Lamb Meatballs, Chop Salad & Harissa Yoghurt

As a sequel to the previous recipe for reasons you can check down below, here comes the lamb!

Whilst parallel(y) working on the previous recipe, I managed to mix the mince in the bowl with the spices - garam masala, pepper and salt. Now, I love garam masala so instead of 1 tsp I put 2 and a half. This gave such a wonderful sweet taste to the salty meat, but to each their own. You can by all means try the raw meat for its taste and then spit it out, you don't have to swallow it. 

I set that aside while I chopped all the salad ingredients, aka the cucumber, lettuces, radishes and tomatoes, leaving it undressed for now. 

I then took to the sauce, slicing the chili, spring onions and coriander (where coriander stalks were supposed to be used, but I had it in a powder form, so I used that because I can't always find fresh plants). I put that in a pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil and squashed garlic. I let that fry for a bit, and then added the drained chickpeas and passata. 

You are also supposed to add saffron and the water it soaked in at this point, but I discovered my saffron from my 2011 trip to Tunis had gone bad, so I had to do without it. 

I left that to boil.

This is when I attended to the meatballs, using a teaspoon to determine the size of each, since I prefer many smaller ones to a couple of big meatballs. 

I put that in a pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil, in two batches. I waited until they started turning brown because I like my meat well done. 

While one batch or the other was frying, I dressed my salad in olive oil and lemon juice, and seasoned to taste. 

My sauce was done, so I took it off the heat, added in the meatballs to keep warm, and simply swirled a tsp of dried harissa into the yoghurt (as the paste form doesn't exist in Croatia). 

After I took this picture, I heated my tortillas a bit, and served just as Jamie recommends! 

I have discovered meatballs are something like my specialty, because they are the first things people praise, and admire while I make them. It's just that, meat is never made how I like it, (if I like it that day), and so when these opportunities arrise, I want to make the best of it. So I definitely hope to make more meatball recipes in the future! 

 If you have the 15 Minute cookbook, you can look up the recipe on page 104, if not, you will need:

Ingredients out * Kettle boiled * Large frying pan, medium heat* Large lidded pan, medium-high heat

Serves 4, 687 calories 

Ingredients

Meatballs
400g lean lamb mince
1 heaped tsp garam masala
olive oil
1 pinch of saffron
1/2-1 fresh red chili
2 spring onions
1/2 bunch of fresh coriander 
2 cloves of garlic 
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas 
350g passata 

Salad 
1/2 a cucumber
2 little gem lettuces 
1 bunch of radishes
2 ripe tomatoes
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
1 lemon 

To serve 
1 heaped tsp harissa
4 heaped tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt 
8 small wholewheat tortillas
1 orange 

Start cooking 

Mix the mince in a bowl with salt, pepper and the garam masala. Divide into 4, then roll each piece into 4 balls with wet hands, placing them in the frying pan as you roll them and adding 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Toss regularly until dark golden all over. Put the saffron into a cup, just cover with boiling water and leave to soak. 

Finely slice the chili, trimmed spring onions and coriander stalks (reserving the leaves), put them into the large pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher. Fry for 40 seconds, then add the saffron and its soaking water, the drained chickpeas and the passata, cover and bring to the boil. In a small dish, swirl the harissa through the yoghurt. 

Roughly chop and mix all the salad veg for the salad on a board. Add the extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice, then season to taste. Loosen the sauce with a splash of water if needed, then pour into the meatball pan and season to taste. Microwave (800W) the tortillas for 45 seconds. Serve it all with orange wedges and a scattering of coriander leaves. 

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version is written above. 

Bon Appétit! 

Ricotta Fritters, Tomato Sauce & Courgette Salad

Hi!

