If I have to choose a favorite...

To answer my own question: If I have to choose, I think these Baja-style Shrimp Meatball Tacos (click here) may just be my favorite of all the meatballs I've made so far. I made these meatballs and froze them, and then put the tacos together for weekend guests (click here) a few days later. They were so incredibly easy to make and were devoured in minutes. It is no big surprise that shrimp, or shrimp and pork mixed together, like I used in making Meatballs for Banh Mi Sandwiches (click here) and Vietnamese-style Spring Rolls (click here), make incredibly delicious meatballs. Choosing a favorite meatball recipe though is like choosing a favorite book; it depends on my mood as to which I will choose on any given day. On another day, the Beef Cocktail Meatballs with Grape Jelly and Chili Sauce (click here) that I didn't think we would like but were such a big hit, could just as easily be picked as my all-time favorite. And then there were those lamb meatballs...

Meatball Mosaic

My project for the past six months was to make a new meatball recipe every week. I had planned to do it all year -meatballs are so incredibly versatile and always welcome at our table - but the unforeseen result of making all these meatballs is that we are all out of ground meat. For now, I am putting the project on hold, but when we again have ground meat in the freezer -I will continue to explore the world of meatballs. Any favorites so far?

NASCAR Balls

"Food, or the lack of it, breeds stories, sparks memories. It's our common ground, the universal language." -Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, The Kitchen Sisters

During my most recent visit to our local library, I checked out Hidden Kitchens -Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva (click here). The book is from their ongoing radio series they started airing fourth of July weekend, 2004. The series is stories of hidden kitchens -street corner cooking, food traditions and communities coming together through food and the people who make it happen. WHY HAVE I NOT HEARD OF THIS UNTIL NOW??? DO I LIVE UNDER A ROCK OR SOMETHING? Well, no. I just don't always pay attention. My husband swears he mentioned it to me awhile ago after listening to a program and recognizing it would be just the sort of thing to get me REALLY excited -but I must not have been paying attention. Anyway, I really recommend, for those of you have also not been paying attention or indeed DO live under a rock or something, that you immediately find this book and read it. Or let me know that you have been listening to this series all along, and then ask me how I could possibly have NOT heard about this program until now. From Lou the Glue, an Old Stove from San Francisco, to The Chili Queens of San Antonio; from NASCAR kitchens feeding the speed, to mopping the mutton and making burgoo in Kentucky; this is some fascinating stories of hidden kitchens from all over America today.

One of the chapters/stories in the books is about how the homeless and others living without kitchens use Crock-pots and The George Foreman Grill for cooking.

"I think if you ever go to school hungry, it puts a chip on your shoulder. To go to school without breakfast, then without a lunch, it makes for a bad boy. I think hunger makes you angry."
-George Foreman

Another chapter in the book is about the cooks who feed the crews and families of NASCAR racing and includes these two meatball recipes.

Ham Balls
This recipe was contributed by Ken Enck who was cooking for twenty-four teams at the Bristols racetrack in Virginia when he gave the recipe to The Kitchen Sisters. I've halved it to make 24 meatballs.

Mix together:
1 1/2 lbs. ground smoked ham
1/2 lb. ground pork
2 eggs
3/4 c. milk
1 c. bread crumbs
Form into golf ball (or lug nut) sized balls and place on baking sheet. Bake 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

Meanwhile in a small saucepan, combine:
1/4 c. vinegar
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 T. mustard
Cook over medium heat (6-8 minutes) until reduced to a thick syrup. Brush or drizzle over ham meatballs, return to oven and cook another 15 minutes or until done. Serve with remaining sauce.

Clam Balls
From one of the Grand National Racing Wives' Auxiliary cookbooks, which are sold to raise money for families of drivers who are injured or killed. From Mrs. Juda Rainer (Harry), Lexington, Kentucky

Combine:
6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 T. minced chives
1-8 oz. can minced clams, drained
1/2 t. salt
Dash black pepper
1/4 c. mayonnaise
Shape into balls. Roll them in 2/3 c. finely chopped peanuts. Chill.

