Fuzhou style meatball soup

Trim all the fat and silver skin off the pork shoulder and cut it roughly into bite-sized pieces.

Grind the pork in a food processor on and off for a minute or two, stopping to stir so it grinds evenly, until it is smooth like a paste between the fingers with a few stringy muscle fibres still visible. Store-bought ground pork does not work.

Put the ground pork in the mixer bowl with the salt, soy sauce, sugar, baking soda, garlic powder, white pepper and crushed ice and mix roughly by hand.

Beat on medium low with the flat beater for 8 minutes, stopping a few times to scrape the sides and bottom; by hand it is non-stop whisking in one direction.

Blend the garlic, ginger, scallion and 130 g of cold water to a puree.

Pass the puree through a sieve straight onto 150 g of sweet potato starch and mix until there are no lumps, to a thick batter.

Pour the starch batter into the meat in three batches, mixing roughly then for a few minutes after each, scraping under the meat, until all of it is worked in.

The meat gelatinizes and becomes very sticky and resistant as it is worked.

Transfer the mixture to a flat plate.

Fill a pot with stock, bring it to a simmer and turn the heat low.

Scrape the meat into the soup a little at a time, dipping the chopstick in the stock between scrapes so it does not stick; it can be rolled into balls instead if you have the time.

Crank the heat up, bring back to a boil and cook 3 to 5 minutes.

Season each bowl individually to taste, Fuzhou style: julienned ginger, minced garlic, fish sauce, black vinegar, sugar, diced cilantro, diced hot chili, dried baby shrimp, seaweed, pork lard and white pepper.

Add the meatballs and the hot broth to the bowl so the heat activates the flavours.