Yesterday was a feast for mine and my family's taste buds, so today it's a feast for my blog.
I made two recipes on Sunday which absolutely drained me, and so will the two blogposts I am about to write. 
I made the recipe you can see in the title, and the "Lamb Meatballs, Chop Salad & Harissa Yoghurt" which can be seen in the blog post ahead, or on page 104. 
The reason behind this is that the ricotta fritters, sauce and salad weren't enough for a Sunday meal for four, and I happened to have some minced lamb, so I went on a hunt for a second small-ish recipe I could make. 
Now, I did make these two meals parallel, because my kitchen is small (hence not a lot of pots and pans or stoves) and because I wanted to eat both at the same time. So excuse me if I get a little bit mixed up because I was doing a bit of this, and then that.
This is what I came up with for recipe uno:

This is a fairly simple recipe with very few ingredients, which you can actually make in 15 minutes, in my opinion. 

I firstly put the dried porcini mushrooms into boiling water to rehydrate, and started on the fritters.

I added the egg, ricotta, nutmeg, lemon zest, parmesan and flour and beat it together until I got a dough-like consistency. 

I set that aside to firm up a bit, and proceeded to the sauce. Here I added olive oil to my pan, dried chili and squashed garlic to fry away a bit, and then went in with the finely chopped porcini and half the soaking water and passata. You also add in some black olives without the stone and basil leaves to your liking. I left that to boil, and when it did, I seasoned with salt and pepper. 

While that was cooking away, I grated my courgettes and dressed with lemon juice, salt and pepper and olive oil. The chili and mint went in later, because this way they could stick to the dressing after I tossed it together. 

My sauce was cooking away on low heat for me to have time to fry the fritters, which was now. 

I put a tablespoon of oil in the pan, after Jamie's directions, which I found wasn't enough in the long run, but better add it along the way as opposed to your initial fritters drowning in oil.

I alternated between small and big ones, and don't worry, they will stick to the bottom at first, but just gently scrub the bottom with a spatula when you are about to turn them and they will retain their original crispy bottom.

Also, cooking on low heat for firstly, the oil not to burn, and secondly, because you will be able to control the color of your fritters.

By now my sauce had boiled, the last of my fritters were frying and the salad was in a nice bowl - I was set! 

 Here are some close-ups of the sauce and fritters, arranged after Jamie's recommendations: 

And here is his serving suggestion:

One of the rare 15 Minute Meals, if you want something light and quick on a working day, this is it! To achieve this recipe, you will need:

Ingredients out * Kettle boiled * Large frying pan, medium heat* Large casserole pan, low heat * Food processor (fine grater)*

Serves 4, 408 calories 

Ingredients

Sauce 

25g dried porcini mushrooms

optional: 4 anchovy fillets 

1 dried red chili

2 cloves of garlic

700g passata 

8 black olives (stone in)

1/2 bunch of fresh basil

Fritters

1 large egg

400g ricotta cheese

1 whole nutmeg, for grating

1 lemon

40g Parmesan cheese

1 heaped tbsp plain flour

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

Salad

400g firm green or yellow baby courgettes

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 fresh red chili

1/2 bunch of fresh mint

1 lemon 

Start cooking

Put the porcini into a mug and cover with boiling water. Crack the egg into a mixing bowl, add the ricotta, finely grate 1/4 of the nutmeg, the lemon zest and Parmesan, add the flour, then beat together. Put 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the frying pan, then use a tablespoon to spoon in 8 large dollops of the mixture, turning carefully when nice and golden.

Put the anchovies (if using) and 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the casserole pan, crumble in the dried chili, and squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher. Finely chop and add the porcini with half their soaking water and the passata, season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Squash and add the olives, discarding the stones. Pick and reserve a few basil leaves, then chop the rest and add to the sauce. 

Grate courgettes in the processor (you could use a box grater here) and tip into a bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper, the juice of the zested lemon and the extra virgin olive oil. Finely chop and add the chili and the top leafy half of the mint, then toss together. Place the fritters on top of the sauce, then scatter over the reserved basil leaves, drizzle with balsamic and serve with lemon wedges. 

