Meat Balls (Asian Style)

I had never followed the game, football, untill Super Bowl 2012. Thats when my husband explained it to me to the best of his knowledge. Since then, it had seemed to be interesting to me. We used to go to the High School that is next to our apartment, whenever they would host the game. And one such visit helped us understand the game even better. Grandfather of one of the players, graciously volunteered to explain the game to us, when he saw us clueless, at times :).

When the hype was on for the Super Bowl this year, it somehow hit me this time. May be because, now that I know the basics, I can bother to sit down to watch the game. Now....we needed some snacks for the big game. Though chicken wings/ chicken thighs is the best fit for this occasion, I wanted to try the meat ball recipe that I had come across recently. As a contingency factor, we did buy some chicken wings too just to leave us with something to munch on if the meat balls go wrong :).

Here is the recipe to the asian inspired Meat Balls. Hope you like it :).

Ingredients

For the Meat Balls

1. 1/2 kg of beef
2. Salt to taste
3. 1 egg
4. 2-3 tbsp of grated carrot
5. 1 tbsp of grated ginger
6. 1-2 cloves of garlic grated
7. 1 tbsp of red pepper flakes
8. 1 tbsp of soya sauce
9. 1 tbsp of chilly sauce
10. 2 tbsp of finely chopped scallion/green onion

For the sauce

1. 1/2 tbsp of mixed fruit jam
2. 2-3 tbsp of orange juice
3. 2 tbsp of tomato sauce
4. 1/2 tbsp of red pepper flakes
5. 1 tbsp of corn flour
6. Water (as required)

Method

• Pressure cook the beef with salt(as required) for 4 whistles on medium heat.
• Mince the cooked beef in a grinder. This would give you powdered beef.
• Add the grated carrot, chopped scallion, grated ginger and garlic, egg, red pepper flakes, soya sauce and chilly sauce to the minced meat. Mix them well untill all the ingredients get incorporated well.
• Roll them into small balls and place it on a greased baking pan.
• Preheat the oven to 375 F/ 190 C.
• Bake them in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, while you flip them after the first 15 mins.
• For the sauce, mix the jam, orange juice, tomato sauce and pepper flakes in a deep bottom pan. 
• Add just enough water so that the meat balls could all be covered once dropped into it.
• Heat the mixture. Once it starts boiling, simmer the heat and add the corn flour.
• Drop in the baked meatballs. Let all the meat balls get coated well.
• Remove it to a plate and serve it with celery/carrot and ranch.

Tips

1. While pressure cooking the beef, I let the first whistle go off on high heat and cooked it on medium heat for the remaining 3 whistles. Usually ground beef is used for meat balls and cooked in the oven directly. However, I wanted the beef to be fully cooked and hence took this approach.
2. Grease the pan well, so that the meat balls do not get stuck to it and loose its shape.
3. Its good to spray oil on top of the meat balls before baking. It prevents the meat balls from drying up.

Recipe courtesy : Adapted from multiple video recipes from Youtube.