Cher’s Hawaiian Meatballs

So last night I attempted another Cher recipe, “Cher’s Hawaiian Meatballs.” I came across this recipe while I was in Cleveland researching images for the 16 Magazine responses.

Someone else had tried the recipe in 2019 and wrote about it on their blog Dinner is Served 1972.

When I got home, I tracked the actual cookbook down. It’s volume II of a charity cookbook for a Hawaiian drug and alcohol treatment center. (Click on the images below to read the full introduction.)

Cher’s recipe is the first one in the cookbook, under the section called Meats:

As you can imagine, the core ingredient in this recipe is pineapple.

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs. ground beef (I used Beyond Meat instead, which complicated things considerably)
1/2 cup minced onion
1 egg
2 T. salt
1 cup bread crumps
1/2 t. ginger
1 1/2 T. shortening (I used vegetable shortening)
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 T. cornstarch
2 cans pineapple (~13 oz. cans; good luck finding the right size cans and good luck finding canned fruit these days…but you need them because you gotta have the juice. So get it.)
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 T. soy sauce
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup chopped green pepper

Instructions

Combine meat, minced onion, egg, bread crumbs, salt, ginger and milk. Shape mixture into balls. Melt shortening in large skillet and cook meatballs until browned. Removed meatballs from skillet and place in oven on low heat to keep warm. Drain fat from skillet.

Mix cornstarch and brown sugar, stirring in the vinegar, soy sauce and reserved pineapple syrup until mixture is smooth. Pour into skillet and cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently until mixture becomes thick and is boiling. Continue to boil and stir for 1 minute. Adding meatballs, green pepper and pineapple bits, heat completely through.

Changes I made: I made the syrup first in a regular pan. It’s a nice thick, tasty syrup. I served the pineapple and bell pepper unheated on the dishes. I didn’t want the bell pepper and pineablle to get soggy in the syrup while we were waiting to eat the leftovers. Because I made the syrup first, I didn’t need to keep the meatballs warm in the oven. I’ve grown spoiled with Hello Fresh recipes and lose patience for recipes that don’t give you oven temperature, oven rack positions or time it takes cooking. Like I never made meatballs before. How long should it take for them to get done?

This was complicated by the fact that I was using fake meat and without Hello Fresh telling me it should take x to x amount of minutes, I never trust my own judgement. And then add to that, the fact that I didn’t pack the meatballs tight enough and the first batch fell apart in the skillet. I had to call in Mr. Cher Scholar to squish them tighter and help finish the next two batches.

My poorly packed meatballs:

Mr. Cher Scholar’s better meatballs:

I should have read the blogger Yinzerella’s piece before I started cooking because they wisely cut the recipe in half for two people. This recipe makes a lot of meatballs. I would estimate about two dozen meatballs, two dinners worth of meatballs unless you’re feeding a family or party of meatball eaters.

To accompany her meatballs, Yinzerella made fried rice. I made another bad decision to make mushroom risotto. I love risotto but it’s labor intensive. Not a good side for another labor intensive main dish.

But the risotto turned out great. I now have the hang of that.  Here’s the final plate on my one of the new washable placemats:

Everything was a hit. We would make this again. This is the first Cher recipe I can say that about. The fat-free ones weren’t as good as this fat-full recipe.

Yinzerella wonders what makes the recipe “American Style” as noted in the cookbook title, the fact that they were beef and not pork meatballs? I don’t know either.

The Cher and Andy Ennis Cooking for Cher book has other meatball recipes: Beef Meatballs in a Herbed Olive Marinara Sauce and Mexican Meatballs (Albondigas! A word I love to say) in Tomato-Orange Sauce.

The Cher and Robert Hass book Forever Fit also has Turkey Meatballs.

Yinzerella’s posts ends with, “Happy birthday, Cher! Shine on, you Bob Mackey-clad, ass-baring, half-breed, gypsy, dark lady diva. You are the Goddess of Pop and you are FABULOUS!”

For more Cher food stories:

• The Homepage for Sonny and Cher recipes
• Sonny cooking with Cher on the Mike Douglas Show
• My experience trying Cher’s Tuna Pasta Salad (scroll down)