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version is written above. 

Bon Appétit! 

Swedish Meatballs, Celeriac & Spinach Rice

As school has started and habits are renewed, my blog updates are too.

I had a very successful mentor meeting last week, which showed me just how supported I am in my goal which really helped me get back on track. 

I may have failed this in the start because this here post is Sunday's meal, but hey, baby steps.

I have been eyeing this recipe up and down for the past several weeks, and having decided my body needs to learn to love celery/celeriac, I jumped the gun. 

This is what I came up with:

To start with, I would like to say I cook for four, so this may alter the recipe slightly. That goes for any number of people you cook for.

Firstly, I put 350g of red rice to cook at the very start (Croatia doesn't do pre-cooked rice, or semi as a matter of fact), just because it takes the longest (also, use whatever you have at home - if it says brown rice and you have red rice, for the love of god use that).
I then turned to the project of celeriac, which is a great grey lump (root) of celery. 
I used 3/4th's of it, just because it was gigantic, but thinking back I could've used the whole thing - it shrinks along the way. 
I then put it into a casserole pan with one tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper, thyme leaves (go to town with this) and a splash of boiling water I kept from when I was starting the rice. 
You will have to add water several times afterwards because it does evaporate/soak in rather quickly, and you don't want your celeriac to burn since its on only one tablespoon of oil. 
Shuffle it around every now and then just so it doesn't stick and keep in mind that you don't have to cook celeriac for long, just until it isn't that firm and crunchy anymore (but it also won't really get a nice tan because it is being cooked on water!)

I left that on and turned to the meat. I used a mixture of pork and beef mince, and firstly added the spices and fiddled it around in my hands to mix well - I added salt and pepper (I used Cajun pepper because I love it spicy) and dried marjoram because I didn't have dill and this went with the meat superbly in my opinion. I wanted more small meatballs as opposed to a few large ones, so I took a teaspoon and measured the size in that way. Then I just rolled them in between the palms of my hand and set them aside. 

By this time the celeriac was more than done so I took that off the heat, knowing that it would be re-heated when the rice was put in. 
I had frozen blocks of spinach which were de-frozen by now, so I just submerged them in boiling water and cooked until they were semi-hard. 
My rice was also done so I drained it and set aside on top of the spinach to keep warm. 

With that near the fire, I took my frying pan and put one tablespoon of olive oil, followed by two batches of 8 meatballs. As soon as I put them in, I sprinkled them generously with caraway seeds so that they would stick to the raw meat through the process. I needed the oil for two rounds, and since I didn't want it to burn, I put the heat and medium, and each batch took 5 min max.

While the second batch was frying, I put the celeriac back on the stove to re-heat the tiniest bit, added some of the rice and the spinach inside until all was nicely combined. 

Jamie says to add a swig of vodka to the meatballs, but I happen to not own any alcohol of that sort, so I skipped that. I also had no cranberry jam so I do not know what that would taste like. 

At this point I realized I missed a salad, because traditionally, in Croatia during every meal there is a salad as a side dish included. I remembered my obsession with pickled green cabbage at the moment and thought I would add a dash of something of my own in the recipe. 
I definitely recommend trying it!

The traditional incredible close-ups that I really do not know how I manage:

Probably one of the few 15-minute recipes, this dish is such a great and healthy combination of vegetables, starch and meat.

To get this recipe, you will need:

Ingredients out * Kettle boiled * Lidded casserole pan, medium heat * Small lidded pan, medium heat * Medium frying pan, medium heat 

Serves 4, 576 calories 

Ingredients 

Rice
1 celeriac
olive oil
a few sprigs of fresh lemon thyme
1 mug (300g) of 10-minute wholegrain or basmati rice
200g baby spinach

Meatballs
200g lean beef mince
200g lean pork mince
1/2 bunch of fresh dill
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 swig of vodka
4 tsp cranberry jam
4 tbsp single cream
4 tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt, to serve 

Start cooking 

Carefully trim the knobbly end of the celeriac, remove the skin, then dice it into 1cm pieces. Put into the casserole pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, a pinch of salt and pepper, the thyme leaves and a splash of boiling water. Put the lid on, turn the heat to high and cook, stirring regularly. Put 1 mug of rice, 2 mugs of boiling water and a pinch of salt into the small pan and put the lid on. 

