This crowd-pleasing dish has great flavour and versatility. Serve as a quick midweek supper, an easy do-ahead for a special occasion buffet, or omit the pearl onions, peas, peppers, and couscous all-together for an addicting mouth-popping ‘Curried Meatballs & Mushrooms’ hors d’oeuvres at your next cocktail party.
Curried Beef Meatballs & Ginger Couscous
Full of flavour, and as the curry, garlic, onions, and ginger simmer away, it’s an absolutely sure-fire way to fill the house with warm exotic scents, exciting guests for the meal to come.
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 4servings | 15mins |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 45mins | 1hour |
|
|
Ingredients
Beef Meatballs
- 1lb ground beef
- 3/4cup pecorino cheeseshredded
- 2 large shallotsshredded (about 1/4 cup)
- 1tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1tbsp steak sauce
- 3cloves garlic
- 1tbsp kosher salt
- 1/4tsp ground black pepper
Curried Beef Meatballs
- 1quart chicken stockor broth
- 1pint baby button mushroomswhole, rinsed
- 1cup frozen pearl onions
- 1 medium red pepperjulienned
- 1 medium oniondiced
- 3/4cup English peas(frozen or fresh)
- 1/4cup corn starch
- 2tbsp olive
- 1tbsp curry powder(or 2curry paste, see Notes below)
- 2tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 ground black pepper
- 2tbsp fresh cilantrochopped (optional)
Ginger Couscous
- 1cup couscous
- 1-1/4cup chicken stock or broth
- 2tbsp butter
- 1tbsp fresh parsleychopped
- 1 tbspfresh ginger, paste (about one finger of ginger)
- 1tsp kosher salt
Instructions
To Prepare Meatballs
- Peel garlic cloves, and rough chop. Top with kosher salt. Using the side of a kitchen knife, press salt into garlic, rubbing knife back & forth to make a salty garlic paste. Divide the salty garlic paste into two, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, with a box grater, grate shallots to a watery paste-like consistency.
- Add ground beef, pecorino, Worcestershire, steak sauce, ground black pepper, and half of the divided salty garlic paste.
- With impeccably clean hands, knead meatball mixture until well combined (about two mins.)
- Using a 1-ounce ice cream scoop, form mixture into 20 small meatballs, roll each ball in the palm of your hands to round them out.
- Place formed meatballs on to a plate, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil, fit with a rack.
- Line-up meatballs on rack.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until they’ve shrunk in size, and have browned.
- Flip each meatball. (Flipping the meatballs will keep them from sticking to the rack as they cool.)
- Set aside to cool. Prepare Curried Beef Meatballs.
To Prepare Curried Beef Meatballs
- In a large mixing bowl, stir to dissolve corn starch in to 1-quart chicken stock, set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over MED-HIGH heat.
- Add diced onion and sauté until translucent, and the edges just begin to golden.
- Add the other half of the salty garlic paste, curry powder, turmeric, and black pepper and stir until the garlic paste and spices begin to melt into the sautéed onions.
- While slowly whisking, pour the chicken stock mixture into sautéed onions.
- Whisk until sauce begins to thicken, lower heat to MED-LOW, simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Transfer sauce to the pitcher of a blender, cover, and blend until smooth.
- Transfer back to the skillet, add whole mushrooms, increase heat to MEDIUM, and stirring occasionally, simmer sauce until mushrooms have shrunken a bit, and the sauce has thickened.
- To thickened sauce, add meatballs, julienned red peppers, pearl onions, and peas.
- Simmer 8 minutes longer, or until red peppers have softened slightly, and everything has heated through. Cover with lid, and keep hot on LOW heat while you Prepare the Ginger Couscous.
To Prepare Ginger Couscous
- Cut one 2-inch finger from a hand of ginger.
- Using the tip of a teaspoon or a vegetable peeler, scrape out skin from ginger.
- Against a microplane or ginger root grater, grate ginger into a tablespoon of paste.
- In a small saucepan, over MED-HIGH heat, bring chicken stock, butter, salt, and grated ginger just to a boil.
- Stir in couscous and parsley, cover with a lid and remove from heat. Let sit covered and undisturbed for 5 minutes.
- Gently fluff with a fork.
To Serve
- For family or buffet service, arrange fluffed couscous into a layer mound onto a large pasta bowl or platter.
- Arrange meatballs atop couscous, spoon sauce & vegetables over top.
- Top with fresh chopped cilantro (optional).
- Or plate in the same fashion on individual shallow pasta bowls, with 5 meatballs per serving (as pictured).
- Serves 4.
Recipe Notes
For a marvelous hot hors d’oeuvres, follow the steps above, omitting the pearl onions, red peppers, and peas (and couscous). Serve in a candle-warming chafer with fun cocktail picks. Watch guests make a ‘B-line’ from across the room!
Curry Powder
I use “S & B Oriental Curry Powder” from Japan. It’s available at fine food grocers, or online.
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