Xris's Souzoukakia
(Cumin-Spiced Meatballs in a Tomato-Wine Sauce)
This is comfort food. If you are on a diet, turn away now and revisit on your cheat day. This is over-sized, moist, torpedo-shaped meatballs swimming in a rich tomato sauce and smothering a bed of crispy fried potatoes! And, don't you dare try to eat this with anything less than two slices of French baguette to sop up all that sauce!!
This recipe is actually a combination of recipes from several female family members - my grandmother, my mother and my "aunt" Georgia along with a few touches of my own. This is a little involved for a weekday meal as it is, but I have a some weekday substitutes you can use at the end of this recipe.
Make this for a weekend dinner, enjoy with a glass of red wine, in your sweatpants, on the couch while you binge-watch episodes on Netflix.
Meatballs
3 lbs ground beef
1 egg
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley (fresh please)
1/4 cup finely chopped mint (ditto)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I know, I know, just trust me on this)
Pam
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Mix all ingredients well until fully incorporated. If you find your meatballs are too moist add more breadcrumbs until they are pliable enough to hold their shape. If you find they are too dry add another egg or a little more tomato sauce. Line baking dish with foil and spray generously with PAM. Form large, oval-shaped meatballs and place in dish. I use a large ice cream scoop to make sure they all come out the same size. Bake for 20 minutes, turning them after 15 minutes.
Sauce
1 quart crushed tomatoes
1 pint tomato sauce (plus whatever is left over from the meatballs)
1 tbs tomato paste
1 large onion, finely diced
4 large garlic cloves, finely diced (fresh please)
1 cup red wine
2 tbs finely chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 tbs olive oil
Heat olive oil on medium heat, add garlic and onions and sauté until translucent; add red wine and simmer for several minutes to cook off the alcohol; add tomato paste and spices and stir until fully incorporated; add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and parsley, simmer for 10 minutes; remove from heat. Place meatballs in a deep baking dish, cover with sauce and cook at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
Fried Potatoes
8 medium sized potatoes (I always count on 1 1/2 - 2 medium potatoes per person)
Olive oil
Vegetable oil
Salt
In a deep pot with frying basket or deep fryer, add the vegetable and olive oil. I use a 1 in 3 ratio for this (1 olive oil - 2 vegetable oil). I love the flavor of frying in olive oil but it can be expensive to use all that oil just to fry some potatoes. So, I cut it with some vegetable oil. I'm sure I'm committing culinary blasphemy every time I do this, but hey, it works for me. Think Shoestring when cutting your potatoes - you want them crispy and to fry up quickly. Remember, you're going to be ladling hot tomato sauce over these puppies, so if they are soggy to begin with they will just end up a mushy mess. Fry until deep golden, drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.
Weekday Substitutes
1. Make the meat balls ahead of time on a weekend, refrigerate or freeze.2. Add raw meatballs to a crockpot, pour over sauce and cook on low 6-8 hours. Make sure you cook the sauce before you put it in the crockpot or else the alcohol will not be able to evaporate and the sauce will taste like raw wine. Or, omit the wine.
3. Use frozen Shoestring potatoes.
