Pasta Salad with Meatballs

The ideal, uhm.. lightweight summer dish.. If you substitute some of the ingredients here with more healthy stuff.

400 gr. chopped pork meat (3-7% fat)
2 Onions
1 Egg
Breadcrumps (Pangrattato or 'rasp' in danish)
Soya

500 gr. Pasta
Mushrooms
Sliced Bacon
Parsley
Dill
Chives
1 spoonful sugar
1 Creme Fraiche (9%)
2 Cream Cheese (with herbs/garlic)

Garlic
Salt
Pepper

1 Kozel Dark Beer

The meatballs I'm making here are the classic Danish meatballs or 'frikadeller', not the same as in my last recpie at all, but there aren't that many english words for the varieties of meatballs.

I apologize for the lack of quantities in most things here. Usually I just go on 'feel' for how much of a given thing is needed, but I'll try to elaborate here and there. What I made in this batch was enough for me for 3 days, or enough for one meal for 4-5 people probably

I also apologize for the crappy image quality. I might do this dish again when I get my new nifty digital camera next month.

Before you start on the meatballs, get the pasta cooking, and when it's done, put it in the fridge to cooldown, the point is not to have hot pasta for this.

Now let's start with making the meatballs. Find a bowl, put in the meat, some soya, salt, pepper and the egg. Grate or crush a little (or not so little, if you like) garlic into the mix, together with the 2 onions. Before you mix all of it, it should look like this:

So, now mix it and add the breadcrumps (or flour or oats) to bind the fat and liquid. Be careful not to add too much or too little, that will make your meatballs either too wet/have bad consistency, or be too dry/hard. When you've mixed it together, put it somewhere safe and slightly below room temperature to rest while you turn your attention to the other things.

Get another bowl, put in the cream cheese and the creme-fraiche, either using a spoon or (better, since it tends to lump otherwise) an electric mixer/whisk until the general consistency is slightly less light than what the creme-fraiche was. Season with pepper, salt and sugar, then grate or crush some garlic (more than you used for the meatballs) into the mix. Next wash and clean the herbs (dill, parsley, chives), and put it in a glass together, using a scissor to turn the herbs into a kind of fine paste. Pour the paste into the bowl. Mix it all together and taste, adding additional seasoning as you wish. The sugar should take a little of the sour taste of the creme-fraiche.

Now we come to something really boring. Slice and cut the mushrooms and bacon into fine, small pieces, keeping them seperate. You should now have this:

So far so good. Now we need to fry the mushrooms and the bacon until both are crisp. Don't do both of these at once, or disaster will happen, as the mushrooms let out quite a bit of water. So, preheat a pan on 2/3 or slightly more of the max. setting, pour a little olive oil (just a little) into it, wait until it is hot, then put in the mushrooms, turn them around often and wait. At some point, the mushrooms will be more like boiling than frying. When that happens, take out the water with a spoon and pour it into the bowl. It should add flavour. The mushrooms will now begin to sizzle. Stir often to avoid them becoming ash on one side, and put it all into the bowl when they're done, before adding the bacon to the pot instead.

The bacon will turn crispy quickly, but will also let out a lot of sizzling fat. As the bacon turns crispy, take it and put it into the bowl, but leave the sizzling fat on the pan and turn down the heat to around 1/3 of max. or slightly above that. Mix the contents of the bowl again and put it into the fridge to cool it. Now it is time to make the famous danish 'frikadeller'!

Take the bowl with the meat and proceed to form small balls of meat, flattening them slightly on both sides. Then put them on the pan (There's probably not enough space to put them all on the pan in one go. Don't force it, or you might damage them when you have to turn them around). Let them sizzle slightly, but mostly simmer in the fat for several minutes, until their bottom is light to medium brown, then turn them around to do the same to the other side. This is somewhat tricky and can take years getting right (or so they say ). Make sure they don't adhere to the pan, loosen them now and then, and be careful not to fry them too quickly with too much heat. It should all look like this if things go well:

Soooo.. Now you're getting there. It's time to begin serving the food. Mix the pasta with the concoction in the bowl. If you don't plan on eating everything in one go, don't mix all of it, or the pasta will seem more dry the second time around. Keep the stuff in the bowl until you need it, then mix it. Open the beer which should preferably be very well-chilled (the Kozel beer from the Czech Republic goes very well with this dish), pour it into a glass, put pasta salad and meatballs on a plate, and voila'! Something for the hot summer You can use a little ketchup to spice this up. But only a little! It would be a shame for the fine food otherwise.