Talking About Food

"When I'm talking about food I am talking about life." -Nigella Lawson



We had a fabulous long weekend over the Memorial Day holiday with family and lots of good food...four went to the Mariners vs. Yankees game Friday night, five played a rousing round of the boardgame LIFE on Saturday night, and nine were here for a cookout on Sunday...grilled pork chops in an Italian marinade, goat ribs and a salmon fillet cooked over the fire-pit...a rustic cherry jam tart, gelato in coffee mugs with an assortment of tasty embellishments, and a ridiculously easy and incredibly yummy Apricot-Pineapple Icebox Pie...Nutella cupcakes (click here) from The Quince Tree blog...My Baja-style Shrimp Meatball Tacos (click here)...Eggs Benedict for breakfast one morning, and 15-Grain pancakes the next...a huge Caesar Salad, my Grandma Leona's Baked Beans (click here), an amazing potato salad with lots of diced celery and Zucchini Relish made by The Soup Queen, and a radish salad I made out of The Victory Garden Cookbook...our first spinach from the garden this season...ten Pekin ducklings and seven little rabbits to raise...several bottles of good wine, mojitos in wide-mouth Mason pint jars and orange Fanta for the teens...mangos to make Mango Chutney with...and since Monday was National Cheeseburger Day, we had (Duh!) Cheeseburgers! I hope you also had a relaxed and enjoyable food-filled weekend.

Baja-style Shrimp or Fish Meatball Tacos

In the hopes of life being a bit less crazy-making and a bit more manageable, I try to make, and shop for, a weekly menu. When I do this well, I am one-step ahead of the daily 'what to make for dinner?' dilemma, and we spend less at the grocery store. I try and balance meals from a dozen basic meal types or types of dishes: pasta, rice, meat and potatoes, soup, sandwiches, pizza, ethnic, crock-pot, vegetarian, beans, fish and shellfish and meatballs. For last week's menu I was torn between making Goan Meatball Green Curry or Baja Shrimp or Fish Meatball Tacos (I shopped for both). Since I made the Goan Curry last week, I'm planning to make the Baja Shrimp or Fish Meatball Tacos this week.

Baja-style tacos invite themselves to be included in my meatball-a-week project. I usually make Baja fish tacos with breaded and pan-fried tilapia fillets, and Baja shrimp tacos with peeled and deveined large shrimp seasoned with chili powder and cumin and lightly sauteed in oil. It is a very small step from shrimp and fish, to shrimp and fish meatballs. If you've never had Baja-style tacos, the basic components are fried or grilled fish or shrimp, warmed corn tortillas, mayonnaise with lime juice, fresh salsa, shredded cabbage or lettuce, and bits of diced onion, jalapeno and cilantro, if desired. This is what I plan to do:

Shrimp and/or Fish Meatballs
1 1/2 lb. minced shrimp (peeled and deveined) or fish such as tilapia (or a combination of the two)
1/2 c. (plus or minus) plain bread crumbs
1 beaten egg
2 T. salsa
1 T. canola oil
1 pressed garlic clove and/or 2 T. minced onion
Form, chill, fry and drain.

Mix: 1/2 -1 c. mayonnaise with juice of 1/2-2 limes

Shred: 1/4 head of cabbage or iceberg lettuce

Warm corn tortillas: one at a time, wet hands and rub on both sides of a corn tortilla to just barely moisten both surfaces. Place on a warm-hot griddle and cook just till blisters a bit and begins to change color but do not cook crisp. Stack on a cloth on a plate until all are cooked allowing 3-5 tortillas per person.

Purchase or make a fresh Pico de Gallo tomato salsa.

Finely dice: 1/4 - 1/2 (preferably sweet) onion, 1-2 jalapeno peppers (fresh, or fire-roasted small can), and cilantro leaves -optional but I almost always include one or more of these additions.

Assemble or fill warmed corn tortillas with shredded cabbage (or lettuce), meatballs, salsa, optional additions if included, and drizzle with lime-mayonnaise. Serve with corn chips and more salsa.

Abuelita's Sopa de Albondigas

This was what I took to work today for my lunch: pint canning jars of sweet ice tea and the Grandmother's Meatball Soup I made on Saturday. A totable jar of soup makes a great lunch, and this is very easy, quite flexible, and so delicious. I started with Christina Gonzalez's recipe featured in the recent issue of Sunset magazine and then adapted it to my larder and inspirations. Here is my version of this classic soup.



Meatballs
1/4 - 1/2 lbs. ground beef, pork or chorizo
1/2-1 c. cooked white rice
1 egg
pinch each of salt, cumin and chili powder
Mix well. Shape into small balls. Chill.

Broth
3 quarts chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1/2 - 1 T. salt
1 T. oregano
Bring to a boil. Add vegetables.

Vegetables
2 red potatoes, 2 small zucchini, 1/2 onion, 4-6 brown mushrooms, 2 carrots
Peel and/or scrub, and diced small. Use more, or less, vegetables as the mood, and what you have at hand, dictates.

