Let’s have something with a Southeast Asian flavor again. Meatballs with garlic and ginger.
As far as I’m concerned, the main ingredient here is ginger. For me, the spice above the spices.
And what is ginger?
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of leaves) about one meter tall, bearing narrow leaf blades. The inflorescences bear flowers having pale yellow petals with purple edges, and arise directly from the rhizome on separate shoots. Ginger is one of the first spices to have been exported from Asia, arriving in Europe with the spice trade, and was used by ancient Greeks and Romans. Ginger has been used in traditional medicine in China, India and Japan for centuries, and as a modern dietary supplement.
The first written record of ginger comes from the Analects, written by the Disciples of Confucius in China during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE). In it, Confucius was said to eat ginger with every meal. In 406, the monk Faxian wrote that ginger was grown in pots and carried on Chinese ships to prevent scurvy. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), ginger was being imported into China from southern countries.
In 2023, world production of raw ginger was 4.9 million tonnes, led by India with 45% of the total, and Nigeria and China as secondary producers.
Ginger is a known meat tenderizer (in addition to being an anti-bacterial/fungal). Hence its popularity in Asian marinades. The prime suspect is a protease called zingibain, which breaks down collagen and muscle fibers.
But let’s focus on the meatballs.
We need minced meat. Poultry, beef, pork, mixed, whatever you like. You can also try a vegan version with soy tofu, seitan …
We also need soy sauce, ginger, garlic, spring onion, sriracha sauce, salt, pepper, oil.
Finely chop the garlic, ginger and spring onion.
Put all the ingredients, except the oil, in a bowl. Use your hands and gently mix the ingredients. Be careful not to overwork the meat.
Form medium sized uniform meatballs. Approximately 3-4 cm in diameter.
You can fry them in a pan or in a baking dish in the oven. If you fry them in a pan, cook them in hot oil for 5-7 minutes, flipping and rotating the meatballs on all sides to ensure even browning and cooking on all sides.
If you put them in the oven, only heat it to 200 degrees Celsius. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes. After ten minutes, turn the meatballs over.
Serve while still hot. Serve with anything you like, boiled rice, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes… green salad…
You can also serve them in soup.
And you can freeze raw or baked meatballs if you wish.
And last but not least, let your imagination run free.