Spaghetti and Meatballs

Home-Ground Meat Series, Post #3

[js]
All that ground up beef need to go somewhere and I debated what to make and what to make.

There is a time restraint on this and I have to be someplace else as quickly as possible.

I finally decided on good old spaghetti and meatballs.



I *love* spaghetti and meatballs: the play of long noodles against the round (or rather, round-ish), the tang and sweetness of tomatoes against the beefiness of the meatballs, and the al dente bite of the noodles against the soft give of the meatballs. Thing is, if I get all of the components of the dish right, the sum is greater than its parts and everything in the world is just heavenly.

And if I don't get everything right, well, all is still well in the land. Spaghetti and meatballs is a very forgiving dish.

I figure I should really buckle down and get everything measured so I can plod along semi-scientifically in search of perfection (3 cheers to Heston Blumenthal). One of these days perhaps.

In the meantime, I could never make this same dish twice. There's always something different when I make spaghetti and meatballs. Sometimes it turns out better, sometimes it doesn't. But hey, as I said, it is a very forgiving dish and it is very hard to mess it up and render it inedible.



I start with bread. For 2 pounds of ground beef, I usually go with 4 slices of sandwich bread and soak it with milk. Sometimes, we would have leftover French bread and I'll use that instead. This time, we had leftover foccacia from our maltagliati meal, so that's what went in. Other people use breadcrumbs and that is also perfectly acceptable: I've just never tried it since we don't buy breadcrumbs and I do not see why I have to go to another step of turning the bread into crumbs. If I were Heston Blumenthal perhaps, but I'm not.





I mince an onion (usually by food processor) and add it to the meatball mix. The onions, along with the bread, make the meatballs softer. If there are no bread and onions, the meatballs become dense, solid, and hard.

To lighten the meatballs further, I usually add 2 big tablespoons of yogurt. Lemon zest is optional and sometimes I opt out of the lemon zest.

Add herbs. For my meatballs, I usually go for oregano, thyme, rosemary, and flat-leaf parsley. The herbs are of course optional, but they do add a lot of flavour to the balls. Any of the herbs, in various combinations, work in this context. If I have fresh basil, I would also chop up some basil leaves and add it to the meatball mix.

If I have some grated parmiggiano in the fridge, I usually throw it into the mix. If not, then I would most likely forego the parmiggiano.

Add one egg, mix together with hands, and form into balls. How big the balls you want to be is up to you. I usually like mine fairly large, about an inch and a half in diameter. That way, it will look nice plated on top of spaghetti.





After forming the meatballs, there's two schools of thought. The first advocate browning the meatballs first before putting them into the sauce (or "gravy"). The second condone them being dropped naked and crust-less into the sauce. Personally, I perfer the meatballs to be browned first because it adds more flavour to the final dish. However, when time constraints and personal laziness get in the way, I will just dump the freshly-formed balls into the sauce. The risk of doing this is the meatballs would sometimes fall apart into the sauce. Browning them first gives them a bit of integrity and they go into their tomato bath less likely to disintegrate.

For the sauce, I do a simple tomato sauce.

Olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. I like onions in my sauce so I would usually mince 2 onions in the food processor and do half of it for the meatballs and half of it for the sauce. Saute the onions until soft. Add 3 cloves of garlic (I like mine garlicky). Add a grated carrot and saute. Two tablespoons of tomato paste and saute until dark red.





To this, I usually use two cans of whole tomatoes, juice and all. I suppose one can just do the tomatoes for a less watery, richer sauce and I'll try that next time, in my search for the perfect spaghetti and meatballs. I whirr the tomatoes in the food processor so I don't have to wait for them to break down in the sauce.



Add herbs, the same herbs as above, in any or various combinations you desire.

Once it boils, I add the meatballs to the pot. If I have a rind of parmiggiano sitting in my fridge, I would add the rind to the pot. If not, then I just fuh-gudd-about-it.



Oh, it goes without saying that everything needs to be seasoned to taste. Salt and pepper for the meatballs and the sauce and the sauce with the meatballs.



As this is one of my favourite meals, I'll keep making spaghetti and meatballs. In my own haphazard way, I'll be searching for perfection, tweaking here and there. I should start making notes.


nekkid


with Parmiggiano-Reggiano

How can one not love this?

Grilled Lamb Kofta

Home-Ground Meat Series, Post #2

[js]
We saw an episode of Jamie at Home and he was doing lamb dishes. I like Jamie Oliver: everything he makes seems so delicious, even things I wouldn't usually consider good eating. I've wanted to reach across the TV screen barrier and grab one of those fried rabbit pieces he was eating. It must be his genuine energy and enthusiasm for food combined with genuine cooking chops (as opposed to most of the "personalities" on the Food Network these days).

