Oven-Steamed Meatballs

Alrighty, first recipe of the new year. This is by far my favorite way to cook meatballs. It's better than frying, where the meat shrinks and it absorbs a lot of the oil. These babies don't lose their shape and size and is deliciously juicy. 


You can serve them up as is or in a bowl of marinara or red sauce. (As pictured in the last photo) Or make a tasty sandwich. I made this same recipe once the year before at exactly the same time. The meatballs once seasoned is placed in a pan with some water and tightly sealed and baked. It steams the meat inside the pan. It's baked once more without the foil covering to brown the top. The neat thing about it is all the fat that comes out. Juicy and tender is what you get and a nice batch of broth to use for soup. These are great as appetizers, too. Just make them small like the size of a golf ball. I made these half the size of an orange. Well...if you see the little grapes in the photo and compare sizes. Yeah... :) My mom took some of the leftover meatballs and mixed them into a sweet and sour sauce. It was delicious!


Makes 24 medium to large meatballs.

Oven-Steamed Meatballs 

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
salt
pepper
2 Tbsp paprika
1 small onion - fine chopped
1 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
lukewarm water


Preheat oven to 350˚F

Combine thoroughly the ground beef, pork, paprika, onion, worchestershire sauce in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide the mixture into 24 balls and place on a 2-4 inch deep oven pan. Pour water 1/4 inch deep into the pan completely covering the bottom. Cover the pan with foil crimping the edges to tightly seal it.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove the balls from the pan and serve with spaghetti or as an appetizer or in a sandwich.

Oven Steamed Meatballs

These little rounds balls of meaty deliciousness are really tasty. Perfect alone, in a sandwich or with pasta. A lot of the time most recipes I've seen fry them up in some form or another. For these, I decided to oven-steam them. I placed them in a baking pan, evenly space and added 1/4-inch of water to the pan. It's almost like a water bath. Cover the pan with foil and baked it for 40 minutes. Since the meatballs were covered, it steamed them to deliciousness. Some of the fat renders out of the meat.

It's a mixture of beef and pork. Mmmm... with a mix of finely chopped onion and seasonings you'd find in your pantry.  I mixed these in to a spaghetti that my mom cooked up for New Year's. You'll see that recipe tomorrow.  We split the duties of this dish. I had the meatballs and she made the pasta sauce. The pasta was...well...pasta. I think a meatball sandwich is in order.

Makes roughly 24 balls.

Oven-Steamed Meatballs

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
salt
pepper
2 Tbsp paprika
1 small onion - fine chopped
1 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
lukewarm water


Preheat oven to 350˚F

Combine thoroughly the ground beef, pork, paprika, onion, worchestershire sauce in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide the mixture into 24 balls and place on a 2-4 inch deep oven pan. Pour water 1/4 inch deep into the pan completely covering the bottom. Cover the pan with foil crimping the edges to tightly seal it.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove the balls from the pan and serve with spaghetti or as an appetizer ot in a sandwich.

 

Puto Pao

I know in spanish 'puto' has a negative meaning of sorts, but in the Philippines it's got a tasty meaning behind it.  It's commonly found in many gathering and parties as well as come in different color. But we'll just stick to the classic white for this one. It can be made into the size of a hubcap or as small as a cupcake. A good dish to pair this with is usually pancit.

The recipe below was actually given to me by my cousin, who made it for me when I was in the country last year. Traditionally, it's usually made with rice flour. but if you don't have the means to make your own or find some that's readily available, you can use cake flour instead. These cakes aren't baked but steamed. They look light and fluffy and so good to eat.

There's also the optional shredded cheese and salted egg for topping. Salted eggs are uncooked duck eggs, still in the shell, soaked in a salt and water bath for two weeks. Then after two weeks they are hard boiled and eaten.

Makes 2 6-inch cakes or 20 cupcakes

Puto Pao
adapted from my cousin's recipe

1 1/4 c cake flour or rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 c water
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 c granulated sugar
cheddar cheese - optional
salted egg - optional
banana leaves - optional


Prepare you steamer, keep the water on a low flame if not boiling immediately

Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Then mix in the water and blend. Mix it in a clockwise or counter-clockwise way. Don't use both.  Set the mixture aside.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until it begins to looks the consistency of meringue or marshmallow. It's best to use a mixer for this part, but if mixing by hand, whisk vigorously. Then slowly add the sugar while still continuously mixing. When the mixture looks to form stiff peaks when held with a spoon, it's ready.

Fold the egg white mixture into the flour mixture until thoroughly combine. Place the butter in a parchment paper or banana leaf lined cake pan or into cupcake liners.

Steam for 10 minutes then add the toppings. Steam once more for 10 minutes to let the cheese melt.

 

A 6-inch cake version steamed in a banana leaf

Steamed Buns

In my first ever attempt in making steamed buns, I think I did pretty good. I love steamed buns. The Philippines has their own version call Siopao. It has a meat filling. I wanted to make them like little half moon shaped pieces. The recipe I used I had adapted by pan de sal recipe. I had searched on the interweb and many of them are similar to making regular baked bread, but instead they are steamed. I sandwiched mine with some honey-baked ham that I had gotten from the Honey Baked Ham shop and some cheese from the Queso de Bola.

The Queso de Bola for your viewing pleasure!

 

That thing is larger 1/3 larger than a softball. Maybe even more. Cheesy goodness. I think it originate from the Netherlands with the variety of cheese called edam, which it was named for from a town in Holland. Tastes very much like cheddar. Anyway, I've got some ideas on what I can stuff with steamed buns. What i can use as stuffing for them dumpling sized. I tried one with chocolate.  I wrapped a piece of Hershey's Symphony with toffee and almond into a ball and steamed it. Sooooooo good. I was just testing that first one. But I'll definitely be making more steamed buns in the near future so stay tuned for that. 

Steamed Buns

4 c All-Purpose Flour or bread flour
1 package of active dry yeast
6 Tbsp olive oil (plus extra for dusting and rolling)
2 c lukewarm water (120˚F-130˚F)
6 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking powder

Combine the yeast and water in a small bowl. Add a teaspoon of sugar and stir once. Let it sit for 5 min.

Combine the flour, remaining sugar, olive oil and salt in a large bowl and add the yeast. Mix it all together until it form into a dough blob.

Remove from the bowl and on a well-floured flat surface, knead the dough for a good 8 min until it feels elastic.

Lightly oil another bowl, place the dough in it and cover with plastic wrap and a towel and place away from light. Roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hrs or until the dough doubles in size.

Lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil or spray and sprinkle some breadcrumbs over them.

When the dough has doubled, punch down the dough to let the gases out and knead it again for a couple of minutes

Cut into 4 oz or 2 oz sized balls. (10 or 20)

Once all the dough balls are on the baking sheet, cover them again with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 1 hour or until double in size again.

Prepare your steamer.

Steam ball for 10 - 15 mins. Let it cool before serving

For make the folded steamed buns: roll out rough into the desired width and lightly floured. using a chop 1/8-inch stick make an indent and fold. Place the dough onto pieces of wax paper.