Protein Packed Bento 2! (Gogi Wan-ja Jun/Korean Meatballs)

Welcome back, let's continue making our bento dishes shall we?

So we've finished  the Gamjachae bokkeum (Potato side dish).

Just click on the  link if you've missed  "Protein Packed Bento 1".

What was next again? Oh yeah, "Gogi Wan-ja Jun" (Korean meatballs).

As you've surely noticed by know, I will add my own touch to the dishes in order to make this more personal. First things first! Let's chop and prepare our ingredients for the next dish.

Gogi Wan-ja Jun (Korean meatballs)

250-300gr Ground beef

1/2 Yellow onion

3-4 Stems of garlic chives

2 Cloves of garlic

1 tsp Ginger

Panko breadcrumbs

1 Egg

(optional) Shichimi  (what's this?)

Curcuma Spice

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Start by chopping your ingredients (Garlic chives and onion) very finely, for those of you who own a food processor, you can use that too. grate or mince your garlic, you want a pretty pasty consistency, so you choose how you want to process it. Put a drizzle of olive oil in a skillet and turn on your stove to medium-high heat.

In a big bowl, crack your egg, add your spices and chopped onion, ginger and garlic chives. Mix well.

Take out your ground beef and use a butcher knife to hammer it. Tenderize it. I use the blade of my knife but you can also use a good old meat tenderizer if needed. Add the ground beef to the egg mixture. Mix well with a fork or by using your hands. (I personally prefer using my hands.)

Now, prepare a plate or bowl with some Panko breadcrumbs.

Once you get a homogeneous mix, roll a small amount at a time in your palm into bite-sized balls, while the meatballs are still soaked from the egg roll them in the panko breadcrumbs. Make sure they are well coated!

Once your oil is hot, place your panko covered meatballs in the skillet. Let them cook for about 10 minutes while turning them periodically to make sure you get your meat evenly and thoroughly cooked.

Once golden brown, to make sure they are well cooked, check one of your meatballs by cutting it in half. If the center is cooked and there is no remaining pink meat, you're ready to serve!

Serving: 

I usually remove excess oil with a paper towel prior to storing or serving.

I like to serve these with some tonkatsu Bulldog sauce (what's this?) but you can use any sauce you like, including BBQ!

Voilà! Go to my next blog post to follow-up on the next dish in our bento!

Bon appétit!