Sesame Soy Meatballs

So, Mark is not a huge fan of Asian food. He is rarely in the mood to eat it out the world and is definitely very sad when I make it home. I'm sad too, because if he is not into it, I am tasked with eating all of it. And to be honest, despite wanting with all my heart for it to be otherwise, I am not very good at making it. My stirfrys are tragic and all my attempts at beef with broccoli end in disaster. Even my shrimp fried rice is so-so.


What make matters worse is that I LOVE  Asian food. I am almost always in the mood for it. It makes me very happy. For me, eating Asian food is like coming home. My Filipino mother, Maxie, is an outstanding cook. She even had her own restaurant in the Philippines and partnered in catering company here in the US. You have never had an eggroll if you have not had Maxie's lumpia. I have dreams about it and Mark does too. Mark never has any trouble eating Asian food when my Mother is in the kitchen, but then again if he didn't eat it, he would probably get in trouble. Maxie has no sympathy for people who are not part of the clean plate club. 

Before every visit, I load my fridge up with all the ingredients she would need to cook about five meals. She makes about 12 servings of each meal. There is only three of us. This leaves me with lots of leftovers to freeze and enjoy even when she is gone. Mark likes this too. One time she left 50 eggrolls in the freezer for him. Just for him. 50 eggrolls. She really loves him. I think more than me. For real. 


The thing is my Mother never taught me how to cook. Yes, I am blaming Maxie for all my Asian food failures. Growing up, she would tell me that I needed to learn how to cook, but never actually taught me. There were some sessions here and there where I would sit with my notebook and try, but my mother was not a teacher. She wouldn't tell me what she was doing and when I asked about measurements she would look at me like I was crazy.  She would say, "I'm cooking that is what I am doing!" She honestly has never used a measuring cup or teaspoon in her life. She is just a master. When I would ask how long to cook x,y and z, she would respond, "cook it until its cooked". I would then say, "but for how long mom?". "Until it is is finished cooking". I sometimes would try another route, "but how do you know its cooked?". She would respond "when you can see that its cooked!". Obviously, these lessons went nowhere. So, here I am, a cook who has no idea how to cook the food I love most in the world. But I try.  Fearfully, again and again.


So recently, I gave it another go. I saw a recipe in Cooking Light Magazine for Sesame Soy Meatballs. I know how to make meatballs. How can this go wrong?

The recipe called for the following ingredients:


1/3 cup minced green onions
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil (I only had toasted sesame oil I assumed that was fine)
1 table spoon chili paste
1/4 salt
6 minced garlic cloves (I used 4 Mark is not down with too much garlic)
1 pound ground sirloin


I wanted to add to the meal so I added rice and one red and green pepper.


First, I get the rice cooking and preheat the oven to 400. I then combine all the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and shape about 20 meatballs.

I then cut up the peppers into long strips and set aside.

I place a little oil in a sauce pan and brown the meatballs for a about 4 minutes. They started to smell really amazing. I became confident a this point that this meal could turn out to be good!

I then transfer the meatballs to a glass pan coated with cooking spray and place in the oven for 7 minutes. In meantime, I place the peppers in the same pan I used to cook the meatballs in to allow all that meatball juice to flavor the peppers. I cook on medium high for 7 minutes or until peppers soften.

I take a plate and add the rice that's been on standby and top it with meatballs and peppers. Viola! 

It turned out to be really good. How can meatballs go wrong? I thought that the soy sauce, sesame, and chili paste would give the meal a more Asian flavor, but biting into it there was something very middle eastern about it. Mark's thought was that it would great in a pita with some cucumber yogurt sauce. I agreed. Since there are plenty of left overs, he is going to try to make that happen. Hopefully, he can take a quick pic for us to see.


Though it seems that I failed at making another Asian meal I have triumphed on the middle eastern side.  You win some. You lose some. Maxie is coming for the Thanksgiving holiday maybe I will document the master at work. She is either going to be so annoyed with me for interrupting her cooking or see herself as another Rachael Ray. Good times either way!


I am going home this weekend so it should be quiet on the blog front this weekend, but I'll be back with lots of news on my hometown flavor. xoxo happy nibbling!