Saturday, April 21, 2012

Lentil meatballs

I've been craving pasta and meatballs for months, but never had the time/energy/whatever to make them. Finally I decided that Monday was the day, and after work I got out the pressure cooker and cooked up a big batch of lentils... Sadly, it was not meant to be, and they went straight into the freezer. [Fastforward to today].

So, a while back I found this incredible recipe for lentil meatballs on The Post Punk Kitchen. I never had the desire to make the whole recipe, sauce and all, though I must say that the "meat"balls themselves are pure genius. Perfection!

Now this recipe, taking around 45 minutes to make, isn't the quickest thing in the universe to do, though the effort is well worth it!


Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

1 clove garlic
1 small onion, quartered
1.5 cups cooked green or brown lentils
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp vital wheat gluten flour
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp water
0.5 cup breadcrumbs

Method:


1. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºc. Use a blender to mince the garlic (or you could use a fine grater, like I do because I find my blender isn't that great with garlic). Add the onion and blend until it's very finely chopped. Put into a large mixing bowl with the breadcrumbs.

2. Put the rest of the ingredients in the blender and pulse until they're in a smooth paste. Add to the mixing bowl and mix with your hands for around two minutes. At this point it doesn't look too appertising. But don't worry!




3. Roll into whatever size balls you'd like. Usually I make around 20 pingpong sized balls, which work out perfect for four meals.




4. Heat around a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Then place around half of the balls at a time (don't overcrowd your pan!) and let them cook, turning regularly, until slightly browned on the outside.




5. Transfer the balls to a baking tray and bake them in the pre-heated oven for approximately 20 minutes, turning every once in a while to make sure they cook evenly.

6. Serve with pasta and your favourite sauce!




The sauce:

My sauce was incredibly simple, because I wanted to enjoy the full beauty of the meatballs. Here's the recipe, just incase you're un-inspired today:


Ingredients:

0.5 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
250g mushrooms, sliced
2 medium carrots, grated
pinch of rock salt
0.5 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp paprika
0.5 tsp chilli flakes
1kg tomato pulp
2 bay leaves


Method:

1. Heat the oil on a medium heat in the same large pan you originally browned the meatballs in. Add the garlic and saute for around a minute, until softened. Add the mushrooms and carrot and the seasoning, and cook until they reduce a little.

2. Add the meatballs, tomato pulp, and bay leaves and mix.

3. Simmer on a low heat whilst you cook your pasta (or for around 15 minutes).

4. Hunt out and remove those bay leaves, and enjoy!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Not quite breakfast time

For my first post I only found it right for it to encompass two of my favourite food things:

1. Breakfast
2. Bread

Late this evening I came to the realisation that there was nothing in the house for us to eat for breakfast tomorrow. Oh no! After franticly flicking through my recipe book I came across an old favourite; bagels. Deliciously chewy on the outside, and soft and fluffy inside their shiny crust. Very simple and quick to make, perfect!

The finished product:





The recipe:

I searched far and wide for the perfect bagel recipe, with memories of ones purchased from the bakery back home years ago. I almost gave up hope. Almost. Until this one. Sadly, I have no idea which saviour created this recipe or even where I found it (if it was you, please let me know so I can credit you!), but here goes:

(Makes 8 generous size bagels)

Ingredients

4 cups plain flour (you could use bread flour, but I never did and they turn out great!)
1 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp salt
2 tsp fast action yeast
1 tbsp olive oil (or whichever oil you prefer if you don't like the taste of olive oil)
1.25 - 1.5 cups warm water

Method

1. Mix all of the ingredients into a stiff dough. It should be stiffer than a normal bread dough and pretty hard to knead. Basically, just add enough water to bind all of the dry ingredients together.

2. Knead for at least 10 minutes, until you have a smooth homogenous dough. You could use a dough hook on a mixer, if you have one, but this really is best done with your hands. Yes, it's tiring and your arms will hurt at the end of it but hey, it's a great way to take out the frustrations of the day. Wikihow has a great tutorial on kneading dough, if you're not too familiar with how it's done.

3. Divide dough into 8 equal balls and leave it to rest for 20 minutes.

4. Take each ball of dough and roll it on your counter top into a rope just a little longer than the width of two of your hands. Wrap the dough rope around your dominant hand and with the help of a dab of water on the end, pinch the two overlapping ends together to seal them into a loop. Leave them to rest for another 20 minutes.

5. Meanwhile pre-heat your oven to 220ºc and set up a large pan of boiling water. Either grease, or line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper. Greaseproof paper is my best friend when baking!

6. Gently lower your almost-bagels into the pan of boiling water (try not to do more than half at once because the temperature of the water will lower too much when you put them in) and let them float for 1 minute on each side. Then place them on your already prepared baking tray.

7. Put in the middle of your oven and cook for 10 minutes. Flip them over and cook for 10 more. They should look lightly golden on both sides.

8. Put them on a rack to cool. Then enjoy!