Spicy Meat Balls Recipe
 A wok is great for cooking meat balls
because you can push the cooked ones up the sides. Chili sambal is
fiercely hot, so be careful how much you add to your mouthful. When
processing the shrimp paste (belacan), onion, chilies and garlic, do not
process for too long, otherwise the onion will become too wet and spoil
the consistency of the meat balls. Minced beef is traditionally used for
this dish, but pork, lamb - or even turkey - mince would also be good.
Ingredients: (Serves 4-6)
1 cm/½ in cube shrimp paste
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1-2 fresh red chilies, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
15 ml/1 tablespoon cilantro (coriander)
seeds
5 ml/1 teaspoon cumin seeds
450 g/1 lb lean minced beef
10 ml/2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
5 ml/1 teaspoon dark brown sugar
Juice of 1½ lemons
A little beaten egg
Vegetable oil, for shallow frying
Salt and ground black pepper
1 green and 2 fresh red chilies, to garnish
Chili Sambal, to serve
Method:
Wrap the shrimp paste in a piece of foil and
warm in a frying pan for 5 minutes, turning a few times. Unwrap and put in
a food processor.
Add the onion, chilies and garlic to the
food processor and process until finely chopped. Set aside. Dry fry the
cilantro and cumin seeds in a hot frying pan for 1 minute, to release the
aroma. Tip the seeds into a mortar and grind with a pestle.
Put the meat in a large bowl. Stir in the
onion mixture. Add the ground spices, soy sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice
and beaten egg. Season to taste. Shape the meat mixture into small,
even-size balls, and chill these for 5-10 minutes to firm them up.
Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan
and fry the meat balls for 4-5 minutes, turning often, until cooked
through and browned. You may have to do this in batches.
Drain the meat balls on kitchen paper, and
then pile them on to a warm serving platter or into a large serving bowl.
Finely slice the green chili and one of the red chilies and scatter over
the meat balls. Garnish with the remaining red chili, if you like. Serve
with Chili Sambal handed round separately.
Happy Cooking,
Carol |
