Hey guys,
Been busy trying to adjust back to University life. Things are alright. The house is wicked (except the kitchen) but all in all, God is good. Pretty much here is crazy as the weather keeps changing from Hot to Cold then Hot and then Cold again… Will get some photos up on the house one day…. Things are going well I suppose. Have plans to travel to Melbourne to visit friends and family. We shall see… Anyways, because of the limited choices around my area to order a take out (or “tah pau”) food, cooking seems to be taking over the household. Luckily for our dearest addition to the empire, Kurtis, our Korean housemate, is Wai Meng’s coursemate in LCB and he is realy creative in creating ideas for food styling (and sometimes crazy) but more about him in the next entry. So, my first entry would be my food. I cooked a SpagMeatballs (or a lil fancier would be “Polpette Napoletana”) There’s more pics of my kitchen mess on facebook. Here’s a recipe you might wanna try when u are tired of eating out. Note: I’m not doing any justice to call it Napoletana because it has things that was leftover in a fridge or my pantry so apologise to any italians who might come across the recipe.
Polpette Napoletana
Serves 4-5
Meatballs:
- 600g Minced beef (or pork if you don’t like beef), get with a little bit of fat if you don’t mind the extra calories and more taste
- 1 tablespoon dry sage seasoning
- a tablespoon oregano
- finely chopped fresh basil leafs (or dried) (6 leaves)
- 1 tablespoob of minced garlic
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- chilli (optional)
- 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil/EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
Sauce:
- 3-4 Diced Fresh Roma Tomatoes (or 2 can tomatoes)
- 1 Yellow Bell Pepper, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 carrot, sliced (optional)
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons of finely chopped garlic
- 5 slices of streaky bacon, diced
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- a handful of basil leafs
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar (in case the sauce is a little too sour)
- a dash or quarter cup of good white wine.
Pasta: your choice. If you like the good old’ spag, go ahead. Penne is also good as it soaks up the sauce.
Manpower: one average man (30- 40 mins prep time) or a pair of buddies (30 mins prep or less)
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Total time spend: 1 hour 15 minutes
Method: Start off with a large bowl and add in the beef. add the dry ingredients including the garlic before adding the egg and the olive oil or EVOO. Mix it well with your hands and then get yourself a oven tray (if you dont have them, just get plates) and shape them into meatballs (about the size of a quarter of your palm or less) to be put on the tray. Note: smaller it is you shape the meatball, the faster it cooks. Once complete, put it back in the fridge for 10 minutes to get them to hold their shape. Heat a pan in medium high heat and seal or brown the meatballs on one side. DO NOT TURN IT TOO SOON. Purpose is to get it brown so that it crisp up nicely without you disturbing it. Do it for 5-7 minutes per side then turn it over to the other side. Do the same thing and keep frying other parts of the meatball just yo make sure the outer layer is brown ( and not pale). Once done, you have 2 options. I place it in a over tray to be cook thoroughly for the next 10-15 minutes in an Over preheated at 150 degrees celcius. Otherwise, leave it to cool and when the sauce is ready, put them in the sauce for another 5 minutes to cook it through.
For the sauce, start of by browning the bacon first in a Pot (or if you only a one pot to boil pasta, a deep non stick pan will do). Start with 2 tablespoons of EVOO and and the bacon. I tried adding a lil bit of water just to aggrevate the fats in the bacon to help it cook throughly. Once the water is gone and the bacon fat starts to appear (and of course when its starting to turn brown), set aside the bacon in a seperate tray and remove about 3/4 of the bacon fat out of the pan (not soo good to consume at times).
For the vege, start with the onions first and fry them in the same pan (there’s still flavour in it). Then, move on with the carrots (if you are having it) then the peppers. Reason why you dont put them together because all vegetables have different cooking time. Carrots in this picture take the longest to cook if not par-boiled. Onions take the same amount of time but onions however can cook a lil longer than carrots because the sweetness it releases after browning. Just make sure you dont burn them. Peppers on the other hand can take minutes in high heat and their fine. One the vegetables are almost cook and not too soft, add the garlice and basil to be stir with it. Once they are soften and you can smell the basil leaves, add in the white wine and let the alcohol evaporate for 10 minutes. Once done, then add the tomatoes and cook them while you break it apart. Add the tomato paste and if you think there’s not enough sauce, add a cup or 2 of water or stock (chicken or vege) to add more volume. BEWARE though, adding liquid can waterdown the taste so add little by little. Bring it to boil and then lower the heat to let it simmer for 15 minutes or so.
Boil your water for the pasta and add a tablespoon of salt or add it till it has a salty taste. Here’s a fact, dont add olive oil into the pot of water when boiled. Why? Oil floats on water and it DOES NOT HELP in preventing pasta from sticking to each other. Once the water is boiling, add in the pasta according to the directions of the pasta you bought. Drain the pasta, then add in a little bit of olive oil to prevent it from sticking. Serve it with parmesan and enjoy the company.
Will be blogging more on recipes once in awhile so hop in to my blog once in awhile. Cheers!
