This is a great little recipe from @halfbakedharvest and perfect for a simple weeknight dinner. I added a good tablespoon of spicy sweet Indonesian sambal to the sauce and reduced the cooking time a bit as I didn’t want to overcook the bimi. But all in all, super tasty!
For the meatballs I used a mix of pork sausage & chicken thigh, but you could easily use beef or chicken mince and even veggie balls would work!
Sticky Garlic Honey Soy Meatballs with Charred Bimi
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- Meatballs (see notes)
- 500 g mince of choice (see notes)
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
- 1 large garlic clove, finely grated
- 2 spring onion, finely chopped
- Black or white pepper
- To coat / cook the meatballs
- 1 tbsp sesame oil (or vegetable oil if you don't have it)
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- The sauce
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
- 1/2 cup light soy sauce
- 1/4 cup honey
- 300 g bimi (halved) or a small broccoli cut into florets and stem chopped into bite size pieces
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 3 cm ginger, julienned
- 2-3 tsp sweet & spicy sambal OR 1 tsp chili flakes
- To serve
- 1-2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
- 1 Spring onion, finely chopped
- Steamed white rice (1/2 cup rice pp)
Instructions
Start by making the rice. Add basmati rice into a large pot with a teaspoon of salt. Boil water in a kettle and pour over the rice so it's covered at least in 2-3 cm water. Boil for 8 minutes, drain in a colander and let steam in the pan with the lid on for another 8 minutes or until the rest of the dish is ready. Fail proof steamed rice, I promise!
The meatballs
Combine all the meatball ingredients apart from the corn starch and the oil. If using whole chicken thighs add everything into a blender and mix into a rough paste. If using mince just mix everything together by hand.
Coat your hands with sesame oil, and roll the meat into tablespoon-size balls. The mix will be wet.
Scoop 2 tablespoons cornstarch onto a plat and coat the meatballs with the cornstarch, set aside while you prep the sauce.
The sauce
Scoop 1 tablespoon cornstarch into a small ball and mix with 2 tablespoons water, set aside.
In a glass sealable jar add 1/2 cup light soy sauce, 1/4 cup honey and 1/3 cup water, seal and shake well until mixed.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the meatballs, cook until seared all around, about 8 minutes, they don't need to be cooked through just yet and will continue to cook in the sauce later on. Remove the meatballs from the skillet.
To the skillet, add the bottom tougher parts of the bimi and cook until lightly charring, 5 minutes. Add the top parts of the bimi, the garlic and the ginger, cook 1-2 minutes. Pour in soy & honey sauce. Bring to a boil, boil 1-2 minutes, then add back the meatballs. Make sure everything is coated with the sauce.
Pour in the cornstarch slurry and cook another 2 minutes, until the sauce is thickened and the meatballs are cooked through.
Serve the meatballs and sauce with steamed rice, a sprinkle of sesame seeds and some spring onions.
Notes
- I used 300 g chicken thighs and 2 pork sausages, skin removed. I blended this into a rough mince. But you could also substitute this with just beef, chicken or pork mince. If using vegetarian meatballs you might prefer to use extra garlic and ginger in the sauce, but that's up to you!
- If using broccoli instead of bimi you can add the florets to the pan together with the stems. Broccoli florets are bigger than bimi so they can handle the longer heat.
