Who knew that such a delicious meal could be prepared with some leftover rice and a dash of red wine? Rice meatballs (also known as porcupine meatballs) are a fun twist on a traditional meatball recipe and makes for a quick and delicious midweek meal.
Porcupine meatballs are an old-fashioned favourite, developed during the Great Depression to stretch the amount of ground meat. They are so-named because once cooked, the rice sticks out of the meatball looking a bit like porcupine quills.
These oven-baked rice meatballs are made with ground beef, rice, apricot jam and seasoning and instead of the traditional tomato sauce, they are cooked in a smooth, rich red wine sauce which enhances the enticing flavour of the beef.
Rice meatballs are a quick-prep dinner as you don’t have to worry about browning them in batches on the stovetop. Instead, it takes about 20 minutes to assemble the dish and then the oven does the work.
Serve the baked meatballs and red wine sauce over some mashed potatoes accompanied by a leafy salad for an easy family-friendly dinner.
Ingredients
- 500 gram Beef Mince Meat
- 2 cups Rice Cooked
- 5 ml Mixed Herbs
- 5 ml Garlic Salt
- 5 ml Apricot Jam
- 125 ml Red Wine
- 100 ml Water
- 10 ml Bisto Sauce Powder
- 1 Fresh Rosemary Stick
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Mix the cooked rice, cooked mince, jam, herbs and salt.
- Use an ice cream scoop and make evenly sized balls.
- Place the balls in a greased oven dish.
- Cover with tin foil and place in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
- In a saucepan, heat the wine, water, rosemary and Bisto together.
- Reduce to a thick sauce.
- Uncover the dish, pour over the sauce and put back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
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