Meatballs with Almond Sauce

Seriously good meatballs…

1hr30

Ingredients:

For the meatballs:

• 450g lamb mince
• 1 large onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 55g bread (no crusts)
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh leaf parsley (more for serving)
• 1 egg
• salt & pepper
• plain flour
• freshly squeezed lemon

For the sauce:

• 25g bread
• 115 blanched almonds (whole/flaked)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 150ml dry white wine
• 425ml vegetable stock
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Instructions:

Place bread in a bowl with a few tbsp of water to soak for a few minutes. Then squeeze water out of bread and combine with the lamb mince, onion, garlic, parsley & egg, and lightly season.

With floured hands form 2-3cm meatballs and coat in flour.

 Fry the meatballs in batchs until browned on all sides and remove to a plate. Retain the juices in the pan.

Break the bread into pieces and add to the pan with the almonds and 2 tbsp of olive oil, and fry for a few mins until golden.

Add the garlic and fry for a further 30 seconds, then pour in the wine and boil for 1-2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and leave to cool slightly.

Transfer the almond mixture to a blender and process until smooth adding the vegetable stock.

Return sauce to the frying pan with the meatballs and simmer for 25 minutes.

Taste the sauce and season as desired. Then serve with a generous squeeze of lemon and parsley, crusty bread and salad.

TIP: Lamb mince can be replaced with pork or beef, but isn’t as tasty in my opinion!

Adapted from “A passion for Tapas”

Mayonnaise

My mum’s recipe for mayonnaise: Much better than the stuff you get in a bottle.

5 min

Ingredients:

• 1 egg (for 2 people)
• 4 drops of lemon juice
• Olive oil and salt

Instructions:

Add the egg, lemon juice, a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil into a tall container.

Blend it and keep adding olive oil until it has got a creamy consistency. The more oil you add, the thicker it will get. Add salt as desired.

TIP: Try serving it over asparragus, baked potatoes or artichokes.

Lemon Chicken

Tender Chinese-style chicken in a crispy batter with lemon sauce…The Best!

5 min + 30 min marinade + 30 min cook

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts (about 1lb/0.5 Kg)
• 1 red pepper
• 3 small sachets of Chinese lemon sauce (e.g. Red Dragon)
• vegetable oil
• Boiled rice

Marinade:

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tsp salt

Batter:

• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup cornflour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch white pepper

Instructions:

Cut the chicken into cubes and place in a bowl with the marinade ingredients for at least 30 minutes (the longer the better).

Whisk the batter ingredients together in a bowl until there are no more lumps. It should be a thick batter, so add more flour if too thin.

Heat 1 cm (deep) of vegetable oil in a wok (or deep fryer) until a drop of batter bubbles up immediately. Then turn down to medium heat.

Cut the chicken into cubes and place in a bowl with the marinade ingredients for at least 30 minutes (the longer the better).

Spoon chicken (with excess batter) into oil adding the pieces one by one and spacing them out in the wok. As soon as the batter bubbles up, turn the chicken over.

Turn frequently until golden brown, and then remove using a slotted spoon to a plate with kitchen towel. Repeat steps 4+5 until all chicken is cooked.

While deep frying the chicken, fry the pepper in another pan until soft. Then add the lemon sauce and heat through.

Gently mix the sauce and peppers with the fried chicken, and serve with boiled rice.

TIP: If the chicken gets cold while frying the other batches, preheat before serving by frying again for 1-2 minutes. You can also add slices of lemon with the pepper to give extra lemon flavour!