Meatball Monday: Vietnamese Pork Meatballs

We really love meatballs; I love that they are so versatile and my hubby loves that they are, well – meat. I was never really a big fan of them before I met my hubby – and then he bought a big ol’ bag of them from Sam’s Club. I cooked them in different sauces, used them in a few recipes and of course used them in good ol’ spaghetti. But then I was bored with them – and didn’t want anymore. End of the meatball story.

Fast forward a couple years and I decided to make some meatballs from fresh. ( I like saying “from fresh” more so than “from scratch” - since from scratch means from nothing, I really have not made much “from scratch”. From fresh means I have used fresh ingredients, not previously frozen or canned.) Whoa, sorry about that rant – I shall digress… The meatballs were simple, but wonderful. I could not believe that I had never made any before, I felt like I had been ripping myself off! Not only was I super impressed with them, my 2 year old loved them – which is why I ended up buying the meatball basket for the bbq. I love bbq’ing and my toddler loves meatballs, so buying the basket was totally justified… It took the meatballs to the next level and now I am on my quest to find/create the best meatball recipes out there!

Every Monday we will feature a different meatball recipe, meats ranging from beef to fish and ingredients being limitless. I hope everyone enjoys!

This week we will start with Vietnamese Meatballs, and what a great way to start! I made these for a Banh Mi Sandwich that I found at Epicurious.com. The meatballs call for two ingredients that are not common in everyone’s kitchen, fish oil and sriracha. To be honest I had neither, but now that I have both I will be trying recipes that call for them. The fish oil is just what it's name says and it smells just as you could imagine fish oil smelling. The sriracha is spicy, spicy - so just adjust recipe to how hot you like your food. Combined they make wonderful ingredients for this meatball. Enjoy!

Vietnamese Meatballs

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha or other hot chili sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease cookie sheet
2. Mix all ingredients together
3. Form 1 inch meatballs and place on cookie sheet, bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown
4. Enjoy!