I am pretty hopeless with chopsticks in spite of lots of practice but the fact that these Japanese-style has nothing to do with their being easier to eat than a lot of Asian food – it’s the flavour – mostly derived from the ginger – which makes these meatballs so good. I’ve anglicised the recipe a bit – if you want to be more authentic use rice wine vinegar instead of the cider vinegar.
Serve with a salad of baby spinach leaves.
This will freeze, but if that’s what you’re planning under-blanch the cauliflower or it will lose its bite completely.
Recipe for Japanese meatballs
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 8 spring onions – thinly sliced and including about an inch (2 cm) of the green, but keep that separate
- 200g/7 oz minced beef (not fatty)
- 200g/7 oz minced pork
- About an inch (2 cm) of ginger, peeled and grated (did you know you can keep ginger in the freezer and peel and grate as and when you need?)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 egg
- about 3 tbsps. of cornflour
- 1 tsp smoked salt and generous grinds of Indonesian long pepper
- rapeseed oil for shallow frying
- 2 tbsps sesame seeds – dry fried
- 120ml/½ cup good quality soy sauce – follow this link to find out about soy sauce quality, you don’t want the horrid watery stuff.
- 15g sachet Clearspring miso instant soup paste with sea vegetables
- 2 tbsps of sake
- 4 tbsps cider vinegar
- 300g/10 oz blanched cauliflower florets (a small-medium sized cauliflower)
Method
- In a big mixing bowl mix the minced meats and the white part of the spring onions; the egg; the ginger; the sesame oil; 1 tbsp of cornflour and the salt and pepper – the mixture should start to feel a bit elastic
- Pour a generous amount of rapeseed oil into a big frying pan and get it good and hot.
- Meanwhile make golf-ball-sized meatballs, and sieve a little more cornflour lightly over them.
- Fry the meatballs turning frequently until they are crispy all over – a couple of minutes on each surface. Drain onto kitchen paper and keep warm.
- In the same frying pan mix the soy sauce, miso soup paste, vinegar, sake, and 120ml/½ cup water and bring the mixture to the boil
- Put the meatballs back into the frying pan.
- Mix 1 tbsp of cornflour with 3 tbsps of cold water, add to the juices in the frying pan and mix in well to avoid lumps forming. Stir to cover the meatballs
- Serve, garnished with the sesame seeds and thinly sliced green of the spring onions.
For other recipes for meatballs on Saucy Dressings, follow this link.