Thai Fragrant Turkey Balls

Since travelling South East Asia, I have developed a love for the sweet, salty, spicy, sour combination of flavours. I came up with this recipe when cooking a Thai green chicken curry that I had learned on a cookery course in Ko Samui , and was trying to think of a light starter, for a friend who doesn't eat red meat.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 450g of minced turkey meat (you can easily use pork or beef mince instead)
• 1 egg roughly whisked
• 1 finely diced onion
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger, grated
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• 1 red chili, finely diced
• 1 stick of fresh lemongrass, outer stick removed, then bruised and finely diced
• zest of a lime
• finely chopped mint and coriander
• 2 slices of bread, blitzed to breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp of fish sauce
• 1 tsp of sesame oil
• Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
• Cos lettuce, leaves separated to serve

Method

1. Add all the ingredients, except for the lettuce, into a bowl and combine well. I find using you hands here is the best method.
2. Wash you hands, and using damp hands roll into little balls, place them on baking parchment as you go. An ice-cream scoop works well here too.
3. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
4. Allow the balls to firm up a little in the fridge before cooking. These are handy when having guests as they can be prepared a few hours before hand
5. Put in the oven for 15 mins, turning half way. Of course these would be amazing fried, but I'm trying to keep it healthy.
6. To serve, I like to put the washed lettuce leaves on a serving platter, and put a ball in each lettuce leave and squint a tiny bit of Thai chili sauce on each ball. The result is full on exploding flavours in one mouth full. 

These are a great canapé for a drinks party also.