I love spaghetti and meatballs. I love Asian food. I also love green vegetables. Therefore, this dish is everything to me because it has all those things. Oh and chilli and sesame and they’re always my go to flavours. This is basically my heaven.

Don’t be put off by the ingredient list, lots of flavours are repeated in the meatballs and the sauce and most things should be pantry basics if you’re as into cooking with Asian flavours as I am.

I mean these are basically like the inside of a dumpling on a pile of saucy slurpy noodles. Why would I want to eat anything else? The chilli, sesame and ginger sauce brings this all together – it packs a flavour punch I love it. But apparently I love everything today, probably overusing that word but can’t be bothered thinking of new verbs.

I’ve made meatballs sort of like this before. And by sort of like this I mean using Asian flavours in a spaghetti and meatballs type thing. That was my pappardelle with twice cooked meatballs in gochujang sugo. Hose are good and super spicy and kind of still mostly Italian. Just with a slight diversion to Korea which is totally normal. Speaking of twice cooked, these meatballs also get that treatment. But in a simpler and very optional way. If you’re not into doing anything twice then read on for shortcuts.

Some notes on substitutions and shortcuts: You may not have tapioca starch as a pantry basic, you could replace with corn flour or bread crumbs. If the idea of steaming then browning the meatballs sounds like a hassle to you. Just brown them. They’ll still be pretty juicy anyway. I’ve made them both ways, my personal preference is steaming then browning but I like to make things complicated and am willing to do extra fiddly things when I’m cooking. This doesn’t mean you have too – thus me trying the recipe the simple way too.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Meatballs

500g pork mince

1 Tbs ginger, freshly grated

1.3 cup finely chopped coriander stalks and leaves

1 birds eye chilli finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)

1 Tbs soy sauce

A few drops of sesame oil

1 Tbs Chinese cooking wine

2 Tbs finely chopped spring onion

1 .5 Tbs tapioca starch

1 egg

 

Chilli, ginger and sesame sauce

2 Tbs soy sauce

1 tbs rice wine

¼ cup spring onion

1 Tbs ginger, freshly grated

1 Tbs chilli bean paste or chilli oil

3 Tbs toasted sesame seeds

A few drops of sesame oil

1 tsp peanut oil (omit if you used chilli oil)

2 Tbs water or chicken stock

 

1 Bunch baby bok choy

1 bunch broccolini

400g Rice noodles (I use thin but not vermicelli)

 

Directions

In a medium bowl combine the meatball ingredients and mix well with your hands or a spoon. The mixture should easily stick together. Roll into walnut sized balls and place on a tray. Cover and set aside in the fridge for at least 20 minutes – you want the flavours to develop.

Meanwhile mix together the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside

Trim the end from the bok choy to separate leaves and clean well. Rinse and trim your broccolini.

Prepare noodles according to packet instructions.

Bring a pot of water to the boil (choose a pot that fits your steamer on top snuggly). Place a plate in the base of your steamer, if your steamer is small use two layers. Place meatballs on the plate(s) and steam for 10 minutes.

Heat a frying pan on medium high heat and spray lightly with oil. Add meatballs, don’t crowd the pan, cook in batches if necessary. If there is liquid left on your steaming plate reserve this.

Once meatballs are browned on each side remove them, they will be cooked through and juicy because of the steaming. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of the chill, ginger and sesame sauce over them, cover and set aside.

Keep the pan on the heat and add vegetables along with the reserved liquid from the steaming plates and 2 tablespoons of the chilli, ginger and sesame sauce. Stir fry the vegetables for 2-3 minutes until the bok choy is just starting to wilt. Remove the vegetables and place on the bottom of your serving plate or plates. Add the noodles to the hot pan along with any remaining sauce and stir-fry for a minute or two to warm through.

Arrange noodles on top of greens then top with the meatballs. Dig in.

HH. x