Meatballs!!

I may have mentioned in earlier posts that I am a pescatarian, which means that I don't eat red meat, pork or chicken, but I do eat fish and seafood. Occasionally I play around with meat for my fiance Dani though! I had ground meat at home in the freezer and was debating what to do with it? Meatloaf, hamburgers, chili? Finally I decided to make meatballs!

I started off by cutting up an onion, half a clove of garlic, a red bell pepper and a small green pepper. I sauteed all of these ingredients with salt and added half a cup of white wine when the veggies started to sweat. After 5 minutes on a low flame I added 4 fresh cut tomatoes and a spoonful of curry. After 15 minutes on a low flame I sprinkled some basil, oregano, fresh parsley and black pepper. When the sauce seemed done I added a small can of diced tomatoes. If you have enough fresh tomatoes to use, I'd suggest skipping the can of tomato, but it's your call! Continue cooking the sauce for 10 more minutes, in the meantime prepare the meatballs!

To make the meatballs. Leave the meat in the fridge for 24 hours to defrost if frozen. Put the meat in a bowl and add black pepper, fresh parsley, an egg, salt and the milk soaked break. The "bread mixture" is the key to making delicious, moist meatballs! To make this, soak some day old bread (you can use Italian bread, a roll, etc. but I would not suggest sandwich bread) in milk for 5 minutes. Squeeze out the milk and add the milk soaked bread to the bowl. Mix all of the ingredients with a spoon. When mixed well, make balls with the meat, trying to stay consistent with the size.


After making the meatballs, place them in pan with a thin layer of olive oil and brown. Make sure to keep turning the meatballs so that they are brown and toasty all the way around. Doing this keeps the flavor in the meatballs, keeps them from drying out and keeps the shape too! Remember the point isn't to cook the meatballs, but brown them. Next, place the meat balls in the tomato sauce and turn the flame down and let cook slowly for 30-45 minutes.


When done serve your yummy food over pasta and sprinkle with parmessan cheese or eat just as in! Dani loved this and I am sure you will too!

Spinach, Cheese and Leek Empanada

Making an empanada is pretty simple. All it takes is a good filling and the following steps. I'll start with the filling which you can play around with. That's half the fun! Just try not to make it liquidy or it won't come out good. Trust me! And if you make a filling that has juices, drain it before using it!

To make this yummy empanada, first sautee an onion, a leek or two, a red pepper and some garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook under a low flame until the veggies are nice and soft. Then add the frozen spinach. I used a medium package which I defrosted in the microwave.
In another pot you need to make the cheesy bechamel. Melt two soup spoons of butter on a low heat, add 1/4 cup of flour and mix well. If it's too liquidy add more flour and if too dry add more butter. Pour milk in little by little and continue to whisk until thick. I really am not sure how much milk I used, but I am guessing about a cup and a half. If it's too thick just add more milk! When mixed well add a bag of 4 cheeses and mix well. When done mix in with the spinach and veggie mix and let cool.

For the dough you will need to buy two packages of pastry dough for quiche etc. Sprinkle flour on the kitchen counter. Defrost the dough if it's frozen if not just unroll it on top of the flour and then sprinkle some flour on it and rub flour on the rolling pin and roll out the dough. I've found a trick to move the dough without ruining it. Place the rolling pin ontop of the dough, on the edge and fold it over the rolling pin. Roll it so that it spins around the rolling pin. To lay it out just unroll the dough on the tray. I should have taken a pic of this process sorry!

Put a piece of parchment paper on a large cookie pan. Lay out the dough and spread the filling over the dough, leaving a bit of dough on the edges. Place the other sheet of dough on top of it, and roll up the edges, gently folding. Refer to the pic. Then poke the top with a fork, and brush egg over the dough and edges so that it'll come out glossy. Put the empanada in the preheated oven at 356 F or 180 C. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the top is toasty. Let cool and enjoy!





Don't forget that the art of cooking is playing around with recipes! Take this one and make your own empanada. You won't regret it!!!

Coming soon...

MEAT BALLS!!!!!!!!!

Spinach and Cheese and Leek Empanada

Here is the before and after of the yummy Spinach and Cheese and Leek empanada that I made for my colleagues yesterday. It was so good that I made another for dinner...

Coming Soon...

Spinach and Cheese Empanada

I made this today for my colleagues at work and it was a HUGE HIT! I'll post the pics and recipe soon!