I gathered my ingredients, and got to work. There's a lot of chopping to be done to make these meatballs happen.
I started with chopping the mushrooms.
And then the shallots. The ingredient list calls for 1 medium shallot. Again, the shallot question. I commented on the recipe post and Michelle responded accordingly, "A medium shallot to me is about the size of 2 Barbie heads. Does that help?" No, actually, that didn't really help. I wasn't really a Barbie girl growing up. The next time I was at the store, I took a look at the barbies.
I kept chopping and dumping the ingredients into a big mixing bowl. After giving the ingredients good stir, I added the remaining ingredients to the bowl- the fish sauce, tomato paste and finally the beef.
I mixed the beef in with latex gloved hands.
I greased a foil lined baking sheet with coconut oil.
And then proceeded to fill the sheet with meatballs.
The recipe says to cook the meatballs for 15-20 minutes rotating the tray at the midpoint. I rotated the tray at the 10 minute mark. I let them continue to cook a few minutes longer to get a nice brown.
Accessibility & Cost of Ingredients: You should be able to find everything you need at your "big box" grocery store with the exception of a quality fish sauce. I like Red Boat as it's gluten free. Whole Foods carries that brand and so does my local Asian market.
Preparation & Cooking Time: It took me about 28 minutes to prepare these meatballs to cook (including a hand washing). It took me about 24 minutes to cook them.
Clean Up: Everything I used went into the dishwasher. If you don't want to have to wash your sheet pan, make sure it is well covered by the foil. A few of my meatballs stuck, so the foil ripped and I had to wash my sheet pan. By wash, I mean put it in the dishwasher. No big deal.
The Paleo Review: Thumbs Up! I can't say there is really any distinctive Asian flavor to these meatballs, but they were a nice slightly sweet beef flavor and they were filling. The next time I make these, I'll make a few batches to freeze as they are the portable filling post workout meal I thought they'd be.