Simmer until tender. Add optional additions (if adding) and meatballs, and simmer until done.

Optional Additions
1 c. cooked garbanzo, kidney, or pinto beans (I didn't add any this time)
lamb or goat heart and kidneys, diced

Beef Meatballs with Grape Jelly and Chili Sauce

I was really put off by the idea of grape jelly and chili sauce mixed together. Somehow, I just wasn't convinced it was a very good idea. I've seen this recipe many times but until now, I've simply passed it by. Last week though, I was blatantly eavesdropping as one woman was giving the recipe to another and telling her how amazingly good and easy it is. I finally decided I should give it a try, and make it for my weekly meatball recipe. I am so glad I did; these two seemingly weird ingredients meld to make a delicious sauce for meatballs.



Beef Meatballs
Mix:
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1 T. parsley, minced
1/4 c. milk
1 egg
1/2 t. each salt and Worcestershire Sauce
Mix, shape, and chill meatballs.



Brown in 2 T. vegetable oil in a hot skillet. Remove meatballs to crock-pot (or a plate if finishing this on the stove top).



Add a 12 oz. jar of chili sauce and a half pint of grape jelly to the skillet. Stir until the jelly is melted, the browned bits are stirred up, and the sauce comes to a simmer.



Add sauce to meatballs in crock pot (or add meatballs back to skillet and cook on the stove top 20-30 minutes to finish), and cook in slow cooker on high 2-4 hours.



I served these Saturday with homemade macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and sourdough bread and everyone gave them the thumbs up, "Yeah, they're really good."



The next day, Sunday was warm and heavenly, the first day of May -and in my mind the beginning of summer. My girls celebrated by lying on the shop roof and sunning themselves, and I celebrated by making a cherry-cola ham dinner. Our salad didn't come from the garden, but the truth is that the beginning of our growing season is the leanest of the fresh-from-the-garden eating season. Instead of a garden salad for lunch, I ate leftover meatballs with leftover mashed potatoes two days in a row, and I can only say that I"m so sorry I didn't make this recipe sooner.

Kashmiri Meatballs

Kashmiri Meatballs Mix:
1 lb. ground lamb
1 T. (or more) grated ginger root
1 1/2 t. each cumin and coriander
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. each ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper and cayenne
1 small egg, beaten
2 T. yogurt
1/4 c. bread crumbs

Form 1 1/2 T. sized meatballs and chill one hour or longer. Heat large skillet. Add 2-3 T. ghee or oil, add meatballs and brown. Mix 2 T. yogurt and 1/3-1/2 c. water. Add/Pour over meatballs and cover and cook, turning occasionally, until moisture is absorbed (2o minutes or so).



While the meatballs were cooking, I made a pot of plain white basmati rice and the following red lentils -which turn yellow when cooked with the turmeric.



Red Lentils In pressure cooker, bring to high pressure over medium high heat:

1 c. red lentils
4 c. water
4 slices fresh ginger root
1-2 T. ghee
1/2 t. each salt, turmeric, cumin and coriander

Lower heat and cook 5 minutes. Shut off heat and allow pressure to drop naturally. Add 2 T. minced cilantro before serving.



Carrot and Onion Salad

Peel and grate 3 carrots. Halve a half of onion, and cut into thin lengthwise slices.

Mix together with:
1 t. grated ginger root
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1/8 t. cayenne
4 t. lemon juice

Serve immediately or can be made several hours ahead. I made this salad before I started cooking anything else for this meal. In all honesty, I was a bit dubious about this recipe, but it is really quite good and we polished off every last bit. Do give it a try!

A Plate of Pasta and Meatballs

Did you see this article in the paper on Sunday? I was thinking about making meatballs and pasta for this week's meatball recipe, and so it immediately caught my attention. After reading this, I measured out plates -our small ones are 8-inch plates, and the ones we normally use for dinner are 10-inch plates. According to this article then, my serving of meatballs and pasta that I had for dinner last night (about 1 1/2 c. pasta, 1 1/2 c. sauce, and 3-4 meatballs) was between 700-800 calories. I will say, that when I diet (or overeat), I know its simple math -if you are losing (or gaining) weight, then you are eating less (or more) calories than your body needs to maintain. It's not complicated -though it's not necessarily easy or fun to reduce oneself in size. I have found counting calories to be the only way to keep myself honest -and to be successful with weight loss or for maintaining a healthy weight. Watching portion sizes and using a modest sized plate are excellent tools when watching your calories. I eat everything I want -and I love to eat just about everything- I just try and not eat too much of it!


