Minced Pork or Chicken in Napa Cabbage

I often cook this dish for my family as it is easy to make and I can choose the ingredients that I want to put inside the cabbage besides the mince meat. Usually I will add chopped carrots, chopped mushrooms and chopped parsley. However, for special occasion like the Chinese New Year I will add chopped mushrooms, minced prawns, black moss, chopped water chestnuts, chopped carrots to the minced meat. 

This dish is simple to make:

• Blanch the napa cabbage so that it is easy to fold/roll and set aside.
• Minced the pork (add some fats so that the meat will not be hard) and place them into a large mixing bowl. Add corn flour (to smoothen the pork) and seasonings - sesame oil, salt, pepper, light soy sauce to the minced pork. Mix well and set aside.
• Chop up the carrots and put them into the mixing bowl with the minced pork.
• Chop up the mushrooms which had been soaked overnight and add them to the minced pork.
• Chop up the parsley (can be replaced with cilantro or Chinese celery). Put them into the mixing bowl.
• Shell and take out the veins of the prawns. Then mince them after which add them to the minced pork.
• Wash and soak black moss. Loosen them up and put them into the mixing bowl.
• Peel and chop the water chestnuts. Add them to the minced pork.
• Stir all the ingredients till they are well mixed up.
• Divide the amount of minced pork with all the ingredients according to the number of napa cabbage that had been prepared.
• Take one leave of the cabbage and lay it on a plate. Take one portion of the minced meat and roll the meat firmly with two palms. Once done, put the meat onto the napa cabbage and roll up the cabbage with the sides tucked in. Placed the rolled up cabbage onto a metal plate. Repeat until all the meat and cabbage have been used up.
• Place some soaked gojiberries on the cabbage.
• Boil water in the steamer. Place the plate of rolled cabbages into the steamer and steam for at least 20 minutes or until the meat is cooked.
• Remove plate from the steamer.
• Transfer the cabbage onto a serving plate, keeping the sauce in the metal plate. Set aside the serving plate.
• Heat up the kuali. Pour in some cooking oil (or sesame oil) and saute the garlic. Once the garlic is fragrant, pour the sauce from the metal plate into the kuali. Let it boil.
• Meanwhile, put a teaspoon of corn flour or tapioca flour into a small bowl. Add water  into the bowl and stir well, ensuring there is no lumps of flour. Pour the corn or tapioca flour mixture into the kuali, stirring the sauce until it thickens. Then pour the sauce over the rolled cabbage.
• Decorate with Chinese celery, parsley or cilantro before serving.

Note : This dish can be made with minced chicken.