Not Your Mother's Meatballs -- slow cooker recipe

 Oh they're just so pretty! I've got a meatball recipe for you today that will  become a new family favorite. I'm not going to lie -- you're going to have to dirty up your hands a bit, but you won't have to wash a frying pan.

Those beautiful meatballs pictured up above? They held their form and browned beautifully all on their own in the crockpot --- no pre-browning required.

score!

The Ingredients.

makes 24 golfball-sized meatballs

 

1/4 cup chopped Italian Parsley

1.5 pounds lean ground beef

4 slices smoked bacon, diced (raw; don't cook it)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Panko-style breadcrumbs (I used Kinnikinnick Gluten Free Bread Crumbs)

2 eggs (the eggs pictured are duck eggs! thanks, Grandpa John!)

2 tablespoons dried minced onion flakes

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

additional ingredients:

1 cup flour (I used rice flour)

2 cups chicken broth (can use beef)

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste

The Directions.

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Spray the inside of your cooker with cooking spray, or rub it down with a bit of olive oil (don't go crazy, just a little glisten) and set aside. In a good-sized mixing bowl, combine the chopped parsley, ground beef, and diced bacon. Add in Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, eggs, and the dried spices. Combine well--- I'd use your hands (remove rings, wash appropriately, and all that good stuff that if I had a legal team they'd tell me to include).

After the meat is mixed, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or non-stick foil. Pour 1 cup of flour (I used rice flour) into a shallow dish (pie pan works great).

Roll meat into golfball-sized balls and then lightly dust each meat ball with flour before placing  onto the lined cookie sheet. When all the meat is gone, put the whole cookie sheet into the freezer for 1 hour, or until completely frozen. It's okay to freeze overnight, if you'd like to break this into two days (put in sealed dish/tupperware if freezing for longer).

Once your meatballs are frozen, place them one-by-one (this means don't dump!) into your lightly greased slow cooker. It's okay to stack them. In a  small mixing bowl, whisk together the broth and tomato paste to create a gravy. Pour this evenly over the meatballs. Cover, and cook on low for 5 hours, or until the meatballs have browned and are fully cooked. I cooked the meatballs pictured above on low for 5 hours, then let them sit on warm for another 3 1/2 hours before dinner was served.

Serve alongside pasta or rice, or all on their own. These are filling!

The Verdict.

You will love these. I couldn't stop taste-testing these throughout the afternoon and kept texting Adam to come home quick because dinner was going to rock.

and it did. I shared the leftovers with my dad who is somewhat of a meatball connoisseur and he *really* liked them. I learned about the flour-and-freezing trick from Pinterest--- it worked great, and is such a fantastic technique to keep the meat together. I already knew meatballs didn't need to be browned in the slow cooker beforehand but dredging them in flour first gives a bit more of a "crusty" texture and thickens the tomato gravy beautifully.

The internet is so much fun!

more meatballs in the crockpot:

apple, cheddar, and turkey meatballs

meatballs in peanut chile sauce

Albondigas (meatball) Soup

turkey meatballs with cranberry barbecue sauce

two little smokie appetizer recipes (but you can use meatballs!)

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CrockPot "Peking Duck" Recipe

Day 351.

I have cracked the duck-in-the-crockpot code. You need to use a rack. Too much liquid forms in the pot, and the meat needs to be up above it. I used a little round rack that came with my rice cooker, but you could use anything---an inverted ramekin to lift the bird up out of the collected juice, a collapsible steamer basket (great idea, KW!), foil balls, etc.

This duck tastes great, is seasoned nicely, and held up in the crockpot. Here's how to make traditional Peking Duck, and here's how I made it crockpot-friendly:

The Ingredients.

--4 to 5 pound duck
--5 whole green onions
--4 star anise
--1 inch ginger, peeled
--2 teaspoon Chinese 5 Spice (or you can make your own.)
--1 tsp cinnamon
--1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
--1 tablespoon honey
--2 tablespoons soy sauce (La Choy and Tamari wheat-free are gluten free)

The Directions.

Use a 6 quart crockpot, and insert a cooking rack of somesort in the bottom of your pot. Wash the green onions and lay on top of the rack.

Skin the duck the best you can. Peel ginger and stuff inside cavity, with the star anise. In a small bowl, combine dry spices. Rub all over the bird, inside and out. Place the duck inside your crockpot, breast up. (I did breast down yesterday, and that was a mistake. It got too soggy.) Drizzle on soy sauce and honey.

Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. Serve with plum sauce.

I made a down-and-dirty plum sauce:
--1/3 cup plum jam
--1 tablespoon soy sauce (La Choy is GF)
--1 tablespoon white sugar
--1 teaspoon garlic powder

The Verdict.

I was much happier at how this duck held up in the crockpot, and how most of the grease dripped away. The meat was nicely seasoned, and tasted great. We really liked the plum sauce. The kids ended up eating little smokies in bbq sauce because it was the Girl Scouts Holiday Party and that was our offering (done in a crockpot, of course).

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CrockPot Honey and Apricot Glazed Duck

Day 350.

Duck. It's what's for dinner. I had planned on making a duck (or 2) this year, but sort of forgot about it until Kiy emailed me last week. She wanted to make a duck for Christmas, but the last duck she made created a huge mess in the oven. I hate messes.

This didn't make a mess, but duck has SO much juice in it, that it did fall off the bones, even with a short cooking time and not much added liquid. The meat is delicious, but you just aren't going to get the same presentation when it comes out of a crockpot as you do when it comes out of an oven. Or when a restaurant serves it. That said, the sweetness of the meat was great, and the kid who tasted it thought it was just like chicken.

The Ingredients. --4 to 5 lb duck
--1/2 tsp oregano
--1/4 tsp pepper
--1 tsp garlic salt
--1/2 tsp lemon rind
--2 tsp cornstarch
--1/3 cup apricot preserves
--1 T soy sauce (La Choy and Tamari wheat-free are GF)
--2 T honey
--2 T lemon juice

The Directions.

Skin the duck, and remove the neck and giblets (ick). I'm getting much better at skinning things! I deserve a merit badge. The skin on a duck is quite fatty on the breast, but the back is bony and I had a hard time removing the skin from it. I chose to leave a bit of skin on the wings and drumsticks to see if they would brown.

They didn't. There was a lot of juice in the pot. If you have a little rack that fits inside your crockpot, use it. I don't have one, but today I'm going to dig around and see what I can use---maybe the little steamer rack thing from the rice cooker? Updated 12/16: You DO need a little rack. Read what I did, here.

Mix all dry spices, including cornstarch and lemon rind in a small bowl. Rub mixture all over the duck, inside and out. Place the duck in your crockpot ( breast down--I used a 6 quart). Use the same bowl (might as well) to mix the wet ingredients together. Pour over the top of the duck.

Cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or until a meat thermometer registers 165-180 degrees.

The Verdict.

I haven't eaten much duck. I liked this, but it wouldn't be something that I eat often. The meat is sort of greasy for my taste. The glaze was good, and I think next time I'm going to double the sauce, to have extra for dipping, or to spoon over the top of the finished duck. My kids really liked the sauce a lot. "Peking Duck," coming up tomorrow! I think.

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