Pork-sh'room Meatballs with Spicy Tamarind Sauce

I love making appetizer as it’s more fun than making big meals ( I've said that before on my other post, didn’t I?).   And today is a fun day to make something yummy and tasty.   I find myself, as usual, making these pork meatballs from scratch with no recipe by start adding things into it.  Adding chopped mushroom into lean ground pork is my later decision because I want something lighter for the app than just the pork meat.  And then I start to add an egg and corn starch (or you can use either one) and used the panko bread crumbs for the coating before deep frying them (you can also mix the panko into the meatballs instead of coating them, the panko will give the meatballs more solid consistency, but I find that coating the meatballs with the panko will make the meatballs more crunchy on the outside and still moist and juicy on the inside after they are cooked).    

For the spicy tamarind sauce, I made it before and I thought it would be perfect for these meatballs, however, you can use a store bought Thai sweet chili sauce for the dipping.  It tastes great!    The recipe below for the spicy tamarind sauce, I used 2 tablespoons of chili garlic sauce and it turned out to be really hot.  So, be careful before adding it too much.  But if you like the heat, go for it!

What you need:

10 oz lean ground pork

1 cup mushroom finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp ginger, finely grated

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp sugar

2 tbsp corn starch

1 tsp ground white pepper

1 egg

1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

2 cups canola oil for frying

Meatballs:
- Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, except the panko
- Make a ball from the pork mixture into your desired size; I make each ball from 2 tbsp pork mixture and make about 14 balls
- Coat each of the pork meat ball with the panko bread crumbs until the mixture is gone, and then chill the meatballs in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes
- Set the oil on the medium-high heat at the frying temperature at 375’F
- Fry the meatballs in batches, try not to overcrowd the pan, may be 3-4 for each batch depending on the size of the meatballs and fry about 3-5 minutes
- Serve immediately with the tamarind sauce

Spicy Tamarind Sauce

1 cup water

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup tamarind juice ( 1 tbsp tamarind paste + 2 tbsp water)

1 tbsp chili garlic sauce  

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp corn starch + 2 tbsp water = corn starch water

- Add water and sugar in the small saucepan over medium-low heat
- Add chili garlic sauce, salt and tamarind juice, stir until all the sugar is dissolved
- Add corn starch water to thicken the sauce, turn off the heat and add chopped cilantro
- Make about 1 ¼ cup

Enjoy!

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