Mozzarella madness

Spaghetti and meatballs.  Mozzarella cheese.  Tasty tomato sauce.  Need I say any more?  I love spaghetti bolognese, lasagne, all those tasty tomato-cheese-pasta dishes.  Meatballs however, are not something I often make.  So when I stumbled on this recipe, from Annabel Langbein, I had to stop and wonder why not?  I mean heck - this is a little parcel of meat-patty-style goodness, stuffed with melty, stretchy mozzarella!  

We made ours with pork mince, and they were amazing.  So tasty, so quick to throw together, and everyone loved them, from Miss 3 through to all the adults.  I'm going to make them again tonight, this time trying lamb mince.  Can't wait!  

400 g mince

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 egg

1/2 - 1 cup freshly grated parmasan (I used a cup because I grate my parmasan using a microplane, which makes it really fluffy.  If you were using a normal grated, half a cup would probably be enough) 

2 tsp dried oregano (makes it taste like pizza!!!!)

2 cloves crushed garlic

1/2 tsp salt

ground black pepper, to taste

70 g mozzarella, cut into wee cubes (I actually used pre-grated mozzarella, and just grabbed small amounts and had KB roll them into little balls)

1 tin tomatoes 

1 tin pasta sauce (or you can use 2 tins of tomatoes and a good squirt of tomato paste)

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp chipotle sauce (optional - maybe a dash of BBQ sauce if you don't like any spice)

spaghetti and extra parmasan, to serve

1. Mix together all the meatball ingredients in a bowl (except the mozzarella).  Set aside until you're ready to cook the meatballs (I made this a day early then left it in the fridge).  
2. Once ready to cook, preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius.  
3. Mix sauce ingredients together in ovenproof dish (large enough for the meatballs).  
4. Form about 20 golf-sized meatballs from meat.  Flatten ball in your palm, push mozzarella in centre, and reform the ball around the cheese.  Place in sauce.  
5. Mix the sauce around and over the balls a bit, pop into the oven.  
6. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked.  
7. Serve with spaghetti and extra parmasan cheese.  Buon appetito!!     

Mongolian beef, round 2

A few years ago I stumbled on a Mongolian beef (or lamb) stir-fry recipe which tasted amazing (and just like the stir-fried meat served at Genghis Khan's in Wellington!).  We threw the stir-fry together again this week and it was as good as remembered.  Added bonus - you can prepare all the veges, and set the meat in the fridge to marinate, hours before you're ready to cook.  

This time around used beef schnitzel, cut into strips, rather than rump steak.  But either is fine.  I also misread my own instructions and mixed the stir-fry sauce ingredients into the marinade.  But that didn't matter - I just used the marinade as the stir-fry sauce.  

500g beef, cut into strips

butter, to fry

1 egg

2 large cloves garlic, crushed or finely grated

2 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated 

2 tbsp soy sauce (I used 1 tbsp each soy sauce and kecap manis)

2 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp cornflour

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp black bean sauce (or 1 tbsp hoisin sauce, or oyster sauce)

1 tsp five-spice powder

1 onion diced

lots of cut-up veges (I used broccoli, carrot, finely chopped (or grated) beetroot, celery, capsicum, mushrooms)

rice, to serve

1. Mix together marinade ingredients.  Add beef and set aside (in fridge if prepared earlier).  
2. Prepare veges.  
3. Heat butter in large pan until hot.  Cook beef in batches (used a slotted spoon to lift out of marinade - you don't want to pour all the liquid in at this stage 'cause it would just boil the meat, rather than frying it).  Remove from pan to a plate, cook next batch.  
4. Once meat all done, add more butter and throw veges into pan.  Cook on med-high heat, covered for a few minutes (to allow the broccoli and carrots to steam a bit - or you could have pre-steamed these).  Once veges are done to your liking, remove lid, add meat back in and the sauce (marinade).  Increase heat and fry together for a minute or two.  
5. Serve with rice.  

Brown-sugar banana cake!!

I get recipe suggestions all the time, as ads etc on social media.  A lot of the time I scroll past without even looking, but every now and again one catches my eye.  This cake was one of those, and I'm soooo glad I stopped to read.  It was amazing!  The original recipe (found here) had a butterscotch syrup drizzled over it (so more of a pudding), but I didn't both with that.  We ate the cake cooled, dusted with a little icing sugar.  It was heaven!!  I had to use the photos from the original website 'cause my cake was demolished before I could get a pic!  Next time I'm going to make the cake as muffins... 

125g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
200g yoghurt (I used a honey yoghurt, but plain is fine too)
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking soda

Icing sugar, to dust
Ice cream, to serve (this would be yum, if you're eating the cake warm!)

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius.  Grease and line a 22cm spring tin (I think mine was actually 20cm and that was fine). 
2. Beat butter and sugar until creamy and fairly pale (being brown sugar it won't go pale pale). 
3. Fold in the mashed banana and yoghurt, then the flour and baking soda until just combined. 
4. Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until inserted skewer comes out clean.  If you make as muffins, bake for 15 minutes.  
5. Remove from oven and stand in tin for 5 minutes.  Serve warm, or allow to cool on cake rack.