“Thai-Style” Meatballs and the Search for Lemongrass Paste

Recipe first, then the blather.

Every week there is some new weird inconvenient thing going on, but at least this week it was merely annoying and not devastating: Pinterest deactivated my account for “violating their community standards”–but didn’t give me any hints at what I pinned that violated which standard. Algorithm run amok? Rando offended by ALF memes or non-vegan meatballs? There was only a link to click to “request an appeal” with no further input fields. Which worked, after a day of stomping around cursing.

I am still only pinning meatballs that are made with meat.

Anyway, I learned some time ago to always write out the good recipes because you never know when the content provider is going to randomly ax half their site. These “Thai” meatballs (trust no ethnic descriptors; this week I encountered “American Coleslaw” made with sour cream instead of mayonnaise…) made the cut a couple of years ago.

I want to type “and they eased my pain”, but my jar of lemongrass paste had fuzzed over, and my search for more took me to three different supermarkets and the small import store in the Kirchegasse with no luck. Dozens of other plants native to SE Asia are available in paste form, and there were dozens of curry pastes with lemongrass as a main ingredient, but Freising is a No Lemongrass Paste Zone. I settled for powdered. I’m not sure the taste was there.

The sauce is fantastic, and if you’ve run out of honey (oops), use a shot of the Agave syrup you bought two years ago for that one recipe you never made again.

The balls were accompanied by Karottensuppe, made with ginger, orange juice, and honey (see note about Agave syrup). It was sweet, but not cloyingly or overpoweringly so. This is not a dessert soup.

My search for lemongrass paste continues. Yes, I know everything can be ordered from Omnipresent International Online Retailer, but I need the thrill of the hunt.