This is actually the request of Eliza, who has been forever asking me about this recipe… !!!... sorry it took so long ma’am, but better late than never, I think!!!...
Anyways… I had a cooking club with my friends of which the concept was “Spanish Food”….. more specifically, Tapas. I have never been to a Tapas bar, so, I don’t exactly know what to look for, so I imagined myself, in Spain, in an imaginary tapas bar, enjoying something great with an imaginary beer… :-) methinks, the amount of imagination needed is overkill…
Soon after, (with multiple browsing to lots of spanish food blogs).. I decided the only way I would enjoy my beer was with something meaty…no olives on the stick for me, thank you very much… something easy to split open, soft but with a meaty bite… so, meatballs it is then…
I followed the standard “spanish” meatballs recipe, with one major exception, the meat.. I believe, the secret to moist, juicy meatballs, is to use a combination of ground chicken and ground beef. With ground beef, you’re likely to get drier, more crumbly meatballs. The ground chicken provided moistness and a certain amount of “grip” to the overall meatballs (preventing it from falling apart when being fried). And substituted wine for orange juice. It wasn’t a close substitute, but in the grand scheme of things, it got the job done. Next time I probably would’ve used chicken/beef stock.
It ended up pretty well, though the ladies complained of the “man-sized” meatballs was too big for their dainty constitution..for which I’d say, this is Man-Food, baby. It’s man-sized and that’s the way it should be… serve with crusty bread and a glass of your favourite brew…
Ingredients
2 tablespoon olive oil
300 gr ground beef
300 gr ground chicken
2 slices bread (I used sandwich sized bread, so, size accordingly when using other type of bread), soaked in water and squeezed dry before using
2 tablespoons grated cheese (used what I had in the fridge, which was some crappy kraft cheese, works ok, but would use parmesan/gouda next time)
1 can tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 egg
2 spring onions, chopped fine
1 teaspoons dried thyme
Salt and pepper
2 cups (16 oz) canned tomatoes(I used “Cirio” brand)
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
Mix together the ground beef, ground chicken, squeezed bread, cheese, tomato paste, garlic, egg, garlic, onion and thyme. Mix thoroughly and season to taste with salt and pepper. You could also add some Old Bay Seasoning, if you have some lying around.
With your hands, shape the meat mixture into meatballs… I like’em slightly bigger (estimate 2 meatball/person), it’ll make around 15-20 meatballs.
prepare a deep saute pan and fill with olive oil. Heat it up until it is slightly smoking. Fry the meatballs in batches. Don’t overcrowd the pan, or you won’t get that crusty sear on the outside.
Return all the meatballs to the pan,
Add the canned tomates (slightly crushed), orange juice, rosemary and basil to the pan.
Let simmer for around 20 minutes, and serve immediately with a drizzle of olive oil… It’s also great over pasta, or served with eggs for breakfast….hmmm
