Vietnamese Chicken Meatballs

In

my family, the only person who could express any food dislikes was my

Father. He had a couple of them. But as children, any misgivings we had about

what to eat were not paid any attention to. You ate what was put in front of you. That was particularly true if you chose

something from a menu and then claimed not to have understood what you were ordering. You ate it or you went hungry. Now, when I see a fussy eater or a child

whose diet is seemingly limited to a single item, repeated night after night,

plate after plate, I really feel sorry for the kid. I don’t know what makes a

picky eater but I think a lot of parents are enablers. They’ll do anything to avoid mealtime

meltdowns even if it means some very questionable eating habits and the poor

nutrition that results from them. But

of all the questionable kid’s meals that I’ve seen, aside from those really

terrible ‘Lunchables’, the chicken nugget frightens me the most. Is it really chicken? Where does it come from? Breaded and fried, dipped into sugar-y sauces

of one flavor or another, how good can it be to eat these things on a regular--let

alone daily--basis? But there ways of

weaning children off the nuggets and onto something that will open their

budding palates to flavors they might actually enjoy. And since you control what goes into these

fantastically tasty morsels, you can then control what’s goes into your

child. Introducing…Vietnamese Meat

Balls!

Mason and Zoey, Photo by Kym

Before

you say ‘that will be too spicy and hot and my child will never eat them’, I

can assure you that is not the case. I just came back from a visit with my son and his family in California. One night, I made this for dinner and the two children I was serving, my grandson Mason and his friend Zoey, loved every bite of these wonderful chicken treats. As did their parents. My daughter-in-law asked me to give her the recipe. And why not?

The dominant taste is one of sweetness.

In fact the balls are rolled in brown sugar and what child is going to

shy away from that? They make a perfect

slider in those neat little Martin’s potato rolls. And they also make a great hors

d’oevre for grown-ups, which is how they’re shown here. So what’s dinner for the children, is

wonderful with drinks for you and your guests.

This is a recipe from a woman named Jennifer

Joyce from her book “Small Bites”. I

found it in Food and Wine magazine a few years ago.

Aside from the lemongrass, everything ingredient is supermarket- available. And even lemongrass seems to

be showing up there fairly frequently.

They take all of a half hour to make and 15 minutes to cook. There are enough in this recipe to serve

4.

• Recipe for Vietnamese Chicken Meatballs
• 1 pound skinless,
• boneless chicken thighs, trimmed of visible fat and cut into
• 3 tablespoons Asian
• fish sauce
• 3 small shallots,
• finely chopped
• 1 stalk of fresh
• lemongrass, tender white inner bulb only, minced
• 3 tablespoons
• chopped cilantro, plus 1/3 cup leaves for serving
• 1 tablespoon finely
• chopped mint, plus 1/3 cup leaves for serving
• 1 1/2 teaspoons
• cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon
• freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup granulated brown
• sugar
• 1 head Boston or
• red leaf lettuce, leaves separated
• 1 small seedless cucumber—peeled,
• halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
• 1 small red onion,
• halved and sliced
• Asian chili sauce,
• for serving
• Preheat the oven to 400°. Position a rack in the top third of
• the oven. In a food processor, pulse the chicken until coarsely ground;
• transfer to a bowl. Add the fish sauce, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, chopped
• cilantro and mint, cornstarch, salt and pepper and mix with your hands.
• Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread
• the sugar on a plate. Using slightly moistened hands, roll the chicken mixture
• into 1 1/2-inch balls. Roll the meatballs in the sugar until they are evenly
• coated. Transfer the meatballs to the prepared baking sheet and bake them for

15 minutes, until they are lightly browned and cooked through.

Meanwhile, arrange the lettuce, cilantro and mint leaves,

cucumber and onion on a platter. Transfer the meatballs to the platter and

serve with chili sauce.