Bacon, Onion, Beef Meatballs and Poutine

Sep 28 2014

I am always a little excited about cooking when I find something new to try. A few years ago Traeger started a forum for Traeger owners to post recipes. I had a few posted there but they stopped the forum and just post their own recipes. I just went back to check it out ran across this goodie, “Onion Bombs”.  It is a meatball inside a whole onion ring, wrapped in bacon and smoked. I call mine “Bacon Onion Beef Balls” I don’t like the word bomb and when I relate it to food sounds like a failure to me!

I made up the meat for the meatballs yesterday and set in the fridge overnight. I have wanted to do some poutine again; and I had some cheese curds in the freezer to use. I have never been to Canada to eat poutine so I don’t know what the real deal tastes like. I read where you need fresh cheese curds to get the little crunch they have. I had yellow curds too instead of the usual white.

I found a recipe that is supposed to be authentic. It was basically 6 Tbs. butter and a ¼ cup of flour, 20 oz. beef broth, 10 oz. chicken broth, 2 Tbs corn starch in water slurry. Melt the butter and flour together and when thick pour in the broth slowly and stir. Add some salt and pepper and bring to a boil then add in the corn starch slurry to thicken. Keep on simmer until serving. I added in a little Worcestershire sauce too but I still thought it was rather bland.

I made up the beef balls and wrapped in bacon a few hours before smoking and in the fridge. I made 4 of the bacon onion balls and had meat left for 6 meatballs. I used Ore Ida frozen fast food fries for the poutine. I would rather have had some crispy deep fried but too much trouble for me and the Ore Ida’s are pretty good. I had some baby carrots to use so I nuked them for 2 minutes then in a Weber foil drip tray, sprinkled with a little cumin, chili powder, salt and 3 pats of butter. Covered them with foil and they went on the smoker right after getting the meatballs on.

My onions were a little on the flat side; nice round ones would be better but I had them to use. I followed the recipe and did the meatballs an hour on smoke then eased up to 350 deg. for a half hour to get to 165 deg. IT and bacon browned up. The carrots went on right after the meatballs and the fries went in after a half hour. While all was finishing up I made the gravy for the poutine.

My wife went to the grandson’s soccer game this afternoon. I didn’t go since my leg was acting up. They won the game. Our son had to work so the daughter in law and grandson ate with us. The wife and I loved the bacon onion beef balls. I will be doing these again; maybe different flavored meatballs and some BBQ sauce over top. The daughter in law had the poutine and some leftover baked cheesy spaghetti form our supper last night. The grandson ate some of the plain meatballs, he didn’t care for the poutine and he asked why did you season the carrots Grampa? He is not crazy about seasoning other than a little salt; he did eat them though!

Not the best photos since my leg was hurting; but I think you can see how to make these. I am done with two weeks of meds and the leg is not much better, back to the Doctor tomorrow. I modified the Traeger recipe and note the changes in the recipe.

Link to meatball recipe

For the meatballs

Onions cut

One slice over

One around the side

Ready to chill

After one hour on smoke

Cheese curds

Ready to serve

Carrots

Poutine

My plate

Tasted great!