Blowing the fat budget: chorizo chicken balls

Ah, yes, ragazzi. For those of you who have been following this blog since the stone age, you knew something like this was inevitable. We have been exploring various ways of reducing fat content, eating healthier, and being, overall, good children.

Toss it all today, because we are going to make a helluva good little treat that you will be thanking Annalena for, for a long, LONG time.

The background to this recipe, was an idea Annalena had some time ago. For an up and coming event, she thought that the featured food should be meatballs: you can pick them up with a toothpick and eat them in one or two bites, they are savory, filling, and just something that, honestly, do not show up on buffet and canape' tables as often as they should. So Annalena turned to her co-conspirators, and asked everyone to tell her what they would like in a meatball. The result were interesting: just about everyone defaulted to beef in some way, and most of the beef defaulters were the meatballs you associate with Italian food just "because." One was a bit different, and two went the way of pork. The second of the pork manifestations will, in time, be on this blog, but here is the first one. Annalena was asked to do a chorizo meatball.

You all know what chorizo is, don't you? Let's characterize it generally as Spanish, or, even more generally, as Latino sausage. We should not confuse it with Portuguese or Brazilian sausage (like linguica), which is a totally different animal. But asking for "chorizo" is like asking for bread: what kind? Meine Kindern, there are as many different chorizos as there are hot Latin men.

Yes, she wrote just that. And this recipe will allow you to work with any chorizo you like.

She just wrote that too. And if you can't find a Latino sausage, it will work with whatever sausage you have on hand.

Oh dear. We'd best get to the recipe Let's start with a pound of chorizo. The first thing you have to do is get the meat out of the casing.

My my my. There is so much to giggle at here, isn't there? Some will be looser than others, and some will be extremely firm. If you have, as Annalena did, very firm sausage,

ABBASTANZA RAGAZZI. NON RIDERE (or, enough kids, stop laughing)

you will need to pull out your food processor. Break up the chorizo meat as much as you can, and then combine it, with two pounds of ground chicken. You will need to do this because chorizo, by itself, is way too rich and strong to make a meatball. On the other hand, chicken makes a very vapid meatball. So, combine them, and spin that processor until you have a uniform mix. It will be very fine, because that's the nature of ground chicken. If you are feelng as if the stuff is not "working", add a splash of milk. We've already gone away from Kosher on this, so what's a little more treff amongst friends?

When you have that meat ground up and uniform, add three eggs, a healthy cup of bread crumbs (seasoned, or not), and a teaspoon of salt. Get your hands in there, and mix everything together. It's the only way to do this. If you are not uncomfortable doing so, taste the raw meat for saltiness, and add more salt if you need it. If you do have a problem with that, heat about a tablespoon of oil in a pan and fry a bit, and taste it that way. You're going to need oil, so don't toss it.

When you have the flavor you like, in terms of salt, form the mix into as uniform a collection of balls....

I told you..

as you can. You will get 40-50 from this. Lay them out on a tray, and then get a big, BIG pan and put about 1/3 inch of vegetable oil in it. Start heating it up. Meanwhile, lay out some paper towel, either on your counter, or another tray.

Annalena is convinced that she can smell when oil is ready to be used for frying, but if you do not feel as secure with your nose, then put a bit of meat into the oil, and if it fries up and bubbles, you're ready. Don't overcrowd the pan, but put in as many meatballs as you can. Annalena got about 12-14 in the pan at once. It will take about two minutes to get a nice brown sear on one side, and then another minute -2 minutes to sear the rest. You probably will not brown the whole meatball, but that's ok. Pull them out of the oil, let them drain on paper towel, and when they're done...

Well, now you can have fun. Annalena suggests melting about two cups of pepper jelly (you can find it anywhere), and using that as your "sauce." You might also decide to use these as "floaters" in a bowl of noodle soup. Or on a sandwich, with ketchup or some other bad for you spread. However you eat them, please make these. They freeze beautifully , as Annalena learned (don't put a sauce on them), so if you have the time, go to it, and when you're ready to entertain someone, use your balls.

OK, enough for today. Annalena would promise that she will behave the next time around, but....