Recipe: Baked (not fried!) Meatballs

We've been talking about spaghetti and meatballs for some time. It just seemed like too much work. The problem is that most pre-packaged meatballs are disgusting. Yeah - disgusting! Random particles and rubbery bits...and overall poor flavour. Note: Even the Longo's brand meatballs aren't good - how is that possible?

Little known fact: I don't really know how to fry any food other than bacon. I burn that too. It became important to find a recipe that didn't involve any crisping, searing or initial frying. Who knew you could bake meatballs? Best idea ever.

After reviewing a few different recipes, including one from Chef at Home and some no-name Pasta book, it became apparent that there wasn't a perfect recipe available, so a few needed to be combined. Here are the results - these are not scientific.

Ingredients

Beef

Pork

EVOO

Leek

Parmesan Cheese

Egg

Garlic

Basil

Thyme

Oregano

Salt

Chili Powder

Spelt Bread Crumbs

General Method

• Combine all ingredients with 1/4 of the breadcrumbs
• Form the meatballs and roll in remaining breadcrumbs
• Place on a baking sheet
• Bake 20 mins at 400 F

Adapted from 3 other recipes

Comments:

• Try rolling some meatballs in breadcrumbs before baking and leave the rest plain - try them before deciding which you prefer
• The 1/2 pound of beef and pork yielded approximately 14 meatballs and quite a bit of wasted meat - will double up the recipe next time and freeze the extra meatballs
• Whisk the egg before adding it to the mixture 
• Using leeks instead of onion was a last minute sub, since there weren't any onions around (oops!) - it created a milder flavour considering the large volume of leeks that were used (you can see them!)
• My favourite herb right now - fresh thyme. Delicious...use it! All of the other herbs listed above were dried

with pasta, sauce and cheese

Overall Recommendation:

• Pretty quick if you've got everything you need
• The most time consuming part of this method is preparing all of the ingredients
• I served this up with the marinara sauce I posted previously. Note that for 14 meatballs a double batch of sauce would have been preferable!
• Since this recipe usually goes with spaghetti, I'm opting to defer making these again for a while... carby goodness.

Recipe: Apple Pie

I like pie. People like pies. Especially apple pies.

I was pretty nervous about making my own pie crust at home for the first time. I was super paranoid about "tough" pastry, so I was really careful to not overwork it.

Ingredients

Pastry

Flour

Butter or shortening

Salt 

Brown Sugar

Water

Filling

Apples

Lemon

Sugar

Spices 

Butter

Corn Starch

General Method (Pie Crust - top and bottom) 

• Mix fat and flour
• Mix salt and sugar in water
• Combine and knead until dough comes together
• Allow dough to rest and divide
• Roll out bottom crust, fit into pie plate and egg wash 

General Method (Pie Filling)

• Core and peel apples 
• Coat with sugar, starch, spices and lemon
• Cover filling with top crust and cut a hole to release steam
• Water wash and sprinkle with sugar (or cinnamon sugar!)

Adapted from some other recipe

Comments:

• I prefer using butter over shortening in my dough, because it's generally more flavourful and not gross!
• I was worried about the crust thickness - too thick and it won't cook; too thin and it will rip apart during assembly. I didn't really have either of these problems
• Ideally, I would have liked to use Spartan apples, but couldn't find any. I used a combination of granny smith and honey crisp...
• Use modified corn starch (Clear Jel), not corn starch! They are not created equal. I ended up with a significant amount of liquid in the pie from the apples which didn't thicken adequately with regular corn starch. This changes the consistency of the bottom crust, which should be crisp and only slightly wet on the inside of the pie. 

Overall Recommendation:

• It was easier than I thought
• Try it! Next time I'll try strawberry and rhubarb... well, when it's summer and rhubarb is around again.

Recipe: Spaghetti Squash vs. Pasta

I do love a good pasta, but what about all that white flour? Whole wheat is always an option, but I'd rather have the real stuff.


From there, I've moved onto spaghetti squash - is this a legitimate substitute for pasta? I'm not totally convinced. Here's what happened:


Ingredients
1 medium spaghetti squash
Tomatoes
Tomato paste
Onion
Garlic
Basil
Parsley
White wine
Black pepper
Chili powder
Mushrooms + other veggies + chicken etc.


General Method (Squash) 

• Pierce the squash a few times to release steam during baking
• Bake at 375F for approximately 1 hour or until tender
• Once slightly cool to touch, slice and remove seeds
• Scrape out flesh with a fork!

General Method (Marinara)

• Chop and puree tomatoes, paste and spices 
• Saute onion and garlic 
• Add puree and simmer with white wine 
• Season with extra black pepper and chili 
• Add vegetables and cooked chicken (optional!)

Adapted from some Clean Eating recipe

Comments:

• One hour is pretty long to wait for "pasta" - I recommend baking the squash in advance to save time
• I think one cup of squash is considered a serving - not very much! Consider adding some chicken or other protein (as a side or to the sauce)
• This is a pretty basic marinara that I make quite often - it's simple and pretty fool proof. I'm always interested in new recipes, if anyone has a suggestion, please let me know!
• I threw in random vegetables that I had, including zucchini - I probably won't do that again. It's difficult to add veggies without overcooking them. I added these last, so they were still firm by the time the sauce was done, but didn't contribute to overall flavour
• A note about dried mushrooms: the rehydration process is weird and takes 0.5 to 1 hour, but you get an interesting variety in the box. Hint - Hydrate mushrooms with some chicken stock, or alternatively, use fresh mushrooms!

