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Lemon Grass Pork




Source of Recipe


Typhoon's


List of Ingredients




* 1 tablespoon white peppercorns
* 5 cilantro roots and stems, 4 to 5 inches long, chopped
* 5 whole cloves garlic, peeled
* 1 1/2 pounds ground pork
* 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
* 2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 8 (4-inch) lemon grass stalks
* Vegetable cooking spray
* Leaf lettuce or mixed greens, for garnish (optional)

For the sauce:

* 4 tablespoons palm sugar
* 2 tablespoons fish sauce
* 2 tablespoons tamarind juice
* 1 tablespoon chile paste with soybean oil, more if desired
* 1 tablespoon white vinegar

Recipe



If you do not have a steamer, heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Using a mortar and pestle, pound the white peppercorns, cilantro roots and garlic cloves into a thick paste, adding each ingredient one at a time. If you don't have a mortar and pestle and want to save time, mix using a blender or food processor until the mixture becomes a thick paste.

In a medium mixing bowl, thoroughly hand-mix the paste into the ground pork, as if you are making a meatloaf. Add the granulated sugar, soy, oyster sauce and cornstarch -- one at a time -- and hand-mix thoroughly after each ingredient. Form 8 meatballs, the size of large golf balls, and skewer each at the top of a lemon grass stalk, pushed in about 1 to 1 1/2 inches.

Coat the bottom of a hot steamer with vegetable cooking spray. Put in the meatballs, laying them side by side, and steam for 15 minutes; or, bake in the oven in a shallow pan coated with cooking spray for about 15 minutes, turning once.

Meanwhile, start preparing the sauce. Soften the palm sugar in a microwave oven at high heat for about 10 seconds. In a heated small saucepan over low heat, mix and heat the palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind juice, 1 tablespoon chile paste and vinegar until the sauce thickens and glistens. This will take about 10 minutes. Add more chile paste, if you like it spicier.

When the meatballs are done, remove from the steamer or oven and place on a hot grill or in a hot skillet for about 7 to 10 minutes, until brown and crispy on the outside.

Place the sauce into 4 small bowls, and put them onto 4 plates. Stand 2 meatballs up on each plate, tilted so that the lemon grass sticks cross each other like paddles. Garnish with leaf lettuce or mixed greens, if desired. The lemongrass sticks are only for flavoring the meat and should not be eaten.

Makes 4 appetizer servings.