Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs

Pardon the reference to the movie. I think it is an appropriate given that yesterday, our area exprienced a mini tornado (ipo ipo). It kind of reminds me of the last scene in this movie where a big meatball/spagetti twister is coming to destroy the town.


Back to my meatball project. YUMMY MAGAZINE featured a meatball recipe on  their site and I decided to try it out.


Here is the original recipe (courtesy of YUMMY Magazine)--- I will attach the pictures of how I did it.


(my comments are in orange)  The original recipe in black

Meatballs With Sweet And Sour Sauce

By: Myra Santiago


Makes 12 large meatballs  Prep Time 10 minutes  Cooking Time 10 minutes


1/2 kilo lean ground beef
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
cooking oil for frying
bamboo skewers
sweet and sour sauce (bottled or homemade) -- I did a homemade one -- (equal parts of vinegar and sugar ex. 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup sugar)+ ketsup. To make it thicker, I used 1 tbsp of cornstarch and some water and mixed it in. You can tweek the sweet and sour sauce - like you can add more sugar if you like it sweeter. 


1  In a mixing bowl, combine beef, onion powder, ginger powder, salt, and pepper. Mix well and form into approximately 12 large meatballs. Set aside.

I thought it said garlic powder too... but I did not put it in. followed the original recipe

-- note, I did a small meatball and fried it to do a taste test... the meatball was kind of bland so I added more salt and pepper. (maybe the recipe should be 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper)


2  Heat a frying pan with about half an inch of cooking oil. Once the oil is hot, quickly cook the meatballs until browned on the outside. Do not be tempted to keep cooking once the outsides are browned. Once you take the meatballs off the heat, they will continue to cook inside as they sit and wait to be served.
---don't make the oil too hot.... the meatballs will burn! Mine almost did. It came out a little darker than the picture on the website

3  Skewer the meatballs, three to a stick, and top with sweet and sour sauce. Serve the extra sauce in a shallow bowl for easy dipping.

did not bother to skewer it since I was going to taste test it

I usually do a pork meatball. I think this is my first beef one. I also asked my family to taste it and comment on it. 


Overall, it was quite an easy recipe to make. Although I think I need to make some more revisions in it to make it a little more suited to the taste of my family. One thing is that it tastes a bit more like hamburger. I was also surprised that it did not need any binders (like egg) on it. My husband thought it needed more ginger to take the "beefy" smell out of it. (noted). I still have some of the mix left and might try to grate some ginger and squeeze the juice into it to improve the taste. Might also try YUMMY's suggestion to tweak it, maybe add basil and some parmesan. I'll tell you about it when I try it.


So, maybe if you want to try some other recipes, head on over to YUMMY"s website. click HERE


Watch out for our next post where Candie will cook up a storm!


RECIPE RATING: