Tuna Meatballs! Oh My!

Hello Peeps!

So I made this for dinner last night, and it far, far, FAR exceeded my expectations! When I first read 'Tuna Meatballs', I thought, you've got to be kidding Jamie Oliver!

But, as I should have expected, the recipe was simple, easy to follow, and oh so yummy! You could serve this with pasta, or rice, couscous or quinoa. I was craving veg, so I served it on a bed of smashed baby peas, and blanched cavalo nero (italian spinach).

I made the full recipe, which yielded around 20 'balls'. I cooked what I wanted to eat, and then put the remainder, in batches of 4, uncooked, into zip lock bags & into the freezer, ready to just pop in the pan another time.

Enjoy!


le migliori polpette di tonno

For the meatballs
• 400g/14oz sustainably sourced tuna
• olive oil
• 55g/2oz pinenuts *I didn't have pine nuts, so used pistachios, which worked very well*
• 1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 100g/3½oz stale breadcrumbs *I didn't have breadcrumbs, so used quinoa flakes. They worked so well!*
• 55g/2oz freshly grated Parmesan
• 2 eggs
• zest and juice of 1 lemon

for the tomato sauce
olive oil
• 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 x 400g tins of good-quality plum tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• red wine vinegar
• a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped


To make the meatballs:

Chop the tuna up into 2.5cm/1 inch dice. Obviously I wasn't fussed to measure the size! Just small chunks is fine.

Pour a good couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a large frying pan and place on the heat. Add the tuna to the pan with the pinenuts (or pistachios) and cinnamon. Season lightly with salt and pepper and fry for a minute or so to cook the tuna on all sides and toast the pinenuts. Allow to cool down for 5 minutes, in the pan.

Put the oregano, parsley, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, eggs, lemon zest and juice into a large bowl. Add the cooled tuna mix.

Now its time to get your hands dirty! Using your hands, really scrunch and mix all the flavours together.

Wet your hands, then grab a small amount, & roll it into a golfball kind of size & shape. If the mixture’s very sticky, add a few more breadcrumbs / quinoa flakes. Keep the meatballs around the same size and place them on an lightly oiled tray, cover, and pop into the fridge for an hour or so to let them rest.

To make the sauce:

Place a large pan onto a medium heat, and add a good glug of olive oil.

Add the onion and garlic and fry slowly for 10 or so minutes until soft.

Add the oregano, tomatoes, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or so, then liquidize until smooth.

Taste it! I added a good glug of some red wine that I had left over, and it really lifted it.

Finally, remove your rested balls (hee!) from the fridge. In the same pan that you cooked the tuna mix in, add a bit of olive oil, then some of the tuna balls. Don't put them all in at once - you need to cook them in batches.

Once browned & cooked on all sides, top with the warm sauce, and top with some fresh parsley.

Its getting cold . . . . must be Curry Time!

In foodie terms, winter is my favourite time of year. You get to bake pies, make stews, roast roasts, and make curries. I know you can do it at any other time of year too . . . . it just feels better in winter!

One curry I have always had an aversion to is the seafood variety. The idea of curry & seafood was on the same page as pizza & seafood to me. But then one night recently, at an Indian restaurant with friends, someone ordered the Southern Indian Prawn curry. It was so good! So, so good! I am so glad I tried it!

So, after a little google-ing, I found this recipe by Jamie Oliver, and it is exactly what you would expect from him: simple, and delicious! Tip - ensure you have everything cut up in advance, as you need to add things quickly.

And no, this isn't outrageously hot: it has a nice warmth too it, and would only taste 'too hot' to someone who had refused to try chili ever before in their lives . . . . in which case, why are you friends with them?

Jamie Oliver's Keralan Fish Curry

• peanut oil

• 1 tsp mustard seeds

• 20 curry leaves
• Chopped coriander
• 6 shallots, finely sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 1 x 2.5cm piece of ginger, finely sliced
• 1 green chilli, finely sliced
• 1 tsp chilli powder (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 750g firm white fish cut into chunks
• 1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
• 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

Firstly,  heat a lug of groundnut oil in a large pan and fry the mustard seeds with the curry leaves till the seeds start to pop. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli, and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes, till softened. 

Mix together the chilli powder and turmeric with a splash of water, no more than a quarter of a cup's worth, and then stir into the pan. Fry for a minute, then add the fish, coconut milk and tomatoes. Season w/ S&P.

Bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes, or until the fish is cooked and sauce reduced. Serve sprinkled with chopped coriander, with rice (I used brown b/c I prefer it - basmati is also perfect).

