These would be great served over pasta, but I decided to try them over polenta with a bit of broiled rapini. This turned out to be a great combo! (Even though I forgot to add the wine to the sauce.)

The polenta and rapini was actually from a Cook's Country recipe, so I'll write that up separately later. In theory it was meant to be served with fried eggs, but the meatballs were fantastic with it! Especially since the tomato sauce sort of filled in for the missing sun-dried tomatoes that were supposed to get stirred into the polenta.

Chicken Meatballs with Spicy Tomato Sauce

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 450g ground chicken
• 160g frozen spinach, thawed
• 6 Tbsp. panko breadcrumbs
• 3 Tbsp. grated Parmesan
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Sauce

• 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. red chile flakes (or more to taste)
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/3 c. dry red wine
• 1 (~800mL) can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh basil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. Combine all the meatball ingredients and mix well.
3. Working with ~2 Tbsp. of meatball mixture at a time, form into balls and place on prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
6. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened (~4 minutes).
7. Add the chile flakes, thyme, oregano, salt, and pepper and cook for another 30-60 seconds.
8. Stir in the wine and cook until reduced by half (4-5 minutes).
9. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil.
10. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
11. Meatballs may be kept separate or simmered with the sauce. (I chose the latter option.)
12. Serve meatballs and sauce over a substrate of your choice. (Pasta and polenta both work very well.)
13. Garnish with fresh basil. Add a little extra Parmesan if desired.

I've picked up a few cookbook bundles from Humble Bundle over the years, but I haven't ended up using them much. To be fair, that's true of a lot of my hardcopy cookbooks as well. The problem is that -- between the Internet, the curry cookbook, and our collection of Cook's Country magazines -- I already have a massive pile of easy-to-access recipes that I haven't tried yet. So it can sometimes feel a bit awkward or difficult to pull things out of other books and sources.

But, I kind of wanted to mix things up a bit this week. So I decided to leaf through some of my Humble Bundle books. I started out looking for good sweet potato recipes, but then ended up branching out and just looking for anything that looked like a good way to use up ingredients on hand.

I knew I had some ground chicken in the freezer, so I figured I could do these meatballs over some pasta with some sort of salad on the side and call that dinner. My original plan had been to just serve them with spaghetti and maybe give the "French salad" from "The Cookbook" a try. But that was before I had a mix-up with the meal plan earlier in the week which left me with surplus radishes in the middle of the week. Thus, I swapped out the French salad for a celery and herb salad from one of the other Humble Bundle books. And then I ended up coming across half-off tortellini at the grocery store on Tuesday and figured no one would be sad if I swapped the plain spaghetti out for that. And, indeed, they weren't! (Although this change did mean that TF now needed a fist full of Lactaid to go with her meal, but it was still enjoyed by all.)

Despite the meal being a big success once I managed to get it to the table, I did experience a few issues during cooking. I don't know if my sauce was too thick or what, but the InstantPot just could not seem to get up to pressure. It steamed and rattled a bit, but never sealed. (And yes, I did check to make sure the valve was in the proper position.) Eventually it started beeping in distress and alerting me of a burn.

Luckily the burn didn't seem to be too severe; just a little light scortching at the bottom of the pot which I was able to scrape and stir in to no discernable detriment. And the meatballs seemed like they were pretty much cooked at that point, so I wasn't too worried. Just to be on the safe side, I put it on slow cook "high" for a bit while TF got a pot of water boiling and cooked the pasta.

As noted, the meal was still very good. I liked it a lot. But I am a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to cook it as directed. Maybe next time I'll try adding a bit more stock and see if that helps it to get up to pressure more easily. Barring that, I think that this would also work quite well as a "fast" slow cooker recipe provided you had the time to cook it for a few hours, rather than just a few minutes.

So, with that in mind, I have provided the recipe with the original cooking instructions here. Just be aware that they did not work as written for me. Keep an eye on your pot and if it seems to be having trouble sealing, turn it off and finish cooking your sauce by another method.

Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Slightly adapted from Healthy Instant Pot by Alexis Mersel

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 c. dried breadcrumbs
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh Basil
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 450g ground turkey or chicken

Sauce

• 1/2 c. (or more?) chicken stock
• 1 (800mL) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 c. tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning (optional)
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. dried garlic
• 1 tsp. dried onion
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon or Roman mustard
• up to 1 tsp. coarse sea salt¹
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2-4 Tbsp. olive oil²
• cooked pasta or spaghetti squash, to serve
• extra basil and Parmesan, to serve

Directions

Meatballs

1. Turn the InstantPot on to sauté "low" and add the oil.
2. Add the onion and cook for ~5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the garlic and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
4. Turn off the instant pot and set aside.
5. In a large bowl, combine the egg, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, basil, pepper flakes, salt, pepper, chicken/turkey, and sauté mix and add well.
6. Shape mixture into small (2-3cm diameter) balls and set aside on a plate.

Sauce

1. Add the crushed tomato, tomato paste, basil, oregano, Italian seasoning (if using), pepper flakes, garlic, onion, mustard, salt, pepper, and oil to the Instant Pot and mix well.
2. Carefully drop the meatballs into the sauce and gently turn to coat.
3. Seal the lid and pressure cook "high" for 10 minutes followed by a 10-minute natural release.
4. When the sauce is done, toss it with freshly cooked pasta or spaghetti squash and top with additional Parmesan and basil.

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¹ You may not need the full amount of salt if using store-bought stock or broth. Taste your sauce before adding any salt -- or raw meat! -- and then add up to 1 tsp. of salt as needed. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 1/4 c. of oil to be added to the sauce, but I halved this amount to try to make it a bit healthier and cut the calories. However, it's possible that the lower fat content also contributed to the scortching. I think that the most likely culprit is the thikness of the sauce, but I can't completely rule out the oil as a factor. Just something to keep in mind... ^Back

I have mixed feelings about this recipe. It was tasty and I enjoyed it, but I didn't really feel that it was optimally tasty. Also, the meatballs were very soft. I realize that they're probably supposed to be like that -- very tender and all -- but I didn't really care for the texture. I like my meatballs to have a bit more chew to them. And being so soft also made them very difficult to handle. I've reduced the amount of panade called for in the recipe below and added an egg. Hopefully that'll help make the meatballs a bit sturdier.

I've made some notes in the Creole seasoning post about what I'd do differently there next time. But a sub-optimal spice mix wasn't the only problem. TF and I both felt that there was somehting missing. I said that I thought it needed an acidic component. I actually tried stirring a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar into the leftovers after we'd all had our dinner tonight, and that did help some. But it still wasn't quite right.

Now that I'm looking at the recipe again, I see that we were meant to serve it with Louisiana-style hot sauce. That probably would have added that acidic component I was looking for! I am slightly annoyed that both white rice and hot sauce are called out as "important parts of the mix" in the preamble, but then only white rice is mentioned in the actual recipe. If it's so important, put it in the recipe! Oh well, now I know that, should I ever be making these meatballs again, they really need to be served with a highly acidic hot sauce to balance out all the flavours.

Cajun Meatball Fricassee

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country August/September 2020

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 40g saltines, crushed
• 1/2 c. milk
• 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 900g ground beef
• 1 large egg
• 1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp. Creole seasoning
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Stew

• 1/3 c. oil
• 1/3 c. flour
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1-2 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 slices streaky bacon¹, cut into 1cm pieces
• 6 scallions (green onions), chopped, whites and greens separated
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. Creole seasoning
• 1L chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• cooked rice, to serve
• Louisiana-style hot sauce, to serve

Directions

Meatballs

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F) and set a wire rack in a baking sheet lined with foil or a silicone baking mat.
2. Grease the rack.
3. Combine saltines, milk, and Worcestershire sauce, mix, and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Whisk saltine mixture until smooth.
5. Add beef, Parmesan, Creole seasoning, thyme, and pepper and mix with hands.
6. Make 24 meatballs (a scant 1/4 c. each) and place on prepared wire rack.
7. Roast at 220°C (425°F) for ~25 minutes.

Stew

1. In Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat until just smoking.
2. Stir in flour with rubber spatula and cook, stirring constantly, until roux is peanut butter coloured².
3. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the roux is the colour of milk chocolate.
4. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, and bacon and cook for another 10 minutes.
5. Add scallion whites, garlic, and Creole seasoning and cook for a minute longer.
6. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
7. Add meatballs.
8. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 20 minutes.
9. Uncover, increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened (10-12 minutes).
10. Serve over rice and top with scallion greens and hot sauce.

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¹ I didn't have any bacon, so I tossed in a bit of pancetta instead. ^Back
2 The recipe said that this should be done at medium-high heat and take 2-5 minutes. But my roux was already peanut butter coloured after barely a minute! The rest of the cooking was supposed to take a further 5-10 minutes, but mine only needed 2 to reach the milk chocolate stange. I've reduced the temperatures here to try to get the timing more in line with the recipe. (I wasn't even using induction for this, so I don't know why it went so much faster than the recip expected.) ^Back

This is probably best done with lamb, but the recipe specified lamb or beef. And we have a lot of beef right now. So that's what I used. I liked the little meatballs. Although I wish the sauce was a bit thicker. I've been debating whether it would be nice to head it back up and add a little flour or cornstarch to turn it into a sort of gravy.

