Monthly Archives: May 2015

My best ever meatballs

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Filed under Meat, Mince, Pasta, Supper

cooked meatballs

Spaghetti with meatballs is one of my favourite things to eat. Tonight I think I made my all time best meatballs ever. Mr Arabella Eats said they were definitely the tastiest in his opinion so I shall share with you why I think that was. Before this evening I’d always finished cooking my meatballs in with the tomato sauce, either on the hob or in the oven, and had always ended up being disappointed with their flavour, particularly compared with the piece I’d fried off to check for seasoning at the start of cooking. It was infuriating and I couldn’t work out why it happened. Then I read somewhere that cooking the meatballs in with the tomato sauce like that ‘leaches out their flavour’. It was a eureka moment.  Tonight I cooked the meatballs completely through on their own in the frying pan and they were amazing!

Also, I watched a bit of Nigel Slater last night and he puts anchovies into his meatballs, which he says enhances the flavour. I didn’t have any anchovies but I did have some Umami paste (from Waitrose) in the cupboard so I put a bit of that in, along with Nigel’s recommended lemon zest and I think that also helped their flavour intensity. The paste has a bit of anchovy in it, along with porcini mushrooms, red wine, tomatoes, parmesan and bay leaf so I put some in the tomato sauce as well. But shhhh don’t tell Mr Arabella Cooks (let’s call him Mr AC) as he thinks he doesn’t like anchovies or mushrooms. I also add toasted fennel seeds which again he’s not wild about but I owned up to those (well, you can actually specifically taste them) and he said he liked their addition so I’ve included them in the recipe, but omit them if you don’t like them.

Meatballs are a fairly forgiving substance so you don’t have to be utterly precise with your measurements. I usually just chuck handfuls of stuff in, but I measured it all out tonight to make it easy for you.

To make the dish gluten free, just use gluten free breadcrumbs and/or crackers and serve with gluten free pasta.

Meatball ingredients (Serves 4):

  • 1 pack of pork mince (about 450/500g)
  • 1 pack of beef or steak mince (same weight)
  • 4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs soaked in 2 tablespoons of milk
  • 2 tablespoons of Jacobs Crackers bashed up to crumbs
  • 2 tablespoons of fennel seeds (optional)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 large onion, chopped as finely as you can
  • 1 tablespoon of grated parmesan
  • Grated zest of a lemon
  • 1 teaspoon of sea salt
  • Black pepper

Method:

1) Dry fry the fennel seeds in a frying pan until they become fragrant (about 3 or 4 minutes). Toss them every 30 seconds.

2) Squeeze the soaked breadcrumbs with your hands and add them and all the other ingredients to the minced meat in a large bowl.

meatball mix

3) Mix this together with your hands.

meatball mix 2

4) Take a small bit of the mixture and fry it off to check for seasoning. Add more salt or pepper if you think it needs it.

5) Roll the mixture into balls. They need to be fairly small so that they cook completely through in the pan.

raw meatballs

6) Fry the balls in batches, or use a couple of frying pans at once. (Don’t overcrowd the pan). They need to be a nice brown on all sides. They should be cooked in about 10 – 15 minutes, but cut one open to check there’s no pink left inside.

browned meatballs

7) Make a tomato sauce using an onion, garlic, tomato puree, tinned tomatoes, a pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt, some Umami paste (if you like) and a serving spoon of the cooking water from your pasta.

8) Cook your spaghetti; dried or fresh is fine. I like to make my own tagliatelle using a royal pasta dough if I’m making this for guests, but tonight I used shop bought fresh spaghetti and it was still delicious.

Serve with freshly grated parmesan on top. Yum!

finished plate 2

Bank holiday gluten and egg free pancakes

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Filed under Breakfast, egg free, Gluten free, Sweet things

stack

We travelled back from Wiltshire today and ended up having a very late lunch, so all I could be bothered to do for the kids’ tea was pancakes. These pancakes are great. They contain no gluten or egg so my daughter can eat them, but the whole family love them. They’re light and fluffy, simple to make and really tasty. And you don’t need to leave the batter to rest so if you want to make them on the spur of the moment, you can.