Remember the meatballs I froze when I made the meatball sandwiches last week? Well, there the little bag of them was waiting in our freezer just waiting to be meatballs and pasta. Meatballs and spaghetti is the classic (remember Lady and the Tramp?), but when I went to the pasta drawer, there was only a 1/3 of a pound of spaghetti in the box (which I promptly spilled into the drawer), so I used a box of mini penne instead.


I sauteed garlic, onion, celery (with some leaf attached), grated carrot, and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil, before adding a can each of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes to a can of commercial spaghetti sauce, and a good sprinkle of Italian Seasoning. I added the meatballs to the sauce and served it forth. My husband and daughter (with their Italian genes) are always happy to be served any type of pasta. With meatballs and tomato sauce, it just makes it that much more cheerful.

More Sandwiches

I found Smart Duck's nest of eggs this afternoon. She hasn't been sitting on them yet, and my first thought was -egg salad sandwiches! This may sound mundane but trust me, it won't be!



I made the Italian-style meatball sandwiches for a hectic weekday dinner last week. They were as good as I thought they would be. We were hungry when we sat down to eat them and this was the 'hurry up, I want to eat!' photo I took before we tucked into them. The meatballs were made ahead and frozen, and the sauce was a combination of several containers of frozen odd-bits (tomato sauce, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce and a bit of pizza squeeze) which made putting this together a snap. Simply brown the meatballs, make a quick thick tomato sauce, combine and eat.



Today, I picked up a Vietnamese Banh Mi for lunch, and tonight I made myself a BLT -it's been a sandwich kind of day. I adore BLT's and even when made with the lamest of ingredients, I am still happy to eat one -I admit mine tonight wasn't stellar, but I am content. It was made with good bacon (though the two pieces I used were breakfast leftovers and had been in the fridge for several days, and in the freezer for over six months before that), homemade bread from earlier in the week (a bit on the stale side), pallid iceberg lettuce and hot house tomatoes (it's March and I wasn't expecting much from either), a thin slice of yellow onion, and Best Foods mayonnaise. Years ago, I worked as a cook in a cafe where I ate a BLT almost every single day for several months on end. True, I was pregnant for the first time, but all pregnancy aside, I still think a BLT is hard to beat. I have eaten some pretty mediocre BLTs, a few decidedly dreadful ones, but mostly I've made a lot of good, though not perfect, BLTs. I know how to make the perfect BLT -really I do- but in all honesty I never have actually done so. The perfect BLT is made with bacon fresh from the curing process (typically that's in October for us here), farmhouse bread made fresh the day before, tender lettuce from the garden (in the Spring), dead ripe and still warm from the vine sliced tomatoes grown in our own garden (in late Summer), and Walla Walla Sweet Onions just trucked over the mountains in the middle of summer. And Best Foods mayonnaise, of course. So I only dream of eating the perfect BLT, and I am content with what I have.

The Sandwich Issue

Have I mentioned how smitten I am with Pear Vanilla Jam? A dollop warmed in the microwave and eaten with ice cream is pure heaven, and I am planning to use a pint of this today to make a pear gingerbread upside down cake (I know, doesn't that sound good!).



But the very best way to eat any jam is on a slice of toast, and that is how I (we, I AM sharing) mostly eat this jam. My favorite bread to eat it with was this oatmeal, raisin and pecan loaf. Jam on toast is the simplest open faced sandwich. I am a big fan of a good sandwich, and have whole heartedly embraced the open faced sandwich.



We Americans have our PBJ (and our iconic hamburger sandwich). The French have Nutella, and of course, a chocolate and hazelnut spread is pretty hard to beat. My kids were pretty impressed when they were first introduced to it (by a French teacher) and it's been in our cupboard ever since -though I did periodically threaten to stop buying this luxury for them when I would catch them with a spoon making a full-meal-deal out of a jar of Nutella -it is a bit expensive for that!



A slice of Irish soda bread with a smear of butter and freshly grated horseradish, alongside corned beef and cabbage pot leftovers, is humble fare, but its taste is out of this world. We grow horseradish, and in both the fall and spring dig up the roots, peel and grate them (the fumes can be quite overpowering), put it in a wide-mouth pint and cover it with white vinegar. It never lasts long, since we all add it to all sorts of sandwiches and sandwich fillings. I could go on and on about sandwiches -from the simple fried egg sandwich (the survival food of farmers everywhere) to the Muffuletta sandwich of New Orleans; from a Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwich (my favorite) on a French roll to a tofu and alfalfa sprout sandwich on whole grain bread- the scope and variety of the world of sandwiches is never ending.



