This week I asked our FB friends to think about the Mission menu and dish on their favorite Tapas. The winner? “The Meatballs.”
For those unfamiliar “the meatballs,” — officially known as Albondigas — consist of spicy balls of meat served in a peppercorn cream sauce.
As if that weren’t scrumptious enough, we then top the dish with fried onions.
(When I say fried onions I don’t mean the kind that some folks serve from a vacuum-sealed can and place atop green bean casserole. … Don’t ask me how I am privy to this information about certain fried onions. Let’s just say I am and leave it at that, OK?)
Our fried onions are so good patrons have asked we give them their own slot on the menu and at least one has said we should charge a buck an O.
FYI - Craig, we are taking that into consideration.
Now then, when we posted the query seeking your top tapas those of us here at Mission Inc. guessed the answer would be our bacon-wrapped dates. After all, the sweet and savory wonders have been referred to as “sex on a stick.”
Believe me our dates taste even hotter than that phrase sounds. But I digress … Meatballs. We are talking about our spicy meat-a-balls.
I’ll have you know we appreciate that you took the time to share your thoughts. So, we thought it would be nice to share with you too.
Sharing is good. Everyone likes sharing.
Ok, maybe not everyone as I did need to wrassle the recipe away from chef James Burden. Being that I’m not much of a wrassler I surmised catching him off guard was a better bet for scoring the step-by-step instructions for the Albondigas.
Let me set the scene:
I waited until James was engrossed in pan-smoking croutons for our mushroom stew. You see, there is a fine line between smoked and scorched and I knew he wouldn’t be able to abandon his post at the stove.
I tapped his left shoulder. He reflexively responded to the tap, gazing back in that direction. I dodged right. (Uh-huh, I used the classic tap-and-dodge. A bit predictable but it works.) Then I nabbed the nearby recipe book …
Wait, that is a total lie.
James likes sharing, too. He forked the recipe over willingly.
Here it is:
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Meatballs
5 lbs ground beef
3 lbs ground pork
1 onion finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp cumin
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp ground pepper
2 eggs
Combine beef, pork and all seasonings in large bowl
Cover breadcrumb with milk and allow to absorb completely
Add eggs and breadcrumbs/milk to meat
Mix until uniform
Add salt to taste, about 3 tbsp
Form into 3/4 oz balls on sheet pan with wax paper
Bake for 15 minutes
Peppercorn Cream Sauce
1 small beef tenderloin chopped
1 tsp oil
2 tbsp butter
1 1/4 cup white wine
1 cup shallots
3 cups beef stock
1 cup of cream
1 cup Blue cheese
Brown pan and deglaze with butter and 1/4 cup white wine
Add one cup of shallots and a cup of white wine
Reduce and add beef stock
Reduce again slowly and add cream while stirring
Simmer
Put ingredients in food processor and add 1 blue cheese.
Top meatballs with cream sauce and savor the smoke and spice of the dish.
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Invite cute friends over. Serve our Albondigas. See what happens.Maybe you’ll get so good at making them friends will want to wrassle you for the recipe.
Post on our FB page and fill us in, won’t you?
