Meatball № 4 – American Style

I think it’s time to make meatballs my signature dish! It all started with my Danish Pork-Patties. The classic! But then I got hot for more meatball-mania so I had to try making chicken patties – awesome they were! And as if that shouldn’t be enough I have my two Falafel recipes! It is safe to say I am totally in love with this concept of incredible food that is minced, mixed and scooped into meatballs! Or chickpea balls or whatever! Call them patties, call them balls – I will eat them for sure!

And now my life long search for great balls have let me to the COW! I am going to explore the beef based meatballs that we don’t eat in Denmark – at least not traditionally! Traditionally Danes eat ground beef af hamburgers! We make a beef and then we fry it and est it with brown gravy and potatoes! But that will soon be changing if I am the woman in charge. Well, who am I kidding, I’m not in charge at all! But a woman can dream, right?

For my first beef-based experiment I will be making meatballs: AMERICAN STYLE! ..Nope, that is not as authentic as it sounds. That is just my way of showing you how I see America: In a meatball!

With all the cooking shows and blogs I have laid eyes on there are three things that I know for sure that Americans love and need: BBQ sauce, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Parsley! I mean – every time! In any American recipe one of these will occur! I promise! Well, at least 95%!

And now for the great meatball recipe this will make 50 meatballs or dinner for 5-10 people depending on hunger-level and possible sidedishes!

1 kg ground beef (2 pounds)
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
2 eggs
135 g breadcrumbs (1 cup)
350 ml milk (1½ cup)
200 g BBQ sauce (½ cup)
30 g parmesan cheese (1 oz)
2 tbsp frozen parsley
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tbsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp chili flakes

Now, as you see in the picture, I tried a big fat failure for my breadcrumbs. I soaked them in the milk. And it totally didn’t work! It turned into little dough lumbs in the meatball – witch it was definitely not supposed to. So don’t do that!

Instructions:

1. In a foodprocessor you get your onion and garlic nice and diced!
2. Mix all the ingredients in a stand mixer with the dough-hook and let it get mixed in.
3. Let rest until you are ready to bake them – they will develop flavor but it is not at all necessary. I didn’t have time for resting!
4. Scoop with a damp spoon and a damp hand  onto a lined baking tray!
   1. If you want to help yourself a bit, you add a little oil to the tinfoil!
5. Bake at 225°C/425°F convection oven for about 30 minutes! Feel free to turn after 15 minutes and turn on the broiler for the last 5 minutes!

Yes! This is the worlds easiest meatballs. They take a little while to scoop out, but I could just buy a scooper and save a bunch of time – but I’m not going to!

This is not a calorie restricted recipe of any kind! It turns out at 220 calories pr 100 grams in my version!

This beef meat ball thing happend in one big messy meatball day where I also tried this awesome greek style meatball that you should totally check out!

Serving:

I don’t want to interfere with your meatball traditions here, so this is just some simple tips for you if you don’t know quite how to serve these balls up! The first day I ate these was the top picture: Meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy. That was a great IKEA style meal that everyone seemed to enjoy – BUT! The next time was way better! We made Gnocchi and a great Tomato Sauce. Yum yum yum! There is still 3 bags in the freezer – how should I serve them?