Meat balls and rice in tomato basil sauce

looks average but delish

This one is also known as porcupines.  It so funny, I have been calling it porky pine meatballs and did not realise until today that it was actually named after the animal porcupine with little rice spines.  Haha geez I can be an idiot sometimes. 

Anyway, so you add the rice to mince meat and some other ingredients.  It is really delicious especially if you bake it in tomato soup.  I did not have tomato soup so have used tomato pasta sauce.  Thanks to Dave the absolute ledend who lives next door who opened the jar.  Also ingredients, you can really add any vegetable to it as well.

With this recipe I have also added some fresh herbs from my yoga centre's garden which will give it a lovely flavour.

Ingredients

• 500 grams mince meat
• 1 cup rice
• 1 tin tomato soup or a jar of tomato pasta sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 egg
• 1 large carrot - shredded
• 1 large zucchini - shredded
• 1 large brown onion - diced
• 1 hand full of herbs - basil, oregano, parsley, also some mint - break it up into pieces
• 1/2 cup water

Instructions 

1. Preheat your overn to 180 degrees celcius. 
2. Add all of your ingredients into a bowl and mix together.   
3. Roll into meat balls approximately 5cm in size and put in a casserole dish.   
4. Combine your water and pasta sauce then pour over the top of the meatballs. 
5. Bake for one hour.   

Serve with mash potato and peas or whatever vegetables take your fancy.

Enjoy!

Dutch apple cake

So what to do on a Sunday.  Charlie and I decided to bake a cake using the apples from our apple tree.  The birds have managed to eat most of them except those hanging closer to the ground.  That is because the cat likes to sleep near there, so the birds are probably scared of her.  I saw pretty parakeets playing - wings flapping and squawking and eating big fat apples last week. 

So the recipe is from Margaret Fulton's book and it was lovely with a nice cup of tea. 



Dutch apple cake

2 cups self-raising flour 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

125 grams butter

1/2 cup milk

2 medium granny smith apples

Topping

30 grams butter, melted

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons sugar

Grease a 20cm round cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

Sift the flour, salt and sugar together, and rub the butter in with fingertips.  Make a well in the centre and add the milk in a steady stream, stirring with a fork and incorporating the flour.

Peel and core the apples and cut into thin wedge-shaped slices.  Arrange in a circular pattern to cover the top of the cake, pressing thin edges into the dough.  Brush with melted butter, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar, and bake in a moderate oven (180c) for 40 minutes.  This cake is best served warm, cut into wedges and buttered. 

Cathy Leonard's Baba Ghanoush

This recipe is from my new friend and art teacher Cathy Leonard. It was so funny to hear that when Cathy was cooking Buba Ghanoush, the eggplant exploded in her oven. So beware of exploding eggplants okay. 

 

baba ghanoush



Also, Cathy is a talented artist.  She does pop art impressionist of famous people like Johnny Depp, Audrey Hepburn, David Bowie etc, and it has been really popular.  A lot of people are buying her work.  I love her work and she's an absolute gorgeous girl too.  So pleased to meet her. If you want to see her paintings she has them on Facebook, so see Cathy Leonard's FB. 

Anyway, here is her recipe. 

Buba ghanoush:

1 or 2 eggplants cooked untill very soft, either in a hot oven (pricked with a fork) or straight on the flame (Char grilled).

1 heaped tblspoon tahini

1/2 to 1 lemon, juiced (to taste, start with 1/2)

generous amount of salt an...d pepper,

Cumin 1 level teaspoon

a little extra virgin olive oil...add whilst blending to get a nice consistency.
1-2 cloves garlic

paprika to garnish.

Method:

Put the eggplant into the oven whole. Prick the skin (so it doesn't explode) and cook it in a hot oven until really soft and juices are running out and the skin gets black.  When it's done, you can put it in the fridge to cool it, and make the dip later or even... the next day if you want.

I didn't get a photo of the explosion,(embarrassing) but will post the dip it's self then.
Take off as much of the blackened skin of the eggplant as you can and put in a bowl with all ingredients except paprika and olive oil. Blend this, adding a little olive oil at a time to get a smooth consistency...up to 2 tblspoons should be enough.

adjust to taste (Lemon, salt)

then garnish with Paprika and extra oil. :))