In about 2 hours, you'll be surrounded by hungry people wanting to taste your meatballs and sauce. This meatball recipe calls for equal amounts of pork, beef, and lamb. We mixed in bread and onions into the meatballs, which helped them hold their shape and not get chewy or dry. Make an onion mixture first. Get a big pot and put several tablespoons of olive oil in it. Heat the oil up for a few minutes. Don't let it get smoking hot. Just hot. Chop up two or three medium-sized yellow onions. Cook onions low and slow. About 10 to 15 minutes. Until they get brown and soft. Then, add about 6-8 cloves of chopped/minced garlic. I cheat and buy a jar of finely chopped garlic. Add oregano and crushed red pepper to your taste. Cook for a few minutes. It'll smell really good. Split it. Put half of onion mixture into large bowl and set aside. This will be mixed with the meat. The rest stays in the medium-hot pot. Begin the sauce. Add tomato paste to the onion mixture that's in the pot. Cook that until fragrant. About a minute. It'll be clumpy like mud. Add a cup of red wine and cook until it gets thick. Stir in a the tomato paste. Stir in the tomatoes. I like using 4 cans of tomatoes. 2 cans of diced. 1 can of puree. 1 can of crushed. Pour in 1 can of water. Heat it all up for about an hour. Reduce down a bit and it'll get thicker. Not watery. Add 1 cup of parmesan cheese. I grate my own. Stir in cheese and a tablespoon of basil. Add salt and sugar according to your taste. Use a clean spoon to taste your sauce as you go. In a separate bowl with the onion mixture, add chopped-up bread and a cup of milk. Squish it to make a paste with the onion mixture. This will help the meatballs keep their shape. Add a cup of grated parmesan cheese and a few tablespoons of parsley to the mushy mixture. Add two eggs. Add 2 cloves of minced garlic. Add the meat. I used 3 pounds of meat with equal parts of beef, pork and lamb. Your local butcher in the grocery store should have that available. Spray two metal baking sheets with oil.
Mix the meatballs into about 1.5-inch diameter meatballs. Put the meatballs on the sheet. Cook them in the oven at 450 for 20 minutes. Here's a tip for grilling chicken breasts. Well, it's actually two tips: seasoning and butter. Get some poultry seasoning from the grocery store. And fuff a bunch on the chicken meat. Then, throw the chicken on a hot, hot grill. Burners on high. The idea is to cook the one side of the chicken for one minute. Either side first. Doesn't matter. Think of the process to cook a steak, which includes searing the meat to lock in the juices. Same with chicken. High heat. 1 minute. Then, flip. Now, after flipping once, turn down the burners to medium and cook slowly. Low and slow. Pay attention to a healthy temperature. Use a temperature cooking probe. And there you go. Get a beer and toast to yourself for grilling an awesome chicken dinner for the family. Got to take care of yourself at the grill. Keep cool - on the inside. We tested a few beers to pair with the chicken. And frankly, anything will do. But this Duvel Tripel Hop was excellent. Now, here's the second tip. Butter. Place a large pad of butter on the plate. Then push the grilled chicken on top of that butter. Oh, yes! The butter will provide a base for a dipping au jus (that's fancy for thin gravy). And the butter also helps if you happen to overcook. You? Overcook chicken? Never. But just in case. Great dinner, man. Go. Eat.
Whoever thought of wrapping meat around fish and grilling them together was a genius and is a friend of mine, although we've never met. Here's what you need:
Here's the trick to making this dish. Render the fat from the bacon before grilling. This will help prevent flare-ups and scorching the crap out of your bacon-wrapped shrimp. Rendering? Yes. Rendering. That means getting the fat out. For this recipe, we want to render the fat (get the fat out) of the bacon. And that requires layer of paper towels on large plate or baking dish. Layer the paper towels with layers of strips of bacon. So, put down a layer of paper towel. Then lay down strips of bacon onto that layer of towel. Then, repeat. Towel. Bacon. Repeat. Put this into the oven at 350 until the bacon fat begins to render (come out). The bacon should not be totally cooked. Just wet and soft. Cook about 5 minutes. Toss scallops, butter, salt, and pepper together in bowl until scallops are thoroughly coated with butter. Press 2 scallops together, side to side, and wrap with 1 slice bacon, trimming excess as necessary. Push the wrapped scallops onto the skewers. Repeat. Press. Wrap. Skewer. Repeat. Turn all burners to high. Scrape and clean and oil the grill grate. You could use an oil-soaked paper towel. Place the skewers with the bacon side down. Yes. Bacon side down. And place the lemon halves on the grill with the cut side down. Cook the skewers until the bacon is crispy on first side. That'll take a few minutes. Flip the skewers onto other bacon side and cook until crispy. Another few minutes. Then, flip the skewers with the scallop side down and grill until the sides of scallops are firm and centers are opaque (white). Move the skewers on a serving plate. Squeeze the lemons onto the skewers, and sprinkle chopped chives on top. Beautiful. Serve with some wine. We tested many wines to pair with the bacon-wrapped scallops. We like the Chardonnay from California. We recommend serving the dish with a salad, with Romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, and (of course) bacon.
Good job, man. Eat. |
Archives
December 2021
|