When a friend told me she ordered up a plate of sliders at City Diner in Anchorage, it got me to thinking (I'm so open to suggestion when it comes to my tastebuds) about those little square burgers made most famous by White Castle. Where I grew up in the South, there were no White Castles. The place to get a sackful of tiny, square burgers with the steamed-in onion flavor since 1932 was Krystal, which in my town was located very wisely right outside the main gate of the Air Force base (yes, I was a military brat) where the young men could hop off base and grab a sack.
Just the thought of those sweet little burgers is enough to make my mouth water and apparently I'm not alone. Check out this video of Joey "Jaws" Chestnut breaking the Krystal burger eating recording by chowing down 28 in two minutes.
All this thinking about sliders got me to poking around for recipes and I just so happened to find this post at Is My Blog Burning? pointing the way to Serge the Concierge's request for meatball recipes for Seth Godin. A lightbulb went off in my head when I found this recipe from the September issue of Bon Appetit.
A meatball on a tiny bun on a tiny plate surrounded by arugula and tomato sauce made from scratch:
These had my husband nodding his head vigorously with his mouth full, giving me the alternating thumbs-up/pointing-to-his-plate with one hand and wiping tomato sauce off his chin with the other hand. The sauce alone is worth giving this recipe a try -- once you brown the meatballs, you remove them to a plate and in that same pan you add some olive oil, onions, garlic (six cloves!), fennel seeds, and a handful of basil leaves as a base for the sauce.
We toasted the tiny little buns under the broiler, plopped a meatball on a bed of arugula and sprinkled it liberally with freshly-grated parmesan and chopped fresh parsley. The recipe made enough for us to each have three little burgers (the husband already had pizza at a friend's house earlier or he surely would have wolfed down more of these babies) and there was still plenty of sauce and meatballs to serve on angel hair the next night.
Here's my version with lamb instead of veal and moose (so Alaskan!) instead of ground beef.
Meatball Sliders
1/2 pound ground moose
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground lamb
1/2 cup panko
1/2 cup chicken broth
8 tablespoons freshly grated Pecorino Romano or parmesan cheese, divided
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds
3 14-ounce cans of diced tomatoes
Arugula leaves (optional)
Small soft rolls, split horizontally (I used King's Hawaiian honey wheat buns -- they looked the best out of the skimpy selection at my local market)
Mix all meats, panko, broth, 6 tablespoons cheese (leave two tablespoons for later), egg, egg yolk, 1/4 cup parsley, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper in large bowl. Form into 2-inch-meatballs -- will make 15 or so.
Heat vegetable oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry meatballs until brown all over, working in batches if necessary. Transfer to plate. Pour off drippings from skillet. Reduce heat to medium. Add olive oil to skillet. Add onion, garlic, basil, and fennel seeds. Sauté until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add all tomatoes with juices. Bring to boil, scraping up browned bits. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid slightly ajar, and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
Puree sauce in processor until almost smooth. Return to same skillet. Add meatballs. Cover with lid slightly ajar and simmer until meatballs are cooked through, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes longer. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.
Place arugula leaves on bottom of each roll, if desired. Top each with 1 meatball. Drizzle meatballs with some of sauce and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons parsley and 2 tablespoons. cheese. Cover with tops of rolls.
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