Basil Beef… err… Meatballs

by Pam, Paris (France)

One thing I like when cooking is moving away one dish into another form. It can be done for convenience or for a fun factor.
This time, when thinking about what I could cook for a picnic, knowing I wanted to make an asian dish, I just thought : Why not turn the well known basil beef into meatball?!
After all, meatballs can be found in any asian menu. But just not basil beef meatballs.

Please, if you try, tell me what you thought

• Servings: about 50 meatballs (see the picture)
• Preparation times:
  • Preparation: 15 minutes
  • Cooking: 30 minutes
• Ingredients:
  • 600 grams of ground meat*
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 bunch of fresh basil**
  • spices*** : cayenne pepper or ground chili, lemongrass powder, ginger, ground pepper
  • fish sauce
  • soy sauce
  • peanut oil
  • salt
• Steps:
  1. Chop the garlic, onion and basil thinly
  2. Mix the garlic, onion and basil with the ground meat and spices
  3. Add fish sauce to taste (about 1 or 2 tablespoons)
  4. Add soy sauce (about 1 or 2 teaspoons)
  5. Mix the lot and add salt if needed
  6. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium/low heat
  7. Make small meatballs and fry them over the pan in batches
  8. When a batch is cooked, remove from the pan and leave it to cool on a paper towel to soak the oil out
  9. Continue until all meatballs are cooked
• Notes:
  • * : ground meat could be ground beef or another mixture is fine.
  • ** : I realise that the term “bunch” can be misleading. Take it that you should get half a mug of chopped basil. (Nothing original in a mug, just the usual casual mug)
  • *** : spices are really according to your own taste. For a more authentic taste, use thai chili and kaffir leaves, otherwise you can play with whatever you have in your drawers.
  • The size of your meatballs is really according to you. My meatballs were about 2-3cm long. But I guess you could make nice burgers out of this recipe too