HOW TO MAKE: Sweet and Sour Pork Balls

"I need SUSTENANCE!"

-Thor, son of Odin

who didn't laugh at the mighty Thor's first demands while he was here on earth? :) even the mighty god of thunder needs something to keep him going like defending the seven realms from icky aliens, taming his brother down, or maybe looking out for Jane. he needs FOOD.

(this blog is entry is about food, of course)  

this month, mama was out of Manila for a six-day stay at Boracay. oh yeah...she needs a vacation! so she left us in charge of the house specially the kitchen. :) one of my favorite dish that we served was this simple Sweet and Sour Pork Balls. :)

i'll divide the steps for making the pork balls and for making the yummy sauce. :)

PORK BALLS:

*INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 ground pork (this amount served 12 people in our home)
• 2 small eggs
• 1 tbsp of flour
• salt and pepper to taste

*UTENSILS:

• 1 large bowl
• CLEAN HANDS.☺

*STEPS:

1. The first thing i did is to put the ground pork into a large bowl.
2. Add the 2 eggs, flour and add salt and pepper.
3. Mix with your clean hands. :)
4. After mixing, form into balls of your desired size. Mine was about an inch in diameter. 
5. Then fry the pork balls in a pan with hot oil. 
6. When the balls are golden brown, strain and set aside.

SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE

*INGREDIENTS:

• 1 UFC Banana ketchup (refill pack)- you can use any banana ketchup
• 1 large bell pepper
• 2 medium-sized carrots
• 1 cucumber
• 1 large onion
• 5 cloves of garlic ( i love garlic)
• 1 small piece of ginder
• 1 can of pineapple tidbits
• sugar
• salt and pepper
• water

*UTENSILS:

• chopping board and knife
• 1 large pan or kaldero in Tagalog

*STEPS:

1. Wash all the veggies first :) even the onion and garlic.
2. Peel the cucumber and carrots, then slice these and the bell pepper in your desired thickness. (NOTE: the thicker the slice the more time it takes to cook)
3. Chop the onions into quarters, crush the garlic, and peel and slice the ginger. 
4. Get the pan hot and ready. Add oil.
5. Saute the ginger, garlic and onions, add a couple of tomato quarters if you like.
6. Then add a generous amount of banana ketchup. The taste will be up to you. :) Add more if you like it sweet. The original recipe made use of tomato sauce but you will need to add more sugar to beat the acidity of the tomatoes. I cheated and used banana ketchup. *wink!
7. Add a 1 1/2 cups of water. 
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. To add more flavor, I added a few squirts of tomato ketchup. 
10. Mix and add the balls.
11. Let it boil.
12. Put the fire into low and add the liquid from the pineapples, carrots and bell pepper.
13. Simmer for 5-10 minutes.
14. Mix it again.
15. Add the pineapple tidbits and cucumber. Mix it. 
16. Serve.

here's the finish product! :) yey! by the way this dish was prepared by me and my cooking buddy of the day, Aaron! :) 

cooking with out an adult or expert like mama is really intimidating at first but in time you'll get used to it and probably develop or alter the recipes to your liking. 

i hope you enjoyed reading this post!

thanks for viewing!

*shine!