The June Daring Cooks’ challenge sure kept us rolling – meatballs, that is! Shelley from C Mom Cook and Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to try meatballs from around the world and to create our own meatball meal celebrating a culture or cuisine of our own choice.
I chose to do two variations of the same basic meatballs, based on a Japanese recipe. In the first variation – the meatball bento that I created for my daughter to bring to school, the meatballs were coated with a sticky sweet and sour sauce. This helps to keep them moist and delicious during the time before they were eaten. I made extra meatballs and kept the uncooked ones frozen for later use.
The second variation is steamed meatballs on pumpkin. This is very simple. I defrosted the meatballs from the earlier preparation, arranged them on sliced pumpkin and steamed the pumpkin with the meatballs. The pumpkin adds a natural sweetness to the dish, complementing the salty and slightly sweet flavour of the meatballs very well.
- 100g peeled shrimp, chopped
- 200g minced pork
- 3 tbsp finely chopped onion
- 1 tsp peeled and grated ginger
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp frozen vegetables
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- ¼ pumpkin, ]1/4 inch thick slices
- In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients (except for frozen vegetables and oil) together until sticky.
- Add the frozen vegetables.
- Form mixture into balls. (Meatballs can be frozen at this stage)
- Drizzle balls with oil and steam on high heat for 8-10 minutes.
- Combine sauce ingredients in a small saucepan.
- Once cornstarch has dissolved, place the pan over medium heat and stir continuously.
- Once sauce has thickened and sauce is clear, remove from flame.
- Coat meatballs in sweet and sour sauce (meatball bento)
- Arrange sliced pumpkin on a steaming dish.
- Place meatballs atop.
- Steam for 8-10 minutes until meatballs are cooked and pumpkin is soft
This post is shared at Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm and Simple living and eating, and Freedom Fridays.
Hi, I’m stopping by from the Let’s Get Social Sunday blog hop. I like your page and hope you will have a look at mine. Meatballs are one of my favourite dishes. I have some defrosting at the moment to go with pasta for tomorrow’s dinner. It’s nice to get some inspiration about other ways to cook them.
These meatballs look fantastic, and that Bento Box is a darling way to serve them.
YUM! Would love to have you share it at our Ladies Only Blog Share link party – which has a summer theme this week! Visiting from Social Sunday! 🙂
http://mommifried.com/ladies-only-blog-share-link-party-funtastical-summer/
That box is so cute! Id always have a good day if that’s how my lunch looked everyday. I’m stopping by from the bloc hop & I’m a new followed through bloglovin.
My kids would go crazy for a meatball lunch like this. Thank you for sharing them with us on foodie friday.
Teresa: I love meatballs with pasta too!
Pattie: Thanks for the kind words! 🙂
Crystal: I’ll check out the ladies only blog share. Thanks for the invite!
Leslie: Thanks for visiting. Off to check out your blog!
Diane: Thank you Diane! Happy to share!
Stopping by from Sunday Social 🙂 I love meatballs and both of these recipes looks delicious and are something I will definitely have to try out. Thanks for sharing!