So naturally, I was pretty impressed with the latest issue of Saveur -the Sandwich Issue. It is so fun! Sandwiches from around the country, around the world, humble and hoity, simple and over the top. I had a hard time choosing a sandwich from the many featured in this issue (Cubano, Fried Calamari, ....?) to make first. Instead of following one of the recipes given, its inspired me to make classic Italian-style meatball sandwiches this week -beef and pork meatballs, covered with the just the right amount of spaghetti/tomato sauce, served on a soft (but not too soft) sandwich roll, with a bit of Parmesan sprinkled on top. I know it's going to be really good.

The Ultimate Meatball Experience

What is a burger but a large flattened meatball? In my opinion, a homemade burger is the ultimate meatball experience. Burgers are the quintessentially American food, and like it or not, our all-American beef patty served on a bun is the food poster child for our country. All too frequently there are troubling reports and concerns raised about the over 38 million American hamburgers eaten daily in our country, and as iconic as they are, I simply cannot remember the last time I ate a mega-chain burger. I do have a weakness though, for cheeseburgers served in small town cafes such as The Crow's Nest in Montesano. We stop there often when we're driving through, and of course, the Pioneer Farm beef burgers Judy Pederson cooked up at the Snohomish Farmers Market last summer were an almost weekly treat. I don't think that all burgers are all bad, but I do agree there are a lot of really bad burgers being sold and eaten.

Being a passionate home cook, with a special fondness for a good burger, and having worked in several small cafes that served good all-American burgers, I often make them at home. They are sometimes exotic, like the Banh/Bahn Mi Pork Burgers I made (and misspelled) last summer, or more often than not, I make a straightforward all-American-style burger. Just as a drive-through burger is a quick meal to grab when life is hectic, a burger made at home is one of the quickest and easiest thing in the world to cook. I learned this from my Old Granny (click here), who always kept on hand a stack of beef or elk burger patties in her freezer. As marauding teens we knew we could show up at her doorstep with any number of friends in tow, and she would make burgers for us all. Many adventures (and misadventures) began (or ended) with, "Hey, let's stop at Grandma's house!" At any time of day or night, if her lights were on and she was still up, we could stop by and she would always ask, "Are you kids hungry?" Buns from the freezer were quickly toasted, and frozen meat patties went straight onto the griddle. A patty of good quality ground meat, not too lean or too fat, served on a bun with various condiments pulled from the fridge, all ready to eat at her kitchen table within just a few minutes. Of course, she would invariably make up a salad or something else to have along with the burgers, and she always had ice cream in the freezer and a cake of some sorts under cover on her counter for us to polish off.

We made burgers twice last week -it was one of those weeks. I wasn't thinking 'blog post photos' when I was making them and didn't take any -everyone knows what a burger looks like anyway. I often portion and freeze individual patties, as my Old Granny did, when I'm not using all of a package of ground meat, or when I'm thinking ahead to having an answer for, "What can I make for dinner that can be ready in the next fifteen minutes?" I shape individual patties in a plastic sandwich bag and stack them in the freezer. If I have the time and plan ahead, homemade burger buns are absolutely heaven, but if not, my Old Granny's always-keep-some-buns-in-the-freezer trick is good for RIGHT NOW meals -or we simply use whatever bread is at hand. Burgers from different meats each have their own character and goat and lamb are both very tasty. I made this week's burgers with ground beef that was raised by my sister-in-law. Because I intimately know where the ground meat for our burgers comes from, I don't have to cook the living daylights out of them. Mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard (or a dollop of special sauce) are the usual requisite condiments, along with some lettuce, tomato and dill pickle slices -cheese and onions are optional- and Zucchini Relish. My cousin, Michelle says Zucchini Relish is the whole point to having a hamburger, which may be going a bit too far, but it is definitely an important part of a good homemade burger like those eaten at my grandmother's kitchen table.

