Chilli Con Meatballs a La Ramona’s Cuisine
"We love, love, LOVE chilli corn carne, don’t you? We also love meatballs and are kind of addicted to those so I thought why not chilli corn meatballs? I have to confess, the first time I made this, quite a few years back, I made it with ready bought Swedish meatballs that we used to love but…. they were ready made. Not to be compared in the slightest with the homemade ones. These chilli con meat balls is a delicious family meal consisting of a gorgeous tomato base sauce with homemade from scratch meatballs that are to die for. Served on/with rice. Pure deliciousness!"
Notes*If you cannot chop the onion superfine then it’s best to cook it and SoftNet prior to putting it into the meat you really don’t want big chunks of onion in those meatballs. The other option is to grate the onion on the small holes of the grater. This option might end up with some serious crying though ?. I’ll leave it for you to decide.
A few ingredients are needed in this recipe indeed but this is a heck of a delicious dish so don’t get put off.
There are sachets with ready mixed chilli con carne spices if you don’t have chilli powder, paprika and the other condiments. Just use one of these sachets and you’ve cut the sauce list of ingredients to half too.?
Serves6 People
Preparation Time20 min
Cooking Time45 min
Ingredients
- For the meatballs:400 g mince meat I use beef 5%
- 1 onion
- 1 potato
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 egg whole
- 1 egg yolk
- Few springs of herbs thyme, parsley, marjoram
- For the Sauce:400 g red kidney beans 1 can
- 400 g chopped tomatoes 1 can
Instruction
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To make the meatballs: Use a bigger bowl into which you need to put the mince meat, super finely chopped onion * (see recipe notes) together with all the other ingredients for the meat balls listed above which are the potato (finely grated and squeezed slightly to reduce the juice slightly),
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2 cloves of garlic crushed and finely chopped, freshly ground black pepper, the whole egg and the yolk and the fresh and/or dry herbs (thyme, parsley, marjoram)
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Sauce and dish prep : Prepare your vegetables by washing all all, peel the onion and the garlic. Chop the onion and dice the pepper by first cutting it into half lengthways, remove the stalk and shake the seeds away, then chop. Finely dice the celery by cutting the sticks into 2-3 strips lengthwise then chop. Do the same with the leek. Crush and finely chop the garlic cloves.
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Place a deep pan on the hob over a medium heat, add the olive oil, allow it to heat up for about 30 seconds, add the chopped onions and cook for 3-4 min stirring a few times until the onions are soft, slightly squidgy and begin to become translucent.
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Tip in the garlic, the red pepper, the hot or mild chilli powder, the paprika and the ground cumin. Give it a good old stir, then leave it to cook for another 4 minutes, stirring every now and again.
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Crumble 1 beef stock cube into 150ml hot water. Pour this into the pan where the semi cooked vegetables are.
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Open the chopped tomatoes can and add these to the veggies along with the dried marjoram, honey, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and the tomato purée. Stir well.
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Allow the sauce to simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Preheat the oven at 200°C.
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Add the beans and the fresh herbs and transfer the sauce into 1 or into 4 individual oven proof dish/es. Sink all or 4-5 meatballs into each dish.
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Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.
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Take out of the oven, add the shredded cheddar cheese and place back in the oven for an extra 10 min.
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If you choose not to use the cheddar cheese, serve with soured cream alongside plain, long grain boiled rice.