BBQ Meatballs & Julia Child's Potatoes Gratin Dauphinoise!

So, this Sunday felt like a good day for a '50s throwback. It's chilly and gloomy and comfort food is calling. I wouldn't be surprised if both of my Grandmothers were really familiar with these recipes...but one of them would probably be HORRIFIED that I'm making something like this now that we "know better" about healthy food and stuff. Whatever, right? I may almost trust Julia Child more than my own family, to be truthful. Bring on the butter. I started with the potatoes...

(I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of the dish in its entirety! Someone stole a bite or three when my back was turned...)

Potatoes Gratin Dauphinoise 

Ingredients

2 lbs. of starchy potatoes 

clove of garlic

4 Tb. butter

1 c. heavy cream

1 t. salt

1 t. black pepper

1 c. grated cheese 

Set your oven to 425 F now.

I used medium-sized red potatoes which were a bitch to peel, but they were the only starchy potatoes on hand in my tiny home today. Buy cheap, plain brown potatoes for this recipe, and big ones at that (so you can hold onto the slippery bastards), then peel them! Here I am, struggling, a novice peeler of tiny potatoes:

Then, cut them into very thin slices. No need to use a mandoline slicer -- just cut them as thin as your cooking prowess allows. The recipe specifically says "1/8 inch slices," if you're interested. As you're slicing, throw them into a big bowl of cold water. Once sliced and in the water, rinse them a bit by tossing them around in the bowl; then drain in a colander (or be lazy and use your hand to cover the bowl and let the water drain out, like I did). 

Make sure to dry off your peeled potato slices.

Next, take your casserole dish/pan, and use 1 Tb. butter to butter the bottom and halfway up the sides. Lay it on a bit thick! Then, finely mince your garlic and sprinkle it over the bottom of the pan. Now it's time to start your first potato layer!

Layer it like this: enough potatoes to cover the bottom, plus some + 1/3 of your cheese + a shake of salt + a shake of pepper + 1 Tb of butter, cut into chunks. Repeat layering 3 times (potatoes/toppings/potatoes/toppings/potatoes/toppings, for a word-visual!).

Above is the cheese I used. Raw, and $2.99 at Trader Joe's! The recipe calls for Gruyère, but I don't like it enough to drop money on it, because it is expensive.

Then, throw a cup of heavy cream in the microwave for about 2 minutes or until it is boiling. Evenly pour the boiling cream over your dish of potatoes. 

Throw in the hot oven for 30 minutes; make sure they are set in the top third of the oven, as if semi-broiling. Mine actually took 40, because I didn't have them very close to the top of the oven. It was more like in the top half...oops.

Now for the BBQ meatballs! If you've never had BBQ Meatballs, you are probably not a Midwesterner. That's okay, I forgive you, but for your own sake, just make these on a cold day and don't tell any of your cool vegan friends. Your soul will thank you.

BBQ Meatballs

Meatball Ingredients

1 lb. hamburger meat (ground chuck? beef? I never know exactly what to call it)

1/2 c. oats

3/4 c. heavy cream

1/2 t. salt

1 Tb. finely minced onion

Sauce Ingredients

1 c. ketchup

2 Tb. sugar

3 Tb. apple cider vinegar

2 Tb. worcestershire

4 Tb. finely minced onion

hot sauce, to taste

Frying Ingredients

1/2 cup of olive oil

1/2 cup of white flour

I have made this recipe many times, and it is always delicious without exception. Don't get too nervous about following the recipe perfectly -- meatballs are very forgiving! For example, I had zero onions today, so I had to use dried onion for both. Obviously I did not use 5 Tbs of dried onion, but my meatballs will just be slightly less onion-y this time around. Oh well! Don't dwell on perfect ingredients. Make do with what you have.

 Pictured above is the meat we used -- it feels so good to use meat that meets all of our "qualifications"/preferences (organic, pastured, humane, grass-fed, etc...).

I prepped for the meatballs while the potatoes were baking, so I could not preheat the oven to 350 right away; instead, I turned it down from 425 to 350 when the potatoes were done so it could get ready for the meatballs! This is multitasking at its easiest, people.

 IMPORTANT NOTE: You've gotta use your hands, otherwise you can't get the meat as smooth and thoroughly mixed. It's okay if they seem a little too wet. If you can't get up the courage to touch the meat, you probably shouldn't be eating it, but that's neither here nor there. 

The oats, the heavy cream, the salt, the pepper, and the dried onion. Now, add the meat!

 Ahhh! Meat hand!

 Be brave, just use your bare hands. Bonus points if you're naked and/or screaming like the wild thing you are.

Once hand-mixed, roll into meatballs and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. No need to evenly space or anything -- they're just going into the freezer for 5 minutes.

While they're in the freezer, make the sauce. I really have no specific directions for this one. Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl. The end!

Once sauce is completed, start heating a frying pan filled with the 1/2 c. oil. We used olive oil.

Once freezer time is up, and the oil is getting hot, dredge the meatballs in white flour, and plop them into the hot oil. Let each side brown, but do NOT cook them all the way through. Just brown each side enough so they, well, are brown. 

An adequately dredged meatball. 

Once browned, throw into a casserole dish. It's nice if you have one big enough where you don't have to stack the meatballs, but I don't, so I stack away.

Once the meatballs are all in the casserole dish/pan, evenly pour the sauce over them. Throw in the oven, uncovered, for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. 

If you asked a doctor, they'd probably tell you this meal is a heart attack waiting to happen. If you ask me, it's  got solid, real food ingredients like raw cheese, cream, grass-fed organic beef, pastured butter and cold-pressed olive oil, and is high in calories and fat...but it's not going to kill you. It could use a side of vegetables, yes, but let's just agree to disagree, America!

Mr. Cheap said that the meatballs were so tender they blew his mind a little, and the potatoes were a hit. I wholeheartedly agree. He is sleeping off his food coma as I type, and I might just join him. ENJOY!

Sources

BBQ Meatballs Recipe (this recipe calls for 1.5 lb meat, so the proportions are different than my written recipe; also, she uses milk, I use cream; she uses white vinegar, I use apple cider; also, I use a lot of hot sauce [Valentina Extra Hot] in the sauce)

Julia Child's Potatoes Gratin Dauphinoise