The main ingredient is buckwheat flour (I use a brand that is labelled gluten free, just to be on the safe side), but the secret, I think, is to add a bit of gluten free bread flour, because it has xanthan gum in it. Xanthan gum is often used as a binder and thickener in gluten free recipes (gluten is what makes the stuff it’s in sticky) and having it already mixed into your flour saves a lot of faff. I also use a branded egg replacer called, originally, ‘no egg’, to really ensure a nice thick consistency. And just for good measure, a tablespoon of Flaxseed because I read somewhere that it can be used as a binder to replace eggs. You could probably leave it out, but at the very least it replaces some of the Omega 3 that real eggs would bring to the dish, plus it contains calcium and iron, so I like to put it in.

Ingredients:

  • 130g gluten free buckwheat flour. I use Doves.
  • 70g gluten free bread flour. Again, Doves is good. If you can’t find bread flour just use gluten free plain flour.
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
  • 2 tablespoons of golden caster sugar.
  • 1 tablespoon of Flaxseed mixed with a tablespoon of water. I sieve the Flaxseed so there are no husks in the batter and Delilah (that’s the daughter) can’t detect its presence (she is monumentally fussy).
  • 2 teaspoons of Organ ‘No Egg’ mixed with 1 tablespoon of water.
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of regular table salt.
  • 200ml milk (any kind; I use full fat) and 150ml natural yoghurt (I usually use a nice thick Greek one) mixed together.

Method:

  1. Sieve the flours and baking powder together into a bowl.
  2. Add the sugar and salt and make a well in the centre.

flour for pancakes

3. Mix the milk and yoghurt with the egg replacer and Flaxseed, and stir into the flour.

mixing flour

4. If the mixture is too thick, thin it with more milk. You need it to be fairly thick though; it should  look roughly like this:

batter consistency

5. Heat some sunflower or groundnut oil in a frying pan over a medium high heat. Add a spoonful of batter. Because it’s a thick and sticky mixture, you’ll need to shape and form it a bit in the pan.  I find this sort of ladle really helpful:

ladel

6. When you can see little air bubbles in the top of the mixture in the pan, flip the pancake over and cook the other side:

bubbles in batter  pancake cooking 2

7. Put the cooked pancakes onto kitchen paper to absorb excess oil then serve with your choice of topping. Diggy likes maple syrup, Delilah prefers Nutella:

diggy eats pancakes  delilah eating pancakes 1

I like lemon juice, a sugar substitute and chopped fruit. Yum!

berriespancakes

Salted caramel nut brittle

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Filed under Gluten free, Sweet things

image

It’s half term. It’s a bank holiday weekend (woo!). We’re off to visit friends in Wiltshire tomorrow and I’ve made some chunky nut brittle to take as a gift. I’ve therefore burnt my arm because I always, ALWAYS burn myself when I boil sugar. Be warned. But it’s worth it. This salty, sweet, nutty chunk of deliciousness is one of my favourite things to nibble with coffee after dinner. And it’s perfect for wrapping up in cellophane with a nice bow and giving as a present. Just make sure you wait until it’s completely cold before you try any. Tempting though it may be, molten sugar is bloody lethal.

Ingredients:

  • 150g caster sugar
  • 80g roasted salted peanuts (or cashews if you prefer)
  • 80g  almonds (unroasted)
  • 80g walnuts or pecans (also unroasted)
  • 2 teaspoons of sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon of regular (fine grain) salt

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan.

1) Toast the nuts on a baking tray in the oven for about 8 minutes until they are golden and beautifully scented.

nut brittle 4

2) Put some baking parchment onto a baking tray or large wooden chopping board.

3) Tip the sugar into a large heavy bottomed saucepan, along with 3 tablespoons of water. Swirl the pan to get all the sugar wet (add more water if necessary).

4) Heat the sugar on a highish heat until it dissolves. Don’t, whatever you do, stir the sugar, just swirl the pan every now and then (more so towards the end). nut brittle 3

5) Once the caramel has turned a lovely clear golden brown (probably after about 6-7 minutes) take the pan off the heat and stir in the nuts and sea salt. nut brittle 2

6) Pour out onto the prepared baking parchment. Use a large spoon or forks or whatever you have to hand to spread it out as evenly as you can. You’ll need to move fairly swiftly as it sets really quickly. Sprinkle over the regular (fine grain) salt.

7) Leave to cool and set hard. Then break it up as gently as you can into bite sized pieces.

Yum!