We haven’t been trying a lot of new home-cooked meals lately since I got behind with the holidays and such, but this was a Home Chef meal kit that we enjoyed. We found this one at Kroger a couple of months ago, and it was one that we both agreed on.
Ingredients:
- 2 Green Onions
- ⅓ fl. oz. Toasted Sesame Oil
- ¾ cup Jasmine Rice
- 2 Garlic Cloves
- 6 oz. Snap Peas
- 12 oz. Ground Pork
- 0.406 fl. oz. Tamari Soy Sauce [2 1/2 tsp]
- 0.35 oz. White Rice Flour
- 2 tsp. Chopped Ginger
- 2 fl. oz. Ponzu Sauce
Price:
For what you get, I think it was a decent price, but a bit more expensive since it may not fill one person up completely. Perhaps two more meatballs and I would’ve been stuffed. Although, there was a lot of rice for these meals, so maybe that was supposed to make up for it.
Now, to the Prepping!
The meal kit says it’s an Intermediate level, but I’m not sure what makes it so complicated to be rated as so. Before you get start mixing, make sure the oven temperature is 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
I feebly added a third green onion since that one was so tiny, and I thought the recipe needed a few more onion pieces. Not that the punny onion made a large difference, but it did help a little, haha.
First, we put the rice on the stove to boil until it was completely done.
Then, I cut up the onion and garlic cloves.
While I did the cutting, Stephen combined the pork, ginger, half of the green onions, rice flour, soy sauce, and half of the sesame oil.
To pour half of the sesame oil accurately, someone took it upon himself to draw a line to mark half of the sesame oil so that he didn’t pour out too much.
Stephen did well with forming the meatballs to be an even size. Mainly, he just rolled the meat mixture into a single meatball, then kept halving the ball and rolling them up until there were 8. Easy enough, right?
Then once the meatballs were rolled to perfection, into the skillet they went! We left them on each side for about 3-4 minutes, then flipped them.
Essentially, they won’t be cooked all the way through on the pan, but that’s not a problem since they’ll bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
As the meatballs are cooking in the oven, it’s now time to put the garlic, remaining sesame oil, and vegetable oil into the pan first. Once those heat up, we can throw in the sugar peas.
Just to note: Turn the heat level down before you put in the mixture. In the left corner of the picture, you can see how it splattered everywhere because the skillet was too hot. Also, the garlic is burnt but it makes for a nice look and taste.
We let the peas cook until they were soft after a few minutes, then we dished them and the rice out evenly between us on a plate.
Around this time, the meatballs should be done. Just to check, Stephen wanted to use his instant read thermometer to make sure the meatballs reached their internal temperature. [Whatever that’s supposed to be, haha.]
Lastly, place the meatballs on top of the sugar peas, sprinkle some sesame seeds on the meatballs, pour out the sauce that was provided, and the meal is ready!
Taste: The Ponzu sauce reminded me of steak sauce. Stephen and I both can agree that this is one of the best Home Chef meal kits that we have prepared. The meatballs retained such a yummy flavor of garlic and ginger. Although, I do have to say that we both thought the meatballs were a bit salty. They didn’t dry out, which is a huge plus, and it was just a fabulous mea overall. I loved the sugar peas, so I was definitely sold on them!
Rating:
Just because they were saltier than we liked, but we’ll remedy that the next time around.
Heat level:
0! Although, you could definitely add your own spice flare.
Is the Pork Shumai Meatballs Home Chef Meal Kit Worth It?
Heck yeah. Although, I felt like I could definitely go crazy on some more meatballs! Next time, I think we’ll use the less sodium soy sauce to reduce the saltiness.
Make sure to have green onions and garlic on hand too. We purchased this kit on 11/10 and it expired 11/13. We made it the day of purchasing the kit, but the green onions weren’t looking so hot. Luckily, we had some in our fridge. The garlic was usable, but it was slightly soft before we cut it up.
Pork Meatballs Update: About a Few Days Later
We purchased the ingredients a few days later to replicate the meal — and we even found the Ponzu Sauce at Kroger! This was the first meal kit that we tried to replicate and gathered up the ingredients for, and it was pretty successful if I do say so myself!
I like this sauce a lot better than the one meal kit provided. You could taste the lemon flavor from the Kikkoman’s Ponzu sauce more so. Plus, it didn’t remind me of steak sauce.
Since we buy 1 lb. of ground pork, it made two additional meatballs than what the Home Chef kit offered.
Here’s our own attempt of the recipe after gathering them separately, which is pretty identical to how it turned out the first time!
Although it just made two more meatballs, I found it to be better than the meal kit and it cost least overall. The only difficult part was measuring the liquids into ounces. We used Google and also our measuring scale, so it wasn’t too complicated for us to handle.
I’ll have to try one of these home chef meal kits, this one turned out pretty good I’m sure my husband would love to try something like this.
And I’ve been seeing ponzu sauce a lot in the last week or so, I might have already tried it but dont remember and will look into it lol.
There are some fun kits like this one to do! I’m quite surprised at how much we both liked it and was able to make on our on another time around! That’s so funny. I’m always looking at the Asian cuisine area in my grocery store and I’ve always overlooked it! I guess what they say is true that you don’t notice things until it becomes intentional. Then, you really see it everywhere! Good luck if you decide to make it, Rossy!
So far I haven’t seen these home chef meal kits at my grocery store, but my husband and I do often look at the asian food isles and we also sometimes go to the asian supermarkets near us, so we’re no strangers to most stuff but there are certain things that are not sold in some stores, unfortunately. We literally have to find most of what we are wanting at the asian supermarkets.
That stinks, but I absolutely love the Asian markets! You find so many unique items to try. I think the meals being in grocery stores are relatively new because I haven’t seen them either until last summer, so it may take time for them to be nationwide in stores!
Lol you & Stephen are so funny, I had a laugh about the line he drew & that he had to use a thermometer on the meat. Your little comments about his preciseness are the best. Love that you guys bought the ingredients on your own & replicated it, I’m gonna bookmark this & try it, too! <3 Thanks for sharing! It looks so yummy!
It was such a small amount of sesame oil and I wanted to just eyeball it and pour! Haha. I guess it’s good that at least one of us is that precise. I hope this recipe turns out good for you!