Forget stodgy soups, we’re about to brighten your day with a fresh and flavoursome dish so great, that we’ve brought it 10,000km for you to try! Dig in to our nicely spiced beef and pork Hot Balls, served in a warming bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup, packed full of flavour and seasoned to taste with a sweet and spicy ‘nouc cham’ sauce
Serves 4
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 1 hour
RECIPE
NOODLE SOUP
| Qty. | Item |
|---|---|
| 2 ltr | Chicken stock |
| 1 | Cinnamon stick |
| 4 | Spring onions |
| 3 cm | Fresh ginger |
| 2 tsp | Caster sugar |
| 1 tsp | Salt |
| 2 tbsp | Fish sauce |
| 1 | Star anise |
| 200g | Vermicelli noodles |
| 2 | Red chillies |
| 2 tbsp | Light soy sauce |
NUOC CHAM
| Qty. | Item |
|---|---|
| 125ml | Water |
| 50g | Caster sugar |
| 3 tbsp | Lime juice |
| 1 tbsp | Rice wine vinegar |
| 2 | Garlic cloves |
| 2 | Red chillies |
| 0.5 tbsp | Salt |
| 3 tbsp | Fish sauce |
GREAT WITH
A sprinkle of chopped red chillies and spring onion, a handful of micro watercress and a drizzle of freshly squeezed lime juice to really make this dish sing
METHOD
Cook the noodle soup…
Add the chicken stock, cinnamon, spring onions (diced), ginger (diced), sugar, salt, fish sauce, star anise, and one chilli (diced) to a large saucepan and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes with a lid on.
Prep the Nuoc Cham and noodles…
While soup cooks, add water, sugar, lime juice and vinegar to a bowl and mix together to dissolve the sugar. Combine garlic and chillies (diced) with salt and use a food processor or pestle and mortar to create a paste. Mix the paste into the liquid, with 2 tbsp fish sauce, and stir thoroughly to combine. Set aside.
Separately, boil a pan of water before removing it from the heat. Drop the vermicelli noodles into the pan and soak for two minutes. Drain thoroughly, refresh the noodles under cold water, drain again and set aside.
Cook the Balls…
Roll the Balls in a knob of butter to seal and lightly brown, before transferring to a roasting dish in a pre-heated oven (180C/350F/Gas Mark4) for 10-15 mins. Ensure Balls are piping hot before serving.
To plate…
Strain the soup to remove all solid ingredients, before tasting for flavour. Add a little nuoc cham, gradually, to taste.
Once flavour is how you’d like it, add pan back on to heat and bring to the boil once more. Place noodles in a bowl and pour the soup over the noodles… we suggest just enough to cover them! Place Balls on top of noodles and garnish bowl with a little diced spring onion, diced chilli and micro watercress.
OTHER RECIPES
As you might imagine, we’re big on cooking, and the flavour of each of our Balls has been designed to make sure you’re able to enjoy them in as many different dishes as possible. Sure, meatballs and spaghetti will always have a place in our hearts, but there’s so much more you could do with these hearty little morsels! So, we’ve created some interesting and unique recipes that’ll get you started! Some simple, some a little more adventurous, but all guaranteed to tantalise your tastebuds…
OUR BALLS
We use only the freshest and tastiest British meat, chosen for its quality and provenance. We then combine this with carefully chosen herbs, spices and seasoning to round-off the flavour of each Ball. The result… unrivalled meatballs made from the highest quality produce, well seasoned and uncompromising in flavour! What’s more, they’re all gluten free, ensuring as many folk as possible can dig in! We make proper hearty, wholesome and honest Balls… there’s nowt quite like ’em!