Sweet & Sour Meatballs

Sweet and Sour Meatballs, they go well with lots of different things. Normally I'd make these with rice, but we've had rice so much lately, I was just not in the mood for it again. Also I normally would add pineapple pieces and green peppers, but the fridge was out of those. So today it was mashed potatoes, meatballs and corn and peas.

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

1 pound ground beef/pork
1/2 onion chopped fine
2 garlic cloves
Salt
Pepper
1/2 - 1 tsp ginger
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg

Mix all the ingredients together and form into meatballs

Set those to the side and get your sauce started

Sauce:

1/2 cup water (the recipe called for 1 cup water and no pineapple juice...do as you please)
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar (the recipe calls for 1 cup brown sugar...I said "no way!!!")
2 Tbsp soy sauce (I put in 3-4)

* I also added some garlic powder and some onion salt...and as I said earlier, normally I'd put chopped green bell peppers and pineapple pieces in as well....none of these are in the original recipe. Experiment!

Combine all together and warm up in a pan on the stove

While that is warming up start frying up the meatballs. Use about 2-3 Tbsp oil. Brown them in batches, so you have enough space for turning, then set them aside on a plate.

Keep the pan on, but turn down your heat to avoid some serious spritzing. Pour some of the sauce into the pan that the meatballs cooked in, in order to deglaze. Stir until all the goodness comes off the bottom of the pan, then add the rest of the sauce and the meatballs.

Let simmer for about 20 minutes. If the sauce doesn't thicken up on it's own, add some cornstarch or flour mixed with a little water. I doubled the sauce recipe ...it was a tad TOO much sauce...I think doing 1 and 1/2 of the recipe is probably your best bet.

Once nicely cooked through, serve over rice or mashed potatoes or noodles...or....whatever else you think sounds good.

Enjoy!