The June Daring Cooks’ challenge sure kept us rolling – meatballs, that is! Shelley from C Mom Cook and Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to try meatballs from around the world and to create our own meatball meal celebrating a culture or cuisine of our own choice.
Meatballs especially ones dunked on top of pasta is a favourite in our family. So as expected I have already done quite a number of meatball recipes in this blog. There's our usual spaghetti meatballs, the soupy almondigas, the Spanish albondigas for tapas, even a sweet and sour meatballs. I've been wondering what to cook until I spied this Classic Beef Meatballs recipe from ABC News. Although our usual family meatballs is almost the same as other Italian-style meatballs around, this one had a significant variant in the form of ricotta cheese. That had got me all intrigued enough to try it. And I wasn't disappointed, the cheese made it very moist and soft. The golf ball-sized meatballs weren't to my liking, however. I like them smaller, easier to handle and bite - probably the size of a conker is best for me. So here is my adaptation of that classic beef meatballs.
Classic Beef Meatballs
1 kg minced beef (80% lean beef) 1 cup (250 g) ricotta cheese 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs 2 eggs - slightly beaten 2 tsp sea salt 1/4 tsp crushed pepper flakes (optional) 1 tsp dried oregano 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley or 1 Tbsp dried 1 tsp minced garlic olive oil
*For the tomato sauce: 3 Tbsp olive oil 2 tsp minced garlic 1 medium onion - chopped 1/2 tsp dried oregano 4 x 400 g can of chopped tomatoes 2 tsp sea salt freshly ground pepper (to taste) 1 bay leaf 2 Tbsp double concentrate tomato puree (tomato paste)
*Do the tomato sauce first:
Saute the onion and garlic in olive in a heavy-bottomed saucepan on medium heat until the onion is translucent.
Add the oregano, ground pepper and sea salt. Cook for about 1-2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, and bay leaf.
Bring to boil then lower heat to simmer for 1 hour (if making as sandwich filler) or just 10 minutes (if making for pasta) making sure to stir from time to time to avoid burning. Taste and add more salt if necessary or a little sugar if too sour.
*For the meatballs:
Grease a 13 x 9-inch metal baking pan generously with the olive oil. Preheat oven to 230°C/fan 210°C/450°F.
Mix all the other ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl. Combine well.
Shape into balls about the size of a conker (around 1 inch in diameter) making sure to pack the meat firmly. Arrange closely in the greased pan (they should be touching each other).
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. A meat thermometer inserted in the middle should read 74°C/165°F.
Now, if you want this for sandwiches, spoon the tomato sauce on top of the meatballs and return to the oven for another 15 minutes.
If, however, you want this for pasta, pour all the roasted meatballs in the tomato sauce pot and continue simmering for 1 hour.
Tagumpay ! That's the name of a male relative of mine and also the Tagalog word for success! For this innocuous recipe adapted from Epicurious proved to be quite a hit at first try. Actually, on first inspection of the recipe I wasn't too impressed because if you remove the chillies, masa harina and cumin, it would be your usual beef stew. How wrong I was! Maybe it's the masa harina or its combination with the chillies my husband got from his colleague that shaped the great flavour. It is really really good especially for this blustery, wintry weather we seem to be all under right now. I highly recommend this my friends so get cooking!
Thanks to my husband's colleague Dave who gave us his prized hybrid chillies he got from a specialist grower. They added a complexity of flavour and a variety of spiciness that is departure from the usual. The heat I felt was around the mouth and back of throat which was surprisingly pleasant for me not like the usual in-your-face hot spiciness that just gives you pain. For someone who's a chilli wimp this was a great adventure.
This chili is a departure from the usual recipes where they normally use minced (ground) beef. True Texan chili I've read and heard - never use minced meat only cut-up pieces of well-marbled beef. Thus the use of braising or chuck beef was important. I think other stewing beef parts like the shin would be good as well. And that is only one of the differences. It also never use beans nor tomato sauce. And I guess bell peppers would be sacrilege as well!
