One of my favorite dishes as a child was the Mexican Meatballs that my grandma (Mama Oli) use to make. In fact, it is one of my family’s favorite dishes, so much so, that my grandma didn’t make them too many times. The reason was that: either she had to make like 200 or we would fight over them—it was worse than playing monopoly. I asked her to share the recipe with me so I can share it with you gals. Enjoy!
Albondigas Mexicanas
By: Mama Oli
MEATBALLS
- 2 lbs of raw ground beef
- 2 medium LG raw eggs
- 1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
- 3 tsp of ground pepper
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 ½ cups uncooked rice
- 5 hardboiled eggs, chopped
SAUCE
- 17 Roma tomatoes
- 6 cloves garlic
- 3 bay leaves
- Salt or Knorr Granulated Bouillon Chicken to taste
- Pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup canned chipotle in adobo (optional, this will make it really spicy)
For meatballs:
- Grind garlic & mint in a food processor.
- Place meats in a large bowl, and mix with the garlic, mint, pepper, salt, uncooked rice, and the raw eggs. Make sure to mix well.
- Cut the boiled egg into 4 pieces
- Grab a handful of meat mixture, flatten and wrap around the piece of hard-boiled egg.
- It should be about 1/3 of an inch thick around the boiled egg
For Sauce:
In a large pot, boil the until skin breaks. You want to use plenty of water since you will be using it for the sauce.
- Blend the tomatoes, garlic, and chipotles. If you have a hand blender you can do it directly in the pot; if not wait for the tomatoes to cool.
- Add the bay leaves and bring the mixture to boil. You want the mixture to be soupy but not too thick (so between the consistency of chicken noodle soup and broccoli cheddar soup)—feel free to boil longer or add water to change the constancy.
- Once is boiling add the meatballs
- Boil the meatballs until the rice is fully cooked-it takes about 20 minutes
- Add Salt (or Knorr Granalted Bouillong Chicken to taste) and Pepper to taste.
Enjoy!!
Milo
