For Easter, we deiced that Thomas Keller's meatball recipe, which we have never made before, would be a perfect appetizer to bring to my parents house which always has a cornucopia of goodness on most holidays, but Easter is special because of course, being the Spartan that he is, my Dad never fails to roast a
lamb...not leg of lamb, not lamb chops, but the whole
beast. So while these meatballs were amazing, nothing comes close to that big hunk a meat we get but once a year.
2 tbs canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 oz boneless beef sirloin
12 oz boneless beef chuck
8 oz boneless pork butt
8 oz veal shoulder or top round
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
2 tbs flat leaf parsley
1 large egg
4 oz fresh mozzarella cheese
Oven roasted tomato sauce
Thomas Keller is known for many things....3 Michelen stars in both New York and California, Oysters and Pearls, the list could go on and on, but what I and probably most people love the most about him is his passion for the process. He has no problem making a single ingredient for an entire dish a twelve step process taking many hours of cooking if he feels it belongs in the dish.
Very important to know these things when flipping through the pages of any Keller cookbook. A recipe that you think might be great for a Friday night, might end up taking you all night Friday and Saturday morning depending on what ingredients go into the main dish you are looking at...
Here is a shot of the recipe for the meatballs....notice the
sauce...
The Sauce is an easy two hour extravaganza. Very simple to do, but the time, the process, all things Keller knows are the most important. Execution and care.
As always, get your mise en place done for your balls so that all you need to worry about is execution.
4 oz fresh mozz
Get the onions and garlic going on a medium pan with the oil. Reduce the heat and cook gently for 20 minutes or so to soften the veg without browning them.
Veal
Chuck
Sirloin
Pork butt
Take out the meat about 45 minutes before you plan on cooking and shredding so that it can all come up to temperature and cook evenly. Cut everything into cubes, salt and pass through the grinder.
Fill a large bowl with ice and nest a smaller bowl in it to catch the meat. First grind with 3/8 in die then change it to 3/16 die. Alternate the meat while you are grinding it to ensure a nice mixture.
Add the onion, bread crumbs, parsley and egg to the meat and mix gently to incorporate evenly. The recipe calls for 4 oz meatballs which are ENORMOUS! For the sake of appetizers and knowing how many people would likely be at Easter, I decided to make 1.5 oz balls...which were plenty big for apps.
This made about 27 meatballs, so you need 27 little pieces of cheese to get stuffed into the middle of your meatballs. I shaped all of the balls first, then placed the cheese into the middle and formed the ball back around the cheese.
Another great Keller idea. Put your meatballs on a cooling rack onto of a pan. It allows the meat balls to cook evenly without being artificially heated by the pan, and gives them less to stick to. The pan at the bottom catches the grease drippings nicely as well. Into a pre heated 425 oven and bake for 15-18 minutes, until cooked through but still juicy.
Our great friends Mike and Meghan gave us this little tip of flipping the meatballs about half way through to avoid sogginess.
It was painful not to eat a bunch of these right away, but they are for Easter tomorrow, so allow them to cool and into the fridge covered till tomorrow.
My Mother, who is amazing, calls me Saturday night to inform me that her oven broke...the day before she's HOSTING 40 PEOPLE FOR EASTER! Poor thing, so we are pan frying these babies to warm them, which turned out great. So good, that I think there will be an obligatory fry step the next time we make these. The meat balls were a hit. My Mom and Dad did an amazing job as always on Easter...Christos anesti!
