Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

For the Meat Balls
Preheat oven to 200°C

1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 Spanish onion, finely diced
2 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
1 granny smith apple, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon concentrated chicken stock (or bouillon cube dissolved in hot water)
1 clove garlic, finely diced
cracked black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl until combined. Form into meatballs Place in an oven proof dish and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Tomato Sauce

6 medium vine tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
the other half of the onion, diced (see above)
1 crushed clove garlic
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
A dozen pitted black olives, cut in quarters
1 teaspoon of capers
Four anchovy fillets, chopped
salt and pepper to season.

Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until soft. Add in the fresh tomatoes and cook for a few minutes. Add the vinegar and honey and cook for about a minute. Add in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and allow to simmer until meatballs are ready.

Puree the sauce using a hand blender. Add the meatballs to the sauce, stir, reduce the heat and allow to sit at the lower heat for a few minutes.

Serve with a side salad and crusty bread.

Over recent months I have become aware of menus and recipes suggesting pulled pork. I have to admit to being rather slow to go and investigate further.  Back in February, a freebie magazine in Asda, caught my eye and since I was about to go home for my morning coffee, I added a copy to browse through with my sticky bun.

You can imagine my horror when I turned a page and my eyes were assaulted with this:

Photo of cooked port joint taken from Asda website.

“Who hacked the joint of meat?” was my first thought, quickly closing the magazine in case mammy was looking over my shoulder. I can still feel the rap on my knuckles as my hand went to pick off the half dislodged crispy corner of a joint, just as mammy was about to carve it.

After several weeks, I decided to give it a try and for once in my life, follow the recipe in the magazine…. Well almost!

Pulled Pork

2 teaspoons Smoked Paprika
1 level teaspoon Mild Chilli Powder
1 level teaspoon Mustard Powder
½ teaspoon Table Salt
1 teaspoon onion granules
1 tablespoon Sunflower Oil

1.5 kg Pork Shoulder
500 ml Cider

Mix together the first six ingredients. Rub it all over the meat, but not the skin. Put it in a dish, skin-side up. Cover loosely with food wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Put the pork in a roasting tin, skin side up, and pour the cider round the meat.
Cover the tin with foil and then seal the foil to the tin edges, leaving enough room for air to circulate.
Cook in the oven for 3½ hours.
Remove the foil, increase the oven temperature to 200°C and cook uncovered for a further 30 minutes.
Pull the pork into shreds – the meat will be meltingly tender now.

MY WAY:

Since the meat was supposed to be ‘meltingly tender’ read, ready to fall apart, I decided to use the slow cooker instead of the oven. I reduced the cider by half, left out the onion granules, but added the last half of a jar of Apple chutney with flame roasted tomato & garlic – about 100-150g.

I was up late that particular night, so set the meat into the slow-cooker at midnight, on the low setting, and off I went to my bed.  I left it alone until the middle of the afternoon, checking it at about 3pm. It was well cooked, so I switched off and removed the inner dish to a trivet to allow it to cool slightly.

There was more than enough for one sitting, so the first night I did as suggested – attacked one end with two forks. Once cold, I sliced the remainder with a carving knife….. I like my food to look neat.

I would try it again… in a few months, but with other spices and perhaps a different brand of cider.

Steak & Guinness Casserole
Serves 4-5

1 or 2 pounds of frying steak
1 tablespoon of Flour
8 slices of bacon
3 ozs butter
5 medium size onions
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 sticks of celery, scrubbed and sliced
3-4 ozs of stringless beans, chopped
6 mushrooms chopped
1 tablespoon of Brown sugar
1 tablespoon of Raisins
1 bottle of Guinness stout (not the ‘draught’ variety)
Some chopped parsley
Glass of red wine (optional)

Put the flour in a food bag and add the diced steak, close the bag and toss to cover the steak with flour.
Melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the steak with the bacon, and brown on all sides. Then place the meat in a casserole dish.
Peel and chop the onions and brown over a medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, beans & mushrooms and cook for five minutes then place in a casserole dish with the meat. Add raisins, brown sugar, and chopped parsley, then pour on the Guinness & wine.
Cover the dish, simmer and cook over a low heat for 2.5 hours. Add water if the gravy mixture starts to thicken excessively.
Serve with boiled or baked potatoes.

I planned to cook this the other day and was stopped in my tracks about half a dozen times. I finally had it ready for the oven quite late in the evening and was suddenly floored by tiredness. Not wanting to stay up late to remove it from the oven. I gave it ten minutes at 200C and then turned the oven right down to 110C and left it in all night. I woke to a warm kitchen and a wonderful aroma.

PLEASE DON’T TELL ELLY….

The aroma had me drooling, so I baked a spud and had a portion for breakfast. Well, breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day. Right?