I am not a big expert in meatballs and practically only did it a couple of times. It has to do mostly with the aesthethical part of the process, when mysteriously, my almost perfectly rolled balls are breaking into small little pieces while in the boiling oil. If they are bigger, they end up looking like hamburgers with no clear resemblance with the ping pong little balls that are, according to my experienced friends, so easy to shape. It might be a matter of ingredients, experience and patience, and I am well aware that I have significant minuses.
Last week, I had a craving for homemade meatballs and as my cravings were bigger than my reluctance, they won over. But, as usual, although I followed a classical recipe, I added some special unique ingredients hoping that, if they don't look good at least they taste good.
The experience was not bad, in both in terms of taste and looks some improvements were made. The choice of ingredients was inspired and my table guests appreciated not only the effort, but also the final result. The choice of tempura flour instead of normal flour or crumbs was a neutral one, as it did not affected at all the taste and it succedeed to bind together all the ingredients as a smooth glue.
Therefore, I am happy to share the recipe and the inspiration.
Ingredients
400 gr. minced chicken meat
1 tablespoon salt - as usual, kosher salt is always recommended
1 tablespoon za'atar
1/4 onion, minced
1 cup tempura flour
3 small eggs, beaten
1 cup cooking oil -for cooking
Directions
In a pan, heat the oil at 250C, at least 15 minutes before starting the cooking.
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients, for a couple of minutes until you have an homogenous paste.
Start rollingsmall balls and let them to rest for a little while.
Add them in the boiling oil - not all of them at a time. It depends how wide is your pan, but I preferred to do only 4-5 at once. It leave more space for frying.
When ready, let the meatballs on a kitchen paper for draining the oil.
That's all!
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 25 medium-sized meatballs
Bon Appétit!