Egyptian Kufta

"The world's most ephemeral art form -even worse than magazine writing. What kind of life would let dinner pass in a tenth the time of its preparation? This kind. The kind we're built for." -Richard Powers, generosity



With the title, My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen -Traditional Dishes Sweet and Savory -how could I not be immediately and completely enchanted by this cookbook? It is the traditional home cooking an Egyptian woman learned by watching her grandmother cook, and she dedicates this book to her three daughters "so that it may be an aid in the preparation of all the foods I made that you loved so much." My son bought this for me for a gift last year, and it is absolutely fascinating. While at college, he got to know an Egyptian student he met in one of his classes there, and he told me he'd never met anyone so incredibly proud of their country as this young man was. On Saturday, the Egyptian people held their first free elections after ousting Mubarak last month. Like all politics, the choices they were given to vote on are far from ideal, but it was a free vote and is one more thing for Egyptians to be proud of. Yesterday, I was thinking about this historic vote in Egypt, which led me to looking through this cookbook (with me, it always comes back to food), which led me to making these Egyptian kuftas for my weekly meatball recipe.



I first made this Yogurt-Tahini Sauce to serve with the meatballs. Very tasty and super easy -the most difficult part was that I was opening a new can of tahini, which has to be stirred forever to re-emulsify the oil which separates out as the tahini sits on the shelf. I found my wand blender to work really good for this -in the past I simply arranged to have a long phone conversation while stirring it with a spoon.

Yogurt-Tahini Sauce
Adapted from Flatbreads and Flavors

Mix:
1/3 - 1/2 c. plain yogurt
3 T. tahini
1/4 - 1/3 c. lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. cayenne
Makes 1 cup and stores in the fridge for one week.



Pita bread is now commonly found in most grocery stores these days, but I made homemade pita breads with half whole wheat and half white flour, using the recipe in Flatbreads and Flavors for this meal. I followed their directions for cooking pitas on a griddle on top of the stove, rather than baking them in the oven, as I usually do. They were good enough, but I think they would have been better if I'd rolled them out a little bit thinner.



Egyptian Kufta
Adapted from My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen by Magda Mehdawy

Blend in food processor:
1-2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 onion, grated
1/2 c. cooked white rice
1/2 T. each minced parsley and mint, dried -or use double the amount of fresh herbs
1/4 - 1/2 t. each salt and black pepper
1/8 - 1/4 t. each ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cumin, or 1/2 - 1 t. Buharat or 'mixed spice'
1/2 - 3/4 lb. ground beef ("Note: ground camel meat can be used instead of beef.")

Form 20-25 meatballs. Chill. Deep fry in oil, or brown them in 1-2 T. ghee. I then popped them into the oven alongside the egg dish, Shakshuka, I was also making for dinner. I don't know if an Egyptian home cook would serve these two dishes at the same meal, but I thought they were great together.

Shakshuka is eggs poached in a tomato sauce, either on the stove top or baked in the oven. It is one of those easy comfort dishes that seems to be claimed by multiply groups of various nationalities and ethnicity. I followed Magda's recipe and now understand its universal appeal. It is a quick, satisfying comfort food, the sort of thing to whip up for a quick meal, when the cupboards are almost bare, or when you don't want to make a big production out of cooking.

Shakshuka
Brown in 1-2 T. ghee:
1/2 diced onion
2 minced garlic cloves
Add:
1-2 minced hot chili peppers
14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 T. minced dried parsley
salt and pepper
Bring to a simmer and cook a few minutes. Pour sauce into a baking dish, make a hollow, and add 3-4 eggs. Bake 15 minutes. Serve with pitas.



Since there were only three of us for dinner, I simply rounded out our meal by putting jars of pickled beets and dilly beans on the table, but if we'd been more, I would have included some couscous, an eggplant dish, and one or more of the simple Egyptian salads in this cookbook. I loved this egg dish -seasonally appropriate with our egg production in full swing and the equinox making it officially Spring. I like the subtle and unique spicing of the kuftas, and how all this came together to make a simple, yet exotic, home cooked meal made from what we had on hand.

Meatball Mole

My weekly meatball recipe I'm sharing today is for beef meatballs cooked in a mole sauce. I made slightly larger sized ground beef meatball for this easy and authentic Mexican-style family meal.



Mexican-style Beef Meatballs
Mix:
1 beaten egg
1 lb. lean ground beef -ground goat would also be good
1/2 t. Mexican oregano
1/4 c. masa harina
1/3 c. milk
1/3 c. minced onions
Form into plump meatballs using about 1 1/2 T. meat mix each, to make about 22 meatballs. Chill several hours. Brown meatballs in an oiled skillet. Meanwhile, cook 2 c. sorted pinto beans in a pressure cooker with 2 qts. water, 2 T. vegetable oil, and 2 dried chilies for 30 minutes on high pressure, then allow the pressure to drop naturally.



