Ios island meatballs in tomato sauce

Between reading the elements of typographic style and designing the layout of my new printed portfolio, I take a quick brake and post a recipe of my greek- island style meatballs. Although I cooked them a week ago the taste is still fresh in my memory and since a dear friend  requested the recipe, I decided to write about it.

It is a quite simple dish which takes minimum time to prepare and cook if you decide to fry the meatballs. My version is a little bit different than Irene's one, the cook from Valmas taverna from which I took the recipe. I will point out the differences and you decide which road you choose.

Meatballs in tomato sauce

1/2 kilo of minced organic minced beef and 1/2 kilo of organic minced lamb (1 kilo of minced beef according to Irene)
1 big red onion grated
1 ripe beef tomato grated ( or 100g of chopped tomato can)
1 sprig of fresh mint (or i tbsp of dry mint)
one bunch of fresh dill
salt, fresh grounded pepper
1/2 kilo of a two day old moistened bread
2 eggs
1 tbsp of vinegar ( to make the minced meat angry as Irene told me)

Tomato sauce
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 onion chopped
300g of a chopped tomato can
1 tbsp of tomato paste
1 tbsp of sugar

First, I will mix al the ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl and put the mixture in the fridge for an hour, at least. In a thick-based pan I heat a tbsp of olive oil. Gradually I add the onion and the garlic and stir until they have softened and turned gold. Meanwhile I have rolled the minced meat into balls ( I made 20 meatballs) and fry them in bunches in a frying pan, just to get some colour on both sides. I put them in the pan on top of the onion and garlic and add the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste. I lower the heat and let them cook for 20 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked all through.

In Irene's version we omit the tomato sauce and  heat the meatballs in a thick-based shallow frying pan with the addition of nut or vegetable oil which covers one half of them.

Spaghetti al pesto by Stefano

This is a dish that Stefano cooked the last time we met. It's been a while but he has just sent me his precious recipe and some interesting information about the dish and tips on how to enjoy an italian dining experience in London.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes (al dente)

Ingredients

40 basil leaves

1 tablespoon of pine kernels

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or crushed

½ teaspoons coarse sea salt

50 g freshly grated Parmesan cheese

50 g freshly grates Pecorino Romano

150 ml extravergin olive oil

Spaghetti al pesto (spaghetti with basil sauce)

This is a traditional sauce from Liguria, a coastal Italian region that stretches from France to Tuscany. I am from Lunigiana, a Tuscan valley that borders this region and gets culinary contamination from all the neighbours.

What I'm proposing to you is the Lunigiana version of pesto, with a London twist. At home the sauce is prepared by pounding with a pestle all the ingredients in a mortar but you can more practically use a food processor.

First of all, remove the leaves from a basil plant, you can easily get one either at Sainsbury's or Waitrose.

Place the pine kernels, garlic and sea salt in the food processor and start the blending. Add a few basil leaves, some olive oil and a bit of the two grated cheeses and whiz. Keep adding those ingredients until you get a smooth consistence and green colour.

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti, bring back to boil and cook for 10 minutes. Drain and serve immediately with the pesto sauce.

Advice: leave 1/3 of the cheese to be added once the pasta is dished

London twist 1: as the basil is not strong here as it is in the Mediterranean, adding a few rocket leaves or a bit of parsley gives the pesto a special kick

London twist 2: instead of the Italian cheeses you may buy some Twineham Grange at Rippon Cheese in Pimlico. Let it mature for a week (outside the fridge) and then grate. Fantastic!

 

To drink: Vermentino di Gallura, a fruity white wine that you can find in any Italian deli

To play: Youtube “Che cosse' l'amor” by Vinicio Capossela and keep playing the song during the whole preparation

Trout en papillote

Trout has a nutty-fatty taste and in order to balance the flavour I usually blend it with anything acidic, such as the taste of lemon and wine. When cooked in a parchment paper the flavour is enhanced and the fish remains soft and juicy. Actually this dish turned out really nice.

