Misty Meatball Memories

Gary Sims' Misty Meatball Memories
Oriental Meatballs - Astrid Bear
More Meatball Ideas - Astrid Bear
Szechuan Braised Meatballs - Doug Essinger-Hileman
Meatball Sandwich with Sicilian Sauce - Doug Essinger-Hileman
Jan Garvin's Meatball Ideas
Vietnamese Beef Balls - (Thit Bo Vien) - Paul Keller
Porcupine Balls - John Marmet
Lee Ann Roberts' Porcupine Meatballs
Bruce Trinque's Meatballs

Gary Sims' Misty Meatball Memories
The idea for this item is probably to take a moderate amount of meat and extend it to feed more than it otherwise would satisfy, but I'm just guessing. This is what I remember:
Grind the meat and cook up rice enough to extend as desired. My memory says the final result is at most half meat. Add something as a binder, probably beaten eggs? Mix and form into meatballs. Possibly the meat is cooked, or half cooked before the mixing, which would change the process from this stage forward. But I just don't know. I wasn't doing the cooking, just the eating wherever it was I encountered this item.
Now... well, you serve it in some venue that my memory has lost. Completely it seems. In China, it would be a bowl of some broth. In Europe, possibly over pasta, though a real cook might scorn my supposing that pasta and rice belong in the same dish. In our Mid-West, as transplanted to my Swedish grandmother's table in California, I feel safe in predicting a gravy.
I just can't remember, darn it. Where do such meatballs appear? In what countries? Or at least what dishes? Smorgasbord? Rattlesnake soup?
Does anyone actually have a recipe for those Chinese style meatballs poached in chicken broth to adorn some sort of noodles as a base? Exactly which spices? I'll go back over these notes tonight for clues, but I'll probably put the wrong combinations together without a specific recipe.
And wraps. I like that idea. Does anyone remember which was the desirable kind of leaf?
We used to enjoy stuffed grape leaves in Greece. Well, I did, and I think I remember her eating them without editorial comment. It was forty years ago, but that might work too. If I can figure out where to get grape leaves without picking them off our shed-swallowing table-grape vine and washing them to clean off the bird doo.

Oriental Meatballs - Astrid Bear
1 cup cooked rice
1/2 pound ground beef, pretty lean
1 egg
1 scallion, sliced finely
1-2 t. fresh ground ginger
1 t. soy sauce
1/4 t. sesame oil if you have it (or float on broth)
Mix all together, form into balls, slip into simmering chicken broth, cook until done.
For stuffed cabbage, Savoy cabbage, the ruffley, crinkly looking kind is milder in flavor and easier to extract leaf by leaf. But in my stuffed cabbage making days (it's been a long time, have to do it again!) I just used the regular cannon-ball sort of cabbage.

More Meatball Ideas - Astrid Bear
For a Chinese feel, add some fresh ginger and scallion to the meat mix and poach in chicken broth. Cook in some noodles, and add some greens (Spinach? Bok choy? Napa cabbage?) at the last and it's a complete meal.
For Italianesque, pan fry the meatballs until brown (or broil) then simmer in spaghetti sauce until done. To make it a little fancier, add some sliced eggplant or mushrooms or red bell peppers and cook until they are soft. Serve over pasta or make into a very sloppy and good sandwich on some not-too-crusty bread.
For Swedish-ish, I would do something with sour cream, thinning it with some broth, maybe. Add dill, maybe mushrooms. Serve over buttered egg noodles.