Bon Appetit

- you can also drop the 1-1.5 hours it takes to prepare this dish and just go straight for the beer
- Thanks to Emaelle for helping me find the elusive english cooking words.
- I'm sorry about not posting my pizza dish, but NUALA!! somehow lost the pics.. Yes, she did.. Not I. No. So that will first happen when I do that dish again.

Last edited by Darkhawk (2007-06-21 20:53:30)

OVEN FRIED POTATOES WITH GROUND BEEF

1 red Pepper
Leftover Mushrooms
1 or 2 onions
Cherry tomatoes
Feta
Sundried tomatoes
750 gr new potatoes
2-3 packages of salad seasoning (special, see later)
Olive Oil
Garlic
Salt, Pepper

500 gr chopped ox
Leftover bacon

This is enough for.. Let's say 3-4 persons, and preparation time is around 1 hour.

So, after making my previous recipe I had some mushrooms and bacon leftover, and I decided to use those in my next dish, which turned out to be somewhat freeform, so it is not supertuned/optimized like the others are, I'm afraid. Still, it tasted good, so here goes.

Start up the oven at around 200 degrees before moving to the actual dish-making.

Then pick a large bowl where you make the spice/oil mix needed. I used 2 packages of 'Knorr Tomato Salad Dressing'. That's partly me being lazy, but also partly me acknowledging that you can't make this much better yourself. You can however use any oilbased salad dressing solution instead if you wish. Anyway, it tells you to add water and oil into that mix, but don't use much water, there will be plenty of water from the vegetables. Don't skimp on oil though. Mix it all together, then wash and scrub the potatoes (don't peel them), cutting them into fitting, small pieces.

These pieces you put into the bowl, mix it well with the dressing, then put it all into a pan which you put into the oven. It will need some time in there, how much is a bit relative, depending on water and size of the potatoes, but from 40 to 60 minutes. You'll need the vegetables in there too of course, but they need a little less time, so you can begin chopping them up while the potatoes are in the oven.

Mix the last package of salad dressing mix in the bowl, cut onion, pepper, mushroom and cherry tomatoes in pieces, then mix them in the bowl. Take out the potatoes after 10 minutes and add the vegetables, feta, chopped garlic, and a little dried tomato pieces. Mix it, put it into the oven again and watch it for the rest of the time. Drain excess water if it is more than just a little (and it will be).

So, while that is going on, I prepared the meat. You can of course eat many other things with this dish (fish for instance), but what I wanted and had was minced ox and bacon, so I made beef with wrapped bacon around. I used salt, pepper, some of those dried tomatoes (for fun mostly), garlic and even some of the drained water from the potato dish. That's just me being weird though. It can be done in a variety of ways. Simmer it and time it to the dish in the oven as best as you can.

Then, there's not much left but to serve the food.. Enjoy!

[big]Sweetpotato from the Oven with Olive Tapenade[/big]

Ingredients:

-Olive Tapenade (see recipe/post above this one)
-Sweetpotato

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to about 225 degrees Celcius.
Peel the sweetpotatoes. Cut them into slices of about 1 cm thick. Make diagonal cuts on the slices (as on the picture) (so you end up with a lot of little squares on the slice).
Put the slices into or onto something fairly flat that can go into the oven, but that does have upturned corners so the olive oil doesn't drip off ont othe bottom of the oven.
Put royal amounts of tapenade onto the slices and then put them into the oven for about 30 minutes.

I just tasted it and I have to say, it was absolutely delicious .

The endresult:

Last edited by Norah (2007-06-30 13:41:50)

[big]Mashed Sweet Potato[/big]

Ingredients:

- Sweet Potato (as much as you need/like)
- Hazelnuts (ground up/powdered)
- Almond shavings
- Some milk (just a bit, no more than half a cup, sweet potato is pretty mushy on its own)
- Some butter
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of pepper
- Pinch of cinnamon
- Pinch of nutmeg

Instructions:

Peel the sweet potato, cut it into big chunks, and boil it until it's soft, but not falling apart (stick a fork in it to test).
Preheat the oven to about 200 degrees Celcius.
Put the potato chunks into a bowl that can also go into the oven. Put in the milk, butter, pepper, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon too. Mash that all up.
Ground up the hazelnuts until they're powdery (or buy them that way). Mix that in with the mashed potato. Sprinkle almond shavings on top.
Put into the oven until the almond shavings are nicely browned.

I just ate this with ostrich steak and some beans for vegetables. It tasted very good.