Ingredients

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp olive oil

half red onion, finely chopped

5 mushrooms

3 tbsp white wine

8 cherry tomatoes
chopped dill

juice of half a lemon

2 trout fillets ( 250gr)
fresh ground pepper
a pinch of chilly powder

In a frying pan I heat the cumin and coriander seeds in olive oil. After a minute I add the onion and stir everything together. Then I will add the mushrooms, season with fresh ground pepper and chilly powder and fry everything together for 2-3 minutes, until softened.

Meanwhile I have warmed the oven and prepared the trout fillets. In a piece of baking paper I place the onions and mushrooms and the halved cherry tomatoes and on top of all I put the trout fillets. I drizzle over some olive oil, pour in the wine, the chopped dill and the lemon juice. I will then fold the paper on top of the fish and double fold the edges to form a sealed parcel. I place the parcel in a baking tray and  bake it in the oven for 20 minutes until the fish is cooked through.

Quinoa with scrabbled eggs, zucchini, carrot in strips and mushrooms with prosciutto on top

It has been a long time since I have visited my fav health store, Baldwins & co. As a result, I have run out of my precious seeds, legumes and organic toothpaste. Therefore, I had to rush to Walworth road on Saturday, before work, to refeel. I left carrying two bags full of goodies, such as the fabulous organic quinoa they have, of which I bought a kilo. Quinoa is a good solution when I want to accompany my dinner with something that tastes like couscous and rice but it is not carbs (it is actually a protein) and is nicely combined with vegetables.

Ingredients for 3 portions

2 tbsp olive oil
200 gr quinoa organic
500 ml vegetable stock
1 garlic glove
1 leek chopped finely
1 zucchini peeled into strips with a potato peeler
1 carrot peeled into strips
10 white mushrooms, wiped with wet paper, cut off stems and halved
1/2 tbsp chilly powder
1 tbsp garam masala spice mix
3 eggs
100gr of prosciutto
juice of one lemon

The recipe is easy to make. First I cooked the quinoa in the vegetable stock for 20 minutes. While cooking the quinoa I heated one spoon of olive oil in the frying pan and threw in the eggs stirring till cooked. I set the scrambled eggs aside, cleaned the frying pan and heated the rest of the olive oil. When the oil started to bubble I added the garlic and leek. After a minute I added the mushrooms and then the carrots and the zucchini stripes. I seasoned it with the chilly powder and the garam masala and poured some of the lemon juice to avoid them getting burnt. When everything was softened I switched off the heat and threw the stir fried vegetables in the cooked quinoa, stirring everything together. When served  I placed some prosciutto strips on top.

Dining out

I was happy to see my friend Beatrice yesterday. We had a fun time despite the unexpectedly cold weather. First we visited the Wagamama restaurant in Southbank and tried to have a chat while eating our delicious japanese dishes but found out that this was impossible since the noise levels in the place were similar to a trance party. Although I enjoyed my yaki udon a lot, we had to leave the place immediately to avoid having the worst headache ever. After this experience the BFI interior bar seemed like an oasis.

http://www.wagamama.com/our-menu/yaki-udon

sweet potato and goat's cheese snack

The sweet potato and goat's cheese combination is one of my best in-between-meals snack; I usually spread it on top of rye bread and oatcakes or eat it as a dip with raw vegetables. The recipe is from the food doctor's ultimate diet book.

Ingredients

1 sweet potato ( about 200 gr)
2 garlic gloves
1 tbsp olive oil
75 gr soft goat's cheese
drops of lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves chopped
fresh ground black pepper

In a preheated oven I bake one sweet potato, which I have previously peeled, chopped in wedges and tossed in olive oil. I will let them bake for half an hour in a baking dish coated with olive oil with the addition of two garlic gloves in their skins with their tips cut off. When the potato pieces are soft I will take the dish out of the oven and allow it to cool.. I will then squeeze the soft garlic gloves out of their skins and mash it together with the sweet potato and the goat's cheese until well blended. To finish I will add some lemon juice, coriander leaves and season it with fresh ground black pepper.

 

Buckwheat noodles with vegetables and prawns stir fried in sweet chilly sauce

Sometimes i just  want to eat something nice and do it quickly,  a noodle stir fry for example. The taste is always rewarding and I can improvise with the ingredients, using whatever vegetable is left in the fridge and choosing from a variety of stir fry sauces. This time I tried a chilly sauce and used some autumn vegetables.

