Chinese Style Turkey Meatballs

This was a fun twist on spaghetti and meatballs. The flavors of cilantro, sesame oil and soy sauce give the meatballs a distinct Asian flare.  I'd say that the meatballs taste a lot like the meat filling of a gyoza dumpling.  I love me some gyoza, or potstickers, but they can be a bit on the fussy side.  (Mine always stick to the pan, and not in a good way.) These meatballs were all the yummy without all the work.

We ate our meatballs with soba, Japanese buckwheat noodles, to follow through with the Asian theme.  I'm sure you could use regular thin spaghetti if you can't find or don't like soba.  We happen to love it, and our grocery store carries it in the Asian foods aisle.  Yay!

I really liked that these meatballs were baked and make from lean turkey.  A win win situation in my book. 

Blockette was rather indifferent towards the sauce.  I thought it had a good balance of salty, sweet and tangy.  I just dipped my meatballs one by one in the sauce, but Mrblocko poured the sauce over his entire dish. 

Chinese style turkey meatballs from Disney's Family.com
Meatballs:
1 pound ground turkey
2 scallions, very finely chopped
1/2 cup very finely chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup fine, dry bread crumbs (unseasoned)
1 egg, lightly beaten


Sweet Soy Dipping Sauce:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 or 3 slices fresh ginger smashed with the side of a heavy knife

To make the meatballs: Heat the oven to 400. Gently mix together the ingredients (hands are best for this), then form meatballs by rolling tablespoon-sized scoops between your palms. (I used a small cookie scoop) Arrange on a lightly oiled or parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, until well-browned and cooked through.

To make the dipping sauce: In a small pot, stir all the ingredients together over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Simmer 3 or so minutes, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens a bit. Fish out the ginger and serve in small cups for dipping.

Okayu - Japanese rice porridge

A few weeks ago I was feeling under the weather.  Nothing sounded good to eat, not even toast or soup.  I was sitting at the computer, screwing around in hopes that I could just pass on the whole lunch thing. Then I came across this recipe for Okayu over at FOODjimoto.  I knew instantly that I HAD to get my butt in the kitchen and make it for lunch.

Back when I was in college, many many moons ago, I took a quarter off of school to visit some friends in Japan.  It was a horribly failed trip as I caught a virus on the plane and had to return home after only having stayed for a week.  My "friend's" (I use the term "friend" loosely here, as apparently me getting sick really put a cramp in her style)  mom made me some Okayu in hopes that it would make me feel better.  It was one of the few things I could actually eat.

I had no idea how to make it or even what it was called.  The mom just plunked the bowl of gruel in front of me and politely encouraged me to eat it.  I didn't realize what it was until I saw the picture of it on the FOODjimoto blog.

This dish was exactly what I needed back then, and last week when I was under the weather.  I was feeling better the day after I made this, so I added my Okayu leftovers to some veggie soup.  It made for a really thick yummy soup!

If you're feeling under the weather, but not quite up for the usual chicken noodle soup pick me up, here's what you need to make Japanese rice porridge!
1/2c short or medium grain rice
4 c water

Rinse the rice in a colander.  Put the water and rice into a pot and let it come to a boil.  Simmer covered on the lowest setting for 30 min.  Keep the lid slightly ajar so the pot doesn't boil over.  (I forgot this part and made a mess of my stove. Don't be me!)  Stir occasionally so the rice doesn't burn. Add salt or whatever strikes your fancy.  ie pickled plum, eggs, leftover meat, veggies, dashi, etc.  I didn't have any of those things, so I added 2 cubes of chicken bullion to the water as the rice cooked. It was a bit on the salty side for me, so I think next time, I'll try just one bullion cube.

1 egg Japanese Omelette

Have you ever had a Japanese omelet before?  They have all these uber thin layers upon layers of egg in them.  It's like paper thin crepe-like omelettes.  I don't know how to explain it.  If you've never had it before then you are missing out.  Go get yourself a container of Baileys Ice cream and have a good cry.

Anyhow, many moons ago, before I was married and knew how to cook, I attempted to prepare tamagoyaki.  It was a dreadful and horrible failure.  Yeah.  I had a Japanese cookbook and I followed the directions exactly.  I got a whole pan of scrambled eggs.  Whoopie.  Talk about a let down.


As luck would have it, I happened across a recipe called Tamagoyaki for one from Just Bento. It only uses one egg!  That is my kind of recipe. If I totally screw it up, I've not wasted a bunch of ingredients.

I think I did a fairly decent job of making the egg layers.  You can sort of see the layers in middle of the omelet in the photo above.  It's not exactly perfect, but closer to the real thing than any other attempt I've made in the past.  Yay me!

1-egg tamagoyaki from Just Bento
1 ‘large’ egg
1 Tbs. water
1 tsp. soy sauce (regular or light-colored; here I used regular, since that’s all I had in stock)
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. bonito flakes (optional, for added flavor)
Vegetable oil for cooking

Mix all ingredients together well with a fork or chopsticks. Heat up a small (6 ") non-stick frying pan and spread thinly with oil (or use a non-stick cooking spray). From this point on, it only takes about a minute and a half!

Once the pan is hot (if you put a droplet of water in, it dances and evaporates immediately), pour in the egg. Stir gently with a fork or chopsticks until it’s half-set. Fold in half with a spatula. Tidy up the other side a bit with the spatula. Fold the one third of the egg over with the spatula. Press down. Fold the other end of the egg over with the spatula. Press the whole thing down. Flip over, and press again. Remove from the heat before it browns too much. (If you use light colored soy sauce, it won’t get as brown.) Cut in half and put cut side up, it is nicely multi-layered.