Asian Pork Patties

Last night, I was making some sample meatballs for an appetizer I was thinking about, orange-soy glazed cocktail meatballs. I mixed together some ground pork with shredded zucchini (my friend Kate gave me one from her garden), panko bread crumbs, minced scallion and garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, and a little orange juice. Out of the pork, I made three mini-meatballs coated with sesame seeds and three without, and I made a glaze out of soy sauce, orange juice concentrate, chicken broth, and aromatics.

The verdict? My husband liked the sesame-coated balls, and I liked the plain. I wasn't quite satisfied with the results and decided to continue the experiment another day. I threw the remaining pork mixture in the fridge.

When I came home tonight, I ferreted around the fridge for possible dinner and there was the leftover meatball mixture.

I sauted some carrots, which I minced out of shredded carrots, and I added the soft, cooled carrots to the pork mixture, formed them into patties and cooked them with hoisin sauce. Since I had some hashbrown potatoes in the fridge for another appetizer experiment (hashbrown baskets with chorizo and manchego cheese), I made some hashbrowns to go with the patties.

They were delicious! I think I now have a good meatball base for my appetizer -- somehow, I think ground pork needs the sweetness of carrots -- and these patties stand on their own as a great meal. The meat base is almost like a lumpia filling without the wrapper.

A word on hoisin sauce. There are a lot of inferior products parading as hoisin sauce in American grocery stores, so read the labels. If one of the top ingredients is high fructose corn syrup, I would recommend not buying it. I like Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce the best.

For some wonderful Vietnamese pork patty recipes, check out Ravenous Couple, which is an excellent blog. One of my favorites.

Asian Pork Patties
2 pounds ground pork or chicken
1 large carrot, minced (if you're using the shredded carrots, half a bag is probably fine; mince the shreds into small pieces)
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 cup panko breadcrumbs (optional)
3 large scallions, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
Fresh ginger, grated with a Microplane to taste
1 tsp. Salt
Pepper
Onion powder
2 tbs. soy sauce (or fish sauce)
Sesame oil

Hoisin sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix ingredients together. Form into patties. Brush with hoisin sauce.

Heat skillet over medium heat until hot. Cook patties on each side until browned and place on baking sheet. Put in oven for 20 minutes or until the center is not pink and the patty is cooked through.