Bola-bola (Philippine Meatballs)

[js]
I've eaten a lot of bola-bola in my day, but we have not tried making them ourselves for such a long time.

It must be because my godmother, Auntie B, happily fulfills our request for bola-bola. Mama would buy the meat (ground pork), and the meat returns in a foil pan already mixed in with goodies, like green onions, carrots, and our Auntie B's signature root vegetable, taro strips.

[ts]
Bola, by the way, means "ball." Although there are all sorts of meat/fish/seafood balls, when we say "bola-bola", everyone knows that it refers to these pork meatballs.


no photo of Auntie B's bola-bola

[js]
A few months ago, when Boss #2 requested bola bola, we set about making them. I looked at Yaya's recipe and her bola-bola called for mixing ground pork with carrots and jicama. I bought jicama for this very purpose.

However, I made the rookie mistake of overprocessing the carrots and jicama in the food processor. When I tried to form the meat mixture into balls, they were too soft and wouldn't hold together. We ended up making an "omelette" with the ground pork bola-bola-wannabe mixture.

For this specific batch of bola-bola, I put carrots and sweet potatoes. TS likes to tell me to put water chestnuts in place of the jicama for crunch, but I didn't do that this time. I made sure I didn't overprocess these vegetables in the food processor; I kept them in small chunks. I mixed in some green onions, soy sauce, just a touch of sugar to balance out the soy sauce -- and they were ready to form and fry.

[ts]
Wow, I knew the bola-bola mixture was a simple one, but looking at the recipe again, I am still a little surprised at how simple it is!


balls of fury!


Bola-bola draining on a steamer basket.

[ts]
Bola-bola are usually eaten with some ketchup, so a sweet chili sauce will also do the trick. Needless to say, we eat them as ulam with our plain white rice.

[js]
Bola-bola are always popular in our household and they were gone in a jiffy. There's something about these browned pork balls that is irresistible to our family.


Recipe
Bola-bola (Philippine Meatballs)

3 lbs ground pork
2 carrots, grated
2 sweet potatoes, grated
4 stalks green onions, chopped finely
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Form into balls (or whatever shape of whatever size you choose). Heat oil in a pan and shallow-fry the balls, turning as necessary to brown all sides. Remove from oil when done and drain on paper towels.

More:
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[eatingclub] vancouver Philippine food

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