Szechuan Braised Meatballs - Doug Essinger-Hileman
From EatingWell.com
1 pound 93%-lean ground beef
1 5- to 6-ounce can water chestnuts, rinsed and finely chopped
2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch, divided
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder (see Shopping Tip)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup reduced-sodium beef broth
4 teaspoons canola oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste
1/4 cup Szechuan sauce (see Shopping Tip)
4 cups shredded napa (Chinese) cabbage
1 15-ounce can straw mushrooms, rinsed
2 scallions, sliced (optional)
1. Gently mix beef, water chestnuts, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, five-spice powder and salt in a medium bowl until combined. Shape the mixture into 12 balls (use about 2 tablespoons each to make 1 1/2-inch meatballs). Whisk broth and the remaining 1 tablespoon cornstarch in a small bowl until smooth.
2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet or nonstick wok over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and cook, turning once, until brown, about 3 minutes total. Transfer to a plate.
3. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons oil to the pan. Add garlic and crushed red pepper and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 15 to 30 seconds. Add the reserved broth mixture, Szechuan sauce, cabbage and mushrooms; cook, stirring, until the cabbage is just wilted, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to a simmer, return the meatballs to the pan, cover and cook until the sauce is thickened and the meatballs are cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve sprinkled with scallions (if using).

Meatball Sandwich with Sicilian Sauce - Doug Essinger-Hileman
Just the other night, Sandy and I had meatball sandwiches along these lines. The sauce we had was Lynne Rosseto Kasper's Sicilian Sauce. If you have her cookbook, The Italian Country Table, you will find the recipe there.
The sandwiches were simple elegance: some of the sauce slathered on some good ciabatta, topped by the meatballs, all of which was topped by some freshly grated parmesan-reggiano cheese.
Lynne's Sweet and Pungent Sicilian Sauce from Public Radio's The Splendid Table:
Everything in this sauce is taken to its essence. Sweet, tart, pungent - this is the taste of Sicily for me. Sugar isn't merely added, it is caramelized. Vinegar boils down to remind you it began life as wine; onion doesn't just sauté, it browns; tomato's natural sweet tart becomes succulent fruit. Even the herbs are exceptional -- orange with rosemary, oregano and basil. Be sure to fully complete each reduction with vinegar and tomatoes; this is more of a thick jam than a sauce.
Make a double recipe and keep it in the refrigerator for a week or more. It freezes for up to 3 months. Spread it on grilled meats, fish, burgers, sausages, bruschetta, vegetables and sandwiches.
If doubling the recipe, use either 2 skillets, or 1 very large one.
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, minced
1 1/2 inch sprig fresh rosemary
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
Shredded zest of a large orange
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 generous cup drained, canned whole tomatoes
1. In a 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium high, adding the onion, rosemary, and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. Sauté until onion begins to color, and then add sugar. Stir with a wooden spatula as sugar melts and bubbles (taking care not to burn), then finally turns pale amber while onions remain light colored.
2. Immediately add the herbs, zest, and garlic. Standing back to avoid splatter, quickly add the vinegar. Stir and boil down until vinegar is a glaze, coating the onion and barely covering the bottom of the pan. Keep scraping down the pan's sides, to bring the developing glaze back into the sauce. Watch for burning.
3. Stir in tomatoes, crushing them as they go into the pan. Boil, scraping down sides and stirring until sauce is sautéing in its own juices. It should be a thick jam that mounds on a spoon. Finish seasoning with a few grinds of black pepper, turn out of the pan, and cool. Store covered in the refrigerator. Serve at room temperature or warm.

Jan Garvin's Meatball Ideas
Wrap meat balls in grape leaves, in which case you'd want the tomato sauce to be flavored a bit with cinnamon. I think that originally came from Lebanon. We have an extended family in town who came from there something like five generations ago. Some of them run restaurants, and they are all superb cooks. You make a real point of going to any church potluck one of them may be attending.
The sauces can also be used to disguise some of the flavor of the meat in the dish. I'd guess the more variety there is in the sauces, the less one is likely to pay attention to the items they are covering. Sort of like mothers who sneak grated carrots into their meat loaves so the kids and husbands don't notice that they're eating vegetables.
The Swedish version of meatballs that turns up here in potlucks is flavored with nutmeg and dill, and the sauce is beef consume and sour cream. Yummy. Used to be served every Valentine's day at "The Sweetheart Banquet" which was a fund raiser by one of the civic associations that benefited the heart association. They also did a deep fried Swedish waffle that is essentially a crepe batter fried on a timbale. Here, since it was for the Heart Association, the shapes were hearts, and then they would be topped with a dollop of sweetened cream cheese and topped with a whole fresh strawberry.
Also, the Asian (Chinese?) version of the meatball soup with which I'm familiar is made with a chopped pork or chicken rather than beef. You might do better with one of those, since they can be milder than pork, and you can wrap the little meatball into a purchased wonton wrapper. Wontons, of course, can be steamed or deep fried and served with a sharp sauce (hoisin, mustard, plum, ginger marmalade, Thai Peanut Sauce, etc.) which would also served to camouflage the meat taste.

