The first cookbooks I bought after I left my parental home were a strange mix: Chinese food, Indian food and a book about cooking food with a microwave.
Having learned the staples of our Dominican cuisine at my mother’s side, I was ready to explore something new. Needless to say, for a while my roommates had to endure my endless experiments with “exotic” cuisine. One of the recipes that caught my eye was an Indian dish consisting of meatballs stuffed with eggs. Unfortunately I didn’t feel confident enough to tackle Indian cuisine.
It was on a trip abroad that I first had the chance to try Indian food. The restaurant was teeming with Indians, always a good omen when it comes to traditional food. The food on their menu looked as heavenly as it looked in the old worn-out cookbook. This alone made me very excited to try it. The staff was incredibly supportive of two newbies who clearly had not tried Indian food before, and couldn’t tell a roti from a papadum.
While they may have privately giggled at us, they were extremely professional and understanding, explaining with patience what each dish was, what each name meant, asking if there was anything that we didn’t particularly like, and making suggestions on how to assemble our first sampling of dishes. I was hooked. I can definitely state that it was that experience that convinced me to venture into the much intimidating Indian cuisine. I couldn’t just wait until I travelled again to eat this divine food.
Not only has Indian food become a regular occurrence in our home (we drag ingredients from the world over to try and get it as close to the original as possible) but I have also become more adventurous with recipes I like.
A couple of years ago I found my old cookbooks, which had been misplaced in our many home movings over the years. And there I found that old recipe with the egg meatballs. I had an idea. Why not take the concept and do something new?
In this case I took the concept of the meatball stuffed with eggs. Nearly everything else is different from the original dish. Using quail eggs mean smaller, finger food-sized meatballs. These are perfect to serve as party food. I bet your guests will love it, mine sure did.
Buen provecho!
Aunt Clara
- 2 cups of tomato sauce
- 4 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons of hot sauce
- 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (canola, soy, or peanut)
- ½ lb [113 gr] of minced pork
- ½ lb [113 gr] of minced beef
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup of fine breadcrumbs
- 1 small onion , grated
- ¼ teaspoon of pepper
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 garlic clove , crushed
- 1 doz hard-boiled quail eggs , peeled
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Mix all the ingredients making sure the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
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Mix all the ingredients except for the quail eggs. Knead with your hands until you have an even mixture.
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Place a tablespoon of the meat mixture on your hands and flatten. Place a quail egg on top and wrap with the meat, making sure the egg is covered. Repeat until you finish with the eggs.
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Heat the oven to 350 ºF [175 ºC]
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Place in a deep baking pan, pour the sauce on the meatballs, making sure they are equally covered in it.
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Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and wait 5 minutes before serving.
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Meat was still raw after 20 mins. Set the oven to 400 and put it in for another 15 mins.
Oven temperatures are notoriously unreliable, it’s worse as the oven gets older. I use an external thermometer to make sure what temperature I cook my recipes.