Since I have about 3 pounds of ground lamb left over from the other day, I decided to put it to good use in lamb koftas. Lamb kofta is not something I normally would crave, although the seed of craving had been planted earlier by a couple of episodes of Food Safari (featuring Lebanese and Turkish cuisine, including a Lebanese kafta and a Turkish kofte). This episode of Jamie at Home just made that seed grow and blossom into action.

The recipe is here (also available in the accompanying book, of course):
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/meat/grilled_lamb_kofta_kebabs_with_pistachio

Instead of lamb shoulder, which is generally fattier, I used the leg. I think I followed it fairly well, except I have no sumac so I zested a couple of lemons. I thought I'd err on the side of more lemon zest than less, since I figure the gaminess of the meat would be counteracted by more lemon zest. The herbs I dropped in were also approximate. I'm sure they don't match the measurements he gave in his recipe.

I didn't have pistachios and didn't want to look for any other nuts (although I think we had walnuts and/or pinenuts in the house), so I made do without any of the nuts.

I tried looking for our metal skewers but couldn't find them. Therefore, I just shaped them into flattened ovals as best I could, like the Turkish koftas I saw on Food Safari (although those were smaller). I put the ovals on the grill and waited for them to be done.



I asked TS to make some condiments.

[ts]
I don't remember exactly what Jamie did for his condiments. For mine, I made a yogurt with grated garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. I also made the "salad"/"salsa" below. It had red onions, cucumbers, parsley and lemon juice. (And s&p, of course). I think that was it.



[js]
I tried one and I was pleasantly surprised. The kofta tasted very authentic in its spicing. It was also very soft and tender, which I didn't expect because it was an all-meat kofta without any bread or other fillers. The meat was not gamey at all: it just enough of the lamb-taste that I like, enough to know that it was indeed lamb and not any other meat, but wasn't overwhelmingly muttony.

I can't wait to do this on a metal skewer for that more authentic kebab shape. Also, I want to try this recipe with beef and/or chicken.

And grilled over charcoal, which would make it even more delicious.

I just realized that the section for ingredients on Jamie's recipe online is not formatted for easy reading. I'll just give the measurements I used for my kofta.

3 lbs ground lamb
2 lemons for zest
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground cayenne (I think I forgot this: my kofta were not spicy)
6 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, minced
8-10 mint leaves, minced
salt, pepper

This makes about 10 ovals (approximate size: 2" x 4").

Next time I make this, I will not forget the cayenne or chili. I want this to have a little bit of heat.



Hey, what do you know. . .I can't even tell the difference between our version and Jamie's version! Well, the lighting and the photography in his version is much better, obviously. Hopefully, our version tastes as good as his.


[eatingclub] vancouver dishes inspired by Food Safari episodes:
Spanish: Tortilla de Patatas
Thai: Waterfall Beef Salad
Lebanese: Tarator-style Sauce
Thai: Thai Basil Stir-Fry (gka prow)
Lebanese: Lamb Kafta (Turkish: Lamb Kofte)
Indonesian: Belado
Moroccan: Preserved Lemons
Moroccan: Chicken Tagine

Vietnamese Lunch: Au Petit Cafe & Bon Cafe (March 22, 2008)

[js]
Saturday lunch time rolls around and we are again stuck without any lunch possibilities. I do not know what it is about "lunch" and why suddenly we are having such problems with "lunch."

I don't know if it's just a North American thing: I do not recall me having a problem with "lunch" or the mid-day meal when I was growing up. Lunch was just a mid-day meal, with the same kinds of foods as you got for dinner. Here, it seems like "lunch" has become a second-class meal, merely a down-graded version of "dinner" and the idea that you eat the same kinds of food as dinner seems downright luxurious.

Fish for lunch that's not canned tuna? Wow.

Meat that's not a deli meat? Wow.

For me personally, "lunch" has become somewhat fraught for me. On most days, I find myself now wanting food that falls under the genre of the "light lunch." Then there are other days when I want to rebel against the whole "lunch" thing and want to eat foods that belong to the dinner table.

I wring my hands. I do not know how it has come to this.

Perhaps it is a function of the North American workday which really leaves little room for a good meal. After all, I can't really take 2- to 3-hour lunches now, can I? Perhaps if I were higher up on the economic ladder I can, but I'm not. On most days, all I can manage is a little nibble here and there throughout the day, just to abate the hunger and prevent the fainting spell.

