Thursday 28 March 2013

Caramelized Meatballs and Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce...gone wrong, gone right II

Remember the first ‘gone wrong, gone right’  moment here? (Read  Chicken 65)...Caramelized Meatballs is the second one and that is how these came about…was preparing stuff for the Holi thing and realized that I probably didn't have enough of my Sweet Chilli Garlic Sauceput it on the gas and then oopsieee!! Forgot about it and went back to fighting with another customer care executive about the internet issues that refuse to go away...realized after about an hour and by that time the sugar had caramelized completely and the sauce had turned into this dark caramel coloured thick super sticky mix (thicker than peanut butter consistency)...brilliant!!! just what I needed while  prepping for guests to come over the next dayanyways, dropped the original plan of Tamarind Meatballs and added the ‘gone wrong’  paste to the meat mince insteadgo ahead and call me crazy for experimenting without testingbut  have you heard of those high risk takers?? Some of them operate in the financial market and some of them in the kitchen!!...oh, well, not reallymore like bears projecting themselves to be bulls!!...resultI had to snatch the last serving away from the hungry greedy bunch to click the pics!!



Caramelized Meatballs mmskitchenbites







Caramelized Meatballs


Ingredients:

  •  Chicken, finely minced, 500 gm ( I made 2 different lots: one with chicken mince, one with mutton mince)
  • Onion, grated, 1 large
  • Ginger, paste, 1 tsp
  • Garlic, paste, ½  tsp
  • Caramelized Sweet Chilli Garlic Sauce, 3 – 4 tsp, ( the  ‘gone wrong’ version of the sauce, recipe follows )
  • Oil, 1 tsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Oil Spray or oil for greasing the tray



Instructions:


Mix all the ingredients very well except salt. Once done, pinch a little meat and cook on a skillet or microwave to do a taste check. Add salt only after doing the taste check. 

Cover and let the mix marinate in the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180°C  .

Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with oil.

Wet your hands slightly and make small meatballs and place them on the baking sheet. In the oven for 25 –30 minutes for chicken and 30 – 40 minutes for the mutton or till they are completely cooked.

Serve hot with the ‘gone right’ version of the Sweet Chilli Garlic Sauce.




Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce mmskitchenbites





Sweet Chilli Garlic Sauce


Ingredients:

  • Red chilli peppers, 10 large
  • Garlic cloves, 15 ( adjust per taste)
  • Water, ¼ cup
  • Sugar, ½ cup ( Brown sugar preferable, but White sugar will do)
  • Vinegar, ½ cup (Rice Vinegar preferable, but White vinegar will do)
  • Salt , about 2 tsp
  • Corn Starch slurry , 1 tbsp corn starch + 2 tbsp water, optional to get that glaze


Instructions:


Chop the red chilli peppers into 2-3 pieces. You can remove seeds from most if you want, reduce the amount of peppers used or adjust sugar later.

In a food processor, blend all ingredients together (except the cornstarch mix,) till the garlic and peppers are just itsy bitsy tiny chunks.

Transfer to a saucepan and bring the mix to a boil. Lower the gas and simmer for about 5-6  minutes.

If using cornstarch, whisk it well with water, add to the sauce and simmer for a further 1 minute or so till the sauce thickens.

If not using cornstarch, the sauce needs to simmer for additional 10-15 minutes – with you keeping a close eye on it. Turn off the gas when the sauce thickens for ‘gone right’ version. Additional 10-15 minutes for the sugar to do its thing for the ‘gone wrong’ version and before you get a chance to touch that cornstarch mix.

Take it off the heat. You can adjust sugar, salt, vinegar and chilli at this stage after doing a taste check.

Cool completely and store – I normally store in the refrigerator

And before I forget, don’t stand next to stove inhaling the chilli and vinegar fumes – there is a difference between keeping a close eye and trying to kill yourself!!!

In case you are wondering, this is what the 'gone wrong' version of the sauce looked like...

caramelized chilli sauce mmskitchenbites

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