Texas Chili
1 kg braising beef (or chuck or stewing beef) - cut into 3/4-inch pieces 6-8 pieces of dried New Mexico, guajillo, or pasilla chillies (or combination)* 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp whole black peppercorn 2 tsp sea salt 5 Tbsp (approx.) lard, butter, or vegetable oil 1 medium onion - finely chopped 3 cloves garlic - minced (about 1 Tbsp) 2 Tbsp masa harina (corn tortilla flour)* 2 cups beef stock 1 Tbsp firmly packaged dark brown sugar 1 Tbsp white distilled vinegar* sour cream lime wedges
[Optional] If you're using dried chillies, lightly toast the dried chillies in a pan over medium-low heat about 2-3 minutes on each side. Be careful not to burn them or they will taste bitter. Put in a bowl and soak in very hot water until soft (about 30-45 minutes).
Split the chillies; remove and discard the seeds and stems. Chop roughly.
Place in a blender or food processor and add salt, ground cumin, and 1/4 cup water. Blend/process until a smooth paste forms. Set aside.
In a heavy pot, heat 2 Tbsp of the lard or oil. Brown the beef on at least two sides in small batches over medium heat. Add more oil if needed. Set aside.
Reheat pot and add more lard/oil if needed. Saute the onion and garlic. Cook for about 4 minutes over low-medium heat.
Add in the chilli mixture and quickly saute for a few seconds. Watch out, this might sting your eyes and throat so just cook them very briefly.
Add the beef, mix briefly. Then add the beef stock.
Slowly add the masa harina while stirring. Cover and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 1.5 hours or until beef is tender. (Note: I used a pressure cooker and it did not seem to affect the quality)
Stir in the brown sugar and vinegar and cook a few minutes more until dissolved. Taste and add more salt or pepper if desired.
Serve with sour cream and wedges of lime with long grain rice or chips (thick french fries).
*Notes:
You can use plain tortilla chips if you can't find masa harina. Grind them into fine crumbs before using.
Dried chillies are not mandatory. You may use fresh chillies; just skip procedure no. 1 above.
I used cane vinegar for this recipe and it was okay.
My eldest and youngest love their pasta - that's a given. It's but natural that we're looking at the many variations of the sauces that we can pair with it. Their absolute favourite is the Ragu Bolognese, aka spaghetti tomato meat sauce in this side of the Western world. The three differing sauces that we regularly use with spaghetti are: Classic Ragu Bolognese, Pinoy-style sauce, and the Meatballs sauce. This one I'm posting is quite a departure from those three. Well, it's similar to the first one but quite distinct because it does not involve any herbs, garlic nor wine! Plus the stewing technique is different and the sauce is not simmered down a thick consistency. It is kept topped up and moist. I was quite intrigued so I promptly made it a few days later. Lo and behold, the resulting sauce is really really good which even the harshest critics in the family concurring that this is a gem of a sauce.
Cooking competitions for viewers occurs from time to time in the TV magazine program The One Show in the BBC. And it's there that I chanced upon this winning recipe from a guy who in turn got it from his Italian granny-in-law. Actually she didn't give it to him, he just watched her all the time she cooks it! This happened early in 2012 and I couldn't find the permalinks anymore. Good thing I emailed the recipe to myself as soon as it was published. So who ever you are (the winner and his Italian nonna-in-law) thank you very much for sharing. Your sauce is now my kids' new pasta sauce favourite.
Tweaks I made for this recipe are - increased recipe to x1.5, changed proportion of beef to pork, and increased the passata. It's mainly to use up all the ingredients as per supermarket packaging. I really don't know what to do with a left-over 150gm of passata nor with 200gm of minced beef. Well ... I could make some other dish out of it but I couldn't be bothered to be honest, I just chucked them all in the pot which I'm sure all of you harried cooks would relate to.
So if you're the type who doesn't like herbs or the after-taste of wine in their pasta sauce this one's for you.
