Thai Style Meatballs

I love, love Asian food and flavors. I spend a lot of time poring over recipes and cookbooks dreaming of getting my hands on some of those hard to pronounce and hard to find ingredients and recreating the elaborately pictured dishes. I watch destination shows and dream of accompanying the presenters on their late night street food jaunts  - experiencing the smells and tastes of food I would not ordinarily have. Ah - I continue to dream.

 

I am also a very busy woman and making dishes that can be stretched and used in multiple ways is a must.

 

I stumbled on a recipe for these Ken Hom meatballs online and after several attempts, I have tweaked the recipe to make these perfect for my household. These aromatic and very tasty Thai style meatballs satisfy the Asian flavors box and are wonderful served as finger foods for company with cold drinks - and any leftovers can be put in a pasta sauce of your choice and voila- pasta and meatballs with a kick.

 

I prefer to make meatballs pretty small so I get more mileage - eating 4 cute meatballs vs 1 super large one (and then you end up eating 3 super large ones but you wouldn't eat 12 little meatballs) - perhaps that logic is just for me.....Anyway, make the meatballs any size that you would like.

 

This recipe will make about 24 mini meatballs.

 

You will need:

 

• 150g minced pork
• 150g minced beef (the use of 2 kinds of mince makes for moist and juicy meatballs. Chicken and beef mince can also work)
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tablespoons ice cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons fresh or dried coriander
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions
• 1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• Plain flour for dusting
• Flavorless oil such as Canola for frying - you can also bake these meatballs until cooked through and golden brown

Directions:

 

Combine pork and beef mince in a bowl

 

 

 

 

Add all the ingredients except the flour and oil to the meat mixture. From the picture below, you can see that I got some yolk in my egg whites. Hey, I am human :-)

 

Mix everything well. I prefer to use my hands. Go on. Get in there. If you are squeamish, get some food safety gloves and put your back into it.

 

Once mixed, form the meat balls. The mix will be quite moist but forming the balls should not be an issue. They don't have to be super round and even. Just nicely shaped.

 

Lightly dust the meatballs with the plain flour and fry/bake till cooked through and golden brown

 

I usually serve my meatballs when guests come over with a dipping sauce - can be a tomato based sauce, or spicy ata dindin. I threw the leftover fresh coriander, some mint, onions, green chilis, salt and some water in a blender one time and this has become my go-to dipping sauce for these meatballs.

 

Enjoy!!!!