Put all the mince into a bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper, finely chop and add most of the dill, then mix and scrunch together with clean hands. Divide the mixture into 4, then pinch and quickly roll out 5 balls from each piece with wet hands. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil into the hot frying pan, add the meatballs and caraway seeds, turn the heat up to high and toss regularly until the meatballs are golden. 

Stir the spinach into the casserole pan, followed by the cooked rice, then season to taste. Add a good swig of vodka to the meatballs, carefully light it with a match (if you want), let the flames subside, then add the jam, cream and a few good splashes of water, and simmer. Season and serve with the rice, scatter with the remaining dill leaves and yoghurt. 

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version is written above. 

Bon Appétit! 

Veggie Chilli, Crunchy Tortilla & Avocado Salad

Hello to the three-hundred and something viewers of my blog whom I hope came back for more, and are thus reading this post!

Even though I just may be apologizing to myself at the moment, I still want to say that the lack of recipes isn't only affecting any viewers of this blog but my project too, and thus my grade.
So even though I have justifiable excuses for most of the times, I still could've managed my time better, which is like the only thing the IB talks about.
Anyhow, I did re-decorate my room for the first time in FIVE YEARS, holy moly. That was a huge project which is actually ongoing, aside from painting my room and deciding on all my possessions (donating, selling or keeping), I still need a wardrobe, some racks, lamps and such.
That was always my big project of the Winter Break, I just didn't know at what cost.
But I did cook today, as sort of an introduction to school again, since this is a school project, and surprisingly, here I am posting the very same day! (Probably because I have a ton of other projects I was supposed to do but didn't and now it is easier if I get this out of the way first)
This is what I came up with:

I was actually planning on doing the ricotta fritters but that seemed as more of a week-day recipe and not something that would fill up four adults. 

So having in mind the products I had at home, I searched for something that would do the deed. And other than having to pop out for some veggies for the salad, I was set!

I started off by soaking my dried chickpeas in water the night before (overnight), but only because my mom went crazy and started buying bio grains which are packaged dry. If you are lucky and have them in a can, go right ahead with the recipe. 

The next day (today), I started off by cooking the rice. 

Jamie uses pre-cooked rice, I am not as lucky to live in a country where you can purchase that so I had to bear with mine. 

While that was cooking off for about half an hour, I whizzed my base in the processor. 

By that I mean the chili, red onion, paprika, cumin seeds, garlic and coriander stalks. 

I whizzed until it was a paste and then set it into a large casserole pan. Keep in mind you need a really large one, because after the beans and chickpeas you still have 700g of passata, so don't fool yourself. Just a little extra to wash! 

I "roasted" that for a bit and then added my chopped up peppers: decide how you like to eat them in a chilli because that is how they are going to stay. If you don't like coming across big chunky pieces, chop it right up and then add! 

After this, the drained chickpeas and beans went in. After emptying the huge amount of passata, I added salt and pepper and popped the lid on. 

While that was on medium heat, I prepared the salad ingredients. I washed and chopped the lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes, and de-seeded the avocado. 

I chopped half of the avo for the salad, and used the other half for the sauce with yoghurt, lime juice, coriander leaves, and seasoning. I blended that with a stick blender and set aside. Depending on the yoghurt you use, your sauce will be denser or rarer. 

By this time my rice was done so I drained that and set aside while I just popped some tortillas into my toaster to crisp up, and then chopped them into strings to "sprinkle" over the salad. 

I took the chili off of the fire and made a little crate in the middle for the rice I was about to insert. 