Spaghetti Bolognese
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 500 g minced beef 400 g minced pork 3 good-quality pork sausages (97% pork) [about 200 gm] 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 60 g onion - finely chopped 60 g celery - finely chopped 60 g carrots - finely chopped 500 g passata (tomato sauce/puree) 2 Tbsp double-concentrated tomato puree (tomato paste) 2 cups stock salt and pepper to taste
Remove sausage from casing. Mix the beef, pork, and sausage in a bowl (best to do by hand) until well combined. Set aside.
Heat a heavy saucepan or pot. Add the olive oil in low heat and saute the onion, celery, and carrots. Cook for around 5-10 minutes or until softened.
Add the mixed meat and brown evenly in medium-low heat. Do not overcook until dry. It must stay moist. Break up the meat with your cooking spoon as you brown it.
Once browned, pour in the passata and tomato puree. Add the stock and stir. It should be covered by liquid.
Season with salt and pepper. (I usually add 1 tsp sea salt at this point).
Simmer on very low heat with the cover slightly ajar for about 4-5 hours. Taste regularly and add more salt and/or pepper if needed.
Check the sauce regularly and if the sauce is thickening too quickly, add a little more hot water or stock. The sauce should always cover the minced meat and not allowed to dry out.
Serve with spaghetti or any pasta shapes with a topping of freshly grated Parmesan cheese (although this is traditionally eaten with tagliatelle or rigatoni).
This is one of my all-time favourite winter comfort food. It's rich, spicy, flavourful, and very Southeast Asian. Like our adobo, there are a lot of variations on it as there are households. But from what I can gather, the essential ingredients besides the meat are the spices (onion, curry leaves, curry powder, turmeric, and chili pepper) and the coconut milk. All the other ingredients are fair game to the diversity of adaptations. And when I say lots of variations that means you will see more versions of this particular dish that I will experiment on and will invariably be seen in this food blog sometime later. In the next decade perhaps? ;)
I love the resulting sauce in it (eaten with lots of hot steamed rice) after a long stew. According to my Malaysian friend, people in the northern parts of Malaysia and Indonesia cook it until the sauce dries out and the meat is fried in the rendered oil from the sauce. This they say is primarily done to preserve the meat and not spoil easily. Believe me, I tried this once and it was superb! It's wonderfully good with some white fluffy bread with some lettuce and cucumber stuck in.
This recipe is adapted from an old Asian cookbook in the Bromley Library which I forgot to write down the name. In fact, the title of the recipe in the book was 'Dry-Fried Beef Curry'. The instruction was to cook until dry but I love the sauce very much that I put in the option of not doing this if preferred.
Tamarind liquid is used here. You can make this two ways: first by diluting tamarind paste with water; secondly by soaking about 1 Tablespoon (add more or less depending on the sourness you want) of tamarind pulp in 1/2 cup of hot water for about 15 minutes then strain the liquid through a sieve and discarding the pulp. The tamarind pulp I get here in the UK are all in rectangular block shape. While in the Philippines (well at least in our barrio), it is formed into balls and are called tipe (ti-pe). My lola (grandma) used to always ask me to buy some from the corner sari-sari store whenever we have pinangat na isda (stewed fresh fish) for our meal. We make tamarind liquid with it which is then mixed with either our home-made patis (fish sauce) or heko - the scum skimmed from the boiling talyase (big wok) of liquid during patis-making. Yumm-mmy !
Beef Rendang
1 kg stewing beef - cut into serving sizes 2 medium onion - chopped 6 fat cloves of garlic 1 Tbsp chopped ginger 3 fresh red chillies - stalk removed 2 tsp sea salt 2 cups [400 gm] coconut cream or thick coconut milk 1 tsp ground turmeric 2 tsp chili powder (optional) 2 tsp ground coriander 6 curry leaves 1 stem fresh lemon grass 1 tsp galangal or ginger powder 1/2 cup tamarind liquid 2 tsp sugar
Place garlic, onion, ginger, fresh chillies, and 1/2 cup of the coconut cream in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
Put in a wide mouthed casserole. Wash out the blender with the remaining coconut cream and add to the casserole.
