The word tsukune is a term that refers to any ground meat or seafood that is seasoned and formed into balls. They can be fried, poached or grilled.
After reading a post by fellow blogger Grab Your Fork and seeing a photo of these little savoury Japanese treats, I just had to make them. Here’s an adapted version of a recipe I found online.
tsukune chicken with soy marsala dipping sauce
chicken ingredients
- 50g ginger, peeled and finely grated
- 600g chicken thigh fillets, cut into chunks
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 2 tsp cornflour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp green onion, roughly sliced
method
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Soak bamboo skewers in water
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In a food processor place the chicken, ginger, sugar, pepper, cornflour, salt and green onion.
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Pulse until the texture of the chicken is a rough puree.
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Roll mixture into tablespoon-sized balls with wet hands.
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Place onto a plate and refrigerate for at least half an hour to firm up.
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Preheat grill or barbeque and then skewer two or three of the balls onto each skewer.
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Spray or rub oil onto the skewered chicken and grill until slightly charred; about 1 minute each side.
soy marsala dipping sauce
ingredients
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup Marsala wine
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp rice wine
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 2 tsp cornflour
method
- Bring soy, marsala, sugar, vinegar and mirin to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 3 minutes.
- Combine cornflour with 2 tbsp cold water to form a slurry.
- Thicken the sauce using this, gradually, until the sauce has a smooth consistency.
- Don’t use all the cornflour mixture if you don’t need to. If you overdo it just add some water to dilute it a bit.
- Leave to cool.
I tossed together some simple side dishes to go with this meal. Some wilted Gai Lan and earthy Green Tea Soba Noodles. Both are very basic and quick to prepare.
- Rinse the Gai Lan really well and chop into 5cm lengths, stalk and leaves.
- Heat up your wok (or a large saucepan) and toss in the leaves, making sure a bit of the water goes in as well, to help the wilting.
- Toss around quickly for about 15 seconds or so until wilted.
- Put back into a bowl and plunge into cold water to stop them cooking any further and retain that lovely green freshness.
- Rinse well and drizzle over some sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, julienne ginger and Korean red pepper powder.
- I like to serve this at room temperature.
for the noodles
- Cook them for 4-5 minutes, or until al dente.
- Drain and rinse under cold water.
- Drain well and toss through sesame oil, finely sliced green onions and toasted sesame seeds.
- If I had Panko Flakes and Dried Seaweed floating about, I would have garnished the noodles with these as well.
- Time to assemble the platters, and eat!
The next time I make tsukune I think I may try finely chopping the meat by hand, rather than using a processor. Also maybe try an egg white as the binding agent rather than corn flour. I think the texture would be far nicer.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow that was fast! I think your tsukune looks great – hurrah for caramelisation! Dinner looks like a feast!
Love the sound of all the flavours in this!