Turkey Meatballs and Spaghetti

In last week’s article, I called fresh-baked pie a “white shirt” dish because, like a white shirt, it’s a good choice for almost any situation. Today I’m happy to share another can’t-go-wrong meal choice: Meatballs and Spaghetti made, in this case, with lower-fat turkey meatballs (and other reduced fat ingredients) and an easy-to-prepare no-cook tomato sauce.
 



Meatballs, in particular, are worth a close look. Getting the taste right isn’t all that difficult: adjust the seasonings to your taste, and remember to brown the meatballs before cooking them through in the sauce. I’ve always thought the catch to meatballs is their texture. Well-seasoned and properly cooked meat too easily becomes overly tough if not made properly. This recipe avoids that.


As shown in the photo, I served this with a simple Caesar salad and an easy, fresh-baked Italian bread. (I’ll be posting the bread recipe next week as a follow-up!)


This recipe makes four servings as determined by the amount of pasta. You’ll actually end up with enough leftover meatballs for another meal. (Spoiler alert: The last time we had leftover meatballs my wife used them to make a wonderful deconstructed stuffed pepper dinner; I’m hoping to convince her to let me post it here the next time she makes it.)


Prepare 4 cups of tomato sauce using the Easy, No-Cook Tomato Sauce recipe posted here previously. (Click here for the recipe.)




Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


Cut five slices of stale bread (crusts removed) into small cubes to make about 1-1/4 cups. Put these in a bowl and let them rehydrate in ¾ cup of fat-free half-and-half.


Brush 2 ounces (2 – 4 slices, depending on the brand) of turkey bacon strips with abou a tablespoon of maple syrup and bake in the 400 degree oven till cooked, about 15 minutes. When the bacon is done, set it aside to cool. (Hint: If you don’t have the stale bread called for in the steps below, you can crisp up five slices of bread in the oven at the same time to simulate it becoming stale. Just watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn, and turn it over to do both sides.)


While the oven is preheating and the bacon is cooking, add a little olive oil to a sauté pan and, when warmed, cook 2 cloves of chopped garlic till aromatic, about 1 minute. Add ½ cup of chopped onions and sauté till cooked but not browned. When the onions have almost finished cooking, add 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley (or 2 teaspoons of dried parsley. When done, set the onion mixture aside to cool.


After the bacon and the onion mixture have cooled, combine them in a bowl with the other meatball ingredients: 1-1/2 pounds ground turkey; the turkey bacon (chopped into small pieces); ½ tablespoon fresh thyme (or ½ teaspoon dried thyme); 1/3 cup grated parmesan (fresh grated instead of canned if possible); 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt; ½ tsp fresh-ground pepper; a pinch of red pepper flakes; a pinch of nutmeg; 2 egg-substitute eggs; and the rehydrated bread cubes. Mix gently by hand, being careful not to press hard or overwork the mixture; we want to keep the texture of the meatballs light. This handling, although easy, is a critical step to getting the meatball texture right. (You can mix the ingredients with a spatula if you prefer, but if you don't mix it by hand you're missing one of life's great experiences.)
You can test the seasonings by taking a small bit of the meat mixture and cooking it in the pan you used to cook the onions and tasting it. 



Gently form meatballs, each about 2” diameter.








Warm a little olive oil in the pan you used to sauté the onions. Working in batches, sauté the meatballs till browned. While the meatballs are browning, begin heating the pasta water (salted).


When the meatballs have all browned, drain any excess oil from the pan, and add the sauce. Let the meatballs simmer in the sauce till cooked through, about 25 minutes.


When the meatballs have almost finished cooking, drop 1 pound of long pasta into the boiling water (I used fettucine, but any long pasta you like will work) and cook one minute less than indicated on the package.


When the meatballs have finished cooking, set them aside in a bowl and top with some of the sauce. Drain the pasta, reserving ½ cup of the starchy pasta water, and add the pasta and the water to the sauce remaining in the pan. Finish cooking the pasta through in the sauce.


Serve the pasta and the meatballs in separate serving bowls. (Meatballs are a very personal thing, you know!)


Hope to see you here next week for Part II: easy, fresh baked Italian bread to serve with this or any other Italian meal you make! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Chicken Meatball Kabobs in Ginger Beer Teriyaki Sauce on Rice

Any dish with a name that long better be good. Fortunately, this one, for Chicken Meatball Kabobs in Ginger Beer Teriyaki Sauce on Rice, is. Although the recipe has a lot of steps, it’s not at all complicated and is easily within the reach of anyone of any cooking level. (Each step does build on the next, so taking things in the order shown is very important.)


