Thai Balls & Spicy Mooli Noodles

This meal, in all honesty, was made from leftovers. Last weekend we had a BBQ and one of the burgers I made was a Thai pork burger. I didn't put a recipe up for this at the time as I was too busy cooking for the party, but the recipe for those were the same as these Thai balls.

Either way, six Thai burgers were leftover so I popped them in the freezer, only to be defrosted yesterday and re-invented as Thai Pork Balls making a thrifty, and very quick, meal for two.

Ingredients for Thai Balls (or burgers)

3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 spring onions, chopped
1 red chilli, seeds removed
1 inch piece ginger, chopped
1 tbsp. lemongrass paste
handful fresh coriander
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
500g (1lb 4oz) pork mince
1 egg, beaten
25g breadcrumbs
vegetable oil to fry

Put the garlic, spring onions, chilli, ginger, lemongrass and coriander into a hand blender and blitz to a paste. Alternatively, chop everything finely. Put into a large bowl with the pork mince, lime zest and juice, egg and breadcrumbs. Mix thoroughly with your hands. Now you can shape into balls (for this recipe) or patties for burgers.

For the Thai balls, roll into 1 inch balls. Heat oil in a heavy based pan to about an inch up the sides. When hot, fry the balls for about 5 minutes until brown and cooked through.


For the Spicy Mooli Noodles:

1 small mooli (or half a large)
1 carrot
1 cloves garlic
1 Thai chilli (seeds removed)
1/4 tsp. salt
8 green beans, cut into thirds
5 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tbsp. palm sugar (white works too but palm sugar is better)
1 tbsp. Thai fish sauce
1 large lime, juice only

Peel the mooli and carrot and cut into julienne strips. Put into a large bowl. Using a pestle and mortar, pop in one garlic clove and a chopped Thai red chilli (seeds removed). Crush to a pulp with a 1/4 tsp. salt. Add the green beans and pound a little more. Then add 4-5 cherry tomatoes, quartered and pound again. It should look like this:

Then add 1 tablespoon of palm sugar, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and the juice of one lime. Mix thoroughly and put into the bowl with the vegetables. Cook some rice noodles to packet instructions and rinse under cold water. Now add the noodles to the marinade and mix well.

Serve the mooli noodles with the Thai balls and a little sweet chilli dipping sauce. Garnish with a little fresh coriander and enjoy!