asian meatballs in garlic-black bean sauce w/ peanut fried rice

Happy new year! 2010 is going to be a good one, yes? Nod your head yes. Good! My new year is already off to a good start, I have no oven but that's ok because soon I will be in my own kitchen. One month to go. My current landlord wants to try and repair the 36-year old oven. Whatev.... What did everyone eat for new year's? Leftovers? Or did you try something new? I tried something new and very tasty.
This latest creation comes from the help of a very good blogging friend. She's a california buddy, so that makes her super cool. She's keeping an eye on California for me until I move back there. And when we chatted on the phone it was like we were best friends: all giggly and non-stop talking. Esi over at Dishing up Delights made these asian meatballs that literally made me print them out, throw the recipe in my to-make pile and then forget about it (I hate when I do that). But then I saw her food porn photo again and just had to make them, asap. She makes a lot of good meatball recipes: Esi the meatball maker! These meatballs were so good. You must try them. If you love the taste of ginger, this is it. I took her recipe and of course kicked it up a few knotches by adding in a sauce and swapping out the noodles for peanut fried rice. Can I tell you the smell in the house while these were cooking was so warming, so tempting, so, well good. It lingered in the house for a couple days too. I had leftovers and to be honest I ate them cold. Yes, a cold asian meatball sandwich with shredded carrots, lettuce all wrapped up in warmed Naan bread. Oh yeah! So good!

I think I got all the ingredients down for the recipe. I never really measure when I'm cooking. I always measure when I'm baking but never cooking. I sort of eyeball what needs to go in there. So, that's why you'll see a lot of "or so" when I type out recipes. Basically add in as much or as little as your cute little tastebuds like. OK?

asian meatballs in garlic black bean sauce over peanut fried rice
print recipe

Meatballs:
¾ pound ground pork
1/4 cup grated white onion
1 egg
3 fresh garlic cloves, minced
2 ts fresh ginger, grated
1/4 ts salt
1/8 ts black pepper
½ ts red chili pepper flakes
2 ts soy sauce
½ cup (or so) panko flakes
Chopped scallions or chives, for garnish

Garlic-honey black bean sauce:
2 TB (or so) honey
4 TB (or so) black bean garlic sauce
4 – 5 TB (or so) of bottled soy/ginger sauce (I got this from whole foods, if you cannot find, create your own w/ a mixture of soy sauce with grated ginger and pinch of cornstarch)
Dash of pepper

Peanut Fried Rice:
3-4 cups (or so) of cooked rice (any kind is good, I’ve even used pilaf)
1 ts canola oil (for pan, might need more)
1-2 TB chopped garlic
¼ cup (or so) of fresh, chopped carrots (chopped into strips)
4 green onions, chopped
¼ - ½ cup of chopped water chestnuts
¼ - ½ cup of chopped bamboo shoots
A couple dashes of soy sauce
¼ cup of dry roasted peanuts
Soy sauce to taste (a couple dashes)
3 TB of pad thai sauce (or a sweet & sour sauce)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Combine meatballs ingredients in a bowl, mix well and form 1 to 1-1/2 inch meatballs. In a large fry pan heat up some canola oil and fry the pork meatballs. Get them nice and brown on all sides then transfer to a preheated 400 degree oven and finish cooking off. About 15 minutes. recipe by dawn finicane. Drain off the oil from the large skillet, leave a bit of oil in there along with any bits from bottom of pan. In a bowl combine all the ingredients for the black bean sauce, mix well, then transfer to back to the reheated large skillet and stir. Get the sauce nice and bubbly then add back in the meatballs. Coat the meatballs well in the sauce.

To make the fried peanut rice, just heat up a bit of canola oil in a large skillet or wok. Add in the garlic, then add in the rice, stir well, add in the carrots, the bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and peanuts. Mix this well. Then make a small well in the middle of the wok and add in the pad thai sauce, soy sauce, then incorporate into the rice. When all is mixed through, sprinkle on the chopped green onions, and combine. Serve immediately.