During the three years Marilyn Tausend traveled across the United States and Mexico, talking to hundreds of Mexican and Mexican-American cooks and compiling the more than 200 recipes from their home kitchens found in her cookbook, Cocina de la Familia, she says, "Meatballs in one form or another -tiny meatballs in broth, bite-sized ones in party appetizers, and to my delight, glorious plump balls of ground meat in some sort of enriching sauce -were served to me more often than any other meat or chicken dish." Mexican cooks, Marilyn Tausend, Diana Kennedy, and Rick Bayless all give recipes for richly flavored, complex from-scratch mole sauces -usually used for saucing some type of poultry- and I hope to actually make one of these someday. Instead, this is a much easier version of 'some sort of enriching sauce.' It is probably quite authentic, in that I suspect a majority of busy Mexican-American home cooks make mole this way, rather than the more time consuming from-scratch way.



Mix 1 part commercial Rogelio Bueno Mole Sauce (I have it on good authority that this is the best commercial mole sauce to use) with three parts water or chicken broth in the unwashed skillet that the meatballs were cooked in. Stir until smooth, adding 1/2 - 1 t. to taste of each salt and sugar.



Pour the mole sauce over the cooked meatballs -I transferred mine to my Dutch oven- and simmer 10-20 minutes. Meanwhile in the washed skillet, refry the tender, drained pinto beans in 2 T. vegetable oil or lard, adding salt and cumin to taste. Mash, cook, and mash some more, until desired consistency is achieved. Cook separately 2 c. white rice.

Serve meatballs in mole sauce with plain white rice, refried beans, a garden vegetable -I cooked some of our frozen corn- and a bit of pickled carrots and/or pickled jalepenos.

Meatball Banh Mi

Banh Mi, Vietnamese Sandwiches, are one of my absolute favorite things to eat. They also seem to be one of many other people's favorite things to eat -at least here in the greater Seattle area- and last week, Nancy Leson in The Seattle Times highlighted some favorite places to buy Banh Mi Sandwiches around town. If I lived or worked in Seattle, instead of only making occasional visits into the city, I would probably try and sample every single sandwich available and eat them daily. And there are enough places in Seattle making and selling these sandwiches, that this could go on for a very long time! Instead, her article reminded me of this Pork Meatball Banh Mi (click here) Vietnamese sandwich recipe that I saw in Bon Appetit magazine awhile ago. I have been very hipped on making something similar to this sandwich since I first saw the article, but I just hadn't gotten around to doing it -until last night.



Remember those amazing meatballs I made last week for the Vietnamese-style Meatball Spring Rolls (click here)? Last night, I used the frozen portion of those pork and shimp meatballs, and made Meatball Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwiches. How well meatballs freeze is just one of their many great attributes. I love that I can make meatballs in double quantities, freeze half for a second meal, and then that second meal's preparation is so super easy. For these sandwiches, I just heated a caste-iron pan, added a bit of oil, and tumbled in the unthawed frozen meatballs. I browned them on medium-low heat, and then covered them and let them sit a bit to make sure they were done all the way through.

The sandwich-making was a cinch. Sadly, my photo does not do justice to how vibrant and delicious looking this really was. To make them, I grated a carrot into a bit of the spicy dipping sauce leftover from the Meatball Spring Rolls (a mixture of lime juice and sweet rice vinegar would also be good here instead) and let it sit awhile. A purchased roll with a coating of mayonnaise, a few cucumber slices and some torn cilantro leaves, a bit of the marinated carrot, and these amazing meatballs, all flavored with a splash of the magical Maggi Seasoning sauce (the secret ingredient) made a quick and easy Banh Mi. And the sandwich-eating was fantastic, as is always the case with these Vietnamese sandwiches. I haven't yet met one I didn't absolutely love!

Vietnamese-style Meatball Spring Rolls

For my meatball recipe this week, I was inspired by these Vietnamese-style lettuce cups (click here) that are in the most recent issue of Bon Appetit. I decided to use meatballs, instead of the shrimp that I usually use to make fresh spring rolls. I couldn't decide between pork or shrimp meatballs, so I mixed them together and used both meats, which made the most amazingly delicious meatballs ever!



Mix together:
1 1/2 lbs. each ground pork and minced shrimp meat
1 finely minced lemongrass stalk
3 T. minced cilantro
4 garlic cloves, pressed
3-4 T. fish sauce
3/4 c. finely crushed saltine crackers
Mix well and form into 1 inch sized meatballs. Chill at least one hour before cooking, or freeze for later. I used about 2/3 of these meatballs to make the spring rolls here, and I froze the rest. While the meatballs chill, make the dipping sauce and prepare all the components for making the rolls.



