Some bovine respite
I had mercifully acquired a little ground beef at Aldi a few days ago, for which I was grateful, as I really needed a break from chicken today. I talked with a friend about my mediocre chicken experiences (about that "something off" feeling I get from what I've made) and, over these amazing Hong-Kongian (and apparently also Taiwanese) "pineapple" butter buns---delicious pineapplesque-but-fruit-free bready buns literally stuffed with butter!---he made a convincing case for what I suspected all along: the chicken I buy is too cheap. He told me cheap chicken in full of water, which would make perfect sense and explain why all the more expensive chicken at Aldi looks so puny. I still have three big, cheap, wet drumsticks to cook through, but then I will attempt to upgrade. I was also counseled to try thighs instead of drumsticks. More flavorful dark meat. I will give it a try.
Slabs of butter like it's a Kraft Single. How are butter singles not a thing?
But that's for later. Today I wanted to do something with beef, because why not? and chicken and I are giving each other the day off. So my same helpful friend, perusing my "On-hand" section, suggested meatballs, with a chili-powder-in-yoghurt (since no sour cream) sauce. That sounded easy, which was what I was looking for, so that's what I tried when I got home. It threw together pretty easily, just some ground beef and an egg.
For a while I thought they would never cook all the way through, but they did, eventually.
The kashmiri-and-yoghurt sauce that I forgot to add water to, as I was instructed:
Final result:
It was pretty satisfying overall. But the meatballs themselves were not strictly-speaking "delicious". Like, something was a little funny with them too. Was it the way it was cooked? Was it because it wasn't lean enough? You know, it just tasted like a bunch of ground beef, but not like "delicious-hamburger" kind of ground beef. I don't know. I hate being plagued with nebulous shortcomings. Any hints?