Ingredients

1tbsp olive oil
1 leek finely chopped
2spring onions finely chopped
1 carrot peeled into strips or ribbons
120 gr king prawns
70gr buckwheat noodles

Ingredients for the chilly sauce (which can transform into a sweet chilly one of you add 1 tbsp of sugar)

1 garlic glove chopped
1 cm piece of root ginger, peeled and grated
2 tbsp of cider vinegar
2 tbsp of thai fish sauce
4 tbsp vegetable stock
1/2 tbsp chilly powder
(Taken from the food doctor's everyday diet recipes)

First I make the sauce by mixing all the ingredients well together in a bowl. I will add the prawns and leave to stand while I prepare the vegetables. In a frying pan I will heat the olive oil, add the spring onions and stir fry for a minute. Then I will add the leek and the carrot strips and leave to cook until they are softened and hot. I will then pour in the prawns with the sauce and simmer together for a further 3-4 minutes to heat through. Meanwhile I have already cooked the noodles in boiling water, drained them through a colander and tip them into the frying pan to mix them with the sauce.

Brussels sprouts, haloumi cheese and red beans

Yesterday I was experimenting with brussels sprouts, beans and haloumi cheese and made this delicious salad. Actually the brussels sprouts and haloumi cheese combination made my taste buds very happy and with the onion and the red kidney beans addition the flavour was even more enhanced. Some fresh grounded pepper , an olive oil with balsamic vinegar vinaigrette and I was ready to eat.

My meet dinner (no photos, i was too hungry)

Yesterday I cooked pork loin chops with potatoes in the oven for the first time. Not a big success regarding the meat but the potatoes were delicious. I suppose I should have marinated the meat a little bit longer so it wouldn't become so dry; anyway next time I will know better.

My recipe was a simple one ( I made it up basically, but there was nothing challenging about it). In a bowl I mixed some olive oil, the juice of one lemon, 3 tbsp of wholegrain mustard and the pork chops and spiced it up with boukovo (dried chilli flakes), salt and thyme.  In a ceramic tray I placed the potatoes cut in wedges on top of the meat and purred over t the juice of 2 lemons mixed with some mustard. I left it cook for one hour in the oven, in 180 degrees; half an hour before completion I changed the position of the food, chops on top, potatoes underneath, as Eirini from Valmas has instructed me in order to get the juices from the meat spread all over the potatoes.

Risotto with red rice, leek and plump pumpkin

What a dull day. The sky is grey and so is my mood. I am listening to a jazz-soul album by Stevie Wonder, that slowly lifts up my spirit, while I am experimenting with my vegetable risotto. I have already roasted the plump pumpkin ( half an hour in the oven) and left it to cool. In the meantime I am preparing my vegetables.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
120 gr red rice
1 onion medium
1 garlic slice
1 leek finely chopped , both the white and green part
1 plump pumpkin, cut in wedges, deseeded and with skin on
1/2 glass of wine
300 ml vegetable stock
peper

As I mentioned before, I will start with roasting the pumpkin in a shallow tray, coated with a tbsp of olive oil. I soften the onion and garlic on medium heat in the rest of the olive oil. I will add the leek and after one -two minutes the red rice ( which I have washed under running water and have left to dry). When the rice is well coated with oil I will cool the mixture down with the wine, stirring all the time until most alcohol has evaporated. Then I will pour in half the vegetable stock and will add some amount of the rest of the stock whenever it gets absorbed. A quarter before the rice is cooked I will add the pumpkin and stir it gently with the rest of the ingredients. This time I served it with some feta cheese  and fresh coriander on top.

Curry with aubergine, sweet potato and chick peas

What do you cook when you are hungry and  you haven't planned anything? My solution was to take a thorough look in my cupboards and fridge and see what I can use. This time I found a over-ripened aubergine, a sweet potato and some legumes cans. If you take in account the coconut milk and red curry paste that are always available and the intriguing spices I bought recently from the Persepolis shop in Peckham then i am about to make a very delicious vegetable curry.