Thai Meatballs 1.16 Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers

“And then, he'll push a meatball towards you with his nose, and you'll push it back with your nose, and then you'll bring the meatball home and you'll save it in the refrigerator for years and-” … “You wanna explain the meatball?” “It's a mother-daughter thing.”

Ingredients:

For the meatballs

• 1 lb ground meat

• 2 scallions, chopped

• 3 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

• 1 tbsp fish sauce

• 1 tbsp red or green curry paste

• 3/4 cup breadcrumbs

• 1 egg

• ¼ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp pepper

For the peanut sauce

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 1 tbsp red or green curry paste

• 1 14oz can of coconut milk

• 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• ½ tsp red pepper flakes

• ½ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add together all the meatball ingredients. You can use any type of ground meat for your meatballs. I used ground turkey for mine, but any will do.

3. Mix the meatball ingredients and with your hands form into small ball shapes.

4. Place the meatballs onto a lined baking sheet or a mini muffin tray. I like using a mini muffin tray because it keeps the meatballs in shape and helps to keep their size relatively small. But if you don’t have one, you can definitely use a baking sheet.

5. Bake the meatballs at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

6. In a medium bowl, add all the sauce ingredients and whisk together until creamy.

7. Place a large skillet over medium heat and add the sauce carefully so it doesn’t splash.

8. Allow the sauce to reach a low boil and simmer for a few minutes.

9. Once the meatballs have baked, remove them from the oven and add to the sauce.

10. Fully coat the meatballs in the sauce then serve over rice, noodles, or whatever your heart wants!

Breadcrumbs and an egg are what holds the meatballs together.

I know technically the meatball from the three-month anniversary date is from Lady and the Tramp and therefore served over spaghetti. But that’s been done before, and to me, not very fun. So I decided to mix it up a little and offer a different variation of meatball. The peanut butter, coconut sauce in this recipe is one of my favorites to make. This is a really easy dish to make, so if you are pressed for time, you can whip up a flavorful meal in less than an hour. Which after a few of my last dishes that took me all day (looking at you homemade Pop-tarts and the Donna Reed Meal), it was nice to put together a simpler dish. Besides, I think Lorelai would have loved if Rory brought her home a Thai meatball instead of one covered in spaghetti sauce.

I like using a mini muffin tray to hold my meatballs in place.

As I mentioned above, you really can use any type of meat you want in the meatballs. Obviously, the taste will be slightly different depending on whichever you use, but the results will still be good! I also indicated that you could use red or green curry paste. Normally, I use red because it’s a little spicier and pairs well with the sweetness of the coconut milk in the sauce. But when I made the dish this time around, I only had green curry paste in my pantry. This yielded a slightly different taste and not quite as pretty of a color for the sauce, but delicious just the same. It’s a good alternative if you don’t like spicy foods. You could also reduce the red pepper chili flakes to ¼ of a teaspoon if that’s the case.

This episode puts the nail in the coffin for my dislike of Dean. Things were already going downhill in That Damn Donna Reed, but when he throws a tantrum when Rory can’t say, ‘I love you too,’ it’s the final straw for me. I hate that they end up getting back together in the finale, and proceed to date each other for the entirety of season 2, especially when Dean’s character only gets worse to make Jess seem like the better guy. But I really hate how Dean acts in this episode.

I love how thick and creamy this Thai peanut butter coconut sauce is!

I also think it’s over the top that he’s building Rory an entire car, and they’ve only been together for 3 months. Sure, it’s puppy high school love, and I’m a jaded cynic, but I still think this move is too much, especially when it’s accompanied with an expected, ‘I love you.’ I also personally think Rory and Dean’s conversation at the restaurant to be a little awkward. Normally, their conversations are fairly captivating, even if not as much so as they were in the first couple episodes. But the restaurant scene is always one I’ve found to be ho-hum. I mean the line, “you eat cute,” always makes me roll my eyes.

Although, nothing can quite compare to the awkwardness that is Chase Bradford. I mean who says Hartford, Connecticut has all the cosmopolitan big city benefits that New York has, without actually having to live in New York. Just...yikes. Although, not as big of a yikes as the therapist Emily tries to set Chris up with at the end of season 6. That scene always makes me uncomfortable. Although, that could just be because Carolyn is also Jan from the Office. But I’m digressing…

The meatballs are done when they are crispy on the outside.

I do love that Chase leads to a moment of reconciling between Lorelai and Richard. When we last saw them, they had a big fight at the end of Christopher Returns. Lorelai had thanked Richard for standing up to Straub for her, but he had only done so to protect the Gilmore name. So when the father and daughter pair are together again in this episode at Friday night dinner, Lorelai and Richard are at odds. That is until Richard catches Lorelai sneaking out of her old bedroom window. She goes on a typical Lorelai rant of apologizing but also owning who she is while begging Richard to not make her go back to the dinner with Chase. To which Richard responds with a call down to Emily, “Emily, she's not up here!” It’s such a simple gesture. He doesn’t even acknowledge Lorelai’s apology, but it still speaks volumes.

Allow the meatballs to simmer in the sauce for a couple minutes.

I wish we got to see more of the Firelight Festival. We do get a very cute moment between Sookie and Jackson and we see the setup for the festival, but not much of the actual festival itself. The scene with Mayor Porter and Taylor arguing about the bonfire is a classic townie moment, I will say. The Stars Hollow town events are some of my favorite parts of Gilmore Girls, so I love episodes that center around town mayhem. Some fans of the show might know that the legend of how Stars Hollow got its name changes throughout the show. In this episode, Miss Patty tells us about the long-distance lovers that reunite under the stars where the gazebo now stands. But in later seasons, we learn the story is about the Jebediah family. Either way, what remains at the center of the founding of Stars Hollow is the Founder’s Day Punch in both of these episodes (so stay tuned for that recipe later on!).

What is your favorite Stars Hollow event?

I like serving my meatballs over rice.

Happy Cooking!

If you missed what I made last episode, catch up here!