Korean Sweet & Spicy Meatballs

Serve with a short grain rice, like "sushi rice," or even "arborio," don't rinse the rice, as you want it to be a little sticky. 

 

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

1 pound ground beef

3 green onions (scallions), chopped

1 heaping teaspoon grated ginger

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt 

1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs 

chopped green onion for garnish

 

(for the sauce)

 

1/2 cup apricot, peach, or mango jam

1 tablespoon soy sauce

3 tablespoons gochujang Korean chili paste

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Add all of the meatball ingredients to a bowl. Mix everything together very well, then form the mixture into about 2 inch meatballs (you should get 11 or 12 meatballs). Put the meatballs onto a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375F and bake the meatballs on the center rack for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the sauce ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl; microwave 75 seconds, then stir well. When the meat balls are done, add them to the sauce and make sure to coat them all with the sauce. Serve with rice.

 

 

WORD HISTORY: 

Stitch-This word is closely related to "stick" (noun and verb), both from the Germanic roots of English. "Stitch" goes back to Indo European "steyg/steig," with the idea of "to pierce, to stick, to stab," and this gave its Old Germanic offspring the noun "stikniz," with the meaning "a sticking, a piercing." This gave Old English "stice," with the same general meanings, but also, "a sudden piercing pain in one's side," and this later became "stiche," by which time the idea of medical stitching was also one of its meanings (1500s), then the modern form. Through time, the specific use of the word for the sewing of cloth and the making of shoes came to be applied. The saying about "having someone in stitches" was a 20th Century development, seemingly from people laughing so much and so hard that it caused jabbing sensations of pain. The verb form came from Old Germanic "stik(k)janan" (to stick, to stab) and this gave Old English the verb forms "sticcan/sticcian," and it then became "sticcen/stichen," before the modern form. Relatives in the other Germanic languages are at times difficult to sort out between what are English "stitch" and "stick": German has the noun "Stich," meaning "a sting, a stitch (sewing), engraving," and the verb "sticken," meaning "to embroider;" thus also, the noun "Stickerei," meaning "embroidery;" Low German has the noun "Steek," "a stab," and the verb "sticken," "to knit, to embroider;" Dutch has the noun "steek," meaning "a stab, a sting," and the verb "steken," meaning "to stab, to sting;" West Frisian has the verb "stekke," meaning "to stab, to pierce, to sting."