Rave Reviews

Rave reviews from the guys on dinner number two in Suzy and my weekly “new dinner of the week” challenge. Since Suzy chose the fabulous Middle Eastern lentil dish last week, the pressure was on me to select this week’s winning meal. The automatic daily recipe I get from cooking.com for “Lion’s Head” Meatballs grabbed my attention. Kind of like my favorite Asian lettuce wrap dish, you eat the meatballs in crispy iceberg lettuce cups. A drizzling of delicious coconut curry sauce makes this dish different and delectable.

Since I usually have all the necessary ingredients to make an Asian meal anyway, this one seemed like a good choice. So, I sent the recipe along to Suzy to get her approval. After hemming and hawing a bit about a potential negative reaction from her kids about the slightly spicy sounding sauce, she came around and said yes to my weekly recommendation. And a good thing she did.

To quote my husband, “I’m a lucky guy” and then Suzy’s husband, “it’s the best thing we’ve ever made.” I’d say we hit a home run with this one. I plated my family’s dinner exactly like the photo when I served it, with a stir fried sesame noodle dish on the side. My older son, husband and myself were crazy for the dish. My picky little guy, who asked for his without lettuce, tossed his aside when he thought he tasted something crunchy in the meatball. (Ahh. . . to be six years old!) But he ate the noodles, which is why I like to have a back-up side dish. My daughter ate the meatballs and noodles but had to note that it wasn’t her favorite. Oh well!

Maybe the dish is a bit sophisticated for kids.

As usual, we changed a few things. First, we each made a double batch (so that’s times 4 of this recipe) and used a combination of ground pork and ground chicken. We also left out the leeks and used some shallots instead. And as for the chili pepper, we toned that down a bit and split one pepper among all four batches.

Here’s the recipe, originally from Eating Well Magazine for the Lion’s Head Meatballs

As for the noodles, here’s my recipe for Quick Stir Fried Noodles.

¾ pound dried Chinese egg noodles, soaked and pre-cooked according to package directions
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon freshly minced ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, diced finely
½ cup petite peas
1 small zucchini, cut into small pieces
¼ cup cooked soy beans (Edamame)
2 cups broccoli, small florets
1/8 cup soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

In a wok or a large skillet, heat the oils. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for a minute. Add the onion, broccoli and zucchini. After cooking for a few minutes until tender, add the peas. Season the vegetables with a touch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the cooked noodles and drizzle the soy sauce over the noodles and combine with the vegetables. (Tongs work best for this.) Add the cooked Edamame and combine well.