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Dazz Switalla Flavour Secrets No.1 The Strand Chef www.no1thestrand.co.nz |
The chill and harshness of winter is often softened by comforting meals, such as casseroles or soups. Most of the time one pot is all you need.
When winter does come around I often feel like flying across the world and chasing the sun.
I am sure you all have your favourite ways to use minced meat; there must be hundreds of thousands of recipes. But this week I am going to share one of my favourites.
It was in Greece when I found two great regional meatball dishes: one with an egg and lemon sauce and one baked with a rich tomato-based sauce, oven baked with a special feta.
As I haven't won lotto again, and like a lot of people the budget for meat in the grocery shopping will only allow sausages or mince, a baked Greek-style meatball dish in a rich sauce is one way to economically feed the family.
I have used a combination of the two recipes from Greece and added a few touches of my own for this week's dish, sometimes referred to as porcupine or hedgehog balls.
Oven-baked meatballs in tomato and fennel sauce
Gluten free, serves 4
Ingredients 
500g minced beef
½cup of long grain rice
1 large red onion
480g chopped tinned tomato
2 cups of beef stock
1 fennel bulb
Olive oil for cooking
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 heaped tsp brown sugar
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp fennel seeds pounded
1 Tbsp of dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried mint
2 cloves garlic
Some course Polenta for
dusting
Salt and pepper
Method
Cut the onion in half, peel and put one half in the freezer.
Chop up the fennel bulb and other half of the onion and saute in olive oil until translucent.
Add garlic, then tomato, smoked paprika and brown sugar and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.
Mix together mince, grated frozen onion, rice, cumin, dried herbs, salt and pepper, and
pounded fennel seeds.
Roll the mixture balls and roll balls in some course Polenta.
Pan-fry the meatballs to seal them then transfer to an oven proof dish.
Pour over the tomato mix and add the beef stock.
Cover and bake in the oven at 160 degrees Celsius for 35-40 minutes.
Adjust seasoning and serve in bowls, garnishing with feta or other cheese if desired.