Chickballs / Bacalao Balls

Contributor: Caleb Das

Author's Notes: Party appetizers!  The "chickball" version is vegetarian-friendly.  You can use these as meatball substitutes in pasta sauces if you so choose by adding tomato paste, water, stock and basil, but for parties, this makes a delicious appetizer. It's hearty but has a little kick to it from the onions not being sauteed beforehand.

Chickballs

Throw 2 cans of garbanzo beans into a pot with their water.

Add 2-3 cups more water, some sage, salt and a couple cloves of star anise.

When the garbanzos are mushy, drain and remove the anise. Mush them up into a paste. Add finely chopped onions, pepper/chili powder and turn the paste into little balls.

Roll around in beaten egg, then flour, then more egg, then more flour. Fry them up.


Bacalao Balls

You can substitute bacalao flakes (be sure to boil, drain, boil, drain the bacalao to get rid of the excess salt first though) in the above recipe to make bacalao balls.

I recommend having a Sriracha based dipping sauce on the side. My Sriracha sauce is whipped mayo, sour cream, gorgonzola cheese crumbles and a teaspoon of Sriracha sauce. You can substitute ricotta in place of sour cream if you so choose.