Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Looking for Meatballs!

Recently while I was being schooled on the food rules of a special someone, I nearly swallowed my tongue.  He says, "no flour, no sugar". What?? How can someone not eat flour or sugar? I'm also thinking he has no idea how many dishes have 'hidden' flour- specially since he doesn't seem to cook.  Just ask someone allergic to gluten, it eliminates more dishes than you can imagine. The list of forbidden foods seems endless. Granted, this works quite well for him, but how I'll ever be able to cook under these constraints is beyond me at that point.  It's a good thing he could not directly see my face as he informs me of this... I'm sure it wasn't a good look.  In the few days that have passed, this is sinking in and I now have a brand new formidable challenge.

I make meat balls- really, really good meat balls. The kind of meat balls that leave you wondering how my mostly non-meat-eating self pulls this off.  Well, it is one of the few meat concoctions I eat and I am Gourmet Girl after all, right? Right. But, Gourmet Girl and all, I am still no magician. (Oh, forgot to tell you- no grains, no rice, no potatoes, no dairy. The only consolation is that butter is allowed- thank God).  Somehow meatballs come up in this conversation and he informs that he likes those a lot.  I'm thinking well, you must like them really tough and solid as a rock, but I don't say that- I just sit there, listen, smirk and ponder.  Then I say my meat balls don't have breadcrumbs, he gets all excited.  Then I remember, yes thats because they have cubes of real fresh bread, real bread which is also soaked in real milk.   Not so good.

At this point you might be wondering what is this all about, clearly there has not been some epiphany on my part and a recipe to follow.  Well, this is about my search for a good meatball recipe which has been made by a real person, which does not come from a "diet" web site, and which most importantly tastes amazing and is juicy and moist but has no bread or milk.  I'm desperate here and that leads me to desperate measures... asking you, my dear readers to help me out.  You can email me or leave your perfect recipe in the comments, I will share whatever the finished product is.  The last time I asked for help with a recipe you came through gloriously- caramel icing.  I am absolutely positive there is someone out there with a grain-less, non-dairy, perfect meatball which does not taste like sawdust.  I'll be waiting!

P.S.
It did occur to me I could possibly use dehydrated carrots.  Anyhow, just a thought.

UPDATE:
I made the meat balls, I just omitted the bread, milk, and cheese. And guess what? They were totally fine, all that stressing out over nothing.  Now granted, they were never side by side by the "real" version but good enough.  He approved, all's well.
I'll post the recipe this week when I make them again and actually have time to photograph the little darlings. Thank you for all your comments- very helpful, specially the mushrooms- I'm implementing that when I make meat loaf again.

7 comments:

  1. I like the meatballs from this recipe:

    http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/spaghetti-and-meatballs-cf.html?cm_src=RECIPESEARCH

    I have made them without the egg and without the bread and milk and loved them every time.

    P.S. I highly recommend making the sauce as well ;)

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  2. I'll take a look at them, thank you!

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  3. I have a recipe for meatball soup on my page that doesn't have bread or milk in the meatball recipe. There is rice in them, but you could give it a whirl without rice and see how that works out. Hmm. Tough diet.

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  4. Ok, I just discovered your blog (after just discovering Under The Spanish Moss) and I am literaly drooling! I now plan to work my way down the side bar - one recipe after the other! Love it!

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  5. I will take a look at the recipe, thank you Kitchen witch.

    Lynn, glad you found it! Thank you. :)

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  6. Just thought I would make a suggestion. I do make my meatballs with bread crumbs, but no milk. But instead of the bread you could use mushrooms. If they were very finely diced and you used egg as your binder they would give you the bulk and the moisture you are missing. Just a thought. . . Good luck!

    * I also used to eat no bread or sugar for a very long time, but I made everything from scratch and I found many many sneaky ways to substitute or I ate mostly raw foods. But I can totally understand how the thought seems appalling.

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  7. The mushroom idea is marvelous! Thank you.

    I actually made my regular meatball recipe last night and they were ok. The sauce is great and no adjustments had to made there. I went without the bread and milk and they were not as moist, but still good. This morning I re-heated for lunch and they got a little tougher. I will definitely try mushrooms, seems like a very logical choice.

    Oh, and I'm not appalled, just challenged to make my regular flour and dairy containing recipes taste as good. :)

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