Hot In Kitchen – Meatball Subs

Today we are going to make meatballs. Meatballs are one of those universal  foods that you can use in a thousand ways. Spaghetti and meatballs, baked meatballs with penne, crock pot full ‘o meatballs, and meatball subs. That’s four of the thousand, the other 996 ways are really up to you. Meatball subs are VERY easy to make, require a very tiny amount of cleanup, and if you have kids, it is a sandwich that they likely will eat, or at least try.

Everyone who makes meatballs has a recipe that they SWEAR by. Something that your grandma used to make. Mom’s recipe that rivals NO ONE. There is no right or wrong when it comes to meatballs in that you should put the combo of spices in that works best for you. But if you don’t have a grandma to give you a meatball recipe, then give this one a whirl. I’ve never had any complaints, and every kid that I’ve fed them to has asked for seconds. Even the cat ripped through a garbage bag to try and get at the scrap from the meal so that says something too.

You’ll need:

1lb of ground beef

1lb ground pork (if you don’t eat pork, use two pounds of beef)

1 tbsp of all of the following:

Onion Powder

Paprika

Crushed and chopped fennel seed

Ground pepper

Seasoned Salt (regular salt is fine too)

You’ll also need TWO tbsp of:

Club House brand “Italiano” spice mix

Chopped garlic

Finally, add in an egg and ½ cup breadcrumbs and mix it all together. Let it sit mixed, in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour if possible to allow the spices to permeate the meat.

Get your oven fired up and pre-heated to 400F. While that’s happening, hand roll out your meatballs. You can make them any size you want. Remember, they will shrink a bit after they are cooked so make them a tad bigger RAW then what you want them to be cooked. Put a bit of oil in a skillet and brown the outside of each meatball. You’ll have to attend to the pan at this stage as you’ll need to roll each meatball around in the pan to get all of the sides. This will seal the meatball, and keep more of the nice juicy goodness inside of it when it bakes. Once the meatballs are fried, get them on a cookie sheet or in a glass dish and bake them until the centre of the meatball comes up to 170F. This will ensure that they are all cooked through.

Don’t turn the oven off just yet. Get some sub buns, slice them down the middle and place enough meatballs into the bun to fill it. Cover the meatballs with your favourite marinara sauce and top with some grated parmigiano reggiano and a few slices of mozzarella. If you really want to treat yourself, get a ball of that 7 dollar mozzarella that is kept with the “fancy cheese” at the supermarket. It’s a little softer and it is divine when eaten on this sandwich. Arrange your subs on a cookie sheet and get them in the oven. As soon as the cheese starts to melt, hit them with the broiler for 45 seconds to a minute to toast up the sub. As soon as the cheese starts to bubble and turn golden, take them out.

This is a WONDERFUL comfort food that is easy to make at home. And now, someday, if you ever become a grandma, or you just need “grandma’s” meatball recipe and you don’t have one, you can use this one. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t!

This might be the most unhealthy, but best tasting pie you will ever eat, period.

I realized the other day that my reputation was slipping here on Hot in the Kitchen. Earlier in the year, I had taken some flak from the management of this radio station, who upon critiquing this show encouraged me to have more HEALTHY recipes. So, I looked and looked and while I found some good healthy recipes, most of them were kind of boring. I know that we all need to eat more broccoli and cauliflower! Try tuna fish. A can of tuna is a very sensible lunch! Celery sticks make an excellent mid afternoon snack that will get almost anyone through to dinner! But listen, I am your chef, not your doctor, and so today, I’ll let you decide what healthy stuff you want to eat, and I’m going to give you this recipe for what might be the most unhealthy, fattening, ooey gooey goodness pie that you might ever eat.  White Chocolate Pecan Pie! It’s a GIANT butter tart on steroids. You might even get a chest pain watching it bake in the oven. So eat healthy all week, and enjoy this little number on the weekend after working hard all week.

Make your pastry for the pie like you would any other. You can use a frozen shell if you must, or make yours from scratch. Why not go all the way and use lard for the crust if you are going to make your own. Vegetable shortening is fine, but if you are going to go ALL THE WAY, you HAVE to use lard.

Here is how you make the filling.

Make sure you have on hand:

2/3 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup liquid honey

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (warm, not hot)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups pecan halves

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the brown sugar. Next, mix in the cinnamon, melted butter and the salt. The final step is to layer the pecans and white chocolate chips into the pie shell, and then pour the filling over the entire thing. Let it ooze down in between those pecans and chocolate chips. The magic happens here.

Make sure that your oven is cranked up and ready to go at 350 F. Put the pie plate on a baking sheet and get it in the oven. In about 50 minutes, the centre should be puffed up bit and no longer wiggly. Let it cool at least an hour before you cut into it, as the cooling hour allows everything to set. Once that happens, cutting it, transporting it and eating it will be easy.

I am warning you, one piece might not be enough, so make sure that you have lots of people on hand to ensure the who thing gets eaten at once. You do need to get back to your celery sticks the next day you know.