The Mancreature has been a little obsessed with Asian-style beef balls since we bought some for a hotpot meal about a month or so ago. I've had them quite a few times, but always shop-bought, so it never occurred to me that you could make them at home. Which - when you think about it - is really stupid, because of course you can make them at home. Someone had to make all those balls I've eaten so far. Yet, it still seemed like such an epiphany to me when The Mancreature innocently asked 'How are they made?' I had no idea, of course, and set off on the old Google, which led me to this recipe.
Simple enough, and we had 500 grams of minced beef sitting in the freezer, so we gave it a try this past weekend. The only thing we tweaked was to leave out the alkaline water, because it made us think of eating batteries, and we also added four cloves of garlic, for extra-fragrant balls.
You've got to add them to simmering water, until they float up to the surface. Leave them for a few more seconds, and they're cooked and ready to enjoy.
We had them in a huge bowl of tom yum soup with udon noodles. Great for two sniffly sickies.
I don't know why I never thought of making my own beef balls before. Sure, they're relatively easy to find in shops, but the ingredients can be pretty scary. MSG plays a huge role in most of the shop-bought ones, which undoubted accounts for their flavour, but also often leaves me feeling very, very thirsty.
These homemade ones, on the other hand, took hardly any time to whip up at all. In fact, it probably took longer freezing and cooking them, since all you have to do is throw the stuff into the food proccessor. You can be sure I'll be making more of them in future!
yummy... i like beef balls too.... but you know what i had the other day that was even better... beef balls with mushrooms!
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