Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Sweet and Sour Meat-A Balls.

Viewing all the Olympic activity this month you will need lots of gold metal nibbles to enjoy while watching. Chicken wings with all the frying, the cost for a few dozen and finding that the frozen store bought ones taste blah!

Meat-A Balls! Easy to assemble and 10 bucks worth of ground lean beef burger, a jar of your favourite BBQ sauce and you got a yummy nibble. I made sixty bite size balls and used this recipe for the sauce.

This is how I make this party favourite that makes any  party snack a tasty treat everyone will like.

You will need;

2 lbs. of lean ground beef

1 large Spanish onion minced chopped

1 package of Lipton French Onion Soup Mix

2/3 of a cup, fresh dry bread crumbs

2 whole eggs beaten

1 dash of both worcestershire and tabasco sauce

1 tbs ground pepper

1 tbs garlic powder

1 tbs onion powder.

In a large bowl add all the ingredients and with wet hands mix and blend all the above ingredients together. Blend well and let rest. The water on your hand will give some plumping to the meat ball mixture while it is resting.

While the mixture is resting take a stainless steel thick bottom pot and add;

2 cups of concord grape jelly

4 cups of tomato ketchup

1 tbs of fresh horse radish

Place on the burner over med low heat and stir till all is well blended. The sauce should simmer for at least half an hour.

While the sauce is simmering turn on the oven and place the rack in the middle position and heat to 350 degrees.

Now get a comfortable space at a table and take the meat mixture, a little amount unto your wet finger tips and place into the palm of your hand. In a circular rotation form a small meat ball and place unto a platter. Not any bigger than a golf ball. Try to keep them a consistent size. Keep your hand s moist and this will aid in shaping the meat ball easier. You should now have a plate with about 60 meat balls.

Take a large non-stick fry pan and add enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom, turn heat to medium high. Add enough of the meat balls to the fry pan without crowding. Continue to fry and turn over and over till all the sides of the meatball are fried golden brown with a crust. This is very important to keep the meat balls from falling apart while cooking. After you browned up all your meat balls, place them into a Pyrex glass 13×9 baking pan and add the sauce pouring over till completely covered.

Place into the preheated 350 degree oven and bake uncovered for about 45 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling hot and the top of the sauce is taking on a rich baked glaze look.

Remove from the oven and place a sheet of wax paper over the dishes edges and then a sheet of heavy tin foil sealing in the heat and let sit till ready to serve or take to the party.

Reheat if necessary at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or longer if they have been refrigerated.

Place some frilly tooth picks into the tasty balls and set table side and watch how fast they get gobbled up!

Good stuff!

thekitchenman.ca