Asian Meatballs

Happy Easter to those celebrating on this beautiful day :)

All the house windows, blinds, and doors are open letting the breeze and sunshine in.  These are the best Sundays!

*UPDATE:  It's crazy pouring down rain and hail now.  Welcome to Houston, where you can experience every type of weather in the course of one day.

Hubby's Sundays are spent sleeping in as much as possible in different parts of the house.  So while he was doing his thing, I was doing my thing in the kitchen. Normally we grab whatever from whatever restaurant for lunch, but today I actually made lunch!

I wanted something simple and tasty...so I decided to mimic this recipe that came across my email from Budget Bytes.  These meatballs are gingery and mildly sweetened with a glaze (not in the Budget Bytes recipe) that were eaten on top of basmati rice with a side of pickled carrots, onions, and radish.  You could also eat these meatballs in a warm toasty french or vietnamese baguette and make yourself a banh mi.  It's just good, easy food.

Pickled Veggies:

1/4 onion thinly sliced
2 large radishes thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced or grated
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
3 tbs sugar
1 tsp sea salt

Place the thinly sliced veggies into a small canister (I had to use a bowl b/c I was out of mason jars).  Bring the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt to a quick boil and pour over the veggies.   Make sure everything is fully submerged.  Cover and let sit in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes.

Asian Meatballs:

1/2 lb ground beef (ground anything is fine here)
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 tbs finely chopped cilantro
1-in knob ginger, minced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 egg
1/2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sriracha
sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp honey
couple splashes of soy sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with oil.

Combine the ground meat, breadcrumbs, onion, cilantro, minced ginger and garlic, egg, soy sauce, sriracha, a sprinkle of salt, and lots of pepper!  Mix thoroughly using a light hand.

Take about 1 tbs of meat mixture and shape into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet.  I made about 17 meatballs.

Bake for 20 minutes.  As they bake, combine the brown sugar, honey, and soy sauce.  Mix well.  After 20 minutes of baking, brush the meatballs with some of the glaze and let bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Turn off oven, brush the meatballs with the remaining glaze and place under the broiler for about 5 minutes so they're sticky.

That's all!

We ate the meatballs on top of some plain rice, with a dollop of sriracha mayo (literally sriracha and mayo mixed together), splash of soy sauce, pickled veggies, and some more sriracha.  Absolutely yum.