Pork, Mushroom and Soy Sauce Meatballs

bluemoon downunder's Note:

Deliciously moist and flavoursome meatballs to add to soups or your favourite spaghetti sauce, or to eat with a salad in a pita bread wrap. To make these, I played around with another of my recipes – Recipe #119121 – when I recently made KelBel’s Tuscan Soup. Because I still haven’t found a sausage that I really, really like – I’m still looking! – I decided to add meatballs rather than include the sausage in KelBel’s Tuscan Soup. I‘ve just this year discovered the most fabulous European butcher’s where I am able to buy incredibly lean pork/veal mince, which I’ve been using in all the recipes including ground or minced meat I’ve made since I’ve become a member of Zaar. Because parking is always difficult on Saturdays when I tend to go there, I asked them once what time they opened, thinking that maybe they opened a bit earlier than nine o’clock. “We are here two, three…” “No,” I said, “What time are you open to customers?” “If we’re here, we’ll serve you,” I was told. “Sometimes when we get here, there’s a queue outside.” Well I’ve yet to go there at THAT time! Anyway, to make these meatballs, my guess is that if you can’t get good ground pork or veal, make them with ground beef.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 60 meatballs

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 lb ground veal
• 1 -2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, very finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
• 1 lb wild mushroom, for a really great flavour, include some Swiss Browns, very finely chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups soft stale bread crumbs
• 1 1/2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon all purpose Greek seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to a moderate heat.
2. Heat the oil in a sauté pan (preferably non-stick), add the onion and garlic, and sauté, while stirring, until the onion and garlic are soft but not browned.
3. Add the chopped mushrooms and sauté, while stirring, until the mushrooms are just soft.
4. Allow the onion, garlic and mushrooms to cool. If you transfer the onion/garlic/mushroom mixture to a plate (which is at room temperature), 5-10 minutes cooling time is ample.
5. Combine the cooled mushroom mixture, minced veal/pork, egg, breadcrumbs, soy sauce, Greek seasoning and ground ginger in a bowl and mix until the ingredients are well-combined.
6. Roll the mixture into balls, slightly larger than a walnut and slightly smaller than a golf ball. You should get about 60 meatballs from the mixture.
7. Place the meatballs on lightly greased oven trays, turning them over once after you place them on the trays so that they are lightly oiled on the top.
8. Cover the trays loosely with aluminium foil and bake the meatballs in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes, or until they are cooked all the way through.
9. Add to soup or serve with your favourite spaghetti sauce over pasta.
10. Chef's Note: These meatballs can be frozen. And unless you have a super-large ravenous family or you're feeding half the neighbourhood, you may well want to freeze some of the meatballs.

Reviews

[Linda's Busy Kitchen]

These meatballs were super tasty! I used ground pork and ground turkey to make them a little healthier. I served my Chinese Duck Sauce to dip them in, and it was a great condiment to accompany them. I baked my meatballs about 35 minutes and they were done. I had them with some Pork Fried Rice and Sauteed Sweet Pea Pods, and I will enjoy these again! Thank you for sharing another great recipe with us Bluemoon! Made for Zaar Stars Tag Game 4/09 Linda

[Kittencalskitchen]

Really great meatball recipe bluemoon! the only changes I made to this recipe was I soaked the dry crumbs in some milk, also I increased the garlic and used finely chopped white button mushrooms, I also added in some cayenne pepper, I like the addition of soy sauce in this recipe, I will make these again soon! thanks bluemoon...Kitten:)

[ellie_]

Very good and easy--these do make a lot of meatballs--we had these over pasta tonight and we're freezing some for meatball sandwiches later in the week. The changes I made was using ground beef (instead of the veal) and using oyster and regular mushrooms (instead of wild mushrooms). I also really liked the no-watch method of cooking these meatballs in the oven--super easy and almost no work! Thanks for sharing!