Stuffed Lotus

I made this during the holidays and unfortunately lost some pictures.... like the pre-cut lotus and the meat filling.

Lotus root is one of those under-appreciated tubers in the Western potato-obsessed world. When you first get it, it's like a giant potato. You need to wash it, cut the ends of, peel it with a potato peeler, and then wash it again.

The roots grow in pretty murky waters underneath beautiful flat leaves and multi-petaled flowers. But they grow in murky waters. I've never seen a lotus root that's not muddy.

I cut my pieces crosswise about 3/4-1 cm thick.

I had some extra bok choy from a previous meal which I blanched and diced. It's then mixed with green onions, ground pork, and all sorts of random stuff that I wanted in my filling: ginger, soy sauce, mirin, salt, chili peppers, shredded carrot, and reconstituted mushrooms.

Stuffed and raw. It's like a lotus sandwich.

The stuffed lotus is then rolled around in a scrambled eggs and then flour, and pan fried. If I had a deep fryer, I'd dip it in batter and fry it, but I don't.

Here's the normal fried version! The lotus on the outside has a tiny bit of crunch and the inside is like a meat patty.

I had way too much filling, so I made some inside-out stuffed lotuses, which is basically a slice of lotus surrounded by the meat filling. Some might say that this version tastes even better!

I also forgot to take a picture of the pile of stuffed lotuses, and by the time I remembered that I needed a picture, they had already been eaten.