Food Notes 3/17: Meatless Eggplant Meatballs
Meatballs, eggplant balls, potato balls, green foods, and the war on foie gras
Last week, everyone was talking about meatballs, so I went ahead and cooked up some Polpettone di melanzane, meatless eggplant meatballs.
My wife announced she saw a controversy on the interwebs: meatballs were complicated; meatballs were gross; nobody can cook a meatball without it falling apart. She wanted to prove them wrong, so she suggested we cook meatballs.
All the meatball discourse originated with Danny Palumbo’s latest piece in Slate. (I swear I’m not stalking Palumbo, even if this is the second time I mentioned him this month). One of his readers was having trouble making Alison Roman’s Goodbye Meatballs, and failed, in part because of the not-so-descriptive description for mixing the meaty mixture. The people were confused.
We decided we want to challenge the idea that meatballs are difficult to make.
Since we make a lot of meatballs with tomato sauce, I spent a few minutes researching other types of meatballs, like Greek-style lamb meatballs, or one of my favorite, Dutch Bitterballen, a deep fried delicacy often prepared with horsemeat. Unfortunately, minced horsemeat isn’t so eay to come by in Brooklyn, so I opted for a Danish Meatball recipe instead.
Danish meatballs, frikadeller, are pretty much just Swedish meatballs, köttbullar. These Nordics take their balls seriously though, and both Sweden and Denmark provide official recipes on their national websites. I didn’t give too much scrutiny to the differences, but one poster on Reddit says the main variation is the Swedes use breadcrumbs while the Danes prefer flour. Amazingly the recipe I referenced called for both.
The actual meatball mix itself isn’t all that different from an Italian American style meatball, combining pork and beef and a similar spice profile. Apparently this part is confusing to people. I’ll admit I don’t write instructions that are very detailed, so to avoid any confusion, you should squeeze the meat between your fingers over and over again until the different ingredients are evenly spread out. Let that meat ooze between your fingers like children’s slime.
Here’s my hot tip: use a cheese grater for your onions. Chopping up the onion will leave many pieces a bit thick, but running the onion over the grater will produce a fine oniony paste that combines will with the meat.
Meanwhile, the real difference between frikadeller and red sauce meatballs, is in in prepping the sauce. The Danish recipe calls for building a creamy, brownish sauce with a roux and pan drippings, with a flavor similar to what you find in the cafeteria of Swedish furniture maker IKEA. (After cooking this up, I’m convinced a bit of mustard integrated into the cream sauce would greatly improve overall flavor).
Don’t worry, I know what you were thinking: this was supposed to be about eggplant meatballs. And we’re getting to them.
We started cooking dinner with the whole premise proving how wrong everyone was about the difficulty of cooking meatballs. So I decided to double down and cook a vegetable ball alongside the meaty ones.
Polpettone di melanzane is a typical dish from the area around Genoa, although I also came across recipes citing Catalonian cuisine, and similar dishes across the Mediterranean. After reviewing a few recipes, I settled on Mangia with Michelle’s as a primary reference point.
The recipe requires roasting the eggplants in their skins and then peeling out the soft flesh, creating a softer paste. I put our four-year-old to work poking them with a fork which seemed like a safe activity until he nearly stabbed my hand. The holes help the steam escape and prevents them from exploding. I don’t recommend letting them explode unless you enjoying peeling charred pieces off the inside of your oven.
My eggplant was wetter inside than I wanted, and I probably should have done a better job of straining them after cooking. I had to add extra starch to thicken the paste enough to form into a shape. If I was hoping to demonstrate how easy meatballs were by making meatless meatballs, I was failing.
My eggplant balls turned out to be more like croquettes. Pan frying them they lost a bit of the spherical shape. Ultimately I served these with a bit of quickly assembled tomato sauce.
Sort of Easy-To-Make Meatless Meatballs Made of Eggplant.
INGREDIENTS
Two Italian Eggplants
One onion
4 - 5 oz grated parmesan
2 eggs
1 Cup breadcrumbs
½ to 1 cup flour to feel
Pinch of garlic powder
Pinch of crushed red pepper
Salt and pepper
Olive oil for frying
INSTRUCTIONS
Poke holes in the eggplants
Roast eggplants for 30 to 40 minutes at 400F
Remove skins
Drain in a strainer
Chop onion
Pulverize in eggplant and onion in food processor until smooth
Season salt, pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper
Blitz in processor
Add breadcrumbs and a bit of flour
Blitz
Add a bit more flour until the mixture holds its shape
Fry in olive oil
Serve with a quick spicy tomato sauce
The Latest
The War on Foie Gras
A New York court has decided decimating the Hudson Valley’s economy and depriving New York City diners of the pleasures of foie gras is legal, clearing a court challenge to a controversial city law banning one of the world’s greatest delicacies. I am of course talking about the city’s 2019 foie gras ban. The delicious liver product was banned by the city council after intense lobbying from special interest groups. Producers upstate challenged the law fearing a collapse of one of the nation’s largest markets for Hudson Valley Foie Gras. Around the same time NYC Democrats were banning foie gras, Republicans like Sebastian Gorka were saying Democrats want to take away people’s hamburgers. The city council played right into Gorka’s hand. Just because fewer people eat foie gras than hamburgers doesn’t make it good policy to ban one and not the other. Industrial beef is less humane, and less healthy, than feeding ducks a lot of corn. More to the point, if Democrats can ban foie gras, nothing stops them banning hamburgers. Its the slippery slope of the nanny state. Luckily, there remains one more case protecting us from the tyranny of vegans.
Hot Tickets for Hot Dogs
Feltman: World’s First Hot Dog, a one-man showing starring Michael Quinn and directed by Peter Michael Marino has a limited run this week in Manhattan. As an avid hot dog enthusiast, I think we need more one-person shows about hot dogs.
Eating at The Red Flame
The Red Flame Diner in midtown was a regular stop when I worked across the street. Then the pandemic closed the office, and the restaurant almost shut down. We recently went back on a Saturday for lunch.
Best Roast Chicken
Food & Wine compares some famous roasted chicken recipes. I’ve done two of these. Twenty years ago I followed Julia Child’s recipe during my Julie and Julia phase. And more recently I attempted Marcella Hazan’s chicken and two lemons after watching Peter Miller’s documentary, Marcella (I interviewed him about the project). I have to admit that I didn’t get the chicken cooked all the way through and had to return it to the oven (I suspect since I also was roasting cauliflower).
Last Chance for Zeppole
If you’re looking to chow down on Zeppole di San Giuseppe, the fried (and baked) pastries filled with cream and topped with candied fruit, St. Joseph’s Day is on Thursday. The pastries are made in honor of “Italian father’s day”, March 19th. Most pastry shops only make them in the spring through Easter, so if you want to grab one, you better do it soon.
Irish Potatoes, Philly Style
Irish potatoes have popped up a few times across the social medias over the last few weeks. If you’re thinking its a kind of starchy spud, you’re wrong. In Philadelphia, the city best known for greasing light polls in anticipation of sports events, Irish potatoes are candies made from cream cheese, sugar, and coconut. Francesca Giangiulo over at Salon takes a look at where they came from and how to make them.
Starch Madness
Serious Eats is launching a bracket competition for baked goods with categories for cakes, pies and pastries.
Celebrity Soda
Gone are the simpler days of celebrities launching a line of alcoholic beverages. Now everyone’s drinking soda.
Green Foods
St. Patrick’s day brings out everyone’s desire to see their favorite foods turned green like Skyline Chili, bagels, and donuts.