Monday Meals: Waikiki Meatballs

I’m not sure where we got this recipe; I just found it in our cookbook, and my mom made it for our “family potluck” last summer. (Yes, one day our family of 6 had a “potluck” where we each made a different dish to share for dinner.) Anyway, since then we have made this dish several times.

Several ingredients are involved in this dish’s success.

You begin by crumbling some crackers and mixing them, along with onion, egg, salt, ginger, and milk with ground beef.

Then form the mixture into balls. We weirdly equated this with cookie dough, with the onions acting as chocolate chips.

You have to be careful when turning these over though before they cook, lest they break apart.

Meanwhile, make the glaze with cornstarch, brown sugar, pineapple juice, vinegar, and soy sauce.

After about 20 minutes the meatballs look like this. This is when you remove them from the pan and drain the grease.

Then add the special sauce you just made.

Cook it over medium heat while constantly stirring. Pretty soon it will thicken and boil…

…and then it will be time to return the meatballs to the pan, adding green peppers.

Finally, add the pineapple, and once it’s heated, it’s ready to serve!

We enjoyed these Waikiki meatballs with mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and assorted vegetables.

Waikiki Meatballs

1½ lbs. ground beef

⅔ cup cracker crumbs

⅓ cup minced onion

1 egg

1½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ginger

¼ cup milk

1 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. cornstarch

½ cup brown sugar (packed)

1 can (13.5 oz.) pineapple tidbits, drained (reserve syrup)

2½ tbsp. vinegar

1 tbsp. soy sauce

⅓ cup chopped green pepper

1. Mix beef, crumbs, onion, egg, salt, ginger, and milk. Shape mixture by rounded tablespoonfuls into balls.
2. Add oil to large skillet on stovetop; arrange meatballs and brown for 20 minutes, carefully turning over as each side browns. Remove meatballs, keep warm, and pour fat from skillet.
3. Mix cornstarch and sugar. Stir in reserved pineapple syrup, vinegar, and soy sauce until smooth.
4. Pour into skillet; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Add meatballs, pineapple tidbits, and green peppers; heat through.