Pork, Mushroom and Soy Sauce Meatballs
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 Recipe #94089. 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.
INGREDIENTS
Nutrition- 1lb ground pork
- 1lb ground veal
- 1 -2tablespoon olive oil
- 1
- 2
- 1lb wild mushroom, for a really great flavour, include some Swiss Browns, very finely chopped
- 2
- 1 1⁄2cups soft stale bread crumbs
- 1 1⁄2tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 1teaspoon all purpose Greek seasoning
- 1⁄2teaspoon ground ginger
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to a moderate heat.
- 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.
- Add the chopped mushrooms and sauté, while stirring, until the mushrooms are just soft.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Add to soup or serve with your favourite spaghetti sauce over pasta.
- 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.