Sweet Garlic-Ginger Meatballs

Endlich Herbst! The weather is finally conducive to #MeatballMondays!

The original author calls these little guys “Mongolian” and claims they are a twist on Mongolian Beef at American-Chinese take-out restaurants. I know New York City food is different than Midwestern food; I remember Mongolian Beef as having more flavors in the sauce than garlic and ginger, as well as more vegetables.

But it’s Meatball Monday, not Veggie Stir-Fry Monday, so let’s go!

Instead of pure beef I used the cheaper pork-beef blend offered in German supermarkets. The bread crumbs were handcrafted (food-blogger smirk) from leftover burger buns made with barley malt.

As these went together, I encountered the absolute best (unintentionally?) hilarious instruction I have ever read in a recipe: Beat until the meat starts to fill sticky and bouncy.

Yes, ma’am.

The balls were a little wet.

“Brown sugar” in US recipes is always interesting. Because German Brauner Zucker is made from beets instead of cane, it is dryer and more crystalline than brown sugar (beet molasses contains too many impurities to be economically processed for human consumption and is used instead for animal feed or alcohol). When a recipe calls for it to be dissolved in liquid, the difference in texture is not really noticeable.

And it was fine. Also you will notice even though the recipe does not mention green onions, I put some in. I should have shredded a carrot in there, too, maybe some mushrooms. Next time!

This is a fine amount of sauce for serving separately, with many other dishes on the table. For serving over plain rice, you should double the amount of sauce (unless you like dry rice, then just rock on as written).

These balls are predictably sweet; I personally could have used more umami but Mr Radish really enjoyed them.