Appetite for Destruction #3: Mash-up Meatballs

This is an amalgamation of four different recipes for sweet and sour meatballs. Why is it is combination of four recipes, you ask? Because every single time I try to make sweet and sour meatballs there is always at least four or five ingredients in any given recipe that I just don’t have and at least one of them is almost so headscratchingly obscure or unusual unless you happen to be a gourmand or are independently wealthy. Meatballs are a no brainer of a meal. At their basest you need ground meat, breadcrumbs, and an egg. That is it. The good news is that this recipe is kind of a “choose your own adventure”. There is no wrong way to do it, but you can keep experimenting until you find what flavours work best for you. It can even be made vegetarian, if you want. Anything goes! This won’t be a normal recipe set up either. It will take you through the different ingredient choices before going into the directions.

First you need some sort of meat. 1 ½ lbs. of ground hamburger, lamb, turkey, or fake veggie meat. You can even use a combination of any of those. Avoid ground chicken because it is the most useless ground meat known to mankind.

Second, choose some veggies. Carrots, onions, celery, peppers. Choose at least two of each and chop them into bite size pieces.

Third, choose a type of broth. Chicken or Vegetable work best. Beef broth is OK, but it will throw off the “sweet and sour” part of the dish and add a strong flavour that some people might like, but is too salty for my liking and I think makes everything taste like beef jerky. You will need roughly six cups of broth; 5 for now and 1 or possibly more for later.

Fourth, you need to choose a fruit to add sweetness. Your best bets are oranges, pineapples, apricots, or peaches. If you go the fresh route, prepare the fruit accordingly in a food processor or just mash it up as best you can. If you want a much easier and just as tasty way, buy some jam or marmalade, NOT jelly. Either way, you need about ¼ cup of whatever you decide to use. Dried fruit definitely does not work for this.

Fifth, and this is easy, choose any spices you want that taste good to you. You can’t screw it up, per say, but just use what you think you can handle.

Now that this is all sorted out, you need either a large pot that can go safely on both a range top and in the oven or a casserole dish that can safely do the same, but those are quite expensive and hard to come by. If you only have a pot with plastic handles, make sure you have a casserole dish for the oven to transfer everything into at some point. You also need a large bowl to make the meatballs in.

With all of that out of the way, here are the only ingredients that can not be substituted:

-2 Cups of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes (one cup for the meatballs and one cup for the sauce)

-1 egg, beaten well (If going vegetarian, use ¼ cup plain soy milk, but you may need more since meatballs require a binding agent and the low fat content of fake meat can be hard to work with sometimes.)

-1 Cup of bread crumbs, finely crushed croutons, or rock hard stale bread that has been broken up and finely crushed

-Something to serve the meatballs on. Rice or couscous works best. Pasta, not so much. This can be prepared at any time according to the box directions, but instead of using water, substitute whatever broth you used for added flavour.

Directions

-In your pot, prepare the sauce first. Bring to a boil the broth and vegetables. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Once boiling, cover, reduce heat, and allow to simmer while you prepare the meatballs.
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
-In a bowl combine meat, egg, bread crumbs, one cup tomato sauce, and any spices you want. Mix it all together by hand until well combined and form meatballs about two inches in diameter.
-Carefully place meatballs in the broth and bring it back to a boil. Once boiling again, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
-When the 15 minutes are up, stir in your fruit and the remaining cup of tomato sauce. Stir until the sauce seems to have blended into the broth.
-Either transfer the broth and meatballs to a casserole dish or place the pot uncovered into the oven for 35 minutes. If you can’t fit everything in your casserole dish or it will surely boil over, carefully ladle some of the broth out and save it since it makes a great base for soup.
-When done, serve over rice or couscous.