This past weekend I was wearing a tank top and flip-flops and now I'm back in my winter gear braving snow and 60-90 km/h wind gusts. Spring this year has been interesting to say the least.
So how about a recipe for some healthy(ish) comfort food to tide us over until summer arrives?
I recently inherited a KitchenAid stand mixer with a grinder and pasta maker attachment (YES!!). When I went to the store to pick up the ingredients for this recipe I can't say I was terribly disappointed when they didn't have any ground poultry. Time to do things the (not-so) old fashioned way!
If you've never ground your own meat, I highly recommend it. Something about it was strangely liberating and gratifying. "Screw you store, I can grind my own meat!"
I smell sausages on the menu soon...
Anyway, back to the recipe.
Ingredients:
2 slices bread, torn into small pieces (approx. 1 cup)1/3 cup milk
3 strips bacon, finely diced
1 small red onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp each, salt and pepper
1 lb ground chicken or turkey
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp hot sauce
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley (or 1 tbsp dried parsley)
1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs
1 tbsp olive oil
1 heaped tbsp tomato paste
Position oven rack in top 1/3 of oven; preheat to 400° F.
Soak bread in milk until soggy.
Cook bacon on medium heat for 3 minutes, add onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Sauté until onion is translucent; cool.
Squeeze the bread to remove excess milk and discard the milk.
To the ground chicken add: bread, egg, hot sauce, bacon mixture and breadcrumbs; mix to combine. If it feels too soft, add more breadcrumbs until desired consistency is reached.
Form into 30 (or so) medium sized balls.
Incorporate tomato and oil (they won't really incorporate, but mush them together and make due). Brush paste onto prepared meatballs.
Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 20 minutes.
Serve with your favourite dipping sauce.
I prepared a spicy, sweet and sour Asian sauce and a chipotle mayo dip. Both were excellent with the meatballs.
Good luck getting them from the cookie sheet to a serving plate. El Señor and I ate quite a few before we remembered they were supposed to be for guests.
And then I barely got a picture of them with the guests before they were all gone!
Buen Provecho!
I'm one of those hungry hands pictured above. These were delicious: slightly spicy, light and fluffy and not at all greasy. This appy could well have been dinner. Another successful Amazing Race dinner recipe!
ReplyDeleteLooks yummy!!
ReplyDeleteI've had a request to share my recipe for:
ReplyDeleteSpicy, Sweet & Sour Asian sauce
1 tbsp garlic chili sauce
1 tsp sriracha hot chili sauce
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1-2 tsp honey
juice of half a lime
Thoroughly mix all ingredients together (make sure the honey is good and dissolved) and refrigerate to thicken, or overnight to let the flavours blend.
In hindsight some sesame seeds, green onions and/or fish sauce would be good in there too. I also would put some peanut butter (if my cuñada didn't have a peanut allergy).
I just tried the leftover sauce (a couple days later) and it sure heats up over time! Beware- not for the faint of spice!
Also please note that this is a rough estimation of the ingredients I think I used; I was a lil' drunk when I made it. ;)