Meatballs in tomato sauce in a hurry

I’ve whipped these meatballs up in approximately 30 minutes. They are dead easy, and super tasty. Try your best to resist the temptation to overwork the meatball mixture when forming them. While you don’t want the mixture to fall apart in the pan, you want the meatballs to stay juicy. Overworking the mixture will make them dense. If you have time (and the patience) you could leave the sauce to simmer over a longer period of time to allow the flavours to develop.

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 500g pork mince
• 2 x tbsp plain flour
• 1 x tsp sea salt
• 1 x tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1 x tbsp fresh rosemary leaves
• 3 x cloves fresh garlic
• 1 x tsp black pepper, ground
• 1 x tsp sweet paprika
• 1 x tbsp olive oil

Sauce

• 400g tinned tomatoes, I like to use the chopped kind but whole tomatoes works well too
• 3 x cloves fresh garlic, minced or crushed
• 1 x brown onion, sliced
• 1 x cup water or stock
• 1 x tsp black pepper
• 1 x tsp sea salt
• 1 x tsp dried oregano
• 1 x tbsp olive oil

Method

• Add thyme, rosemary and garlic to a mortar and pestle and ground until a paste forms. If you’re using coarse sea salt or black pepper, add them to the mortar and pestle as well and ground until fine.
• In a mixing bowl, add the garlic and herb paste, pork mince, 1 x tbsp plain flour, salt and pepper (if not already added), and sweet paprika and mix to combine. Try not to over mix, it should be just combined with spices evenly distributed throughout.
• Sprinkle some of the remaining plain flour onto a pan or plate, and shape the meat mixture into small balls. I like to shape them into rounds about an inch in diameter – I usually get about 20 meatballs this way. Once all the meatballs are rolled, sprinkle the remaining plain flour over them (see picture below). You can make the meatballs ahead of time if required.

• To cook the meatballs, add one tbsp olive oil to a pan and fry them until just brown all around and remove from the pan. You don’t need to cook them through at this stage as they’ll finish cooking in the sauce.
• Now for the sauce. In the same pan that you cooked the meatballs in, add 1 tbsp olive oil and fry the sliced onions until softened.
• Once the onions are softened, add the tomatoes, garlic and water / stock to the pan and bring to a simmer. At this point, I like to scrape down the bottom of the pan to make sure all the taste sitting at the bottom of the pan is incorporated into the sauce.
• Add the meatballs to the pan and turn down the heat to a very gentle simmer. Add the oregano, salt and pepper, cover the pan and then leave to gently simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Serve hot, drizzled with olive oil with bread or any other side of your choice (works a treat with mashed potatoes or pasta).

Sweet potato, baby spinach and grain salad

Got a potluck BBQ on the weekend and you’re down to bring a salad but can’t think of one that’s actually a crowdpleaser and won’t get upstaged by the BBQ’d goods? Try this one. It’s easy and quick to throw together, is reasonably healthy and tastes delish. Remember to wait to dress the salad right before serving – no one likes soggy spinach leaves.

Salad ingredients

• 1 large bag of baby spinach (about 400-500g), washed and checked to make sure there are no wilted / sad looking leaves
• 1 large sweet potato, cut into small 2cm cubes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tin lentils, preferably the low / no added salt kind
• 1 handful mint leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 handful toasted pine nuts
• 1 handful pepitas
• 1 cup quinoa (any kind – red / white / black)

Dressing

• 1 tbsp manuka honey
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tbsp olive oil (preferably extra virgin)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 1 tsp mustard (I like to use hot English mustard)

Method

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
• Rinse the quinoa in cold water, and boil about double the amount of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until tender and the liquid is absorbed. Once the liquid is absorbed, turn off the heart leave the lid on for about 5-10 minutes.
• While the quinoa is boiling, toss sweet potato cubes in olive oil in an oven tray and then place in oven to bake. Because the pieces are quite small, they shouldn’t take very long to cook through – approximately 15-20 minutes should do the trick. Once cooked, remove from oven and set aside to cool.
• You should now have all your cooked elements set aside to cool slightly.
• Add all dressing ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly. You could alternatively add all ingredients to a jar, close jar with lid and shake to mix the dressing.
• Add all remaining salad ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add in the cooked quinoa and sweet potato and mix thoroughly. Dress the salad right before serving.

 

Beef, red wine and mushroom pies

Pies are the ultimate comfort food. Nothing says feel warm and cozy like a beef pie. This recipe makes 6 small hand pies. You can definitely make the filling ahead of time and leave to develop in the fridge overnight – it’ll taste EVEN BETTER! If shortcrust pastry isn’t your thing, feel free to replace with any other pastry of your liking – I just like the crispiness of shortcrust. If you’re gluten intolerant, the filling works super well on polenta and / or mashed potatoes.

If you, like me, occasionally get really lazy these pies work a treat in a pie maker. I have a Sunbeam Pie Magic maker. It is a life saver when you’re making big batches to stock up the freezer (or just because you like pies a lot). The picture below is the exact same filling recipe, but made in my Sunbeam Pie Magic maker and without an egg wash.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 500g chuck steak, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1 small brown onion, finely chopped
• 100g small button mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp plain flour (you can use rice / tapioca flour instead if required)
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 5 sprigs lemon thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Store bought short crust pastry, 3-4 sheets (if you’re feeling like a legend and want to make your own pastry, go for your life, but I find store bought works just as well)
• 1 egg, beaten (to glaze)

For the pie cases, I used round foil cases for this recipe, you can also use pie pans too (in any shape), whatever is your fancy!*

*Read: Whatever you have lying around the house.  

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
• Heat oil in a large ovenproof pot (something reasonably deep – I use a Chausseur round French oven in 22cm). Once oil has heated, brown the meat.
• Once the meat has browned, remove from the pot. Add the onions to the pot and turn down the heat.
• Cook the onions until softened, and then add the mushrooms and the flour to the pot. Stir the mixture. Once the mushrooms have softened, add the tomatoes and red wine. Turn up the heat in the pot and bring to a boil. Once the liquid comes to a gentle boil, add the beef and lemon thyme to the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste, cover with a lid and place in heated oven for approximately 45 minutes to an hour. Check the beef, it should be cooked through by now. If not, leave in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.
• Once the meat has cooked through, leave the filling aside to cool completely. The filling must be completely cool before you start filling the pasty.
• Cut 12 circles out of the short crust pastry approximately 1 inch larger in diameter than the size of the pie cases. If you’re making these using a pie maker, follow recommended instructions. If you’re doing it old school, follow the steps below.
• Use 6 of the circles to line the bottom of the pie cases. Put in the fridge for 10 mins to cool. Once chilled, the pie cases are ready to be filled.
• Carefully spoon the chilled pie filling into the pie cases. Don’t overfill – they should be approximately 90% full, and make sure each pie has a good amount of meat pieces. No one likes a scrooge.
• Once the pies are filled, place the 6 remaining circles on top of each of them. Use a fork to seal the pastry, or any other sealing method you’re used to, then pop the pies in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius while the pies are chilling in the fridge.
• Once the oven reaches temperature, take the pies out of the fridge. Brush the egg wash onto the top of the pies and place the pies into the oven to cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

Resist the urge to bite into hot pies – you will burn your tongue!