Pineapple Meatballs

This recipe is from a friend of mine. She gave it to me over 30 years ago when I lived in Yellowknife NWT I think….I am not exactly sure of when I got it, it is written on a small piece of paper with kind of cryptic instructions! 

The weather here in Edmonton is rainy & kind of gloomy today, so maybe a pineapple meatball will remind us of Hawaii….warm!

The meatballs are cooked separately then added to the pineapple sauce. It is a pretty quick recipe. I served this with brown rice & roasted broccoli. While the rice was cooking I fried up the meatballs & cooked the sauce at the same time. So all in all, maybe it took an hour…but that is giving a big window of time. The sauce cooked up in 5-7 minutes, the rice 35 minutes, broccoli only 10 minutes in a hot oven & the meatballs maybe 20 minutes, so the longest cook time was the rice. After the meatballs were cooked completely,, I added them to the sauce, put it on a low simmer & waited until Murray came home.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp salt

pepper

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp canola oil

Sauce Ingredients

1 red pepper, cut in chunks

1 tbsp canola oil

1 can of pineapple tidbits, drained RESERVE THE JUICE FROM THE PINEAPPLE!!!

2 tbsp corn starch

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vinegar

2 tbsp soya sauce

1/2 cup water

Method

1. Mix the ground beef with the bread crumbs, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper & egg. Combine well
2. In a frying pan, heat the oil.
3. Form the ground beef mixture into meatballs, flatten them for quicker & even cooking. Cook them turning once until they are completely cooked
4. In a medium size sauce pan, sauté the red pepper in the 1 tbsp oil until softened. Lower the heat to a medium/low heat
5. Add the drained pineapple, brown sugar vinegar & soya sauce, mix well
6. In a separate bowl, combine the reserved pineapple juice & corn starch, using a whisk to combine
7. Add this pineapple/cornstarch to the saucepan. Stir often until this begins to thicken
8. Add the 1/2 cup of water to thin the sauce out, stir well
9. Then add the cooked meatballs to the sauce. Gently stir the meatballs into the pineapple sauce. Simmer for a few minutes to combine the flavours & let the meatballs get nicely coated with the sauce

Serve with rice

Enjoy!