Pictures:

Last edited by Norah (2007-07-06 18:44:55)

[big]Brownie Recipe[/big]
(I currently have 3 different ones. I have decided I like this one best)

[death]Ingredients:[/death]

- 1 egg
- 2-3 heaped tablespoons of kwark
- sugar to taste (i.e. as much as you like. I'd say 1.5 to 2 mugs if you really have no idea because you never baked anything, shame on you)
- dash of salt (leaving it out is not an option)
- some vanilla sugar or liquid vanilla essence (3 drops or so)
- flower (undefined quantity, but I suspect one mug. Yes mug, not cup. The kind you like to drink hot chocolate out of)
- What I suspect is about 100-200 grams of butter, depends a bit on your tastes.
- 2 squirts of lemon juice
- almond shavings
- 4 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder

Now, we come to the kwark conundrum. We Dutch people eat loads of it, but I have never seen it in other countries (no, cottage cheese is not the same, even though many people and various dictionaries will tell you so). I suggest either finding Dutch kwark, or using greek yoghurt or any other kind of thicker yoghurt instead. It doesn't taste -that- different.

After you add the flower, it shouldn't be a tough dough. It should still be a bit more like cake batter, but somewhat firm. It should take a bit of effort to stir your spoon through it. The kwark (possibly yoghurt) is supposed to make it a bit thinner again after you add it as the last ingredient. Thin enough to pour it out into the bowl, but not runny like a liquid.

[death]Instructions:[/death]

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Take out a square or round low oven bowl thing, should be about 20 centimeters across. Put some butter or bakingpaper in to keep the brownie from sticking to the bowl.

Put the butter in a small pan/pot and let it melt (don't let it fizzle or go brown) on the stove (low flame). Add the cocoa powder to the butter and stir it in well. Remove from stove.
While the butter melts (or before), put the suger, vanilla sugar, salt, and egg into a mixing bowl.
After removing the butter and cocoa mixture from the stove, add it to the sugar, and stir it all with a spoon.
Add the lemon juice and stir that through too.
Now add the flour and stir that through until it's very well mixed (no lumps).
Then add the kwark (or yoghurt) and mix it in well too.

Pour it into the bowl, and sprinkle some almond shavings on top.

Put it into the preheated oven for 25 minutes.

(The almonds are entirely optional. You could remove them entirely. Or also add chunks of them through the batter as well as sprinkling the shavings on top. It would also be possible to make this with molten dark chocolate instead of cocoa powder)

**Will put up a picture next time I make it.

Last edited by Norah (2007-10-22 19:03:23)

[big]Mushroom Sauce[/big]

Ingredients:

- 1 box of mushrooms (around 250 gr.)
- 1 onion
- 2 pieces of garlic
- 250 ml. bouillon (one big mug)
- 250 ml. whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt, pepper or other herbs to taste

Preparation:

Chop up the mushrooms, garlic and onion into very, very fine pieces (I just use the kitchen machine or something like a stick blender).
Put that into a frying pan with two tablespoons of olive oil, and fry it while stirring.
At the same time as frying the mushroom mixture, bring the bouillon to a boil in a different pan.

After frying the mushroom mixture for 5 minutes, add the bouillon and the whipping cream to it. Also add salt, pepper or any other herbs you like.
Boil this until you think it is thick enough; don’t forget to stir occasionally or it will burn.

((will add pictures when I make it again))

Last edited by Norah (2008-01-09 09:42:08)

[big]Ham & Cheese Rolls[/big]
[small]a totally unhealthy snack[/small]

Ingredients:
- white bread dough, enough for 1 normal size bread (use a mix from the store for 1 normal sized white bread if you cannot make dough yourself)
- ham slices
- cheese slices

Preheat the oven to about 200 degrees celcius
Prepare the dough as you normally do, or according to the box. Roll out the dough into a square (or rectangular) shape, about 1 cm thick (depends a bit on preference). Cover it with the cheese slices and ham slices. Cut up the douch with ham and cheese into strips of about 1-2
cm wide. Roll up each strip. Put the rolls into the oven until they are done. If you don't know how long to put them in, check up on them often or look up baking times and such for small breadrolls and such on the internet.

Will edit post for picture(s) later.

[big]Marinated courgette (zucchini)[/big]

This will serve two people or one Darkhawk.

[death]Ingredients:[/death]

- 2 (large) courgettes (it's easier for this dish if they are as straight as possible)
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- salt
- pepper

[death]Instructions:[/death]

Preheat oven to about 200 degrees C.

Wash the courgettes, and cut them up (lengthwise) into slices of approximately half a cm thick.

