Daring Cooks - The Meatball World Tour

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The June Daring Cooks’ challenge sure kept us rolling – meatballs, that is! Shelley from C Mom Cook and Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to try meatballs from around the world and to create our own meatball meal celebrating a culture or cuisine of our own choice.

This theme was welcomed with open arms over here by my willing test subjects.  Meatballs, and minced meat in general, are always very much appreciated at our dinner table even though I often tend to privilege other cuts.  Needless to say that when I revealed the new theme for this month's DC Challenge, my usual eaters were already champing at the bit. :o)

Let me take you on a trip across the world, at the discovery of one type of preparation that you can find in almost any cuisine : meatballs. This way, please.

Vol-au-vent

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This weekend I made, what is considered a classic dish around these parts of the world i.e. vol-au-vent. Although technically, vol-au-vent is the name of the little puff pastry that accompanies the stuffing, it has given its name to the whole dish. 

Daring Cooks - Paella

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Our Daring Cooks’ September 2012 hostess was Inma of la Galletika. Inma brought us a taste of Spain and challenged us to make our very own delicious Paella!

When you have real Spaniards around, it takes some guts to make a Spanish dish like paella, because you expose yourself to being compared to the real thing, la paella casera, and most of the time, you don't come out a winner of this battle.

Three Cheeses Macaroni and Savoy Cabbage

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This simple but filling pasta dish was featured at the beginning of February 2013 on the TV Cooking Show Dagelijkse Kost (Everyday meals), on the Flemish channel Eén. This daily show is hosted by Jeroen Meus, the Belgian chef of the restaurant Luzine, who has become increasingly popular since he began hosting this TV show and wrote several cookbooks (4 already, all of which I have on the shelf).  His dishes are not extremely sophisticated as he believes that you can make good food without having to spend fortunes on fancy ingredients.  Hence the name of the programme.

I choose to make this particular dish as I wanted something that I could use in my lunchbox and that wouldn't be too much of a hassle to prepare.  Moreover cabbage being in season right now, it was the ideal moment to give it a try.

Ingredients needed for 4 servings :

* 300g ground meat (beef/pork mix)

* 1⁄2 of a savoy cabbage

* butter

* pinch of dried sage

* pinch of dried rosemary

* pinch of dried oregano

* parsley

for the cheese sauce :

* 30g butter

* 30g all purpose flour

* 500ml milk

* 125g ricotta

* 75 g Comté cheese (the original recipe required mature Gouda)

* 75 g Parmesan cheese

* 1⁄2 lemon

* nutmeg

* pepper

* salt 

Bring a large amount of salted water to the boil.

Meanwhile melt a bit of butter in a skillet on medium fire.   

Season the ground meat with a selection of dried herbs (sage, rosemary and oregano) and mix it all together.

Spread the meat over the hot skillet in medium sized lumps, and let it fry untouched for a while.  After a few minutes you can stir it while take care not to crumble it up too much.  As soon as it has reached a nice golden brown crust, set aside .

Remove the outer tough leaves of the savoy cabbage.  Cut the vegtable into quarters and then further into large strips. Rinse the strips of thoroughly making sure to remove any specks of dirt or sand and let it drain.

Boil the cabbage strips for 5 to 6 minutes in the salted water.  remove the cabbage from the pot and bring the water to the boil again in order to cook the macaroni.

In a large pot cooking pot, melt a bit of butter and add flour. Stir until you get a roux.  Let it cook briefly (until it smells like baked cookies).

Add the milk and keep whisking.  Bring the sauce almost to boiling point, until the bechamel has thickened without lumps. Reduce the heat.

Grate the Comté and the parmesan cheese.

Stir the ricotta and the grated cheese into the sauce and keep stirring until they have completely melted.  Season to taste with nutmeg, pepper and salt.  Finish with a dash of lemon juice. 

Keep the sauce hot but avoid burning it.

Cook the pasta al dente.

Stir the meat and the cabbage into the sauce.

Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce as well.

Mix everything together and season a bit more if necessary.

Serve sprinkled with parsley.