Burgundy Meatballs

We had some ground beef left over from fixing all the goodies for Marsha's Life Master (bridge player) party.  I thought making Mom's Burgundy Meatballs would be a great idea.  They're really incredible meatballs.  I tend to make them and keep them in the freezer for last minute dinners.  Well, these ended up being more like sliders than meatballs.  Someone, and we won't say who but Connie wasn't in the kitchen and Annie has no opposable thumbs, wasn't paying attention and put too much liquid in.  Oh, well, they still tasted good.  And, Connie and I could've cared less what they looked like as long as they tasted good.  I think the other issue was that we were out of panko so I tossed some bread in the processor and made bread crumbs.  Since the bread was fresh, the bread crumbs were very light and fluffy.  In spite of the fact that I put more in than the recipe called for, there probably was less volume there then there should've been.  I hesitated to add more because I didn't want to damage the flavor. 


Now, a bit about the recipe.  Mom cut it from a magazine eons ago.  The recipe says "1945" on it so my guess is it was from a compilation of the best recipes of the last decade or something like that.  She's made these guys for as long as I can remember.  You'll want to be certain to either use a non-stick skillet or plenty of oil because they will stick like all get out.  It took a ton of elbow grease to get our skillet sparkling clean.  Although the recipe calls for making a burgundy sauce with the meatballs, you can use them in all kinds of sauces - tomato, sour cream and dill, etc.  Or, you can do what I did the first night I made them and toss them in tortillas with fresh spinach and some mustard.  They'd make great regular meatball sandwiches too. 

I actually made kind of a stroganoff sauce (below) to go over them the second evening.  Those got served over brown rice then mixed in with the rice and leftover sauce for lunch the next day.  The third time we had them with leftover pasta and eggplant parmesan and a new jar of Trader Joe's Vodka Sauce.  See how everything gets recycled? 


Mom's Meatballs


Ingredients:
for the meatballs
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 c bread crumbs
1 c light cream or half and half
1 t cornstarch
dash allspice

for the stroganoff sauce
1 can consomme
1/2 c red wine
8 oz sliced cremini mushrooms
1 large onion
olive oil
garlic
thyme
flour





Make the meatballs.  Lightly mix all the ingredients.

Shape into 24 balls. Brown them on all sides in olive oil.

To make the stroganoff sauce, brown the mushrooms in olive oil.  

In a separate skillet, saute the onions.  I know, most recipes call for sauteeing them together.  But, I like the bit of browning the mushrooms can do without the moisture from the onions...  Sprinkle some flour over the mushrooms. 

Stir well and allow the flour to cook a bit. 

Add the garlic and thyme to the onions. 

Pour some of the consomme into the mushrooms and stir well.  Slowly add the rest of the consomme and the red wine.  Add the onion mixture and stir until slightly thickened.