What's For Dinner? Teriyaki Turkey Meatballs

Just a couple more food or drink only posts before my next book review of A Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.  Both getting through the book and having time to make the recipe have delayed me, so I promise back to a book post very soon.  In the interim, here are some flavor bombs for your dinner - Turkey Teriyaki meatballs.  I threw these together on a recent weeknight easily and they turned out to be pretty amazing.  They could obviously also work as an appetizer/snack, and in fact I originally envisioned making these for that big football game last week.  But, I didn't get my act together in time to do it, so instead they turned into a special dinner.  The recipe after the jump.

Turkey Teriyaki Meatballs(printable recipe)
The sauce here is not real teriyaki sauce, I am not 100 percent sure how that is actually made, but this is a great mimic of that sauce, without all the gloopiness you find in store bought versions or the kind served cheap sushi restaurants to folks that don't eat sushi.  These meatballs would work with any ground meat you have, but I think they would work best with turkey, pork or chicken. I used a mix of ground white meat turkey and ground dark meat turkey.  If you can get this (not premixed) at your super market I would recommend.  This was also freshly ground turkey meat, which I found to be superior to the prepackaged kind - less mealy is I how I would describe it.
Ingredients
For Meatballs
2 lbs ground turkey meat, preferably a mix of dark and light meat
half a small onion, grated
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
squirt of siracha or other hot sauce
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 chopped scallions (white and green parts)
Canola oil for cooking
For Sauce:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup mirin
1/3 cup sake
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 garlic clove, smashed
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon sesame seeds (more if you like)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. For meatballs, mix all ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated.  Hands work best.
3. Form the mixture into little balls.  Put in a covered container and refrigerate for a half hour to an hour. I did not do this and my meatballs, were a bit misshapen.  The refrigeration process just helps them keep a rounder shape.
4. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil in two large oven proof skillets over medium high heat.  Put the meatballs in the skillet and brown on all sides, cooking about 8 minutes.
5. Put the skillets in the oven and let cook for 10 more minutes.
6. While those meatballs are in the oven, combine all sauce ingredients except the sesame seeds in a small saucepan.
7. Bring to a boil, stirring sugar until it dissolves.  Cook in on high heat until it reduces a bit, about 5-8 minutes.  Remove the garlic clove when ready to use, and stir in the sesame seeds.
8. After ten minutes in the oven, remove the meatball pans and pour the teriyaki sauce in the pan over the meatballs.
9. Return the pans to the oven and continue to cook until cooked through, about 10 minutes more.
10. Remove from the oven and serve! I paired with simple steamed broccoli.  Rice would be great too.