Roasted Fish w/ garlic, lemon zest & baby tomatoes

This is one of my favourite, simplest fish dinners. It is inspired by (though not identical to) Donna Hay's Modern Classics (Book 1). I have used several Donna Hay recipes before, but can't remember what I wrote about her! I think her recipes are very good: they almost always work. Some of you may remember when (most of us?) were in high school, and some 'Marie Claire' cookbooks were released: they were fantastic, and really revolutionised not only how cook books were published in Australia, but how home cooks cooked. 

Donna Hay was the force behind them (the first 3 or so books that is, not the later ones). I am a big fan: if I am every trying a dish 'new / for the first time' I will either look through Donna Hay's stuff, or Stephanie Alexander. 

That said, I do find the magazine, and some of her later books a little annoying: it often feels like a book that I have bought is then basically published in the magazine, and vice-versa. But that is bye-the-bye: her stuff works, every time, and she doesn't suggest ridiculous ingredients that would see you spend $18 on a small sachet of something that will go off before you can ever use it again (I huge pet hate of mine). 

I served this w/ boiled potatoes that I mixed w/ olive oil & parsley, I was going to add green beans, but was so busy chatting to an old friend on Facebook that I forgot to put them on . . . . thus: beanless.

Simple Roast Fish

olive oil   

zest of 1 lemon

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

10 baby tomatoes (whole)

4 small potatoes

handful fresh parsley

any fish fillet of firm white flesh

(I used flathead fillets in these pics)

Preheat the oven to 180'c. Put a pot of water on to boil, and once boiling add some salt, and pop in the potatoes (I prefer not to peel mine: this is absolutely a matter of preference: do them however you prefer). 

Put the crushed garlic, tomatoes, and lemon zest into a roasting dish and put a good glug or so of olive oil into the dish. Mix well to combine it all, and pop into the oven for 20 minutes. 

After 20 mins remove the dish from the oven, and put the fish fillet/s into the pan. Add another glug of olive oil & carefully (don't burn yourself!) mix in w/ the tomato mix, ensuring the fillets are well coated in the oil & cook for another 15 - 20 mins: until fish is cooked. You can tell that it is cooked by pressing your fork against the fillet. The flesh will come away slightly, and if it is still pink-ish, it needs longer (duh).

Drain the potatoes & quarter (if using larger potatoes, maybe cut into 6ths). Slice/tear up the parsley, and together with another glug (love that word!) of olive oil, mix through the potatoes. 

Put a heap of the potatoes on a plate, and then top w/ the roast fish/tomato mix. Season w/ salt & pepper to taste. 

Bon Appetit! 

Blessed are the Fishmongers, for they

shall inherit . . . . I don't know what. I don't really have anything that is inheritable. My recipe books perhaps?

It is Fish Pie for dinner tonight!

This is one of my favourite things to cook as it is delicious, healthy, and just very easy to make.

I am blessed to live across the street from what is a vibrant grower's market held every Saturday. There is a wonderful fishmonger there, Francis the Fishmonger, who has an array of products, and very inexpensive.

I have some smoked mussels, smoked sardines, crab meat, snapper fillets, and prawns, all of which will be added to the pie pot.

Put some water on to boil, and peel some potatoes, and cook. You will mash these up and put on top of the pie mix before it all goes into the oven.

Grease a large dish with a little butter, or olive oil. Cut up the fish into cubes about the size of your upper thumb joint; and put it with the rest of the seafood into the dish. You want around 750g of seafood. Any sort would suit, though obviously fresh is best (frozen is fine too, I just mean stay away from manky canned stuff).

Grate (I chop, as I am lazy) come celery, a carrot, throw in some baby spinach, some plum tomatoes, and some grated cheddar (you can save some for the top, but I prefer to use Parmesan). Mix through some lemon zest, and mix it all together with your hands, making sure it is all well incorporated. If you want to be a bit decadent, and have an open carton of cream, you can pour some of that into the mix too.

Mash the potatoes (adding butter/milk/salt/pepper as desired), and spoon it onto the top of the pie filling, smoothing it over so it covers the whole lot evenly.

If you want, grate some Parmesan cheese on top, or use any cheddar you reserved, or have left over.

Put it into a hot oven (200'c) for 40 mins. Serve with mixed greens, and tomato sauce (if you must).

Dinner is at 8pm. Bookings are essential.

A.
x

NB: This is a bastardised version of Jamie Oliver's (too-simple-to-be-good-but-it-is!) fish pie, which, along with other great recipe ideas, can be found on his website (www.jamieoliver.com)