Turkey Meatballs (Nem nuong Ga tay)

In Vietnam, meatballs are made with ground pork, pork fat, and a lot of garlic. They are then steamed and grilled over charcoal and served on top of rice noodles and accompanied with sweet-spicy dipping sauce. This delicious meal is everywhere on the streets of Vietnam or can be seen in a fancy restaurant with the meatballs rolled in rice paper. Either way, these meatballs are always the choice for a simple meal or pot luck party. Each city in Vietnam makes its own meatball recipe with a few changes of spices and given its own name, like nem nuong Ninh Hoa, Thu duc, or nem nuong Saigon. I am changing the ground pork to turkey and eliminating the pork fat to make these meatballs leaner and healthier, so I can enjoy more often. I could then name this dish after myself, but the recipe would still be prepared the same way as if for ground pork. Try both kinds of meat to appreciate this wonderful dish and feel free to name your own.

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground turkey
1/4 cup water
3 tbs fish sauce
3 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tbs canola oil
3 tbs cornstarch
2 tsp baking powder
7 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs black pepper

Dipping sauce:
1/4 cup ground turkey
1/4 cup sweet rice, washed and drained
1 can coco rico
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 shallot, chopped
1 garlic, minced
One-4 oz crab paste
Fish sauce, salt and sugar to taste
1 egg beaten.
To serve:

Cooked rice noodles,
Vietnamese vegetable plate (dia rau song)
Rice paper, softened with water
Scallion oil*
Roasted peanut, chopped

Directions:

Place the turkey meat in a container with lid

In a measuring cup, combine water, fish sauce, sugar, salt, black pepper, garlic, baking powder, cornstarch and oil. Mix until all the ingredients dissolve.

Pour over the turkey meat. Mix well together. Cover with lid and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, place meat in a food processor and pulse a few times (the texture should not be like a paste but should have some small chunks of meat remaining.

 Wet hands with oil and shape meat into 1 inch small balls.

Place meatballs onto a round baking dish and steam on high heat for 10 minutes. Also meat balls can be thread on to bamboo skewer.

Do not over steam the meatballs because the meatballs have to grill over charcoal for the smoke and grill marks.

If not intending to finish the meatballs on the same day, then the meatballs can be placed in Ziploc® bags and frozen for a few months.

or roll in rice paper


To make the sauce:
In a saucepan, add oil, shallot, and garlic. Cook shallot and garlic until fragrant (about 3 minutes). Stir in meat, crab paste and cook for 7 minutes. Add rice and coco and bring to a boil. Season with salt, fish sauce, and sugar, if needed. Cook the rice mixture for 10 minutes. Pour hot rice mixture into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour rice mixture back into a saucepan ; add 1/2 cup of chicken broth and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the sauce from heat and stir in beaten egg. Now the sauce is ready to use.

To make scallion oil:
Thinly slice 2 green onions: heat 1/4 cup of canola oil in small sauce pan until hot. Throw in chopped green onion and pinch of salt . Remove from heat.