As school has started and habits are renewed, my blog updates are too.
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.
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.
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!
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!
Please can you tell me the name of the cookbook this recipe came from
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