Vietnamese Beef Balls - (Thit Bo Vien) - Paul Keller
My wife and I both enjoy Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup that often, if not necessarily, contains beef meatballs. Their preparation involves a food processing step that results in the cooked meatballs having a very smooth and unique texture, not at all like a "Western" meatball.
The meatballs themselves are called "Bo Vien", and you can find a recipe that seems to have circulated the web at:
Vietnamese Beef Balls - (Thit Bo Vien) from Recipezaar.com
Ingredients
1/4 cup vietnamese fish sauce, plus (nuoc mam)
1 tablespoon vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc mam)
1 tablespoon potato starch, plus
1 teaspoon potato starch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground white pepper
2 lbs trimmed boneless beef shank
4 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 teaspoon oriental sesame oil
1/4 cup vegetable oil (for shaping meatballs)
Directions
1. In a shallow dish, mix the fish sauce, potato starch, baking powder, sugar and white pepper.
2. Slice the meat into 1/8-inch-thick pieces.
3. Add to the marinade and mix well.
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
5. Before proceeding, transfer the meat to the freezer for 30 minutes.
6. Work with half of the beef at a time; do not overload the work bowl.
7. In a food processor, combine half of the beef with half of the garlic and sesame oil.
8. Process to a completely smooth but stiff paste, about 3 minutes.
9. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the work bowl.
10. The completed paste should spring back to the touch.
11. Transfer the paste to a bowl.
12. Process the remaining beef, garlic and sesame oil the same way.
13. Rub some vegetable oil on one hand, and grab a handful of the meat paste and close your hand into a fist, squeezing out a small portion of the mixture, about 1 teaspoon, between your thumb and index finger.
14. Keep rolling and squeezing the same portion between your thumb and index finger until you obtain a smooth rounded ball.
15. Scoop out the meatball with an oiled spoon, and repeat until all of the paste is used.
16. Pour 1 inch of water into a wok or wide pot, place a steamer rack or bamboo steamer over the water.
17. Arrange the meatballs without crowding in a single layer on the rack.
18. Cover and steam for 5 minutes.
19. Serve as an appetizer with chili sauce.
20. These beef balls can also be added to a well-seasoned beef broth, sprinkled with chopped scallions and white pepper and served as a soup (noodles may be added).
21. Note: These meatballs may be frozen.
22. Thaw them thoroughly, then steam or simmer in boiling water until just heated through.

Porcupine Balls - John Marmet
Which my high school cafeteria had Porcupine Balls, which its the rice and ground meat made into "meat balls" and served with an insipid tomato sauce, which my father said "Oh I didn't know they served porcupine meat."

Lee Ann Roberts' Porcupine Meatballs
Gary, those are called porcupine meatballs, beloved of many a church potluck supper.
1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, minced
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 t. dried mustard (I don't think I used that much the last time I made them)
1/3 c. uncooked rice
1/4 c. water
Mix all ingredients together. Form into balls, brown lightly in a bit of oil, then add tomato sauce, broth, whatever you like, and simmer for an hour.

Bruce Trinque's Meatballs
Whenever I have made meatballs, I used breadcrumbs mixed with the ground meat, not rice. And, yes, egg as a binder. With some milk mixed, perhaps to make them more malleable. And various spices that came to hand.