Chinese(ish) Sweet n Sour Meatballs
In Chinese restaurants in the UK, I always see something called Sweet and Sour Pork Balls, or Chicken Balls, on the menu and it strikes me as the weirdest description of a dish. It usually is battered deep fried pieces of chicken or pork, round, floating in a neon red, sugary, sweet and sour sauce.
This is nothing like that.
In my usual vein of meatballs and the meat plus fruit kick that I’m constantly on, I decided that I needed to use the title of the weird Chinese dish as my inspiration and then come up with something completely different. These are meatballs with a five spice and chipotle chilli kick. Super easy to whip up and, because they are coated in the sesame seeds, they store well and travel well. Meaning, you can pop them in a zip lock bag and take them with you on a hike, a cycle, to work, while commuting, whatever. Convenience food!!
- 400 grams ground pork
- 300 grams ground beef (*or more pork!)
- 100 grams red onion (1 red onion)
- 225 grams can of crushed pineapple with juice
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon chinese five spice
- 1 inch of fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon chipotle chilli powder
- 60 grams sesame seeds
- 1 pinch sea salt
Preheat the oven to 190°C.
First chop up the onion to a fine dice. Roughly chop the garlic. Throw everything except the sesame seeds into a food processor and whizz ’round until well mixed. You can also do this by hand, which is probably advisable, it’s just that my dicing skills leave a lot to be desired.
Roll the mix into meatballs and roll them into the sesame seeds to coat. Makes about 18-20 large meatballs.
Stick on a tray (lined with baking paper to make clean up a breeze) and bake for about 45 minutes.
Tastier when cool!