A couple of notes about this recipe. First, you’ll see we’ll be making our own teriyaki sauce instead of using store-bought. Home-made tastes better and fresher than store-bought (as it almost always does!) and it’s easy to do.  (Consider that even Sandra Lee, the empress of store-bought ingredients, makes her own sauce for chicken teriyaki.)


Second, we’ll be using fresh pineapple instead of canned. (Although it’s possible to use canned, fresh pineapple is just better.) It’s easy, and once you do it you may never go back to canned again. If anyone is unsure how to do it, just let me know and I’ll send you the cookbook-style version of this recipe, which includes step-by-step instructions for cutting a fresh pineapple.


Third, we’re using ginger beer (or “ginger brew”), one of my favorite ingredients. A number of brands are available, but be aware there’s a wide range in the quality. The better ones (I like to used Reed’s, the kind Trader Joe’s carries) are a blend of all kinds of wonderful things, such as ginger root, spices, honey, pineapple, lemon, and lime. Others are basically glorified ginger-ale and should be avoided for this recipe. (Goya, for example, lists the following ingredients for their ginger beer: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, ginger flavorings, oil of ginger, caramel color, capsicum, and citric acid.) A little caveat emptor goes a long way.
  


This recipe makes 8 kabobs (4 servings).


First, prepare your general ingredients:


Cut a fresh pineapple into 1” long chunks. (Canned pineapple chunks can be used instead, but fresh is better.) In a food processor, puree enough of the pineapple chunks (about ¼ of the pineapple) to make about ½ cup of liquid. Set the rest of the chunks aside.


Cut a green pepper into rectangles, about 1” to 1-1/2” on a side.


Clean a 10 ounce package of baby portabella mushrooms and remove the stems. Dice the stems and set them aside for later use in the rice.


Cut the top and bottom off a sweet onion (Vidalia or similar). Cut the onion into 8 wedges. Remove the inner (pointed) portion of each wedge at the mid-point, and dice them for later use in the rice. Separate the remaining outer (larger) portion of each wedge into two pieces.  Place these on a parchment-lined baking sheet in the cold oven.


Begin preheating the oven to 350, letting the onions pre-cook as it heats up. Check on the onions and remove them in a few minutes when they are just a little soft, but not completely cooked.


Next, we’ll make our teriyaki sauce:


In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of low sodium soy sauce, 6 cloves of garlic (smashed but not chopped), 1/2 cup of honey, ¼ cup of the pureed pineapple juice (or, if using canned pineapple, ¼ cup of the reserved juice from the can), and 1 cup of good quality ginger beer. Bring the mixture to a boil, then immediately lower to a simmer for two minutes. When it’s done, use a slotted spoon to remove and discard the crushed garlic, then add ½ cup of chopped scallions (both the green and white parts). Set the sauce aside.


In the third step, we make our chicken meatballs:


In a bowl, combine 1 pound of  ground chicken (ground turkey works well too), 1 cup of soft bread crumbs (just put some bread into the food processor and process till, well, till it looks like bread crumbs), 1 egg substitute egg (ok, a real egg will do too), ¾ teaspoon of dried thyme, ¼ teaspoon of dried sage, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper, and 1/3 cup of your teriyaki sauce. Mix the ingredients by hand, being careful not to overwork the mixture, and form in to 1-1/2” meatballs. (The meatball mix in this recipe is somewhat loose, so the meatballs may come out oval or patty-shaped instead of perfectly round. This is ok.)


In a pan, sauté the chicken meatballs in a little canola oil until they’re browned on the outside. (They’ll cook more in the over later so they don’t have to be cooked through at this step.)


When the meatballs have browned, add the teriyaki sauce to the pan, bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer the meatballs for 5 minutes. When you’re done, remove the meatballs and set aside. Bring the remaining sauce to a boil and reduce by about half.


After the sauce has reduced, put the chicken back in the pan and toss to coat.


For the fourth step, we begin preparing the rice:


Prepare four portions of brown rice as per the directions on the package, but using the remaining pineapple juice and additional chicken broth in place of the water.


