Meatball Subs

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm definitely ready for the weekend.  This weekend, especially, because it's Andy's Birthday!  He'll be 32 years old!  He definitely doesn't look his age, and sure as hell doesn't act it either!  But I love him either way and have some special things planned for him!  I'll definitely update you guys on Monday!

Oh, and as a side note, I won a contest!  "FoodieBlogRoll's Comment to Win a Mello's Chourico Sausage Sample Pack" contest, to be exact!  So soon, I'll be enjoying a sample pack of Mello's hot chourico, chourico franks, and buffalo chicken chourico!  I'm pretty stoked and can't wait to see what crazy recipes I come up with using them!  Definitely check out their site if you're a sausage fan... they've got some good stuff!  And I wasn't paid to say that, just stating my honest opinion!

As a kid, my favorite sub at Subway was the Meatball Sub.  I loved the melty cheese, soft bread, and what I thought to be delicious meatballs (I definitely have a different take on what delicious meatballs are made out of these days, but oh well!).  So I figured I'd bring back an old favorite and do my little take on a childhood fave.


Ingredients:
Adapted from A Food Lover's Journey's recipe


Meatballs:


1/2 lb. ground beef (I used the last of my homemade ground beef)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Tomato Sauce:

3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup red wine

1 french baguette

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, garlic, green onions, water chestnuts, egg, sugar, salt, fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper.  Mix well.  Form small meatballs and place on a baking sheet.



Bake in oven for about 15 minutes, or until meatballs have started to brown.  Remove from oven and set aside.  Don't worry if they're cooked through, because they will finish cooking in the tomato sauce.

In a large dutch oven, heat olive oil under medium high heat.  Add garlic cook until fragrant, about a minute or two.  Add tomatoes and cook until juices are starting to bubble, about 2-3 minutes.  Add tomato paste, chicken stock, fish sauce, sugar, red wine, salt, and pepper.  Let simmer for 2-3 more minutes and then add meatballs, along with any juices.

Simmer meatballs in the tomato sauce, uncovered, for about 25 minutes or until they are fully cooked.  The sauce should be reduced and somewhat thick.  Season with salt and pepper, if needed, and remove from heat.


Cut the baguette into sandwich-sized portions and slice open lengthwise.  Spoon a few meatballs onto baguette and top with sauce.  You could definitely add some mozzarella cheese in there too, but I chose just to have it plain and enjoy it's simplicity!  Serve with chips along side, or feel free to have a different side!

This was definitely delicious!  Different from Subway's version, that's for sure!

What were your favorite childhood eats?



Enjoy the weekend guys!

Subjectively Colored Curry Mussels

Many lessons learned this weekend:
1. lonely military wives hate it when you don't take your hat off during the star spangled banner.
2. i don't like it when lonely military wives tell andy to take his hat off during the star spangled banner, and not tell any of the millions of other people to do so.
3. the earth is not one's trash can
4. a funnel cake always makes everything better.
5. chicken on a stick is an abomination... not only disgusting, but disrespectful to chicken.

Needless to say, drinking was involved, and may have escalated certain events. Nobody went to jail, nobody lost an arm... no harm done. Fireworks were sub-par, the night was chilly, but we were in good company and really... that's all you can ever ask for.


Ingredients:

2 lbs. mussels, cleaned and debearded
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tomato, seeded and diced
small handful cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and minced
2 serrano chiles, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 onion, chopped
1 can coconut milk
water, if needed
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, combine the cumin, tomato, cilantro, ginger, and chiles. Turns out, I had a really big tomato and so it mostly tinted the curry paste red, but the recipe was originally green curry based, so hence the subjective coloring. Set mixture aside.

Heat dutch oven under medium high heat and add oil. When oil is shimmering and hot, add onions and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes or so. Add the curry paste and cook for about 5 minutes longer. Add in coconut milk and stir. If too thick, add water to thin mixture out. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring mixture to a boil and add mussels. Mix well, making sure mussels are well coated with curry sauce. Cover mixture, lower heat to a simmer, and steam mussels for about 5 minutes, or until all of the shells have opened. Discard any shells that have not opened.

Serve in a large bowl with pieces of a nice baguette.

The curry broth in this dish is what totally did it for the both of us. It was so flavorful and so different from the usually white wine and garlic liquid that most mussel dishes are steamed in. The bread was great for dipping and soaking up the liquid, and this just have easily could have been served with a big pile of rice. Enjoy!