astray recipes: Danny kaye's lion's head

Categories: Main dish; Vegetables; Chinese; Asian
Yield: 8 Servings

Measure	Ingredient
	CALDWELL
8	Dried black mushrooms
1¼ pounds	Ground pork
20	Water chestnuts; finely diced
1 teaspoon	Ginger; finely minced
3	Scallions; chopped
1 teaspoon	Garlic; finely minced
1	Grated rind of 1 orange
¼ teaspoon	Sesame oil
1 tablespoon	Dry sherry or shao hsing; Chinese wine
1 tablespoon	Light soy sauce
1 teaspoon	Salt
1 tablespoon	Cornstarch
	Peanut; vegetable or corn for deep frying
	Steamed spinach or broccoli

Danny Kaye was a superb chef, specializing in Chinese cooking in his Chinese kitchen. According to Craig Claiborne, he has cooked for Henry Kissinger, Luciano Pavarotti, Beverly Sills, Jascha Heifetz, Itzhak Perlman and Zubin Mehta as well as Paul Bocuse, Roger Verge and Jean Troisgros. The following is one of his specialties.

Lion's Head: Place mushrooms in a mixing bowl and add hot water to cover.

Let stand 20 minutes or longer until softened. Place pork in a mixing bowl.

Drain the mushrooms and squeeze dry. Chop them. Add to the pork. Add water chestnuts, ginger, scallions, garlic, grated orange rind, sesame oil, the wine, soy sauce, salt and cornstarch. Mix well and shape into 8 to 12 balls. Set aside.

Heat the oil for deep frying and add the meat balls. Deep fry until crisp and golden on the outside. Drain well. Place the meat balls in a steamer and steam 20 to 25 minutes. Serve on a bed of spinach or broccoli.

Posted to MC-Recipe Digest by Nancy Berry <nlberry@...> on Apr 20, 1998

danny kaye's lion's head