Turkey Meatballs - Paddling in a Coconut/Tomato Pool

I love turkey.  And I love meatballs, so yep I adore turkey balls!  So much tastier than chicken mince, which is what the original recipe calls for.  I love shoving a massive turkey breast into the oven at Christmas, wrapped in lots of lovely bacon.  Then eating it for days afterwards in sandwiches, or salads.  Turkey brings back fond memories of our time staying with friends in Philadelphia during the holiday season, which lasts from Halloween in October to New Year's in January.  

Our friends would put a humongous turkey (about 10 kilos) in the Weber BBQ on the back deck in the snow, and leave it cook for hours while we got stuck into fresh artichokes with butter.  Imagine my dismay as I tried to suck the butter off the leaves through a mouthful of braces!  (I got braces as an adult, and sadly was not able to savour many of the edible delights during our trip.)

When the turkey was done, we ate it with sweet fruit pies, vegetable-filled sweet jellies, ham and that weird dish Americans seem to love - sweet potato pie covered in marshmallows.  I still get the shivers thinking of these combos. Another regular dinner was sweet blintzes with vegetables.  Now I adore blintzes, but usually fried in butter and dredged in icing sugar!  Ah well, it was all made with love.

I first made these meatballs based on a recipe in Gourmet magazine, which uses chicken mince, and is served in a coconut and red lentil soup.  This isn't that recipe, but I have used the basic idea of making meatballs and letting them float around in a spicy sauce.

meatball on a fork; not a tree:=)  

ingredients:

balls:

1/2 red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 red chillies, finely chopped
5cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated - (feel free to throw these 4 ingredients, roughly chopped, into a food processor and blitz like I did!)
1 tbs ground cummin
1 tbs ground coriander
1/2 tsp dried fingerlime powder (optional)
1 tbs lemongrass paste  
1 tbs coriander paste     
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce (I used my own home-made sauce)
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
1- 1.5 cups bread crumbs (depends on the wetness of the mince)
750g. turkey mince

sauce:

1-2 tbs olive oil
1 red onion, diced (brown or white is fine too)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 red chillies, finely chopped
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp lemongrass paste
1 tsp coriander paste
1/2 tbs ground cummin
1/2 tbs ground coriander
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 tin coconut milk
2 tins diced tomatoes
1 tbs lime juice
a handful of fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped or torn



Method:

Balls:

Grab a large mixing bowl and throw in all the ingredients for the balls
Mix together with a large spoon (but best with your hands)
Roll into plum-sized balls
Place on 2 lined baking trays
Bake at 190C for 10 minutes then swap shelves and bake for another 5 minutes (they will finish cooking in the sauce)

Sauce:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan
Throw in the onion, garlic and chillies
Stir till they start to go golden (but don't burn 'em)
Tip in the fish sauce
In goes the lemongrass and coriander pastes
Then the cummin, coriander, sugar, salt and pepper
Pour in the coconut milk and tins of tomatoes
Heat the mixture gently
Place the meatballs into the sauce 
Heat for 5-10 minutes till balls are warmed through
Throw in the lime juice and coriander leaves at the end
Serve with rice   (serves 6 easily)

ready to blitz

blitzed

ingredients ready to become cute little balls       

cute little plum-sized balls ready for the baking   

ingredients for the sauce   

frying them up in olive oil 

balls paddling in their tomato/coconut pool   

Mr P. really wolfed this down:=)