what appears to be Captain Hook’s hook! Not having this luxury, I dove in with my hands and mixed the lot up! I actually did this hours before cooking them so that all those lovely flavors would meld. Then I took the meat out to warm up an hour before I started cooking, shaping them into golf ball sized meatballs.
The next step is to brown the meatballs. I did add a bit of peanut oil to the pan, heating it up over medium heat, and then fried up the meatballs browning them on all sides until they are mostly cooked.
In a separate pan I added the pint of chicken broth. Now I added two other ingredients to the broth for an extra zing! I added about 1 TBS of sesame oil, and a couple of shakes of ground white pepper. When the meatballs are browned, remove them from the fry pan to the broth. Bring this up to a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes.Next add the bok choi.
I used baby bok choi cutting off the root end. When the bok choi has wilted, the dish is ready! I did as Conor suggested and served this with steamed long grain rice. And here is what the final dish looks like!Very, very tasty stuff there Conor! And again, I thank you for allowing me to feature your recipe, and for giving us another recipe that is a definite keeper! We will be having leftovers of this dish tonight and I know that they will be just as good! Please do go and check out some of Conor’s other amazing recipes! To get to his site, just click here!
Thanks for stopping by today, and I wish you a magnificent Monday, and an excellent week too!
First of all I want to say awesome blog! I had a quick question that I’d like to ask
if you don’t mind. I was interested to find out how you center yourself and clear yoour mind before
writing. I’ve had a difficult time clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas out.
I truly do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes tend to be
lost simply just trying to figure out how to
begin. Any recommendations or tips? Thank you!
Thank you Julian! For the most part the words just flow. When they do not I step away from the computer, get another cup of coffee, step outside, enjoy the world around me and usually something comes to me…You have to develop your own rhythm. Good luck!
When I saw the title, I immediately thought there were real lions! Thank goodness no lions were hurt in the making of the pretty awesome looking meatballs 🙂
You would fall in love with these Kat! My noodle loving friend, these would be just as good with noodles in that broth! Please let me know if you try them! They made for some pretty tasty leftovers! And, the winery is going to feature this recipe in the next wine club release!
oh my gosh, that’s wonderful news to hear! Way to go Barb!!! 🙂
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Thank you for the link to my post!
These look very tasty, Barb. Really juicy and quite good. I have friends who always grind their own meat, but I’m not so sure that’s the way I want to go. I’m glad to think we can get the same results with a good butcher or sometimes “right off the rack.” Good results! 🙂
Very yummy Debra! Please do let me know if you try this! We had this for leftovers last night and they were even better!
That looks really tasty!
Very tasty! Thanks for the comment!
These look so good! What a fun name for a blog! I am a meat lover so I do appreciate it but it’s funny!
This is the actual name of the Chinese recipe…The bok choi is to be place around the meatballs, which I did not do, and it resembles a lion’s mane around each meatball! Great recipe, and please let me know if you try it!
I surely will!
Looks very tasty – thanks for passing on the recipe!
Hi Barb,
Thanks for the very kind comments. We are at this for about the same length of time and I continue to enjoy the glimpses into your world in the Sierra Foothills. Thanks also for doing such a wonderful job on the meatballs. They look excellent.
Best as aways,
Conor
Hugs Conor! I love your site and have been a faithful follower for years. What about the cookbook I suggested? Good idea, I think….We are having the leftovers tonight…Oh, yum! Thank you for the recipe! And, dinner is ready! Got to dash! Thanks again!