Pork & Lemongrass Meatballs in Thai Red Curry Sauce

February 02, 2020

 Meatballs are everywhere! They seem to exist in almost every cuisine, simple to make and invariably taking on the flavours of the region they are a great guide to a nation's food. I then started wondering why I had never seen any meatballs that claim to be particularly British. Turns out there was such a dish but as it was largely comprised of offal it fell out of favour, that and a rather unfortunate name that editor/censor daughter (see here) insisted does not appear here, means you have to do your own research into British meatballs!
These pork and lemongrass meatballs provide a wonderful contrast to the red curry sauce. Really easy to make and as a red curry is one of the milder curries this can be enjoyed by the whole family. A big pot of them also goes down well at summer barbecues, assuming summer arrives:-)


Ingredients.
This should make about 30 medium-sized meatballs.
• 1 packet My Thai Curry red curry paste
• 1 can coconut milk 
• 500 g pork mince
• ½ medium size white onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 20 g of coriander (cilantro US)
• 20g lemongrass
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/3  teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce*
• Kaffir lime leaves and mild chillies or peppers for garnish
As always with Thai recipes it is super important make sure to use the correct Coconut Milk .
Roughly chop the onion and lemongrass, coriander and garlic and place in a mini food processor or similar with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Blend to a smooth paste.

Put the mince in a mixing bowl and add the lemongrass paste, sugar, pepper, and cornflour. Add the Thai fish sauce according to taste, 1 tablespoon will be ample, and this provides both salt and the essential Thai flavour to the meatballs. (* Don't be tempted to leave it out because you don't like fish sauce, used correctly you won't even know it's there but it heightens the taste of the other ingredients.)

Knead everything together by hand or using a fork or whatever. Don't use a blender or processor as you will lose the texture. I find an easy way to make the meatballs is to put some of the mixture in a spoon to form the meatball.

Cook the meatballs in a little oil in a pan over a medium heat for around 3 minutes then turn and cook for another 3 minutes until they have browned a little as in the picture. Remove the meatballs and put aside.

Put the red curry paste and the coconut milk in a pan and bring to a simmer. 



Put the meatballs into the paste and cook through gently for around 10 minutes. You can then add some strips of pepper etc to the pan.

Serve with some thinly sliced lemongrass and some finely cut kaffir lime leaf, see here for details. As with any Thai curry a wedge of lime to cut the sweetness of the coconut milk is a good idea!

Enjoy!

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