What is Basi?
Basi, or 拔丝 in Chinese, means to pull thin threads. This dish is called Basi because of its signature thin sugar threads on top of juicy meatballs.
It’s also commonly placed on top of candied sweet potatoes.
To make basi, managing temperature of the sugar syrup is key. Too hot and the sugar will just fall down. Too cool and the sugar will not be able to be pulled.
Don’t have a candy thermometer? Don’t worry – I don’t have one either. But I was still able to pull this off! So let me share my secrets with you.
A simple hack is to cook meat in the air fryer. It saves a lot of effort, eliminates oil from splattering around your kitchen stovetop, and the cooking results are consistent.
I used my air fryer for the meatballs. These are pork meatballs I got from my local supermarket, nothing fancy.
Keep these unseasoned because we’re making a Chinese sweet and sticky black vinegar sauce to go with the meatballs!
This sauce is really addictive and simple to make!
It’s got a few key ingredients, mainly light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and Chinese black vinegar. If you want it to be more aromatic, you can add minced garlic and ginger!
The balance of sweetness, savouriness and acidity in this sauce makes it very addictive. It’s like sweet and sour sauce, but better. It’s commonly used for Chinese pork ribs.
Moving onto the most challenging part of this recipe.. the sugar threads or 拔丝.
Timing and temperature are of the essence.
Once your sugar syrup has an amber colour, immediately turn off the heat. To test if it will pull into threads, use a pair of chopsticks and dip it into the sugar syrup. Then immediately pull the chopsticks upwards, a very faint and thin sugar thread should form. If it doesn’t form, the syrup may be too hot, so wait for 30 seconds and try again.
This is the amber colour the sugar should be.
I’d recommend adding baking paper on your kitchen counter if you want to save clean up time.
This took me 1 hour to clean up!
Once the sugar is ready, add it to a baking tray and flip it upside down.
At first, nothing will happen as the sugar falls onto the counter. But after 10 seconds, the sugar temperature should’ve cooled slightly, and the sugar threads should form.
But don’t worry if it fails – just try again! It took me 2 tries before I got it right!
Once the sugar threads form, you can collect it into a ball and place it on top of any dish!
This is truly an impressive dish to pull off – and if you manage to do it, your friends and family will be very impressed!
Meatball Basi
Ingredients
Method
- Cook meatballs in an air fryer for 15mins, or until fully cooked.
- In a pan on low heat, add all the sauces, garlic and ginger, and stir constantly until the sauce thickens and bubbles.
- Add the cooked meatballs into the sauce and toss until well combined.
- In a saucepan or pan on medium heat, add sugar and water and stir until dissolved. Then stop stirring.
- Cook the sugar water until it has an amber/golden yellow colour, then turn to lowest heat
- To test if it’s ready, dip chopsticks/fork into the syrup and pull upwards. The syrup can’t be too liquidy, but should be slightly thick so when you pull it forms a very faint solid silky thread.
- Once syrup is ready, quickly place onto a baking tray. Spread it slightly, then turn the tray up side down and watch the syrup silk form as it falls! (Tip: don’t wait too long or else it’ll solidify completely).
- Take a handful of the Basi and place it directly on top of the meatballs.
- Serve and enjoy!
