Discovered a fun recipe in The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, and Rome
I served the meatballs with plain brown rice and broccoli, along with a dash of soy sauce. Also, instead of using a fryer, I mixed cooking oil and natural peanut butter in a deep frying pan…just enough to coat the meatballs…and cooked it that way. I don’t know if it’s healthier, but it felt that way. It was also more convenient. You may have to do two shifts, however.
Ingredients:
Meat and spices:
1.5-2lbs ground chicken or turkey (turkey happened to be cheaper)
1/2 tsp pepper (he specifies white pepper, we didn’t have it)
1/2 tsp salt (it’s important, remember? 😉 )
2 TB cornstarch
1 TB soy sauce (or more if you like)
2 egg whites (we left these out since we didn’t have eggs, no biggie)
1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger. Or 1/4 tsp ground.
2 tsp cooking sherry or vinegar
4 cloves crushed garlic (I used 2)
Coating:
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup water-chestnut flour…if desired.
4 cups peanut oil for frying. Or 1 cup natural peanut butter and 2TB cooking oil.
Cooking:
1. Rinse ground poultry and put in mixing bowl. Add all spice/vinegar/egg/2TB cornstarch ingredients. Mix thoroughly. By hand, unless you really need a mixer.
2. Put 2 cups cornstarch (or 1 cup with 1 cup of the other flour if you’d like) in a smaller mixing bowl.
3. Roll the meat mixture into meatballs of desired size. Roll each meatball in the starch/flour.
4. Either put them to deep fry in several batches in 360 degree oil until balls float and are golden brown (5) or… Put 1/2-2/3 of peanut butter and oil in frying pan. Add balls and make sure they’re coated. Fry for as long as necessary…make sure that a few are well-cooked all the way through. Then taste for flavor. Repeat with reserved peanut butter and oil and any meatballs that didn’t fit. If they’ll all fit, no need for stages.
Didn’t take too long to make and wonderfully yummy. It’s hard for me to believe how good they tasted…I had mild expectations. Micah and his sister also loved them. They’ve got a definite nutty flavor and the ginger and soy sauce go with it quite well.
Let me know how this turns out for you! 🙂
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Did you use up the whole 2 cups of cornstarch? How large were the meatballs? Did the meatballs taste of peanuts or of peanut butter?
Not the whole 2 cups, most was left. But it helped to have plenty to roll them in. They tasted rather peanuty.
I feel like I’m stumbling upon a private family kitchen conversation between Mrs Micah and her mom…haha
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