Add the rest of the ingredients except tamarind liquid and sugar.
Bring to boil then add the tamarind liquid. Lower heat to low and simmer until meat is tender (about 1.5 hours) while stirring from time to time.
By this time, the sauce would be reduced and thick. Add the sugar, stir and cook for about 2 minutes more.
Dish up and serve with hot steamed rice.
*Note: If you decide to do the dry-fry version:
Cook this uncovered. When the sauce gets too dry add a little water just prevent it burning before the meat is tender.
Continue simmering until almost dry. Stir often.
When oil separates from the gravy, stir in the sugar. Allow the meat to fry in the oily gravy until dark brown while stirring constantly.
This is one of my all-time favourite winter comfort food. It's rich, spicy, flavourful, and very Southeast Asian. Like our adobo, there are a lot of variations on it as there are households. But from what I can gather, the essential ingredients besides the meat are the spices (onion, curry leaves, curry powder, turmeric, and chili pepper) and the coconut milk. All the other ingredients are fair game to the diversity of adaptations. And when I say lots of variations that means you will see more versions of this particular dish that I will experiment on and will invariably be seen in this food blog sometime later. In the next decade perhaps? ;)
I love the resulting sauce in it (eaten with lots of hot steamed rice) after a long stew. According to my Malaysian friend, people in the northern parts of Malaysia and Indonesia cook it until the sauce dries out and the meat is fried in the rendered oil from the sauce. This they say is primarily done to preserve the meat and not spoil easily. Believe me, I tried this once and it was superb! It's wonderfully good with some white fluffy bread with some lettuce and cucumber stuck in.
This recipe is adapted from an old Asian cookbook in the Bromley Library which I forgot to write down the name. In fact, the title of the recipe in the book was 'Dry-Fried Beef Curry'. The instruction was to cook until dry but I love the sauce very much that I put in the option of not doing this if preferred.
Tamarind liquid is used here. You can make this two ways: first by diluting tamarind paste with water; secondly by soaking about 1 Tablespoon (add more or less depending on the sourness you want) of tamarind pulp in 1/2 cup of hot water for about 15 minutes then strain the liquid through a sieve and discarding the pulp. The tamarind pulp I get here in the UK are all in rectangular block shape. While in the Philippines (well at least in our barrio), it is formed into balls and are called tipe (ti-pe). My lola (grandma) used to always ask me to buy some from the corner sari-sari store whenever we have pinangat na isda (stewed fresh fish) for our meal. We make tamarind liquid with it which is then mixed with either our home-made patis (fish sauce) or heko - the scum skimmed from the boiling talyase (big wok) of liquid during patis-making. Yumm-mmy !
Beef Rendang
1 kg stewing beef - cut into serving sizes 2 medium onion - chopped 6 fat cloves of garlic 1 Tbsp chopped ginger 3 fresh red chillies - stalk removed 2 tsp sea salt 2 cups [400 gm] coconut cream or thick coconut milk 1 tsp ground turmeric 2 tsp chili powder (optional) 2 tsp ground coriander 6 curry leaves 1 stem fresh lemon grass 1 tsp galangal or ginger powder 1/2 cup tamarind liquid 2 tsp sugar
Place garlic, onion, ginger, fresh chillies, and 1/2 cup of the coconut cream in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
Put in a wide mouthed casserole. Wash out the blender with the remaining coconut cream and add to the casserole.
Add the rest of the ingredients except tamarind liquid and sugar.
Bring to boil then add the tamarind liquid. Lower heat to low and simmer until meat is tender (about 1.5 hours) while stirring from time to time.
By this time, the sauce would be reduced and thick. Add the sugar, stir and cook for about 2 minutes more.
Dish up and serve with hot steamed rice.
*Note: If you decide to do the dry-fry version:
Cook this uncovered. When the sauce gets too dry add a little water just prevent it burning before the meat is tender.
Continue simmering until almost dry. Stir often.
When oil separates from the gravy, stir in the sugar. Allow the meat to fry in the oily gravy until dark brown while stirring constantly.
