Hủ Tiếu Bò Viên (Noodles with Beef Meatballs)

These meatballs can either be served as is or with noodles, or as a meat choice for Phở.

Ingredients:
-1lb ground beef (but the leanest kind available)
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp sugar
-1/2 tsp sesame oil (optional)
-1/2 tsp pepper
-1 tbs potato starch
-1/3lb beef tendons (optional)

What to Do:
Boil beef tendons until tender, drain and cut into small pieces. Mix together ground beef with salt, sugar, sesame oil, pepper and potato starch. Put mixture in the freezer until nearly frozen (a layer of frost over the surface). Quickly process in a meat processor to a fine paste, refreeze and process again if you have too. The key here is to process the meat into a paste as fast as possible, keeping the meat as cold as possible while processing. Next, mix in beef tendons. Drop teaspoonful of paste into a pot of simmering water. The meatballs will float to the surface when cooked. Remove into a bowl of ice cold water. Reserve cooking water to be used as broth for the noodles, add salt to taste. Boil rice noodles (the type used for pho) and add to a bowl, add beef balls and ladle hot broth over noodles, garnish with chopped cilantro, spring onions, preserved cabbage, and sesame oil.