Tasty Meatball Appetizer

A few days ago, my mother- and-sister in-law, along with a couple of other women related to me through marriage, gathered together with a few friends for a laid-back, no-sweat, girl-only party. On the menu were wine, appetizers, dessert, and some good conversation. And it happened at my house.

This here was one of the two appetizers I made for the gathering. I always like to have some good animal protein on the menu, so Jacob suggested that I convert my mother’s rather large Russian-Jewish meatballs into little somethings that could be eaten with a toothpick.

I made a few modifications, and here is what I got:

Delicious, absolutely delicious!

They are cooked in this flavorful onion-, carrot-, and bell-pepper sauce, which is then thickened with flour into a chunky gravy and poured over the meatballs before serving.

Here is the recipe:

Meatball Appetizer

Serves a lot of people, depending on their love of meatballs and on the rest of the menu.

For the meatballs:

• 1 pound ground beef (I use grassfed, cause I am very progressive)
• 1 small slice of white bread, crusts removed
• 1/4 C plain yogurt, thinned with approximately 1/8 C of water
• 1/4 of a large onion, grated (this is important – not chopped, not minced – grated – to really take these home, we need a juicy mush rather than chunks)
• 1 garlic clove, minced or crushed with a garlic crusher
• 1 T finely chopped bell pepper
• 1 whole egg (this is what will hold the meatballs together)
• Montreal Steak Seasoning, or salt and pepper to taste (salt and pepper are alright, but it’s the Montreal Seasoning that makes me the cook that I am)
• Several tablespoons of minced parsley or cilantro (I used parsley but cilantro would do marvelous things to meatballs as well)

For the sauce:

• the remaining 3/4 of an onion, chopped
• 1/2 of a bell pepper, chopped
• 2-3 carrots, depending on size, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• butter, for sauteing the vegetables (I may have used 3 T)
• 2-3 T tomato paste

• extra parsley, for sprinkling

Prepare the sauce:

Heat the butter in a dutch oven over medium heat until foaming and add the vegetables. Saute until the onions are translucent and have began to brown. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the tomato paste. Remove from heat.

Prepare the meatballs:

Soak the bread in the mixture of yogurt and water for about five minutes.

Place the rest of the meatball ingredients together in a bowl. Squeeze the bread out the best you can and add it to the the rest of the ingredients (do not add the liquid to the meatballs or they will not hold together – discard it). Mix everything thoroughly until combined and continue working and kneading the mixture until it starts to hold together like a ball (you want to develop the protein in the meat so the meatballs retain their shape better – same as with kneading bread dough to develop gluten).

Roll the mixture into small balls of approximately 3/4″ in diameter and place them in one layer on top of the vegetables in the dutch oven (you want them to sit snugly next to one another). Pour in enough hot or boiling water to barely cover the meat (be sure to pour next to the edge of the pot and not directly over the meatballs).

Cover and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, set the lid slightly ajar and continue to simmer on low until the meatballs are fully cooked, approximately one hour or more. Remove cooked meatballs from the dutch oven and arrange them in one layer in a pretty casserole dish.

Turn the sauce into a chunky gravy:

Whisk the flour into the liquid left in the pot. Add enough water to achieve thick gravy consistency (2/3 of a cup or more). Simmer on low, whisking constantly, until the pasty flour flavor has cooked off (about 5 to 7 minutes). Drizzle over the meatballs in the casserole.

Sprinkle with parsley and place a toothpick into each meatball. Serve immediately (you can also make this in advance and reheat in the oven before inserting the toothpicks).