Accidental General Gao's

When I set out to make venison meatballs today, I did not intend to make them sweet. I looked up a recipe online and started to follow it, only to realize I didn't have all the correct ingredients. So I improvised, but what we ended up with was a surprise.

Here are the meatballs:

1.5 pounds ground venison

1/2 cup bulgur wheat

salt and pepper

dried basil (about 1 tsp)

dried parsley (about 2 tsp)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 sweet onion, minced

dash of nutmeg

1 egg

These were mixed and then allowed to rest for a bit so the bulgur wheat could moisten. Later I rolled this mixture into meatballs, it made 17. I baked them in the oven at 350˚F for 30 minutes and then added them to the sauce to simmer.

Here's the sauce, and considering I hardly ever have tomato jam it's unlikely I'll ever make it exactly this way again:

1/2 sweet onion, diced

3 ribs celery, diced

olive oil

4 oz. tomato jam

4 oz. port

8 oz. tomato sauce

salt and pepper

dried parsley (about 1 T.)

Sauté the onion and celery in the oil. Add the jam and heat until the onions are soft. Pour in the port and then the tomato sauce and let it boil down for about 10 minutes. Add the parsley, salt and pepper. Simmer on low until you add the meatballs and then continue to simmer for about an hour. 

The sauce ended up very sweet, with a taste similar to General Gao's chicken. The meatballs lost their gaminess in the process of being cooked for so long. We served them over egg noodles and they were excellent. I suppose that in the future I could just go all the way down that road and toss some sesame seeds on them.