Healthier and quicker Chinese sweet and sour meatballs are easy to prepare and quite comforting.

You love meatballs? Right! Elaine presents yummy meatball recipe to celebrate New Year with you because round food means perfection and a happy family gathering in Chinese. I wish all of you a happy new year. Hello 2016!!  

No matter how they are presented, meatballs are loved by foodies word widely. When Elaine was still a young girl, we usual deep-fry meatballs for our Spring Festival. But now, deep-frying is not very welcome in Chinese kitchen because firstly, it maybe unhealthy and secondly, it requires large amount of oil. And I absolutely do not want any waste in kitchen. So I use pan-frying instead of deep-frying. But, there are still some advantages about deep-frying.

1. Deep-frying can creating and keep the shape. For example, if you are making a sesame ball, deep-frying is quite necessary.
2. Deep-frying can shorten the cooking time, which further create a crispy shell with tender and soft inner part.

So Elaine will not recommend frying the balls with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. We need around 4 tablespoons this time, but after pan-frying, you can use the left oil to make a quick vegetable stir-fry.

Sweet and sour taste—糖(táng)醋(cù) is a very popular basic taste in Chinese cooking and we have several ways to achieve sweet and sour taste. For example, in sweet and sour ribs, black vinegar and sugar are responsible for sour and sweet. However we also have this sweet and sour taste made with ketchup. In Chinese, we call this sauce as 茄(qié)汁(zhī). I guess most of you are more familiar with the later ketchup sweet and sour sauce.Usually in order to keep the pure bright color of ketchup, white vinegar is used instead of black vinegar. But black vinegar can also work perfectly with ketchup sweet and sour taste.

I use garlic, ginger and green onion water instead of whisked egg in this recipe because I want the meatball to be fluffy. If you prefer a denser texture, use whisked egg and skip soaking the ginger and green onion water.

Add the ginger, green onion and garlic water in the ground pork by three batches. Stir in one direction until the pork absorbs the water completely after each adding.Place around 3 teaspoons of cornstarch in the mixture and continue stirring for 2-3 minutes until the pork becomes slightly sticky and present a paste like texture.

Shape them into balls (mine is around 4cm- 5cm in diameter). Pat them several times between the two palms so the balls will become dense enough. If you feel the pork is slightly sticky, coat your hand with clean water or wear a plastic glove.

Heat up around 4 tablespoons of cooking oil in wok (we will exclude some of them after frying the meatballs, so do not be scared about the oil amount); place the balls in to fry. Let them stay here for a while and turn over from time to time. Fry until both sides get golden brown. Be gentle and do not break them. Transfer the meatballs out and pour the extra oil out too.

Pour sweet and sour sauce mixture to the wok and wait, heat until boiling. Return the meatballs to coat with the sauce. Continue heating about 1-2 minutes until the sauce is welled thickened and evenly coated on the balls.

Transfer out and serving with steamed rice. Garnish green onion if you prefer.

5 from 3 votes

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Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Chinese sweet and sour meatballs

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: meat, sweet and sour

Servings: 2 Making 13-14 meatballs (3-4cm in diameter)

Calories: 701 kcal

Author: Elaine

Ingredients

• 2 cups ground pork
• Oil for frying
• 3 teaspoons cornstarch

Pork marinating

• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

Ginger, garlic and green onion water

• 1 garlic clove , minced
• 1/2 inch ginger , minced
• 1 green onion , minced
• 2-3 tablespoons warm water

Sweet and sour sauce

• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 4 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar , both white or black version can work
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 teaspoons corn starch

Instructions

1. Marinate ground pork with a small pinch of salt, soy sauce and sesame oil.
2. Chop green onion, garlic and ginger, and then soak with 3 tablespoons of water.
3. In another bowl, mixing all ingredients for sweet and sour sauce.
4. Add the ginger, green onion and garlic water in the ground pork by three batches. Stir in one direction until the pork absorbs the water completely after each adding.
5. Place around 3 teaspoons of cornstarch in the mixture and continue stirring for 2-3 minutes until the pork becomes slightly sticky and present a paste like texture.
6. Shape them into balls (mine is around 4cm- 5cm in diameter). Pat them several times between the two palms so the balls will become dense enough. If you feel the pork is slightly sticky, coat your hand with clean water or wear a plastic glove.
7. Heat up around 4 tablespoons of cooking oil in wok (we will exclude some of them after frying the meatballs, so do not be scared about the oil amount); place the balls in to fry. Let them stay here for a while and turn over from time to time. Fry until both sides get golden brown. Be gentle and do not break them. Transfer the meatballs out and pour the extra oil out too.
8. Pour sweet and sour sauce mixture to the wok and wait, heat until boiling. Return the meatballs to coat with the sauce. Continue heating about 1-2 minutes until the sauce is thickened and well coated on the balls. Transfer out and serving with steamed rice. Garnish green onion if you prefer.

Nutrition Facts

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Amount Per Serving

Calories 701 Calories from Fat 477

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 53g 82%

Saturated Fat 18g 90%

Cholesterol 162mg 54%

Sodium 1486mg 62%

Potassium 693mg 20%

Total Carbohydrates 12g 4%

Sugars 5g

Protein 38g 76%

Vitamin A 1.5%

Vitamin C 4.2%

Calcium 3.1%

Iron 11.6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.