Anyways, to segue properly to the topic of the post, the Vietnamese "lunch." When I think about it, Vietnamese food seems perfect for "lunch." I like Vietnamese food: most dishes are light and non-greasy, with bright and refreshing flavours. The banh mi is a case in point.

Banh mi is usually advertised as a Vietnamese sub sandwich -- and it is kind of a sub sandwich. I like the bread they use for these bahn mi: it looks like a French baguette but it is usually lighter than a French baguette. More airy it seems, not too heavy to fight with all the light and delicate flavours of the filling.

I love the pickled vegetables that come inside a banh mi. In fact, I prefer them to the actual meat filling. The meat filling, for me, is the side show, more of the condiment than the pickled vegetables.

Oh, it seems that I haven't really come to the topic of this post, which are the banh mi sandwiches we had on a particular Saturday morning in March. Since this post is already long enough, I figure I might as well give MORE backstory and tell how we arrived at our destination.

When we set out to find "lunch," we were thinking of Aree's hot dogs again. We figure having one more Aree dog would give us more content for our previous Aree post. We wanted to go to confirm whether we were right in our original assessment or not.

As we were driving. . . oops, make that I overdrove the spot where Aree was located. I debated whether to turn around and go back or just keep going. There is such a thing as inertia: therefore, I just kept driving. We figured we can get the same Aree-type bun at a Vietnamese place, so we set out to Au Petit on Main.

Au Petit Cafe
4851 Main Street, Vancouver

[js]
As usual, there was no parking in front of the small cafe and there was a lineup again. TS went down and waited for our banh mi, while I drove around trying to find a parking spot. Finally, she emerged from the place with 4 sandwiches: 2 chicken banh mi and 2 meatball banh mi.


meatball banh mi from Au Petit Cafe

I was very hungry, so I started to dig into my chicken sandwich while still parked. The crust of the bun being all crumb-y, there was a mess in the car. I figured this was no way to eat. We are not animals! I suggested that we eat someplace where we can actually sit down and enjoy the meal.

So we ended up just a few stores south of Au Petit, which was Bon Cafe.

[ts]
I haven't eaten in the car since... well, actually, since we went to get hotdogs from Aree's the week before. But before that, I can't remember the last time I ate in the car. I don't like it. Like animals is right!

Bon Cafe
4909 Main Street, Vancouver


pho from Bon Cafe; re photo: see the difference natural light makes!

[ts]
This is me rebelling against sandwiches! I ordered my usual rare beef pho. I have no complaints. Their broth was very clear in appearance and clean in taste. Although, I do wish it had a bit more oomph: perhaps a slightly stronger hit of star anise and fish sauce?

[js]
I ordered the chicken sandwich again from Bon Cafe, just so I can compare the two sandwiches. The chicken filling from Bon is more flavourful and darker (fish sauce, sugar?) than the chicken from Au Petit. Both did not really give me enough of the pickled vegetables. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, these chicken banh mi were about equal, around a 5 for the Au Petit, 5.5 for Bon.

The real winner among the banh mi, I was to discover, were the meatball banh mi from Au Petit. The meatball was very tender, very flavourful, and I was quite surprised at the delicacy of the porkiness. The pork-iness was not overwhelming, which is what I fear with Vietnamese deli meats. Quite delicious and I give this banh mi about a 7.5.


foreground: grilled pork banh mi; background: chicken banh mi; right: spring roll; from Bon Cafe

[ts]
My favorite banh mi was the grilled pork from Bon Cafe. Compared to the banh mi from Au Petit, this one seemed CHOCKFUL of grilled pork filling. It hit the spot with its sweet, savory, onion-y/shallot-y taste reminiscent of a childhood favorite (if anybody remembers, it was the "Pork Loin Burger" from Lei Garden in Manila, lo so many years ago). I'm wanting to go there right now and have it again, if only to imprint that taste in my mind.

I would have to agree with the lack of pickled vegetables in banh mi. Although, I'm thinking that perhaps all these banh mi places put the "correct" amount of pickled vegetables and we are the ones who just happen to want more of them. The Au Petit Cafe pickled vegetables didn't have daikon! It was just pickled carrots. The Bon Cafe pickled vegetables had the requisite carrots and daikon.

I really like Bon Cafe. It's a tiny place, very bright and clean, and it looks very well-cared for. The owner/servers spoke Vietnamese, so perhaps that makes the place more authentic? I will definitely have to return.