Meatballs with Romesco Sauce

Mozzarella stuffed spicy meatballs with romesco sauce

Meatballs!

So after visiting the Scorsese Exhibition at ACMI I simply could not get the meatballs that his mom Kathy made out of my head! (And wanting to watch all his movies as well, this guy is a cine-genius!)

I knew I didn't want big fist-sized meatballs because I just find them too dry, eating this massive chunk of mince meat did not appeal to me, but little ping-pong ball size ones filled with gooey mozzarella cheese....ooooh yeah baby! Get in mah belly!

We had pasta at a really cute Italian restaurant in the city after the exhibition, called Il Solito Posto, it was quite cozy and the food there was lovely, will definitely be going back there again. Though then made me crave something less traditional to go with my meatballs, so I decided to go Tapas/Spanish style with Romesco sauce, if you haven't tried it before, it is amazing! My Romesco sauce is made with roasted char-grilled red capsicums, so their flavours really intensify and brings out the sweetness and slightly smokiness, there's almond flakes, breadcrumbs to give the sauce body and other spices like smokey paprika to up the pepper and smokey flavour. It went really well with the meatballs. Here's what you'll need to make this simple but yummy dish.

Romesco sauce ingredients:

• 2 large capsicums, grilled whole in the oven on high heat for 30 mins
• breadcrumbs
• almond flakes
• tomato
• garlic
• smokey paprika
• chili flakes
• red wine vinegar/balsamic vinegar
• salt & pepper
• basil
• leek/onion
• olive oil

Directions

• Remove grilled capsicums from oven and place in ziplock bags, careful not to lose any of it's juices, this is vital part of the sauce!
• Let the capsicums cool in bag and remove the skins and the seeds
• In a blender thingy add all the ingredients except the basil and leek/onion and blitz til smooth
• In a saucepan, add olive oil and brown/sweat the onion/leek
• Add in the sauce, it is now ready for the meatballs to be be simmered in.

So let's get right into them.

Meatballs ingredients:

• 500 g of half pork half beef mince, you can incorporate other mince if you like
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1 egg
• breadcrumbs
• mozzarella/bocconcini quartered
• mixed dried italian herbs
• chilli powder/flake
• paprika
• salt & pepper
• kasundi

Directions

• Add all the ingredients except the cheese together, mix well
• Take a spoonful of the mince mixture and flatted it a bit and add the piece of cheese in the centre, then wrap mince around and roll it up into a ping pong ball size
• Add them to a fry pan with butter/olive oil to brown on all size, doesn't need to be cooked through.
• Do this in batches until all the meatballs have been browned, then add them all to the Romesco sauce for simmering for 15-20 minutes until they're cooked through and the sauce thicken up a bit.
• Serve with some chopped basil and you may top it up with shaved Parmesan cheese if you like.

Yuuummm :D

Spanish Night v2

Can't even remember how this dinner party came about, I was inviting my Asian BF (actually Dr Rats) over for dinner and then, she asked her BF's sister and her fiancée, and then the fiancee's ex flatmates... so somehow we ended up with 7 people for dinner.

And as usual, I had no idea what to make, trying to come up with a menu plan while I was sitting @ a training course at work and finally decided on Paella at 4:00pm. With some bread, salad and mushrooms, should be decent.....and then Dr Rats turned up and questioned the amount of food I had available. thinking I will underfeed my guests! Wat?!? NEVER!

So trying to find something else to make at the very last minute, like 6:45pm (people were suppose to arrive 7ish....) What do I have in my cupboard?!? Seriously not going down to the shops again!

So found the very last 2 half (or less than half) packets of pasta, tinned mackerel, some olives, capers, chili, onion and garlic and ta-da. Everything in my cupboard pasta! It was probably the tastiest thing that night, since I kinda forgot to season the paella....oooops

So with some wines and cocktails, it was a rather nice
despite being rather last minute and unplanned :)

Spanish Night

I had Spanish Night awhile back but the pictures were on a friend's camera phone and I only got hold of them this week. Now need to see if I can remember what I made that night....

It was Tapas and Paella that ruled the night, and after one too many glasses of Sangria, we were all very jolly. After dinner, my new friend SpaceyChicken couldn't get her mind outta the gutter when we were playing Dirty Mind. All in all a very fun night.




Menu for the Night:

Pan con Tomato (Tomato Bread), Champiñones Al Ajillo (Garlic Mushrooms), Chorizo & Beans Stew, Meat Balls with Romeso Sauce, Paella and Escalivada (Roasted Veggie Salad)









Romesco Sauce

Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• Blanche Almonds
• Torn up Bread
• Tomatoes
• Char-grilled Red Capsicum
• Crushes Garlic Cloves
• Paprika
• Cayenne Pepper
• Sherry
• Salt

Directions

Add everything to food processor or blender and then heat up slightly in saucepan

Chorizo and Beans Stew

Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• Quartered Potatoes
• Sliced Chorizos
• Diced Onion
• Minced Garlic Cloves
  
• Can of Butter Beans
• Can of Diced Tomatoes
• Bay Leaf
• Chile
• Stock
• Parsley

Directions

Heat Oil in saucepan, saute Onion, Garlic and Chorizos. Add Potatoes, beans and tomatoes, top with stock, add seasoning and cook for 30 mins or so, top with parsley.