Lamb, Grated Beets and Millet Meatballs

If you only own a few cookbooks, which I do, Nigel Slater's Tender should be one of them. It's not a vegetarian cookbook, but it's organized by vegetable. So if you have a vegetable, you can just look in the table of contents for dozens of recipe ideas. It's awesome.

Also awesome is his recipe for beet and lamb meatballs. It's a fantastic way to lighten and sweeten the ground lamb while packing in the nutrition found in beets. I followed his recipe fairly closely but substituted millet for the cracked wheat and cilantro for parsley.

Mix together approximately 14 ounces of ground lamb and 10 ounces of grated beets. Add one grated onion, 3 crushed garlic cloves and 3 tablespoons of herbs (parsley, dill, cilantro or whatever sounds good to you). Add approximately half a cup of cracked wheat or millet. Mix it all together with salt and pepper. Form into around 16 small patties and chill for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly fry each meatball on each side until brown and then transfer to a baking sheet. Cook for 15-20 minutes in the oven. You'll have to try one to see if they are done as they stay a gorgeous color red even when cooked.
                                                    

Chickpea Flour Fritters with Spinach, Red Onion and Potatoes

I have been having fritter envy lately. It started with Smitten Kitchen’s post about cauliflower and feta fritters with pomegranate that people have been raving about lately. They look awesome! Unfortunately, most fritters contain the still-banned flour, eggs, cheese or all of the above. Sigh. Refusing to give up, I did a bit of research and…Indian pakoras to the rescue!

http://fortheloveofyum.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/pakoras-chickpea-flour-fritters-with-spinach-red-onion-and-potatoes/

These fried snacks are made with very thinly sliced red onions and potatoes, spinach and are packed with fresh spices. They hold together well and are easy to flip…especially if you are liberal with the oil. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that chickpea flour is the solution to all the world’s problems…or at least my cravings!

Chicken Thighs Glazed with Lemon and Kalamata Olives

Chicken breasts are rarely very good. While ubiquitous on everything from Caesar salads to sandwiches, they are often tasteless and dry. They make for terrible leftovers since heating them up tends to dry them out even more. They are also expensive. Chicken thighs, however, have much more flavor and just enough fat to keep them tender and juicy when grilled, sautéed or thrown into curries. And they are much cheaper!

Last night I made this simple chicken recipe for fellow salt-lover Amie J. It’s a delicious combination of lemons, Kalamata olives, tarragon and capers that comes together quickly and is packed with flavor. I used chickpea flour instead of regular flour and regular lemons.

http://food52.com/recipes/9387-chicken-thighs-glazed-with-meyer-lemon-and-kalamata-olives

Double the recipe. Chicken thighs make great leftovers!

Turkey Meatballs with Zucchini, Green Onions and Sumac

Meatballs don’t need breadcrumbs or eggs. It’s official. I have made two of Ottolenghi’s versions and neither one required breadcrumbs as a filler. His lamb kofta recipe that I wrote up here relies on crushed pine nuts to hold them together. I recently made his turkey meatballs with grated zucchini and green onions and substituted the three eggs for flax seed with no issues. (One tablespoon of ground flaxseed with about 2 tablespoons of water equals one egg).

Breadcrumbs and eggs aside, these flavorful meatballs are awesome. And any recipe that simply says, ‘combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl’ immediately earns points in my book.  Since I wasn’t making the accompanying yogurt sauce (no substitute found for that yet!), I just added the sumac into the turkey mixture so I wouldn’t miss out on that flavor. All that’s left to do after mixing together all the ingredients is to pan sear them and throw them in the oven for 8 minutes.

http://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/2013/02/les-petits-chefs-cook-the-books-jerusalem/

I doubled the recipe as these little patties travel well and make for great lunches for a few days. They are so packed with flavor that you can serve them with a simple grain and sautéed vegetable to give your taste buds a rest between bites.

Raw Buckwheat, Walnut and Apple Porridge

When I first tried this porridge a few months ago, it tasted like how I imagine health food stores smelled in the 1970s. It just tasted so….healthy! Too healthy.

However, I had made a big batch and I am not one to waste food, so I continued eating it dutifully every morning that week. By the third day, I was hooked. Don’t get me wrong, this does not taste like oatmeal with cream, brown sugar and butter, but it’s quite good when you consider how healthy it is. It’s fresh, filling and packed with magnesium and omega-3. And while buckwheat has a strong, earthy flavor, you can top it with whatever spices, fruit or nuts you like to suit your taste.

http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/raw-buckwheat-walnut-porridge/

This is not for everyone but give it a shot if you are feeling like a hippy!

Two Recipes for Mediocre Street Cart Berries

Around this time of year, I start to crave beautiful fruit. After a long winter of clementines and not much else, I’m more prone to give into the $7 raspberries at Whole Foods. The other day I felt I was feeling particularly clever and frugal when I got two pints of berries at my local street cart for $3. What a bargain! But then I tasted them and…well, nothing. They weren’t bad necessarily but they weren’t good enough to eat on their own or even sprinkle on cereal. There is only one solution for mediocre berries – add lots of butter, eggs, sugar, etc. and bake them!

For Easter I made this gorgeous strawberry cake. It’s very simple and delicious served with some boozy whipped cream (whipped cream plus rum).

http://www.marthastewart.com/336020/strawberry-cake

For breakfast a few days later, I made Smitten Kitchen’s blueberry cornmeal butter cake.

http://bleubirdvintage.typepad.com/blog/2013/01/sun.html

Both recipes were simple and came together with the basic ingredients in your cabinets. I’m looking forward to not making them this summer though. It’s high time for the season of just popping berries in your mouth with a glass of prosecco. Sigh….

Double-Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Ryan and I were born two days apart. I’m the older woman. This year my birthday fell on a Saturday and his fell on a Monday. This may seem like a minor detail but it meant that I spent mine drinking a Cuban Mojito off the coast of Mexico and he spent his in snowy NYC. To make up for it, I wanted to make him an indulgent dessert. He is easy to please when it comes to dessert. The only two he doesn’t like are flan and cheesecake. So I made him a cheesecake.

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/double-chocolate-peanut-butter-pie

I won’t even bother trying to explain my logic but let’s just say somebody stole my cake pans, I hate cupcakes and cookies didn’t seem festive enough. Luckily Ryan loved his cake...a fact that is easy enough to believe when you read how much butter, heavy cream, chocolate, sugar and peanut butter I managed to squeeze into one small pie pan.

Happy Birthday Ryan!