| Prep Time: 30 mins | Total Time: 30 mins |
| Serves: 48 meatballs |
Chopped water chestnuts, mixed with ground pork, give these meatballs crunch. You serve them in a sweet-sour sauce with chunk pineapple and green peppers. Keep them hot in a chafing dish; spear them with wooden picks.
From: My Great Recipes, 1981
INGREDIENTS
| 1 | lb | pork |
| 8 | oz | water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped |
| ¼ | c | green onion, minced |
| 1 | cl | garlic, minced or pressed |
| 1 | egg | |
| 1 | t | salt |
| 1 | t | cornstarch |
| 1 | T | soy sauce |
| ⅓ | c | cornstarch to coat meatballs |
| ¾ | c | cooking oil |
| 20 | oz | chunk pineapple in unsweetened juice |
| 1 | T | grated fresh ginger |
| 1 | T | cornstarch |
| 1 | T | soy sauce |
| ½ | green pepper, slivered |
STEPS
- Mix together ground pork, water chestnuts, green onion, garlic, egg, salt, 1 t cornstarch, and soy sauce. Blend well.
- Shape meat into balls, 1-inch in diameter. Roll in cornstarch.
- Heat oil in pan. Sauté meatballs 10 mins until browned on both sides. Set aside.
- Drain pineapple juice into saucepan. Stir in ginger, cornstarch, and soy sauce. Bring to boiling, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and becomes clear. Mix in the pinapple and green pepper. Add meatballs and heat through. Keep hot until ready to serve.
TIPS
- To shape meatballs easily, use a #70 ice cream scoop. Dip in cold water between scoops. You can make the meatballs ahead in the sauce, package and freeze them a week or two.
My Notes
Oh this is such a classically vintage recipe. Water chestnuts were seen as the epitome of Chinese/Asian recipes. And generally, they were cooked poorly, or not at all. Additionally chunk pineapple, and bell peppers. It’s what you throw into a stir fry before you understand how to make stir frys good.
The accompanying picture is also gloriously seventies… bring on the toothpicks.
Here are some big differences between Chinese and American Chinese food.
- One of the key ideas of Chinese cooking is that all items in a dish should be approximately the same size and shape. If you see a dish with many differently sized items, it’s probably not authentic Chinese.
- Chinese food usually has bite-sized pieces. Because chopstick use is the norm, you need to be able to pick up and eat a bite-sized piece. This dish has larger pieces — the slivered pepper — that are hard to pick up.
- The dish also lacks spice. While soy sauce is used, typical Chinese spices include cardamom, star anise, kaempferia galanga, lesser galangal, and prickly ash seeds, in addition to the more familiar vinegar, salt, and cinnamon. This recipe doesn’t reach beyond soy sauce, the most familiar asian sauce to the American palate. (With the possible exception of ketchup, though that has mutated significantly over time.)
- This sweet and sour sauce is an American creation. A more authentic base would be plum sauce, and Chinese sauces don’t have the starchiness that American Chinese dishes do. (A more authentic recipe follows).
Sweet and Sour Sauce
INGREDIENTS
| 5 | T | ketchup |
| 3 | T | chili sauce |
| 3 | T | plum sauce |
| 1½ | T | sugar |
| 2 | t | lemon juice |
| 1 | t | sweet soy sauce |
STEPS
- Mix together all ingredients in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved and solution is well mixed.
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