Meatballs

This was a request for my friend Jim. Meatballs are wonderful little packages of flavor and meat. Everyone claims to have the BEST recipe...I'm not claiming that...but this recipe is very good. Soaking the bread in the buttermilk help to keep the meatballs nice and moist.

What you need:
2 slices of white sandwich bread, crusts removed and torn into small pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk or 6 tbsp plain yogurt thinned with 2 tbsp whole milk
1 pound ground meat, I like 3/4 lb ground chuck with 1/4 lb ground pork
1/4 cup ground Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 large egg yolk
1 garlic clove (or 2o or 3 if you love garlic) minced
3/4 tsp salt
fresh pepper
1-1 1/2 cups vegetable oil for frying

YES, I said frying. Somethings just need to be fried in order to get the great color + crispness you are looking for.


 what to do:

1. Combine bread and buttermilk in a small bowl and let sit for about 10 minutes, mashing until a smooth paste forms.
2. Next, add the meat, cheese, parsley, egg yolk, garlic salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add the bread mixture and use your hands to combine until evenly mixed. Shape your meatballs with about 3 tablespoons of the mixture into about a 1 1/2 inch ball. Don't make them too tight, have a light touch or they will be very dense. You should yield about 14 meatballs.
3. Pour the vegetable oil into a saute pan and put your heat to medium-high. After a few minutes  test your oil to be sure its hot enough by putting one meatball in...if it sizzles, get frying! Add the meatballs in a single layer and fry turning a few times, until they are nice and evenly browned. (about 10 minutes or so) Transfer the meatballs to a plate lined with paper towels to drain off excess oil.

Personally I like to add my meatballs to some homemade sauce that should be already cooking on my stove. It gives great flavor. Another thing you can do is discard your oil from making the meatballs but leave all the browned bits in the bottom and start to make you sauce in there. You will pick up all the flavors left behind from the meat, and it makes your sauce just a little bit more flavorful. As I said earlier, there are so many recipes for meatballs, and honestly just add the ingredients that you enjoy to make them your own...I'm all about that!!

Let me know what you like in your meatballs! Have you tried this recipe? How was it? All comments are welcome!