Pork and Beef Rissoles with Spinach and Tomato

Saturday, 25th January 2015

Based on this recipe for Lamb Rissoles, but I used a Pork and Beef mix. I also added a few breadcrumbs to make them a bit lighter.
Essentially just fat meatballs, or small frikadelle, but a nice meaty, spinachy flavour, and very good with the double-cooked chips and a tomato and onion sauce.

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.

Veal Escalope

Wednesday, 24th July 2013

Not much to say about this. Simple pan fried veal escalope. Fried mushrooms and onions with baby spinach added to the pan for a couple of minutes at the end, with a dash of champagne vinegar.

Spinach and Chicken Curry

Friday, 22nd February 2013

Or, as we English would know it, Saag Murgh. 200 Curries, p58.
Marinade chicken in yoghurt, garlic, ginger, ground coriander, and curry powder. Cook and blend some spinach. Fry onions and add some cumin seeds. Add the chicken then the spinach and some water. Cook for 30 minutes. Add some lemon juice.
I put in too much spinach but the flavours were still good. Could have been spicier for my taste. I also added some coriander leaves, which is the flavour I most associate with Indian food, but the local supermarket seems to have found a variety of completely non-aromatic coriander.
Served with aubergine baked with Garam Masala (over-cooked), rice and turkish flat bread (over-cooked).

Spaghetti with Salsiccia

Friday, 4th May 2012

A variation on something that was quite successful last year.
Roast cherry tomatoes in the over with a garlic clove and plenty of oil for 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile chop up fresh salsiccia into bite sized pieces and fry them quickly until browned, then add them to the tomatoes.
While the pasta cooks chop and fry a shallot and add spinach to the pan to wilt. Add the salsiccia and tomatoes to the spinach, mash up the roasted garlic, which will be soft by now, and mix that all together briefly and season. I ground in some red chilli for extra spice.
Drain the pasta and top with the sauce.
Really very good. A lovely combination of flavours with a good balance of spice, sweet tomatoes, spinach, garlic and oil, with the tasty salsiccia.
This should work very well as a veggie dish I imagine, with something else instead of sausage (button mushrooms maybe?).

Lamb and Spinach pie

Sunday, 3rd April

A dish I have not cooked for years!  The pie is made with cubed lamb, onions, garlic, cumin, coriander, spinach and a spoonful of orange marmalade in filo pastry. Together with rosemary potatoes and courgette with a yoghurt dressing. The pie was every bit as good as I remember. Subtly spicy and sweet, the lamb was tender, the spinach flavoursome and the flaky pastry a lovely contrast to the richness of the filling. The courgettes were overdone for my taste (the perils of playing scrabble while cooking!), but overall a win! A bottle of blanc-de-noirs Spätburgunder sekt washed it down very nicely.