Two recepies I recently made

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I hope this is ok to post.

I made bot of these recently, and they are lovely.

Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
Serves 4

1lb Sausage Meat (Use Superquinn sausage meat for best results)
1lb Mince Beef
1 Onion
Tomato Puree
1 egg
Salt&Pepper
2 cans tomatoes
Worcestershire Sauce

Meatballs

Combine the Sausagemeat and Mince Beef in a bowl with a grated Onion, a Tablespoon of Puree, an egg and S&P.

Roll into spheres, you should use about a half-palm sized chunk of meat for this, and you should get about 20 meatballs from this mix.

Fry these speheres of meat on a pan until they are cooked through. Not all together, in batches of about five or six. When cooked, leave to one side in a bowl with some kitchen roll to absorb the grease.

Sauce
Really simple sauce, start it before the meat. Pour two cans of tomatoes into a pot, and leave on a medium heat. Worcestershire Sauce if you want. Also, if it needs thickening, just add some cornflour.

Once all the Meatballs are cooked, add them to the sauce and let it simmer for about a half hour to an hour.

I serve this with Rice, but I'm sure it's just as good with pasta

Beef Goulash
1lb Beef - I used Round Steak
1/2 Onions
Decent amount of Mushrooms, I used eight large closed cap ones from Tesco (heh, I don't know the weight, they cost about €1.70 though).
3 Teaspoons Paprika
2 Tablespoons Tomato Puree
1 Teaspoon Cornflour
Half Pint of Water.

Chop up the beef into bit sized chunks, then fry off.

Remove Beef from pan, and place in the bottom of an over proof dish.

Cut up the onions and mushrooms, then add to the pan, and fry off.

Add the Puree, Paprika, Cornflour and Water, and heat in the pan until it thickens, stirring continuously.

When thickened, place over the beef in the over proof dish,, cover with foil, into the oven pre-heated to about 160/170 DegC (sorry, I haven't got the gas mark here:o ) for 90 minutes.

I also have this with rice, but it can go well with potatoes ot even baked scones.

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Just to add.

I made them for freezing for myself, and they are still reall nice having been heated up from frozen.

noby

Fry these speheres of meat on a pan until they are cooked through.

Are you actually cooking them through? If so, roughly how long does it take?
Or do they finish cooking in the sauce?

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I'd say about 7-10 minutes, but on a relatively low heat, otherwise you'll just sear the outside of them. and they'll still be pink in the middle.

rubadub

seansouth wrote:

I'd say about 7-10 minutes, but on a relatively low heat, otherwise you'll just sear the outside of them. and they'll still be pink in the middle.

They will cook off in the sauce if left long enough though. You can always just get rib steak and pork chops, cut off the fat and stick in a blender. That is a low fat option and usually just as cheap as buying lean mince and decent sausage meat. And since it is in sauce they are not dry due to the lack of fat.

Popel

ok, I may be killed for giving out such information, but my boyfriend is the German meatball-king of all time. As such, well done for having both pork and beef meat, along with that(flattened out against the side of a big bowl, and with all other ingredients mixed in from this position) you need one egg, some herb de prevince(scattered all over), mustard (not too strong, not wholegrain), of course salt and pepper, big pile of chilli if you wish (no point of putting in a small pile, you won´t taste it (dried, that is)). these on their own are magnificent, and even better after a day in the fridge, but i´m sure it´ll give you the optimal output from your dish!

The Sweeper

Hey Seansouth

Sounds good. I'm a complete lush for meatballs, and with your recipe, I'd go:

1lb sausage meat
1lb minced beef
2 cloves garlic, grated fine (pulped)
2 tbsps tomato puree
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 egg
3 slices of white bread, with the crusts cut off, soaked in just enough milk that they absorb it completely
plenty of salt and pepper

I'd leave the onion out of the meatballs, but I'd add it to the sauce, along with a few other bits:

Finely chopped (or grated) onion
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1/2 pint good beef stock
1/2 red pepper and 1/2 green pepper, finely diced
1 chopped fresh chili (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Do the sauce first, using a casserole dish that you can move from the hob to the oven - sweat the onion off until soft and clear, add the diced peppers, sweat until softened, then add the fresh chili, the paprika and the cayenne. Finally add the tomatoes, stock and tomato puree and reduce to a slow simmer. Season with salt and pepper. It will be a reasonably watery sauce. Taste for sharpness - if it's too acidic from the tomatoes, add a little sugar - I used the darkest unrefined cane sugar I can find, a half teaspoon at a time, and taste as I go.

Then make the meatballs by mixing all your ingredients by hand. The soaked bread will disentegrate into the mixture when mixed and helps make it very light. I'd round up each meatball, coat in a little flour and drop, unsealed, into the simmering sauce. The sauce needs to be hot enough that it will seal the meatballs immediately they're dropped into it. The flour on the meatballs help seal them and thicken the sauce a little.

Once all the meatballs are in your sauce, bring it up to a strong simmer on the stove top and then into the oven at about 150 degrees, uncovered, for an hour. The sauce will reduce and the meatballs will be cooked through.

Serve with tagliatelle.