Catching up with the rest of 2014

Spareribs - glaze including orange marmelade, devon fire chutney and other random store-cupboard ingredients. Excellent.

Pheasant with glazed onions. Good flavour but the pheasant was rather tough.

Venison loin. Tender, flavoursome and delicious. Not quite as underdone as the photo suggests.

Shepherds pie. Very nostalgic, but perhaps a bit too cheesy.

Pork fillet flambé with apricots. Delicious and with some spectacular flambéing.

Meatballs and pasta. Lovely, fluffy but flavourful meatballs. Chilling before cooking helped to retain the right shape.

Herb crusted rack of veal. Looks good, but disappointingly sinewy veal, that needed at least 10 minutes more cooking.

Slow cooked pork with orange. Slow cooking resulted in lovely tender pork. The skin went into the oven separately at the end to crisp up and got a little bit too burned.

Venison with blueberries. Very nice flavour with the fruit, but not as tender as I had hoped.

Grilled mackerel. Simple and good but more attractive with the head and tail still on!

Pasta and Meatballs

Friday, 21st February 2014

Meatballs made with a mix of pork and beef mince, a few breadcrumbs, onions, herbs and an egg. Following a suggestion on Quora I formed the balls and then put them in the fridge for a couple of hours before cooking, which definitely did seem to help them keep their round shape.
A sauce of tomatoes, onions and mushrooms.

Pepper Monkey Lamb Meatballs

Saturday, 2nd November 2013

I was not able to resist the title of this recipe. No luck getting monkey though, so I used only lamb. ;)
The butcher wasn't able to mince the lamb for me, so I did it myself at home. Unfortunately my hand-cranked mincer is not up to the job and it took an age. The meatballs came out quite tasty, but a little tough and I think the mashing of the meat when attempting to mince it may have contributed. With the spicing this somehow came out as a sort of cross between Indian and Greek.
The meatballs are meant to be barbecued, but doing them under the grill worked fine. Served with saffron rice and spinach with roasted pine nuts.

Pasta with Meatballs

Tuesday, 16th July 2013

For the meatballs I bought some bratwurst, removed the skins and mixed the meat with plenty of ground fennel and pink peppercorns. Fry some onions and garlic in plenty of oil, add the meatballs and brown, add halved cherry tomatoes and adjust seasoning. When the pasta is cooked at a small amount of the cooking liquid to the meatball pan and bubble it up, so the sauce has some juice. Delicious.

Chicken Kofta Meatballs

Friday, 20th April 2012

I bought a mincer the other day, and this was my first use of it. I minced up two good sized chicken breasts and mixed them with nutmeg, cumin, chilli and fresh coriander, left them to chill for an hour or so and then fried them gently all over. Then fried some onions and garlic, mixed in various spices some creamy curry paste, coriander paste and a little water. The meatballs went back in and simmered for about 45 minutes. Just before serving I stirred in some cream, and served sprinkled with chops cashews. The creamy spicy combination was just right. For the side dish I sauteed some shallots, then added some potatoes cut into chips, ground cumin and coriander, a chopped tomato and a little water, and let those boil for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately this wasn't long enough and they were a bit underdone. The chutney is just chopped up figs, mixed with some hot chilli sauce and tamarind (I used too much). The whole point of this meal was an excuse to try cooking chapatis again. But, despite watching a half-dozen youtube videos on how to make them, I still can't get them to come out right. They hardly puff up at all and they go quite dry. Today's dough was better than usual I think, but my current theory is I am cooking them too long. Overall, despite slightly crunchy potatoes, a very nice meal.

Saffron meatballs

Sunday, 8th April 2012

[100th post!] Looking for an interesting meatball recipe on-line, I found this one. Although the introduction is in English, the recipe itself is in Urdu, which I speak fluently... NOT. According to Google Translate the ingredients include "half find fraud", "customisation dnya", "slightly fragrant screw pine" and "saffron snap of the fingers around".
In the recipe, "meatballs" is translated as "kicking furniture", as in "Kicking furniture out of fuel now in red." However, between what I could make out and a general idea of how to make meatballs, I was able to concoct something that tastes pretty good!
I made up a paste of ground toasted sesame, ginger, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, green chili, paprika and saffron (canarian saffron, which is not the real stuff, but much cheaper). Then, instead of mixing this into the meat, I made the meatballs by wrapping a blob of mince around a small amount of the paste. Rolled them in a little flour and fried them gently all over.
Removed the meatballs from the oil and fried chopped onion, ginger, garlic, a little of the spice paste that was left over, then added chopped tomatoes. Cooked that all for a bit, then put the meatballs back in, reduced the heat and let it simmer. After 30 minutes added some greek yoghurt.
Meanwhile I cooked some plain rice and chapatis (flour and water dough, rolled out very thin and cooked on a hot flat pan). I served the meatballs in the sauce, topped with toasted almond flakes and a little more of the saffron.
The flavours came out very well, with just the right amount of heat and the richness of the spicy, tomato sauce. Even the chapatis worked for a change!

Green Dragon Walnut Meatballs

Monday, 22nd August

I have to give the honours for cooking the meatballs to my lovely girlfriend. Delicious.
I had the recipe in a Sainsbury's cookbook called "Marvellous Meals with Mince", which I can no longer find. But google came to the rescue.
At the weekend we had these with pasta and the dark chinese-y sauce of soy and sugar mentioned in the recipe. I had the left overs today with a sauce of roasted red pepper, garlic and fried onion, with a little balsamic added. Very good indeed, but a bit heavy on the garlic. Also, sauteed potatoes with rosemary.

Tagliatelle with Meatballs

Sunday, 27th February

Courgette Quiche, Olive and Lemon Meatballs with Tomato Sauce with tagliatelli - Ultimate Slow Cooker p68, Nut Cake.  A three course meal for one is a bit extravagant, but I only actually cooked one of the courses.

Sunday shopping day in Lindenthal turned up a new Italian deli where I got some delicious cheese and salami, this very nice slice of quiche and some grilled mushrooms.

Before going out I put the meatballs in tomato sauce in the slow cooker.  This is not something that I would have thought needed slow cooking and, to be honest, I didn't find there was any benefit in the taste.  I had to boil the sauce to reduce it anyway.  A nice recipe, but next time I won't bother with the slow cooker.  I like meatballs but mine always taste a bit bland. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

For dessert, a slice of excellent Torta di Fregoloti nut cake baked by my lovely girlfriend Monika, with a glass of Sauternes. Delicious.