184 Pork meat balls with soy sauce (Tjah Babi)
This is an easy Tjah Babi recipe. Tjah Babi is pork meat balls in soy sauce. The meatballs have to cook briefly in water and than fried in the pan with onions and garlic. It is a delicious sweet dish and the meat balls are slightly spicy.
It takes 40 minutes to make and it’s enough for 2-3 people.
Meatballs in Soya (Tjah Babi) translated from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch Kookboek, page 176.
Ingredients
1/2 kg of minced pork
2 tablespoons of oil
2 cups of water
Herbs
3 tablespoons of chopped onions
2 chopped cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of sambal terasi (chili salsa with shrimp paste)
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
salt
pepper
Mix the meat with the sambal, salt and pepper and make large soup balls. Bring water to the boil and cook the balls gently for about 15 minutes boil. Sauté the onions and garlic in the oil until yellow and add the drained meat balls to it and sauté them. Finish the dish with the water from the meat balls and the soy sauce.
I use a mix of minced meat (pork and beef). I use one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of pepper. I also choose sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) for my Tjah Babi.
I mix the beef with the salt and pepper and sambal.
I’ve made sambal trassi earlier and keep it in my freezer. Sambal trassi is a simple chili salsa with shrimp paste. This paste I buy at my Asian shop. I freeze my sambal in an ice cube tray. If they are frozen, I take the cubes out and keep them frozen in a zip lock bag: less space and my ice cube tray can be filled again ;-). This is the recipe for sambal trassi.
The balls must be bigger than balls that go in to soups. I make pingpong ball sized meat balls.
I add them to my boiling water and cook them on low heat for about 15 minutes.
They are firm and done now. They can go in to the pan where I already sauteed my onions and garlic. Do not throw away the meat ball broth. You need it later ;-).
I scoop them through on medium heat for about a minute.
Now the sweet soy sauce can go in.
I add the broth from the meat balls too. I use 3 of these small cups for my dish.
I let the balls simmer in the broth for a few minutes, just to warm them up again. We eat this dish with stir-fried broccoli and white rice. So simple, so delicious.