Overall Recommendation:

• Try the squash if you're afraid of pasta 
• It's a nice light alternative, but isn't as comforting or tasty. I'd have it again with a more interesting (spicy!) sauce.

Recipe: Baked Eggs

In the spirit of trying to find lean protein that isn't meat, I've gone back to egg whites. I've made these baked eggs almost every day this week, and they're definitely going to be one of my top breakfast recipes for 2012. The prep and bake time is a bit longer than I would like, but I'm not sure if there's a way to do the prep and/or baking in advance without sacrificing texture and freshness.

1 serving = 170 calories depending on how much turkey bacon you use...

20g protein, 4g fat, 14g carbohydrate 

Adapted from the Eat Clean Cookbook 2

Topping

Spelt bread crumbs

Ingredients
8 egg whites

Tomato

Chives

Turkey Bacon (nitrite free!)

Salt + Pepper

Basic Method

• Layer egg whites and other ingredients in 2 ramekins
• Season with salt and pepper
• Top with bread crumbs
• Bake at 350F for about 25 minutes

Comments:

• Consider adding other ingredients like mushrooms and cheese!
• I realized that the turkey bacon I bought is "mechanically separated" (not ideal) and also contains nitrites... I'm on a mission to find better quality turkey bacon
• The first time I made this, I scooped into the dish and the egg whites were still a bit runny in the middle so they went back into the oven - note that the eggs are cooked once they puff up pretty high in the ramekin
• I'm going to try making a bunch in advance and microwaving them in the morning - probably not as good, but I don't usually have half an hour to bake breakfast...

Overall Recommendation: Bake these for breakfast..snacks... whatever.

Recipe: French Breakfast Puffs

It's not exactly a great start to the new year, but I couldn't resist! I had all the ingredients, and who knew donuts could be baked in the oven? These fluffy treats taste like the Old Fashioned Sugar donuts at Tim Horton's - my personal favourite!

Adapted from a Betty Crocker recipe

Topping

Browned butter
Cinnamon + Sugar

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk

Basic Method

• Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg
• Cream butter and sugar
• Add egg and vanilla
• Add flour mixture and milk until combined
• Spoon into muffin tins 
• Bake @ 350F for approximately 25 min or until the knife comes out clean
• Once cooled, dip in browned butter and roll in cinnamon sugar
• Serve warm!

Comments:

• I only had salted butter on hand, but I could definitely taste it, even though I omitted the 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the recipe - I'll try unsalted next time
• I might also consider adding an extra 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg in the dough
• The granulated sugar in the topping added a bit too much texture to the muffin top - I'll try icing sugar next time for a more delicate touch
• A mini muffin pan is a must - the standard 12 muffin tray produced muffins that were 2-3 bites instead of 1-2

Overall Recommendation: Bake these!

Recipes: German Cookies

I usually seek out a couple of new cookie recipes every Christmas when I'm starting to plan my baking marathon. The trouble is finding recipes that are easy enough, tested and don't require an unreasonable amount of time to complete.

This year I tried 2 new recipes - one had been tested (by me!) a few a months ago. 

Spritz cookies

I'd made a huge batch of these earlier in the year, and they were a huge hit at the office.The recipe yielded a ridiculous amount, and it wasn't overly complicated. The troubling part was getting the batter into the piping bag and quickly piping the cookies before the mixture warmed up. With a few people in my kitchen, it was easily 24 degrees, so the batter was getting difficult to work with. I decided to pipe simple rosettes and keep things simple before pushing the middles down and adding a dollop of apricot & raspberry jam! The baking time was quite short, and once cooled I decided that they should also be semi-dipped in chocolate. All in all, very manageable and makes a good quantity that seems to satisfy even the toughest cookie critic!

Heidesand ("sand") cookies

These traditional german treats were recommended by a fellow baker who makes these sugar cookies regularly. These are quite different from regular shortbread, despite the fact that the ingredients are identical. The first difference is that you must use unsalted butter - not sure if I agree with this. I prefer salted butter, especially when I make shortbread. The next difference is that the butter is browned. I'm not particularly fond of this process as it requires patience, but it is usually worthwhile in the end, creating a lovely nutty flavour. Once the dough is formed into a log, it must be chilled for an extended amount of time... more waiting! I didn't get to thaw and slice the cookies until the next evening, by which time I was already fed up. Ensuring consistent cookie width was also quite painstaking in my opinion. The logs I formed weren't perfectly round, so my cookies weren't consistent in shape. Finally, the baking process took extra long as I had to monitor the buttery cookies for over-browning in the oven. The end-to-end process took too long, and I'm not sure the payoff was worth it. People certainly devoured them, but I didn't care for the extra-long chilling and monitoring required. I don't think I will be baking these ones again.

My top five cookies for 2011

(Clockwise: Spiced Gingerbread, Cranberry & Pistachio Biscotti, Spritz, Shortbread and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip)