Tomato Puree to Chili Sauce to Dad's meatballs

I was having a party and one of the dishes that is super easy to make and that goes quickly are the cocktail meatballs.  I use my Dad's recipe... that might not sound funny to others but it makes me laugh every time.  My Dad didn't make anything growing up.  Even when he hosted a party at the house for his friends from work, my mom made everything.  Put I remember that he always made "his meatballs."  My Mom actually made the meatballs ahead of time and froze them but they were my Dad's meatballs.

Years later, I called my Dad and said, "I want to make your meatballs?"  To which he responded, what meatballs?  Yup, this is how much they meant to him so I had to tell him the ones that he made at parties.  He finally started to know what I was talking about.  He said that it was a jar of grape jelly and a jar of chili sauce.  Umm, really?  Why did I think all these years that my dad was doing something tough?  Well, I went to the store and got a jar of grape jelly and a jar of chili sauce and made Dad's meatballs!

I wanted to make those meatballs again this year for our Halloween party but I decided to do a little research online first.  I found a recipe to make the chili sauce!  I asked my mom if she knew that you could make your own chili sauce and she said, "Why would you when you can buy it at the store?"  Seems strange that she is my mom but I decided that I would try to make it instead.  The great thing is that it uses mostly things that you have around the house.  I didn't have lemon juice but I had everything else... or did I?

What is tomato puree?  Back to the internet!  Okay, it seems to be better tomato juice and tomato sauce.   There was a recipe blending up diced or whole tomatoes and cooking them down or straining them.  There was another one that sounded much easier and it was 2 tbsp of tomato paste and water to make it one cup.

I mixed them and then had tomato puree.

I was ready to make the chili sauce now.  I put the vinegar in the sauce pan and added everything that needed to dissolve- salt, sugar, and garlic powder.

The recipe called for dried onion flakes.  I didn't know what dried onion flakes were so I decided to use my chopped onions instead of onion powder because it seemed like the best option from what was in the spice cupboard.  I checked the internet and it said onion flakes can be substitute for fresh onions in any recipe. To rehydrated, soak 1 part onion in 2 parts water for 30 minutes. Use 3 tablespoons onion flakes in place of one fresh onion.  Sounds like I made the right decision because it was the one that looks like onions.

The ones that I bought were very long and not as small as I was thinking we needed so I chopped them up before measuring because I thought that it would change the finally total.

I added the light corn syrup next.  Make sure you spray the measuring cup with non stick cooking spray before measuring anything sticky like corn syrup or honey.  It makes it comes right out of the measuring spoon so that you get everything you wanted to get and it doesn't make a mess.  I can't tell you how much time that tip saves me and I use it almost every week at least once.

I added in the tomato puree that I had made and mixed it together.  It was really liquidy so it needed to be cooked down to thicken.

I put it on medium heat on the stove until it boiled.  I wasn't sure with the directions so I covered it because I figured better safe them sorry.  I lowered the stove temperature to low after it boiled.  I left it on the burner for 30 minutes to simmer.  After it was done, the sauce still looked thin so I left it on the burner when the burner was off to give it a little longer on the heat while the burner was cooling but that didn't do it so I simmered for another 30 minutes without the lid.  The liquid thickened nicely and I left it to cool.

I poured the finished sauce into the container that I was going to make the meatballs so that I could mix it with the grape jelly.  I didn't measure anything but it is about equal parts of chili sauce and grape jelly.

If you would like to make your own, check out the recipe below.  If you would like to see the original recipe, check on Food.com and see how they made their chili sauce and their tomato puree.  I hope that you enjoy this recipe to make something that you would normally buy at the store from items in the pantry.  You can now use your new chili sauce to make cocktail meatballs.  I just used the meatballs from the store and I needed two bags to fill my crockpot which was about 50 small meatballs.

Hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know what else you use chili sauce for because I think that I might be making some again soon!!!

Chili Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup tomato puree (2 tbsp tomato paste + water to make 1 cup)
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

Whisk all the ingredients together in a small saucepan. Place over medium heat.  When mixture begins to bubble reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Cover and cool.  Refrigerate when cold.