Thai-Style(ish) Meatballs...

...and Stir-Fried Noodles too...I fancied something a little different to the usual stir-fried noodles I do as a midweek dinner...so I went on a hunt through all my cookbooks for something that would hit the spot, and this is what I found...
The recipe comes from Rachel Allen's book, "Home Cooking", and a recipe that I had bookmarked for ages...in fact probably as long as I have had the book...so a good 2 years or so!! The recipe seems to have such a huge list of ingredients, but when you read through, many are duplicated in both parts of the dish...so not so bad after all...(oh and Rachel Allen calls them chicken dumplings, whereas my kiddies decided they were more like meatballs, so meatballs they are) 


Serves: 4-6ish
Prep time: Leave about 15-20 mins to prep
Cooking time: 15 mins ish...
For the meatballs you need:
*chicken, 300g, minced (don't worry if you can't get chicken mince...see method in a bit)
*pork, 100g, minced (again, doesn't need to be minced, pork escalopes will do, see method)
*salted peanuts, a good handful, about 50g (these are optional, but add a nice bit of texture)
*fresh ginger, 1tsp, grated or very finely chopped
*garlic, 1tsp, grated or very finely chopped
*red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (optional-I left this out as I was making enough to freeze for smallish ones later)
*spring onions, 2 large ones, finely chopped
*fresh coriander, 2tsp, finely chopped
*1 egg
*breadcrumbs, 50g - I used matzo...
*salt and pepper to season
*oil to fry in


For the noodles you need:
*medium egg noodles, 1 nest per person
*chicken stock, about 1.2L
*garlic, 4 cloves, crushed
*red chilli, 2, deseeded and finely chopped
*spring onions, 6, finely sliced
*dark brown sugar, 3Tbsp
*beansprouts, about 250g
*fish sauce (nam pla), 4Tbsp
*salted peanuts, 4Tbsp (optional, but again great for adding texture to the dish)
*limes, 2 - juice of only
*fresh coriander, small bunch, chopped


Phew...what a long list, but really quite a few ingredients appear in both lists...so don't be put off...

The meatballs are so simple to make, I didn't have minced meat, so instead just plonked everything (2 meats, peanuts, ginger, garlic, spring onions, coriander, egg, matzo and seasoning) into my processor and whizzzzzzzed...

...until it was a smoothish (peanuts excluded) texture...

Then using wet hands I made the meatballs 44 in total...and put them in the fridge to chill a little and firm up before frying them...

I have actually frozen half of the ones I made for another night...

...I froze them on a tray covered in baking parchment, and bagged them up once they were solid...

Then when we were ready to eat I got on with the noodles...first by cooking the noodles in the chicken stock, just like I do for my Chow Mein...then draining and putting them to one side whilst I was softened the spring onions, garlic and chilli and sugar in a little veg oil...

...once they were softened in went the beansprouts...and fish sauce...stirring well as you go...

...add in the noodles and toss well to coat in the sauce...

...and finally just as you are about to serve, add the peanuts (if using), coriander and lime juice...

Now back to those meatballs, to cook them Rachel says fry in a little oil until golden all over and cooked through...I decided to brown mine off so that they were pretty much cooked, but then to put them into a medium-hot oven (while I cooked the noodles) to finish them off...that way I had a bit more space on the hob!!

...arrange the meatballs on top of some of the noodles in a bowl, and serve...

The final dish had a lovely little chilli kick to the noodles, and the meatballs were so easy to make...the smallish ones liked the meatballs without the spicy noodles, so I may use the frozen ones for them later on...with plain chow mein or even egg fried rice...