Fried Pork & Potato Balls

How was everyone's 4th of July? Ours was spent with friends, and it was quite a nice evening. For once, we didn't have to do the cooking... although I did bring a dessert (some Oreo Cheesecake bars, recipe found here). We had some burgers and they were pretty fantastic... I'd never seen this done before, but Jason, the grillmaster, had marinated the burgers in a "special" sauce for a little while before grilling them. Maybe I'm just before the times, but I've always just packed a burger with spices and then grilled them then and there... but after seeing him do that, and tasting the flavor that exuded from these burgers... I may have to give that technique a whirl.

And check out this green bell pepper. Just simple sitting on a grill, blistering up in all it's glory. Simple things like that put a smile on my face.

Well, these fried pork and potato balls would make a good appetizer, but it's also one of those, "under construction" recipes. It could definitely use some improvement on the flavor, or maybe my palate wasn't feeling it that day... but worth a try either way.


Ingredients:
adapted from Momofuku For 2's blog

2 cups garlic mashed potatoes
1/2 lb. ground pork
1 shallot, diced
1/4 cup button mushrooms, diced
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice
2 tablespoons flour
1-2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
vegetable oil, for frying

In a medium bowl, mix the ground pork, shallot, mushrooms, sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and chinese 5 spice.

Heat a large skillet under medium high heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Cook pork mixture until browned and broken up. Turn off heat and set aside to cool.

Once the pork mixture is cooled, mix in with mashed potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.

Shape the mixture into small to medium sized balls, about 1 to 1 & 1/2 inch in diameter should be fine. Dip each ball into the flour, shaking off any excess. Then dip in eggs, and roll in panko.

Heat a large dutch oven under medium high heat and fill with about 3 inches of oil. When temperature is about 350 F, start heating balls in batches, about 5 balls per batch should do it. Fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes or so, and drain on paper towels.

Serve with sriracha sauce!

Like I said, these could definitely use some tweaking, but overall, they were interesting and different. The mashed potato mixture was fine to eat by itself, so maybe the frying is where it went awry... who knows. Enjoy!