Culinary Disasters

It is football playoff time and this demands real food.  Sure you could call and order a pizza in but come on what is the fun of that.  Impress your friends with meatballs that have a cheesy center and a good spicy sauce.

The reason why the meatballs are a very basic meatball mix is simply because I wanted all the flavors of the dish to play well in the sandbox and not have one flavor dominating.  Plus really I wanted a meatball that tasted like meat. 

If the meatballs are to spicy for you do not panic with a little pre-planning you can avoid looking like a sissy as you sprint to the kitchen downing glasses of milk.  Casually walk to the kitchen, open up your freezer, and yell hey who wants some maple bacon ice cream.  Not only did you make a the perfect ice cream but you also saved your pride and you can’t put a price on that.

Two components to this dish and we are going to start with the sauce first.

For the sauce you will need:

• 1 shallot finely diced
• 3 chipotle peppers in adobo diced finely
• 1 TB of the adobo sauce
• 1 TB of red wine vinegar
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• Leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme
• 1 TB dried oregano
• 2 TB ground new mexico chili (about 4 chilis ran through the coffee grinder)
• 2 TB ground ancho chili powder (about 4 chilis ran through the coffee grinder)
• 1 TB onion powder
• 1 TB garlic powder
• 1 TB cumin
• 3 TB of unsalted butter
• Kosher salt

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat add 1 TB of the unsalted butter.  Once the butter has melted add in the shallots with a pinch of salt and cook till softened (about 3 minutes).

Add in the chipotle pepper and cook for another 30 seconds.

Add in the remaining ingredients.

Bring this mixture to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Let it cook for 30 minutes covered tasting occasionally and making adjustments.  Feel free to add in more chili powder or salt to bring it up to your liking.  Once the sauce is done turn off the heat and whisk in the remaining 2 TB of butter.  Set the sauce aside and time to work on the meatballs.

For the meatballs you are going to need:

• 1 lb of ground veal
• 1/2 lb of plain ground sausage
• 1 cup of breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs
• TB of kosher salt
• TB of black pepper
• Crumbled blue cheese
• 2 TB of high temperature oil (I used canola)
• 1 TB of unsalted butter

Keep that evil can of breadcrumbs away (I think they make that crap by heading to Home Depot’s lumber department and sweeping up sawdust).  To make breadcrumbs simply get out the food processor and pulse a couple hunks of bread till it is finely chopped.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Combine everything but the blue cheese in a bowl.

Work the mixture over till everything is combined and the mixture is sticky to the touch.

Grab a piece of the mixture the size that you want the meatball to be.  Roll it around in your hand for a couple of seconds to form it into a ball.  Using your finger put a hole in the middle of the meatball and drop a little bit of the blue cheese in the middle.  Roll it around again in your hand to seal up and lock the cheese away.

Repeat.

Over medium-high heat in a large pan add in the canola oil and the butter.  Once the butter has melted work in batches so not to overcrowd the pan brown all the meatballs.  Once a batch has been browned remove it from the pan and set it on another plate to rest.

Once all the meatballs have been browned dump the excess oil out of the pan.  Pour in the sauce from step one and stir around to free up all the stuck bits.

Add in the meatballs and spoon the sauce mixture over them.  Place them in the oven uncovered till they are done (about 20 minutes).

Serve with more blue cheese sprinkled over top and celery on the side.

Tags: Veal, pork, All //