Kefta Tagine with Herbs, Spices, and Lemon

Slightly adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

Kefta

• 450g ground beef or lamb
• 3 Tbsp. crème fraîche or grated beef suet¹
• 2 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Sauce

• 3/4 c. hot water, divided
• 1/8 tsp. crushed saffron threads
• 1 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/8-1/4 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/8 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter or ghee
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. chopped fresh cilantro, divided
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions

1. Combine all the kefta ingredients. If you have a food processor, combine them in the food processor and process until everything is well mixed and broken down. If not, just mix it with your hands as best you can.
2. Form mixture into olive-sized meatballs. (The original recipe says this should make ~24 meatballs, but I got twice that number. I guess they have really big olives in Morocco!) Cover and chill until ready to cook.
3. Meanwhile, combine the saffron, cumin, ginger, pepper, cayenne, and turmeric and add ~1/4 c. of the hot water. Stir and set aside to steep while you chop the onion.
4. Place a tagine on a heat diffuser and warm over medium-low heat.
5. Add the onion, butter, and spice-water.
6. Rinse the spice-water container out with the remaining half cup of hot water and add that as well.
7. Add the salt and 3/4 of the cilantro.
8. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Add meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
10. Turn the meatballs, cover, and simmer for 15 more minutes.
11. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice.
12. Sprinkle with the remaining cilantro and serve with rice, couscous, and/or bread.

¹ I didn't have either, so I used 2 Tbsp. of tallow mixed with 1 Tbsp. of heavy cream. ^Back

Ground lamb was on sale last week, so I grabbed a bit on a whim. TF loves lamb. (So do I, but I think she feels more strongly about it.) I figured I could peruse 660 Curries and find something tasty to do with it.

Most of the curries in the lamb section actually call for chunks of lamb rather than ground lamb. But there are a few at the end of the chapter and in the appetizer section that have you making various types of dumplings and meatballs out of it.

I opted for shahi kofta curry, which involves making slightly minty lamb-almond meatballs and then dousing them in a creamy, spiced tomato sauce. It was delicious!

I served it with some palak pulao and gobi manchurian and called it a day. I think it probably could've done with one more curry to round out the meal, but I ran out of both spoons and time. And, on the bright side, the Kidlet actually liked both the lamb and the cauliflower! Great success.

Shahi Kofta Curry

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 450g ground lamb
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 c. ground almonds
• 1/4 c. fresh mint leaves¹, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. Punjabi garam masala
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 c. tomato sauce
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods), ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream

Directions

1. Combine lamb, onion, almonds, mint, cilantro, garlic, garam masala, and salt and mix very well.
2. Form meatballs of whatever size you prefer. Iyer suggests 12 meatballs, but I prefered to make a larger number of smaller balls.
3. Heat the ghee over medium-high heat.
4. Add the cumin seeds and sizzle for 10-15 seconds.
5. Add the meatballs and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the meatballs have browned all over (5-8 minutes).
6. Carefully remove the meatballs from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
7. Add the tomato sauce to the pan and scrape any stuck-on bits off the bottom.
8. Add cardamom and cayenne.
9. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the oil starts to separate (~8 minutes).
10. Stir in the cream.
11. Return the meatballs to the pan and stir/spoon the sauce over them to coat.
12. Cover and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through (10-15 minutes).
13. Serve over palak pulao, pasta, or other starch of your choice.

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¹ If you have access to high quality dried mint, you may substitute 2 Tbsp. of dried mint for the fresh. Avoid generic grocery store mint if possible, it tends to be fairly lacklustre and bland. I have had good luck with dried mint from halal/Syrian grocery stores. ^Back

Our other recent recipe from Our Syria. We had an already-made batch of tomato sauce that just needed some extra onion and garlic (and the bell peppers, which I forgot -- brain was on short supply that evening), but for this writeup I have recreated the entire recipe.

Meatballs in Tomato and Pepper Stew

Our Syria p.164

Ingredients

• Sauce
• 1 onion, finely diced
• oil
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 500g tomatoes, diced
• 30mL tomato paste
• Meatballs
• 500g ground lamb (or beef, or ground veggie protein)
• 1 onion, very finely chopped
• ½ large bunch of parsley or cilantro, finely chopped
• 5mL 7 baharat
  
• ¼ tsp salt
  
• oil
  

Directions

1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add a bit of oil and the onion. Cook until soft.
3. Add the garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the bell pepper and tomato, fry for another 2-3 minutes, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Stir in the tomato paste and continue simmering for another 30 minutes, until the tomatoes are reduced.
6. Meanwhile, combine the lamb, onion, parsley or cilantro, 7 baharat, and salt in a large bowl.
7. Form meat mix into 2-2.5cm meatballs, roll in oil, and place evenly on a large baking sheet.
8. Bake at 320°F for 10 minutes.
9. Transfer meatballs and their juices to the pot with the tomato sauce, cover, and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
10. Serve over rice.