The fifth step is to make those delicious looking kabobs:


Put the meatballs on the skewers, along with the pineapple, grape or cherry tomatoes, green pepper pieces, and the partially cooked onion pieces. Brush each kabob with the reduced teriyaki sauce, sprinkle them with sesame seeds, and bake till chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender, about 25 – 30 minutes.


For the sixth step, we finish the rice:


While the rice and chicken skewers are cooking, sauté the diced mushroom stems and onions. When the diced onions and mushrooms are cooked, and the rice has finished cooking, add the sautéed onions and mushrooms to the rice and mix well.


Last step (and, in my opinion, the best): put the skewers on the rice and serve!
  
For a cookbook style, notebook ready copy of this recipe (which includes step-by-step instructions for cutting the pineapple), just let me know in a comment or an e-mail and you’ll have it in no time!


See you next week! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Stuffed Porcupines

Hopefully, no one reading this will be disappointed to find that enjoying stuffed porcupines does not require stalking small game with a shotgun in some deserted wooded area. The stuffed porcupines to which this week’s entry refers are actually tasty cheese-stuffed rice-infused meatballs from the American south.
 
Though this version takes a few liberties with the original, the origin of this recipe is a wonderful treasure with which I was fortunate to be entrusted: a decades-old notebook of recipes kept by my wife’s grandmother back in Meridian, a small town just outside Waco in the sovereign nation of Texas. Written in pencil on the blissfully food-stained pages of a Waco School System tablet notebook, the recipes have authentic warmth that is not taught in any institute of higher culinary learning or on any cable network. These are more than instructions for preparing a certain dish; each is a doorway leading back many years and across hundreds of miles, to the kind of place you know existed in color but that you think of in black-and-white anyway. A place where today’s eager cook gets to mix and measure in joyful earnest alongside people conventional wisdom foolishly says have been gone a long time.


This is the first of what will be several recipes from my wife’s “Grandma Texas.” It is a great pleasure to share them, and an even greater privilege to cook them.


To make about 14 one-and-a-half-inch meatballs, start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. While it’s preheating, cut about a 2 ounce block of sharp cheddar cheese into ½” cubes, and set the cubes aside. (You’ll need one cube per meatball.) Then, get a large bowl and prepare the meat for the meatballs by combining (by hand) 1 pound of ground turkey (maximum 90% lean), 1/3 cup uncooked rice, 1 egg-substitute egg, 2 tablespoons of diced shallots, ¾ teaspoon dried thyme, a pinch of dried sage, 1 teaspoon of salt, and some fresh ground black pepper. Mix the ingredients thoroughly but don’t overwork the mixture.


Divide the mixture into 1-1/2” diameter meatballs, stuff each with a ½” cube of sharp cheddar cheese, and close. (See the stuffing method below.) Bake the meatballs on a parchment-covered baking sheet for about 50 minutes.
Stuffing method: Flatten each meatball, press a cheese cube into the center, and bring the sides of the flattened meatball up around the cube. Smooth the ball with your fingertips, and roll them gently in your palms to make them round again. Repeat for each meatball.


While the meatballs are baking, heat in a large saucepan 2-quarts of V-8 juice combined with 2 teaspoons of chili powder. (The liquid should be deep enough to cover the meatballs when added.) After baking the meatballs, add them to the liquid, cover, bring back to a boil, and then lower to a simmer for about 10 minutes. After that, set the meatballs aside while you use the liquid to make the sauce as described below.


To make the sauce, separate 1 cup of the hot liquid and add ½ cup of all-purpose flour to it, mixing until combined and there are no clumps of flour. (I know we’re all usually taught to do this with cold liquid. I did it with the hot liquid, and it worked. Go figure.) Add 1 large chopped pepper to the liquid in the pot, bring it back to a boil, stir in the flour mixture, and cook to the desired sauce thickness. (I recommend cooking it down to half.)
Now all you need to do is top the meatballs with the sauce and some grated cheddar cheese, serve it up, and accept the gratitude of a well-fed family or guests! (I’ve found this is especially good served over rice mixed with finely-diced green or red bell pepper and seasoned with Adobo.)


In the photo, you’ll see the porcupines and rice being served with green bean bundles wrapped in turkey bacon. These are from a Paula Deen recipe you’ll find on the Food Network web site.


Enjoy this delicious – and very special – dish. As always, if you’d like a notebook-ready cookbook-style version of this recipe, just let me know and I’ll send it along.


That’s it for this week, y’all. Till next time, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)