Asian Turkey Meatballs with Carrot Rice

You might be wondering where the Wednesday Treat Day post is - we had to skip it this week as Jeff had another surgery on Tuesday. Not nearly as major as his neck surgery last December, but he had a rotator cuff tear that needed to be repaired, along with a large bone spur (which caused the tear!) that needed to be cleaned away. He is doing well and the surgery went as expected, but he is in a fair amount of pain... and we haven't started the physical therapy yet (tomorrow!).

While Jeff was napping and I was in between training sessions with Dora, I did manage to sit down and write about this Asian Turkey Meatballs with Carrot Rice recipe we made for dinner recently.

You'll need a pound and a half of ground turkey for the meatballs - I suggest using a combination of breast and dark meats as we've found that to be a good balance. Meaning, the result will have lightness to it, yet still packs a punch in flavor and moisture. Could you simply just use either one? Sure - you could also use ground pork if you groove on that more than turkey, it just depends on what you like!

To push in as much oomph into the meatballs as possible, the meat was gently combined (go easy - think meatloaf... try not to handle the mixture too much!) with the whites of a few scallions, fresh cilantro, pungent fish sauce, a few squirts of rooster sauce (Sriracha, that is), a bit of sugar to balance, and a clove or two or minced garlic. Scooped out and rolled into balls, the meaty spheres are cooked in a heated skillet to give them a crusty, golden exterior, then placed into the oven to finish baking through.

You can use white rice as the bed of this dish, but we opted to go the brown rice route and augmented the directions using our favorite no-fuss method. If you'd like to do that, use the same amount of rice to roughly 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups of broth (or water if you are so inclined) and cook the rice using the same manner as usually do. When the rice is tender, remove the cooking vessel from the heat, scatter the shredded carrots on top and let the mixture sit, covered, for an additional 5 minutes before fluffing and serving.

With the tender meatballs tossed on top of the colorful, orange-flecked rice, be sure to serve this dish with a wedge taken from a juicy lime to squeeze on top of each plate. It most likely would have been ok without it, but the extra acidity lifted and complimented the more complex flavors with a fresh brightness that I would have missed if it was left off. If you'd like to take out some of the prep time to make it a snap to prepare on a busy work night, you could knock out the raw meatballs the day or night before. Keep them covered in the refrigerator until you're ready to cook them - be aware that they may take an extra couple of minutes to bake through.

Recipes
Asian Turkey Meatballs with Carrot Rice