Mix olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl.
Put some of this mixture on both sides of a courgette slice, and put it into an oven dish (put some non-stick paper underneath it so it won't stick to the dish/bowl/whatever you're putting it in). Do this with every courgette slice. If you have too little of the marinade, make some more. If you have some marinade left at the end, just pour it over the slices.

Let the slices sit for 5-10 minutes, then put them into the oven until the top ones are slightly brown (or until you think they're done).

If you like, you can easily add other ingredients to the marinade, like chopped up fresh herbs (I had a great time with thyme).

Alright, time for a new recipe from me. Not incidentially, my last post here was when I had just gotten a job, 2 years ago Now that I'm free again, there'll be more time for such stuff.

In the meantime I've come clean, and now I'm a calories obsessed, thin crossbreed vegetarian/vegan hippe.. Some days. Thus, here's a simple, quickly prepared (10 minutes) low-calorie but nourishing recipe. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I present to you..

[big]Breadroll with Egg and Goatcheese[/big]

1 breadroll
Concentrated tomatopaste
2 eggs
Milk
Tarragon
Salt
Ground Pepper
Butter (a little - it's ok!)
Goatcheese
No curious and meddling cat (it would add too many calories)

Put the eggs in a bowl, add milk (two tablespoons or so), tarragon, salt and pepper. Mix it to one mass.

Cut the breadroll and toast it (it's best if it's not hot when served, so don't worry about that).

Heat a pan with some butter. Medium heat. Pour in the contents of the bowl and let it simmer and solidify somewhat, but keep the consistency creamy. Then crumble in some of your preferred goatcheese. You'll best know how much you'd like yourself.

Put the tomatopaste on the cut halves of the roll (note, in the picture I use olive tapenade instead of concentrated tomatopaste, but after some experimentation I find the different tastes complement each other better with the tomatopaste - it's too bitter with both goatcheese and olive tapenade).

Put the mix from the pan atop the bread. Et voila! Instant meal for one, or a snack/appetizer/starting course for two. This dish should have around 500 calories in total.

Put something green atop it, if you want to be artsy.

Hummus

Ingredients:

- chick peas. (dried: 200 grams, which turns into about 500 grams. If you cannot find dried ones, or find them too much hassle, you are allowed to use canned chick peas, about 500 grams)
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- tahin, 2-3 tbsp (find it at a turkish store, or just search for it. essential)
- cumin seeds, crushed, to taste (I use a heaped tsp)
- juice of one lemon
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- optional: other herbs or spices, like koriander leaves

Instructions:

Prepare the dried chick peas by soaking them in plenty of water overnight, for about 10-12 hours. Then boil them for about 2 hours. Wash them well, several times, before soaking, before boiling, and once after boiling. Save the water you boiled them in after boiling. For canned peas, heat them in whatever goo they were canned in, and save that (like the boiling water of the dried peas).

Put the peas, after cooling a bit, into a food processor, or into a bowl if you don't have a food processor (will mash them with, for example, a stick blender, or an old fashioned mashing stick if you have to). Put the garlic in with the peas, pre-crushed or cut if you do not have a food processor. Add the tahin, the olive oil, the crushed cumin and a few tbsp of the boiling water you saved to soften it up a bit, then mash the things into a puree.

Squeeze the lemon, add the juice to the puree. Add salt, pepper and any herbs to taste. If the hummus is still too thick for your tastes, add more of the boiling water.

[will add picture later]

Not for tonight but for tomorrow's lunch:

My bento /o/

Carrot and radish salad with mustard and cream, some cuncumber slices and a pasta salad with a sausage octopus

and for the desert:

mango with cinnamon, dry banana and a cat/rabbit in gingerbread with some touch of raspberry jam.

So you return from your vacation, a bit tired from the journey (and hauling your overpacked black duffelbag of doom), and with only a dry sandwich from Charles De Gaulle airport in your stomach...

In short: you are hungry, you are tired, you are spoiled on great french food, and you have almost no food left in the kithcen...

To the rescue: Frakels Fabulous Seedmeeting 2010 Homecomming Feast

... or: what can I make of whatever I have?

This turned out to be:

- dry pasta
- a can of chopped tomatoes
- a can of kidney beans in chily sauce
- two eggs
- ketchup

Make a sacue of the chopped tomatoes, kidney beans and some kethcup in a pot. Add salt and pepper.
Boil the eggs with the pasta and some salt and olive oil until the pasta is done (the eggs will be hardboiled at this point). Peel the eggs and cut them in half.

Serve the pasta with the eggs on top and add the sauce. Add to this some fresh spice herbs, a glass of redvine, and 30 degrees in the sunset on your balcony... Then you only need some Pastis to be back in provence