Balls

Japanese style Scotch Egg with Oregon chicken

My husband’s co-worker handed him a sack of green beans other day. Nice! Our green beans in the garden stopped growing  for some weird reason. Like it’s saying, yep, I’m done, I can’t work with this weak sun. You little spoiled GB you! That is true that we didn’t have very many hot days in Portland, Oregon and August is fleeting. That makes me a little melancholic.

I have no idea what to do with this green of freshness, I start digging in my files for inspiration. This Scotch Egg like recipe I found in ‘Orange Page’ Japanese magazine published in 1996. Instead of ground beef, this uses ground breast chicken. Japanese called this tsukune- not my favorite kind of meat- too tame in flavor but it’s fried food! Which is my favorite method of cooking and all the ingredients I have at home is definite plus.

6-8 chicken balls depending on sizes.

• 6-8  small eggs hard boiled and shelled
• Chicken breasts 450-500g
• Corn-canned (drained) or fresh corn cooked and cut kernel from cob 250g
• Green beans 60g cut in small pieces
• 2 Tablespoons sake
• 2 Teaspoons salt
• 1 Teaspoon white pepper
• 2 Tablespoons corn starch plus more for dusting. I used potato starch for this.
• Oil for frying

1. Make ground chicken by laying the chicken on the cutting board then pound with sharp knife until minced or use a food processer to grind the chicken.
2. Mix ground chicken, corn and green beans.
3. Add seasoning-sake, salt,pepper and cornstarch then mix well till sticky. Divide in 6-8 portions
4. Lay out a good size plastic wrap and put meat mixture in the center. Spread meat mixture thin but not too thin so that you can wrap the boiled egg without tearing.
5. Dust the egg with corn starch. Tap to remove excess starch. Put it in the center of meat mixture
6. Pull the edge of wrap to form ball around the egg. Twist tightly so that it holds together.
7. Dust with cornstarch and  deep fry the balls at over medium heat until golden color.
8. Put a couple of paper towel on a large plate and place the fried balls to drain excess oil.

Cut a ball in fourths and simply mix 6 tablespoons of  ketchup and 2 tablespoons of  Dijon mustard as dipping sauce. Ponzu soy sauce with hot Japanese mustard is also good. 

A person who works for my husband gave him this homemade mustard last Christmas, It has great flavor and beats out Gray Poupon.

I found a zucchini on our door step someone left with a note attached. How sweet!  You shouldn’t have. We have a reason not to grow zucchini in our garden but we graciously accept this size. I didn’t have whole lot of time left till dinner, so I simply sautéed with butter along with eringi. Though I should have made  Marc’s zucchini fritter, I already made fried food with gift of fresh crops.

With a few drops of soy sauce, it was delicious. Thank you, squash loving neighbor!