Spicy Dipping Sauce
Mix in a wide mouth pint jar with a tight fitting lid:
1 c. water
juice of 2 limes
1/2 c. fish sauce
1 T. sugar
3 pressed garlic cloves
1/2 T. crushed red peppers
Shake to dissolve sugar and mix. Store refrigerated.

I cooked the meatballs in two batches in a large caste iron skillet then transferred them to a bowl. Lay out all the components for making the rolls: meatballs, fresh red leaf lettuce, fresh cilantro, cooked fine rice vermicelli (cook in boiling water 5 minutes or so, drain, rinse in cold water, and drain again), pie dish of warm water for softening rice sheet wrappers, rice sheets, and a platter for the finished rolls.



Making attractive spring rolls takes a bit of practice. Even if the first few attempts look rather sad, they can be either wadded together, or completely deconstructed, and they will taste just as delicious as a more artistic roll. These are rather fun to make and are really not that difficult to get the hang of making. This is how I do it: Soak a rice sheet for a few minutes in warm (not hot) water until pliable. Place on a flat surface. On it, place a torn bit of lettuce leaf (remove and discard the ribs) in the center or slightly off to one side, top it with two meatballs, a tiny mound of vermicelli (1-2 T.), and several cilantro leaves. Fold the shortest end over to cover fillings, then fold first one side and then the other over that, and finally roll the package towards the far end, securely but not too overly tight. I soaked one sheet while I was constructing and rolling another, which seemed about the right amount of time to soften it without it disintegrating.

I thought a platter of these would be enough to eat for dinner while watching the Academy Awards last night, but there was some quiet grumblings of discontent among the ranks, so we made a pot of rice and some stir-fried cabbage with a bit of sesame oil to go with. I'm glad we did, the rolls all quickly disappeared, and the simple cabbage and rice was perfect alongside. Even if not very photogenic, it was really delicious.

Shepherdess Scotch Egg

Do you remember the cookbook series: Monday is Meatloaf, Tuesday is Chicken, Wednesday is ...? Well, it seems Monday is now Meatballs here. I've slipped into the groove of it, and following my resolution to make a different meatball recipe every week, this weekend with a bowl of hard boiled eggs sitting in the fridge alongside a bit of leftover sausage, I just couldn't hold myself back from making a Scotch Egg, a fried, sausage-covered hard-boiled egg. I'd never made one before, but I simply had to do it; as far as meatballs go, this is the granddaddy of them all!



Scotch Egg
Adapted from Great British Cooking by Jane Garmey

Hard-boiled egg -I used a duck egg, but quail eggs would be perfect here (Our quail won't be laying eggs until it's 70 degrees outside, which probably won't be until July)
peel egg and put in a small Ziploc bag with 1/4 c. flour, and shake gently to coat egg.

Flatten a portion of breakfast sausage to form a patty large enough to encase the egg

In a small bowl, beat 1 egg. Dip floured hard-boiled egg into beaten egg, and coat completely. Place egg in center of sausage patty, and wrap and form sausage around the egg to completely cover it.

Place sausaged-egg in another Ziploc bag with 1/4 - 1/2 c. Italian-Seasoned bread crumbs and roll to coat.

Heat oil to hot. Use a slotted spoon to lower the egg into the hot oil, and deep fry until well-browned all over.

Drain on paper towels for 1-2 hours before serving.



I know very few of us are going to be eating one of these as a part of our daily diet, though Jane Gramey says this is a popular pub snack in England. Having no personal experience with British pubs, I can't say if people really tuck into these on a regular basis or not, but I can just hear some of you exclaiming, "Good grief! Who is going to eat a colossal sausage-covered hard-boiled egg?" Well, if you have any friends hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and you are meeting them for a food drop -a couple of these is just the thing to bring them. If you know a fisherman, lumberjack or coal miner, I'd suggest putting one of these in their lunchbox. Otherwise, what I suggest for the rest of us to do with a Scotch Egg is to share one.



My grandfather called this sort of thing a 'Dutch Lunch.' I remember excitedly eating similar lunches that my Grandmother Leona would put together for us, when I spent the night with them as a child. Served as part of a picnic spread, or simply on a lunch plate at the kitchen table, a SLICE of Scotch Egg with cheese, crackers and an array of home canned pickles -here my Dilly Beans, Bread and Butter Pickles, Pickled Beets, and Sweet Pickles- is a tasty treat.