After the lovely meal we had in Darwin, I was inspired to attempt a Greek recipe. The book is one of the more recent purchases from the Lifeline Book-fair and the attempts to remove the clutter from the cookbook shelf have resulted in only a few removals.
Harper has made Greek Meatballs previously but due to the recipe or the amount of rice, they were very bland and I wanted something which reminded me of the pleasure of eating Greek meatballs. The recipe requires honey, which seemed odd, as well as cinnamon but I was determined to stick to the recipe, and not do my own interpretation.
Admittedly I did not grate the onion due to a desire not to cry. In case anyone does not know, apparently putting an onion in the refrigerator prior to cutting or grating does prevent the onion from producing the vapour, but I’d conveniently forgotten, (which meant straying from the recipe, sadly.) However, all the other ingredients were available. One suggestion, if you buy fresh basil or mint, it is best to use it the same day.
(There are a number of very interesting and informative blogs which provide various suggestions on how best to store basil or even better grow it, but snails eat any basil I attempt to grow outside.)
I rinsed the rice a few times before pouring the hot water over it, to ensure that it did not contain too much starch. The attempts at forming sausage shapes was quite fun, though some did not really resemble sausages so much as misshapen fingers or bad modern interpretive art.
Frying them in the hot oil resulted in a few acquiring an even more peculiar appearance, but this is not the fault of the book, but rather the cook.
Cooking the sauce in the pan and oil used for the meatballs appealed to me as it meant less washing up and less waste. The onion was cooked until it was transparent and it was astonishing to see how quickly it caramelised with the addition of the cinnamon, garlic and honey. The smell produced made me swallow a number of times and resist the temptation to eat it as it was. With determination I added the tomato and some pepper and watched it reduce.
Adding the water and the meatballs, I followed the directions and waited “patiently” (with an ‘Im’ in front of it) for it to cook.
The meatballs looked a little stranger than I’d hoped. I served and annoyed Harper by taking pictures and then we ate.
The meatballs were good. Better than the recipe Harper had used previously, but not as good as the ones I’ve had in Greece or Darwin. There are many other recipes in this book, which is safe from being given back to Lifeline, which I look forward to cooking (and eating).
So, rejoice Recipes from a Greek Island! Thanatos will not be dragging you to Hades soon.
(Apologies for the quality of some of the photos.)
Clean the Plate 