I spread my salad out on a plate and poured the avo sauce over it, and moved the chili over. 

I think this close-up thing is becoming a tradition:

This is actually a super quick meal if you have a big kitchen and lots of pots and pans, I don't so I was constantly washing and missing the experience. This meal is so filling yet so good for your pained stomach after the abusive holidays, an amazing recipe that will last you several days. 

If you want to achieve the meal above, just follow this recipe:

Ingredients out * Oven at 200C/400F/gas 6 * Food processor (bowl blade) * Lidded casserole pan, high heat * Stick blender 

Serves 4, 749 calories

Ingredients

Chilli&rice 
1 dried smoked chipotle or ancho chili 
1/2 a fresh red chili 
1 red onion 
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika 
1/2 tsp cumin seeds 
1-2 garlic cloves 
1 big bunch of fresh coriander 
olive oil 
2 mixed-color peppers
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas 
1 x 400g tin of black beans 
700g passata 
1 x 250g pack of cooked mixed long grain and wild rice 

Salad 
4 small corn tortilla wraps
2 ripe avocados 
3 heaped tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt, plus extra to serve 
2 limes
1 romaine lettuce 
1/2 cucumber 
1 fresh red chili 
1 handful of ripe cherry tomatoes 

Start cooking 

Put the chilies, peeled and halved red onion, paprika and cumin seeds into the processor, squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher, then add the coriander stalks (reserving the leaves) and 2 tablespoons of oil, and whiz until fine. Tip into the pan, then add the deseeded and roughly chopped peppers, drained chickpeas and black beans, a pinch of salt and pepper and the passata, stir well and put the lid on. Fold the tortillas in half, slice into 0,5 cm strips, sprinkle on to a baking tray and pop in the oven until golden and crisp.

Put most of the coriander leaves, a pinch of salt and pepper, half a peeled avocado, the yoghurt and the juice from 2 limes into a jug and whiz with a stick blender until silky. Check and adjust the seasoning of the chilli, leave the lid off. Remove the tortillas from the oven into a bowl, cut the lettuce into chunky wedges and add to the bowl. Scoop and dot over curl of avocado. Peel the cucumber into ribbons and finely slice half a chilli, then scatter both over the top. 

Make a well in the middle of the chilli, and tip in the rice, then pop the lid on for the last few minutes to warm the rice through. Pour the dressing over the salad, pick over the remaining coriander leaves, finely slice the remaining chilli and sprinkle over the top along with the halved cherry tomatoes, then toss everything together. Serve with dollops of yoghurt. 

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version is written above. 

Bon Appétit! 

Sizzling Chicken Fajitas, Grilled Peppers, Salsa, Rice & Beans

Hello lovely, 

here I am with another recipe, long-ago cooked, never posted. 
This winter break is killing me in the sense of work. I cannot bring myself to it!
All I do is sleep and eat, and not even food I made! It's outrageous...outrageously yummy. 
Oh but I have forced myself to execute this task, though still in bed, but I am a strong believer in baby steps, and this is my first one. 

A couple of days ago I needed a recipe to use up some ingredients I had at home, and this seemed to be it:

I somehow feel that Jamie overdoes it with pots and pans and processes he takes the food through. Or at least how he put the cookbook together. When I watch him, I see how everything he does is by chance, from experience. That must be extremely hard to then turn into recipes with measurements, hence the confusion. 

The little rant aside, I started the meal off with soaking the dried chili in some boiling water, which didn't really help, probably because I didn't tear it apart, I left it in one piece. 

In the processor, I put spring onions, tomato, coriander stalks, chili, balsamic and soy sauce and set aside to let it absorb into each other I guess. 

I then cut my meat up into the desired size, after I removed any nasty bits I didn't want to grill. I tossed it with salt, pepper and sweet paprika and set aside. 

