Sweet and Sour Meatballs

I was going thru my drafted posts, and found this Sweet and Sour Meatballs photo which I made a few months ago. The recipe was taken from an old Chinese cookbook which I bought more than two decades ago, when I was still single. It was pretty "expensive" back then, but I like the recipes and there's a photo for each recipe.

The cookbook, "Chinese Cuisine" by Huang Su-Huei is a book on Chinese cuisines, and was first published in January 1972. It has since been revised a number of times and has almost 70 reprintings since then, with many editions that were published in English, Chinese/English (bilingual edition), Japanese and French. Of course, my copy is the bilingual edition, and it was printed in 1991.

Huang Su-Huei has authored many books on Chinese cuisines. When I did a search from Amazon website, I was rather surprised to find that she has quite a number of books to her name. But surprisingly, not much info can be found on Huang Su-Huei. From what I gather at this website, she is a teacher, writer and cooking consultant and business operator. She began her career at the Wei-Chuan Food Corporation in Taiwan and eventually founded the Wei-Chuan Cooking School.

What I like about this cookbook is, it has many recipes that are simple enough for everyday dishes, and yet there are some recipes that are perfect for festivities and to serve if you are entertaining, Chinese-style. So far I have tried a few recipes from this book, mostly are before my blogging days. I have a few favourites that I do cook from time to time. I have posted before, one of it, Stir-fry Pork with Green Onions, which I served with rice, really delicious. 

Too bad I only have one of her cookbooks. I supposed that it is not easy to find her cookbooks anymore. And there's no updated info on this author, not even from Wei-Chuan Cooking School's website, when I went in to have a peek. Maybe there's more info, from Chinese websites, but I could not very well search from these websites, since I'm practically Chinese illiterate! 

Do you have any of Huang Su-Huei's cookbooks?

Sweet and Sour Meat Balls, as can be seen from the photo at the front cover of the book.

This is a simple and homey dish, great to have as part of a Chinese meal, served with plain rice, maybe with a soup and a green veggie stir-fry to accompany. Go easy on the vinegar, as I've used only about a tablespoon. Adjust the rest of the seasoning; soy sauce, sugar, salt, to your taste. I have omitted the red chilli since I do not have any at that time. This recipe can be found on the back page of the front cover of the cookbook.

Sweet and Sour Meat Balls
(adapted from "Chinese Cuisine", Huang Su-Huei)
1 lb ground meat beef or pork
Ingredients A :
1 tbsp cooking wine
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp cornstarch
cooking oil

Ingredients B :
1 cup button mushroom
1 cup Chinese pea pods or broccoli
1 precooked carrot, cut into pieces or scoop out balls

Ingredients C :
2 hot pepper, cut into pieces
1/2 tbsp chopped garlic

Ingredients D :
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
dash of sesame oil

1. Mix well ground meat with Ingredients A.
2. Heat the wok, then add oil. Form the meat into 1 inch balls. Deep-fry the meat balls for 3 minutes or until golden brown; remove. Remove the oil.
3. Heat the wok then add 2 tablespoons oil. Stir fry Ingredients C until fragrant. Add Ingredients D; stir until thickened. Add Ingredients B and the meat balls; stir for 2 minutes. Serve.

I'm sharing this post with Cookbook Wednesday, hosted by the lovely Louise of Months of Edible Celebrations. If you have a cookbook that you would like to share, hop over to Louise's site for more info.

and :

Cook-Your-Books #18 @ kitchen flavours