Spicy Pork Meatballs with Sesame Spinach
This species of finger-food is fun way to inaugurate a picnic table for the outdoor eating season, say on a weakly warm spring afternoon, when the sun can only warm the part of you facing it.
Or since there aren’t many bugs out yet, maybe you’re better off enjoying your meatballs in a hammock, with one hand on a book?
We know there are lots of meatball recipes out there that feature breadcrumbs and eggs for binding, but they’re not needed. Plain pork meatballs won’t fall apart on you when you bake them on a sheet pan. If you’d like to stretch the 2 pounds of meat farther than about 30 meatballs, or just have some breadcrumbs to use up, I say go for it. You should also know you’re welcome to halve or double the recipe as much as you like.
Anybody up for a game of corn-hole?
Meatball Ingredients
2 lbs plain ground pork
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
1 teaspoon Green Salt, or any sea salt you like
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon cayenne powder *
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon soy sauce or coconut aminos
Aoili, as always, for dipping
* This amount of cayenne is sligthly too hot for my kids, but I think it’s well within the acceptable range for grown ups. 1/2 tsp cayenne is also a reasonable choice.
Meatball Process
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Smash and mince the garlic.
In the bottom of a medium mixing bowl, stir yourself up a slurry of garlic and spices, then mix the raw ground pork together with the seasonings. Your very clean hands are the best tool for the job. Go ahead and be pretty thorough about it—your guests will cough if they swallow a big dose of horseradish.
The meatballs can be any size you like, but about two tablespoons makes a handy size.
Bake for just shy of 10 minutes, until the meatballs start to brown up.
Makes about 3 dozen meatballs, give or take.
Sesame Spinach Ingredients
2 to 4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 lb spinach
a dash of fish sauce or soy sauce
a few dashes of toasted sesame oil
garnish with toasted sesame seeds, optional
Sesame Spinach Process
You’ll want a saute pan or skillet with a lid for this.
Mince the garlic, then swirl it around in the coconut oil in your medium-hot pan. Don’t let the garlic brown.
Add the spinach all at once if your pan is big, or in a couple batches if it’s not. Throw the lid on right away, and encourage the leaves not to scorch by stirring them around every moment or two. For proper wilting, it’s nice to have a little water clinging to the leaves when the spinach goes into the pan.
Alternatively, you could blanch the greens.
When the spinach relaxes, toss it with a couple dashes of soy sauce and/or fish sauce, and finish it off with some toasted sesame oil. And pretty please, put sesame seeds on top.