Meatballs were part of a regular Sunday lunch while growing up. Made of ground pork, few days old bread, eggs, fresh chopped parsley and garlic, they were so good served alongside mashed potatoes and salad. I do love a twist usually when reviving a classic. These meatballs I made with ground beef, fresh seeded multigrain bread, fresh dill, eggs, herbs de Provence, barbecue sauce, ketchup, yellow cornmeal, and lots and lots of garlic. The secret to get them light and puffy is adding a little bit of baking powder to the mix. They were such a treat and I am sure my mom would approve. We served them hot with sautéed broccolini.
RECIPE
for the meatball mixture:
1 cup milk
3 slices seeded multigrain bread
2 pounds ground beef (I used 80% lean, 20 % fat)
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon herbs de Provence
2 teaspoons baking powder
10 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 whole eggs
for the frying:
3 cups vegetable oil
INSTRUCTIONS
Place the three slices of bread in a bowl and pour the milk on top. Let sit for 5 minutes. When the bread is well soaked, remove it from the milk, squeeze as much as you can of the milk out and set aside.
In a larger bowl combine the beef, barbecue sauce, ketchup, salt, pepper, herbs de Provence, baking powder, garlic, dill, cornmeal, and the eggs. Add the previously soaked bread, and mix everything into a paste.
When all the ingredients are incorporated, form the meatballs (mines were the size of two tablespoons each).
Heat the oil in a pan until it reaches about 325 degrees F. Add the meatballs and fry for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Remove from the oil and set on paper towels to soak the extra oil out.
Serve warm.