I then prepared the peppers and red onion for the grilling, and seasoned them with salt and pepper. The reason I wasn't doing anything concrete is because Jamie uses pre-cooked brown rice, which I don't think even exists in Croatia. 

Furthermore, the one I used is some sort of bio brand, which took even longer to cook.  And I certainly didn't want my rice to be cold or even worse, not done by the time everything else was, so I had to coordinate everything with my rice. 

When it was half-way through (the rice I mean), I grilled the peppers and onions and set aside near the heat. 

I then proceeded to drain the beans and "fry" with some cumin seeds (the more the better) and chili. Mine didn't "crisp up" as Jamie says, they started falling apart and turning to mush. But by then the rice was done and drained, so I just mixed it all up in the bean pan and took it off the heat. 

Oh, and when making the rice, I used some Vegeta on it (a Croatian spice mix) since Jamie used pre-cooked rice and he didn't suggest anything else. Just so you don't think my rice was bland. 

I then put my meat on the grill pan with one tablespoon of oil. 

I like my meat well done so it was on until it was very dark, and during that I whizzed the contents of the processor to get a crazy spicy salsa which didn't resemble Jamie's the tiniest bit. Ask me why, not. 

My meat was done, and I planned on warming the tortillas up on the same pan, but the long grilling turned everything on the bottom black, and the oil was looking sad and no longer useable. So I took my pancake pan out and warmed them up just below the point when they would start crisping up, which we don't want because then they cannot be folded nicely. 

I don't have a board as big as Jamie so I had to use my previously featured round one, which also meant I had to alter the design of the meal slightly, which I don't like doing. 

 I did crumble feta and dollop yoghurt on though, which Jamie so famously loves doing!

My favorite part was probably the bean-rice, probably because rice is my favorite carb and the cumin beans just tasted superb when you came across the surprise in your mouth. 

A meal which is full of taste and looks hard to make, I chose it as a leftover meal.

To achieve this recipe, you will need:

 *Ingredients out* Kettle boiled * Liquidizer* Griddle pan, high heat* Medium frying pan, medium-high heat* Large pan, medium heat*

Serves 4, 610 calories 

Ingredients 

Salsa

1 dried smoked chipotle or ancho chili 

2 spring onions 

1 ripe large tomato

1/2 bunch of fresh coriander 

1 fresh red chili 

2 limes

2 tsp balsamic vinegar 

1 tbsp low-salt soy sauce 

Fajitas

2 mixed-color peppers 

1 red onion

2 x 200g skinless chicken breasts 

1 heaped tsp sweet smoked paprika, plus extra to serve 

olive oil 

Rice & beans

1 x 400g tin of mixed beans 

1/2 tsp cumin seeds 

1 fresh red chili 

1 x 250g pack of cooked brown rice 

1 lemon 

To serve 

 4 wholemeal flour tortillas 

4 tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt 

20g feta cheese 

Start cooking 

Tear the dried chili into the liquidizer and just cover with boiling water to rehydrate. Trim and add the spring onions with the tomato, coriander stalks, fresh chili, juice of 1 lime, the balsamic and soy sauce, pop the lid on and leave to sit. Remove the stalks and seeds from the peppers, then tear up and place on the griddle pan. Peel, quarter and add the red onion, season  with salt and pepper, then let it char nicely all over. 

On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with salt, pepper and the paprika. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1,5 cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Drain and rinse the beans, then put into the large pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, the cumin seeds and the whole fresh chili. Toss regularly for a couple of minutes until the beans are crispy-skinned. 

Whiz the contents of the liquidizer until smooth, then pour into a little serving bowl. Stir the rice and the juice of 1 lemon into the beans to warm through. Transfer the charred veg to a board, then merely warm the tortillas on the griddle pan. Slice the chicken and serve with the charred veg, rice and beans, tortillas and lime wedges. Dollop yoghurt over the veg, then sprinkle everything with crumbled feta and the coriander leaves. 

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version is written above. 

Bon Appétit!