i've been counting down since last Dec 26 ... are you ready? me neither!!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Porcupine Meatballs

Ingredients:

6 lbs           •1-1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
3 cups        •1/2 cup long grain rice
3 tsp           •1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2tsp    •1/4 tsp. pepper
3/4 cup       •2 Tbsp. minced onion
depending on how many meatballs you end up using you may have to use 2 cans and a cup of water or 3 cans and 1 1/2 cups of water ... and so on ... so long as you have enough sauce to cover the meatballs.
                         •10 oz. can condensed tomato soup
                         •1/2 cup water


Preparation:


In large bowl, combine meat, rice, salt, pepper and onion (i did this part with my hands - cuz that's how my mom does it). Shape into small balls (using a cookie scoop or ice cream scoop). Heat tomato soup and water in cooker, using brown function or not closing lid (or don't and pour the soup and water mixture over the meatballs when you get them in the cooker ... ). Drop meat balls in soup mixture. Close cover securely, then bring up to high pressure (that's when the rocker is making a steady/rhythmic sound) and cook for 10 minutes. Let pressure drop of its own accord (natural pressure release - in other words: don't take the rocker off or you'll spray your ceiling with the entire contents of the cooker). Serve over hot cooked noodles boiled diced potatoes. Serves 6

(if you go ahead and quadrupal the recipe, since Costco sells 6lb packages of hamburger, you can make some and freeze them on a cookie sheet and then put the frozen meatballs in a ziplock ... several meals done!! i should mention here that i did the 6lbs of meat in 2 - 3lb batches ... my biggest bowl wasn't big enough to mix all 6 at the same time... )

Total time needed: 35ish minutes (if you've got pre-made frozen meatballs). It took me about an hour to make 62 meatballs (ice cream scoop size, there would have been more if i had used my cookie scoop) with 6lbs. of meat, and then 25ish minutes to cook them up (cuz they weren't frozen).
If you're going to have the meatballs over diced, boiled potatoes: use the little red ones (that way you don't have to peel them ...) cover the potatoes with water and start them cooking when you close the pressure cooker lid ... they take about the same amount of time.

These tasty meaty spheres can be prepared for my Birthday dinner and Mother's Day dinner ... or for when you need to hurry and cook up something for impending guests, cuz you took a nap on sunday afternoon and didn't get anything else ready - especially if you had someone do the quadruple thing for their Birthday/Mother's Day dinner and have a bunch in your freezer.

I'm pretty much an expert at this recipe {wink wink}...

YUM!