{"id":1949,"date":"2023-03-13T10:21:22","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T09:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radishthegreat.com\/blog\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2023-03-13T10:26:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T09:26:12","slug":"kitchen-archaeology-oven-baked-fish-sauce-balls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radishthegreat.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/13\/kitchen-archaeology-oven-baked-fish-sauce-balls\/","title":{"rendered":"Kitchen Archaeology: Oven-Baked Fish Sauce Balls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recently I was sorting my Giant Blue Binder of Recipes and came across this scribble:<\/p>\n\n\n

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A Meatball For Lebowitz.<\/a>
March 2023<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It’s clearly a recipe for meatballs, that I started out writing in one language and finished in a different one (forget bilingualism, I am bi-illiterate). I have no idea where it came from; I can only assume that, since I kept it, they must have tasted OK.

Conveniently, I was looking to cut up the last of the pumpkins we bought last September<\/a> into soup; meatballs make a great Suppeneinlage<\/em>.

(Tangent<\/strong>: Einlage<\/em>. The inserts I put in my shoes when I had plantar fasciitis are called Einlage<\/em>. The cards that fall out of magazines are called Einlage<\/em>. Bits of meat\/veg\/toast\/nuts that Germans lay in their broth and cream soups are called Einlage<\/em>. These are the things I think about while I’m butchering squash.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The less said about this soup the better; this was the wrong pumpkin. Underweight, and pale. Carrot soup<\/a> would have been a better choice. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Squash with leftover root veg.
March 2023<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

But you’re not here for the soup: On to the meatballs! I left out the salt as I thought the fish sauce would provide enough saltiness; you may want to go higher. Seems like a lot of curry paste, but I used a mild green and it was hardly noticeable. More heat next time!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Those white bits are garlic.
March 2023<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I like the easy clean-up of baked meatballs, but they lack R\u00f6staroma<\/em><\/em><\/em>, the crunchy crust of the Maillard reaction<\/a> that makes meat tastier. This scrap of paper holds the key to deliciousness from the oven: Five minutes of broiling (“Grillfunktion<\/em>“) at the end.

It worked a treat. I’m already mentally adding it to all the untried meatballs in my queue.
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Tasty.
March 2023<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Finally, Fish Sauce Meatballs in their natural habitat, als Suppeneinlage<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n

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 I am not a Food Stylist.\u2122
March 2023<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

(Now I have to type up the recipe with fonts and colors, so it can have a real place in the Giant Blue Binder of Recipes.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mystery recipe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,16,90],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-1949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carnevalofsoups","category-meatballmonday","category-regional-and-seasonal","tag-meatballs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t